Article 8 - Equality
Is everyone given equality in Malaysia, regardless of gender?
It is stated in Article 8 (1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia that every person shall be equal under the law and have equal protection of law.
However, it was not practised efficiently in the case of Beatrice Fernandez v Sistem Pernerbangan Malaysia. In this case, Beatrice was a stewardess of the Malaysian Airline System (MAS) company. Their service conditions were governed by the collective agreement which states that the company has the right to terminate service of any person who is pregnant. Beatrice became pregnant and refused to resign. So, the company took action to terminate her services and she brought the case to the court. She declared the collective agreement contravenes with Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution which states there shall be no discrimination against citizens regardless of religion, race, descent, place of birth or gender in any law. The court noted that Article 8(1) only applies for an individual under the law and the collective agreement was governed by the private law thus Article 8 could not be applied for this case.
Another case is Noorfadilla Binti Ahmad Saikin v Chayed Bin Basirun & Others. This case was about a person who had accepted the offer to be a temporary teacher at a government school. The moment the employer knew that she was pregnant , the employer voided the offer. Noorfadilla appealed to the court for interests, damages and costs. The parties who were being sued included the officer, Federal Government, Education Minister and Education Director General. According to the Malaysia's obligation under the Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) , this case comprises of direct discrimination which uses pregnancy to stop women from working and indirect discrimination whereby men and women are not treated equally.
As a conclusion, the law may guarantee everyone equality but in some circumstances as stated above, discrimination problems among men and women may still exists in our modern society.
It is stated in Article 8 (1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia that every person shall be equal under the law and have equal protection of law.
However, it was not practised efficiently in the case of Beatrice Fernandez v Sistem Pernerbangan Malaysia. In this case, Beatrice was a stewardess of the Malaysian Airline System (MAS) company. Their service conditions were governed by the collective agreement which states that the company has the right to terminate service of any person who is pregnant. Beatrice became pregnant and refused to resign. So, the company took action to terminate her services and she brought the case to the court. She declared the collective agreement contravenes with Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution which states there shall be no discrimination against citizens regardless of religion, race, descent, place of birth or gender in any law. The court noted that Article 8(1) only applies for an individual under the law and the collective agreement was governed by the private law thus Article 8 could not be applied for this case.
Another case is Noorfadilla Binti Ahmad Saikin v Chayed Bin Basirun & Others. This case was about a person who had accepted the offer to be a temporary teacher at a government school. The moment the employer knew that she was pregnant , the employer voided the offer. Noorfadilla appealed to the court for interests, damages and costs. The parties who were being sued included the officer, Federal Government, Education Minister and Education Director General. According to the Malaysia's obligation under the Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) , this case comprises of direct discrimination which uses pregnancy to stop women from working and indirect discrimination whereby men and women are not treated equally.
As a conclusion, the law may guarantee everyone equality but in some circumstances as stated above, discrimination problems among men and women may still exists in our modern society.