KUALA LUMPUR: Less than 30 minutes from Malaysia's capital, a growing expanse of rural country opens. Here, many young women struggle to find work, pushed aside by the social norms of the area, but a new government push could help bring change to the underprivileged women in rural Malaysia. “We struggle for work and what we do mostly is cleaning and for really bad prices,” Mottina, a 24-year-old university graduate who came back to assist her mother when her father passed away three years ago. “It is tough, but I think we can do more.” Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Wednesday that a new “4K” approach will help advance rural women and their empowerment. The 4Ks are, in Malaysian, keilmuan, kemahiran, keusahawan and kepimpinan (knowledge, skills, entrepreneurship and leadership). Razak said that Malaysian women had been given recognition and equal rights, but here in this village, with the high rise Kuala Lumpur buildings in the distance, few believe this is the reality. “I don't know why politicians keep saying this, because we are not equal that is clear,” another woman in the area told Bikyamasr.com. She also spent her paid working hours as a cleaner. The government hopes the 4K approach will be able to bring the status of rural women to a higher level, he said. “The fate of women in this country is far better as they no longer have to fight for gender equality (like in certain countries),” said Razak. “Currently, 68 percent of students at the country's higher learning institutions are women, while some of the influential positions like Central Bank governor and director-general of the Economic Planning Unit are held by women, and the previous chairman of the Securities Commission is also a woman,” PM Razak said when launching a Girl Guides ‘Turun Padang' (going to the ground) program. He said the government would always support whatever program aimed at empowering women in this country. When told of the prime minister's efforts to create change for rural women, Mottina says she hopes it can be done, but she understands the reality on the ground facing women outside the urban centers. “Let's be honest really, the government can talk about getting women better lives and more justice, but the reality is we all suffer because we are too far and too poor for votes,” she said. The political science graduate hopes that it will be women themselves who “create the change because we cannot rely on the government right now until we have a power with our money.”
