Bung Mokhtar and the challenges of his 'fitness'

Bung Moktar Radin may be sexually 'fit' as a husband to two wives (one of which is an actress), but he may not be as 'fit' as a people's champion due to his gender beliefs and practices. 

While some people may deem it as a private matter, another party sees it differently. A gender group apparently found out that he is not 'fit' as a politician and member of parliament for Kinabatangan and wants him to step down.

Yesterday, as was reported, Bung Mokhtar and his wife, actress Zizie Izette Abdul Samad, pleaded guilty at the Gombak Timur Lower Syariah Court to the charge of committing polygamy without the court's permission.

As if not trying to waste any time nor giving any opportunity for any other party to buttress the incident by claiming it is just an accepted cultural norm, the women NGO by the name of Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) have pressured Bung Moktar Radin to vacate his parliamentary seat. 

To prove their point, the group members came in by the numbers displaying placards on the matter at the Gombak Lower Shariah Court yesterday, where the guilty plea was recorded by both Bung Mokhtar and his wife.

The spokesperson for the JAG, Maria Chin Abdullah said, the parlimentarian should have not acted against the law as it may give a wrong message to the people. She emphasized that polygamous marriage, although legalized but when practiced without permission is an act of oppression towards women..

Earlier today I posted a cynically laced gender biased statement in Zunar's Facebook wall entitled "BREAKING NEWS: MP Kinabatangan, Bung Moktar, mengaku salah di Mahkamah Syariah rendah di Gombak Timur pagi ini kerana berkahwin dengan Zizie Ezette tanpa keizinan isteri pertamanya". 

It was just a play with words (pun, if you prefer), nothing serious. You can check it out here.

A Malaysiakini.com reader, Abigail De Vries wrote about how horrified she felt when affronted with the news. She wrote: For a federal lawmaker such as Bung Mokhtar to so blatantly and gleefully flout the law, makes a mockery of his elected position and by extension, the democratic institutions that he is publically mandated to uphold. 

The whole letter here.

Tomorrow, the same court will give its decision on the sentences for the couple and their witnesses.