.........I chose Dr Fatimah because she came from a Malay Muslim background. Here I shall sidetrack and explain; I chose someone from a Malay Muslim background because there are still signs of discrimination against females in the Malay Muslim community. Not many Malay Muslim fathers believe in investing for their daughter’s education; M-M parents usually believe that the basic education (primary, secondary and ITE or Polytechnic) is sufficient for their daughters. They have a mindset that their daughters will be married and therefore does not need higher education to sustain her; her husband will be sustaining her and the family (a pity on those unfortunate husbands). Therefore, as a result, many M-M daughters give up easily with education, they do not have that burning spirit to learn as they are also engraved with the “illogical” mindset that marriage will come to their rescue and everything in life would be a fairytale. Unfortunately, not all of these daughters end up having a fairytale life that they have dreamt. Now back to Dr Fatimah, she said and I quote,
"Education is a great leveller for all of us. In fact, for me, I am from a humble background - the meritocratic system enabled me to come forward and given me the opportunity to be where I am today, so I am going to push for post-secondary education in the community," said Dr Fatimah Lateef, MP, Marine Parade GRC.