Well, almost nobody in their right mind would dare say “horny” or “gatal” in public, but it seems certain ahmm… politicians are an exception. Mr. Abdul Fatah Harun, a MP from Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party - an opposition party by the way - recently said that single mothers were “gatal” when asking a question about aid for them.

As expected, this caused an uproar in Parliament, which was made worse by the fact that he initially refused to withdraw the word even after condemnation by the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Sharizat Abdul Jalil. Let’s also not forget the fact that Mr. Harun hails from an Islamic-focused opposition party.

Truthfully, I’m not sure whether Mr. Harun meant to be funny or politically imbecilic. Women make up a large percentage of voters, no matter the constituency, so you do not need to be a rocket scientist to know that he has probably lost a significant number of voters - not that there were going to be many in the first place.

In any case, Mr. Harun did finally withdraw the world after continued protests, but the damage (potentially unrecoverable) has clearly been wrought.