Time to cut it out, guys!

Violence against a woman, physically or psychologically, is going to land men in trouble with the passage of the new Domestic Violence Act. And it's good news, even for a male chauvinist.

FIRST of all, I have a confession to make. I am an MCP – a male chauvinistic person.

Where I come from, it's the women who do the washing, the ironing and the cooking. And it's they who put food on the table – in the literal sense, that is.

They are the ones who carry the pots, pans and plates from the kitchen to the table so the family can sit down and eat. Actually, it's mostly the maid, but she's a woman, too.

Of course, it's the man who actually puts food on the table, in the other sense of the phrase.

It's great being a man in a world like that. You know, the kind of men who make jokes like: "No woman, no pain, know women to know pain" – stuff like that.

Then, the other day, I was going through the papers, and my jaw dropped – almost like a python about to swallow a goat!

This guy in Dhaka had cut off his wife's fingers because he did not want her to have an education.

What in hell is wrong with this guy? An education is wrong?

She was just 21. And he was a 30-year-old working in the United Arab Emirates.

The guy was jealous and was worried that his wife, with a degree, would be cleverer than him. How dumb is that?

This guy must have been spending too much time behind camels. What else would explain an act like blindfolding your wife on the pretext of giving her a present, asking her to stretch out her hand and then chopping off her fingers?

It's dumb enough to not want your wife to have an education, it's dumber still to chop off her fingers.

If that guy had read the newspapers in Malaysia, he would have known that one of the top scorers in our PMR examination could not use his hands – or his legs. And he scored 8As. It's the brains, stupid!

Of course, the dumbest of them all must be that relative who dumped her fingers in the rubbish so they could not be re-attached.

My first thought was: someone please give these people a prize. Then we could all call them prize idiots.

I hope the prison guards give them a real talking to. You know, chew their ears off or something.

Then, there was this other guy who gouged out his wife's eye because he could not stand the thought of her pursuing higher studies in Canada.

Strange, isn't it, that these men are from a country where the top two leaders – Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia – are both women? Neighbouring India has Sonia Gandhi and had Indira Gandhi. The region has had Benazir Bhutto, the Bandaranaike ladies and Aung San Suu Kyi and now Yingluck Shinawatra.

These women have proven that they can do anything men can.

Right here in Malaysia, there was the case of a guy who poured petrol on his wife and wanted to set her alight. Why? Because she was against his plan to put their son up for adoption.

Malaysian newspapers, being politically correct, said he had wanted to let a friend adopt his son but I'm inclined to believe that there's more to it than meets the eye. And when the wife said no, this guy got into a fiery mood.

Hey, you know all about having a good time and having the woman carry the child until it was born. And then, you are not concerned about bringing the child up? A friend has to do it for you? Men like that make me sick, really.

So, on a later day, when I read about the Domestic Violence Act, I had to smile.

Forget about beating up the missus, or setting her on fire. Psychological abuse will be an offence, too, and the men had better start getting used to the idea that women have rights, too. You can't hurt them and you can't say hurtful things either.

Those ladies in the Obedient Wives Club may go about preaching absolute obedience to the husband and to make sure that he is pleased and smiling all the time. But the courts are not going to look at things that way.

Any act of violence whether by the hubby or by his friend or some paid thug will have to be answered for. So, there!

There have been more than 7,000 reported cases of domestic violence cases over the past few years. And I do believe the actual number is far greater.

It's really not right.

Of course, the Act may not solve much, because of attitudes in the society. Even cops can be wife-beaters, and women can abuse other women, too. Why, women can abuse men, too! But this Act is progress, and a welcome one.

So, for the new year, my resolution is that I shall no longer be an MCP.

I'll be a more caring person and a more courteous person (hey, those are MCPs, too!)

But don't hold your breath too much. It's not as if I am going to start doing the laundry and iron my clothes and cook lunch. Maybe I will help bring the pots, pans, plates and cutlery from the kitchen to the dining table. Okay?

And I'm staying away from ladies fingers for a while – a long while.

> The writer spent Christmas in Penang again after a seven-year break – and no tsunami this time. But the traffic crawl on the North-South Expressway more than made up for that.

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