A bill is now before the National Executive Council for four women nominated members for the PNG parliament to represent women till 2012. This was revealed by the President of the National Council of Women (NCW) Ms Schola Kakas last Friday during the Waigani Seminar held at University of PNG.
The NCW is pushing for four nominated women MPs to represent women at regional levels during this term of parliament. The involvement of women at this level has been a sad story for years where currently there is only one woman MP in this 109 member parliament.
PNG women have tried to contest PNG elections for these seats for the last 30 years with little success. In PNG women candidates have to be ‘virgin marys’ on one hand and be a ‘devil’ on the other hand to win as vote buying, bribery, corruption and threats are the order of PNG elections in many places. Most of us are just ordinary women with good hearts and thats not enough to secure votes. Most women who decide to contest are genuinely committed to people’s development issues and very honest. Until politics in PNG matures by recognising the great potential in women, we women will always be marginalized during elections.
While we applaud the NCW for talking this initiatives, we are not optimistic that the Somare Government would run with the bill at the speed needed to ensure these MPs are in office before the issue of writs for the 2012 National Elections.
The bill being sponsored by only woman MP and Minister for Community Development Lady Carol Kidu will if it goes through, depend on Lady Carol’s own ability to master numbers for support within the male dominated and chauvinistic Government coalition. She will have to be up against the likes of Speaker Jeffery Nape who has spoken out against the idea when it was first brought up.
Some women political analysts believe the period being proposed for the nominated women MPs is too short and by the time it gets passed male chauvinism at cabinet level, the Speaker at the floor of parliament and gazzetted there will not be enough time for these “role models” to show women are just as good as men or better at servicing their people.
A better proposal would have been to push for the 20 regional seats to be “only women” seats for the a period of next 15 years or three terms of parliament. These 20 regional seats currently for provincial MPs or Governors are ‘becoming vacant’ at 2012 national elections. The idea is to have both men and women vote for women in these seats. This model is working at provincial level at Bougainville and excellent for duplication at national level.
For some of us, win or lose, we will contest elections on equal footings with men and give them the best run for their money. Some day some young woman will show PNG people to have a little faith in their women and give them that chance to prove we are just as good or better than what they have been getting through their male representatives.
After posting this article I accidentally came across a press release issued by the Office of the Prime Minister on 25 August, 2004.
Apparently in 2004 Lady Carol Kidu did make another submission to the National Executive Council, at that time for two women to be nominated under section 102 of the constitution, a provision for nominated members.
The Prime Minister, Sir Michael in his statement said ” the National Executive Council has considered a submission proposing the invocation of Section 102 of the National Constitution for two women to be nominated by Parliament, as nominated Members of Parliament.
According to the statement “only in-principle approval was given” pending advice from Attorney General. He also said “If the legal advice suggests that enabling legislation is required, then NEC will consider it”.
That was four years ago and now we have another submission for four women. We have no idea what happened to that “legal advice”.
It would be very sad if this second attempt is bogged down with the usual excuses. Lady Kidu has done her home work this time by consulting with members of the NCW, provincial women’s councils, key women leaders in the community and even engaged Dr Eirc Kwa a PNG constitutional law expert to do all the necessary work to enable the bill to proceed without administrative and legal red taps.
The Prime Minister has the prerogative to push and shove bureaucrats to move on this matter but as in all things to do with advancement of women citizens, it was left on the dying ambers.
The ball is now in the Prime Minister’s hands and knowing that 50% of his audience waiting on the sidelines are women, he should go for the goal – gave Lady Kidu the chance to make her dreams come through.
This is a welcome and positive news about the possibility of increasing the number of women leaders to serve as the Members of Parliament in PNG. The proposed bill enacts an interesting distinction made between “nominated” and “elected” MPs and this creates a lot of questions:
What kind of rights and powers will these “nominated MPs” have compared to “elected MPs”? Will the “nominated MPs “be part of political parties will they be given ministerial portfolios? Will they be allowed to vote in parliament or in the parties that they might belong to? Who are the nominated MPs accountable to and how does the leadership code apply to this class of “nominated MPs”?
While we lament the minimal presence of women leaders in the last 30 years of PNGs political history, are women giving up now and seeking an easy way into a domain that is controlled and manipulated by male chauvinism?
If we look around us, we will acknowledge that the last 30 years of PNGs political history is relatively peaceful compared to some other countries in the world, especially the regions of Asian and India. Those countries have gone through much worse political situations than PNG and in some of those countries women leaders have become the focus and marble of attraction in national political life. Below are some of these countries and their women leaders:
BANGLADESH: Sheik Hasina and Khaleda Zia (former rime Ministers);
INDIA: Indira Ghandi (former Prime Minister)
INDONESIA: Megawati Sukarnoputri (former President)
MONGOLIA:Suhbaataryn Yanjmaa (former President)
PAKISTAN: Benazir Bhutto (former Prime Minister)
PHILIPPINES:Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (president) and Corazon Aquino (former President
SRI LANKA: Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (former President) and Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (former Prime Minister. Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike has made history as the world’s first Prime Minister some 10 years before Margaret Thatcher arrived on the scene as British Prime Minister.
It seems that in those regions of the world when the going gets tough and rough so that the dark clouds of politics precipitate into a reign of terror and violence, women leaders emerge with a charisma and wisdom that draw and keep their countries under their feet and in hands close enough to their hearts. I am not prescribing a similar political recipe for women leaders to emerge in PNG. For instance I totally doubt that Bertha Somare can ever win the hearts of the Sepik as her father Sir Michael has been able to do in the last 4 decades of his political career.
About this time last year I read in The National newspaper (17/08/08) an arresting story about the re-establishment of a ceremonial spirit house (korombo) in Rofundogum village in East Sepik Province. This story was written by Naomi Faik Simet who works with the Institute of PNG Studies in Boroko. Naomi’s account shows that if it were not an old woman, Rita, Rofundogum village would have totally lost its particular knowledge in recreating this sacred cultural institution.
Rita became the envy of both men and women because of the kind of unique knowledge she alone possessed. I am wondering if there is any moral in Rita’s story? Sometimes I wonder whether there is anything more attractive in politics that women should crave for in the same way as men have managed to keep women away from it? Are there any ways that could make women leaders more attractive than the male chauvinism that women seek to resist and compete with?
Andrew