Affirmative action for our women MPs – I say stuff it!

GANJIKI D WAYNE

IN A LETTER TO the Post-Courier editor (10 August), a Dr Sepoe asks whether three seats are enough for women in our national parliament.

Dr Sepoe quotes prime minister O’Neill as saying the number of women recently elected in the 2012 election (reprsenting 2.7% of the 111 seats on offer) is not good enough.

The global target is a critical mass of at least 30% of the total number of MPs to be women - influencing decision-making and public policy.

I say stuff the global target!

We work at our pace, and we get there when we get there. The UN can take its targets and shoot arrows at them!

I want my country-ladies to beat my country-men fair and square.

Only then, can they claim true equal voice. Just having a fair voice is nothing if that voice is not attained squarely.

Our women can get there. Just give us time and let us do it our way: the PNG Way. We have to crawl before we can walk. We got thee women into parliament this year. That's two better than last term. Next time we may do even better.

And stuff the 22 so-called ‘reserved’ seats. My mum and sisters don't like it. My fiance doesn't like it. My well-educated female colleagues don't like it. And Delilah Gore doesn't like it. And these women are Papua New Guineans.

So shove your ‘global targets’, UN...

And power to the women. True power, not that imposed by UN-inspired policies for ‘equality’.

The PNG Way is one of our Five Goals. I say we work it out and stick by it.

God Bless PNG! And the PNG Way!

Comments

[David Kitchnoge]

Reginald - this isn't exactly a science, is it?

If you asked me at the beginning of this year if we would have any woman MP in this parliament, I would have said one at best based on the results of past elections.

There has been a fundamental shift in the way we elect our representatives to parliament. People are only beginning to become aware of its mechanics and I don't believe this is the right time to try and extrapolate into the future using the last results.

[Reginald Renagi]

If the current trend continues and we get 3 MPs in every five-year polls, we will have reached 55 women MPs in 92 years time. It is a very long trajectory.

We require some socio-political intervention strategy to reduce this timespan.

[David Kitchnoge]

Michael - Sure women do well in whatever walks of life, but so are men.

I have seen capable men and women in my own profession too. And there were instances where a girl performed better than a guy in an equivalent position, but the opposite is also true.

If I have something to be done, I don't go out and consciously look for a guy or a girl to do it. Instead I look for the best person who could do it. And if that person is a girl, then so be it.

LPV was brought in to create a level playing ground for disadvantaged candidates including women. And the results of this election speak for themselves.

But the subject of this discussion is not women. Far from it. It's about blindly adopting whatever is being imposed on us by some smart guy who doesn't have a clue about our country.

We've sat around and blamed others for our own lack of initiative for far too long. The sooner we make a conscious decision to find PNG solutions to PNG challenges, the better it will be.

And some of those solutions (like LPV) may not be as straight forward at first glance.

[Michael Dom]

David, to be straight after working for most of my early career in the public service I've found three things to be true;

(1) that lateral thinking goes right out the window and takes far too long (for the benefit of my people) to get down to business;

(2) most offices manage to (sometimes barely) continue running thanks to the back-up of mostly very sharp, very consistent women staff;

(3) professional women I have worked with have been fewer but more capable than many male colleagues at equivalent higher degree levels.

There has been already too much sitting around thinking-up solutions and yet sometimes we bring in ideas from 'other people' e.g. OBE, and some plans are designed to feed into the boys network e.g. NADP's K100 million.

Then what about the rush for mineral resource developments? Is this our home grown idea? Then, based on what? The PM himself says it's not the funding it's the implementing.

And let's not kid ourselves LPV was meant to benefit the boys - hello second and third counts. Just by default the girls get a chance too.

The system is rigged to disadvantage women.

A funny thing about the womens votes though - I mean how much voting power does 50% of the population really have or are they really voting (or allowed to vote) their conscience?

It's great to hear PM make a comment regarding the need for more women representation.

Perhaps it's time for more radical change? Are we ready to shake the tree? I mean what are we really afraid of - corrupt women leaders? (Come on Phil, is that really a good excuse not to try something out?)

[David Kitchnoge]

Michael - I will point you to an excellent article written and published by Paul Oates (both here and elsewhere) about how women influenced decision making in our traditional settings.

It's not like women had nil say at all in the way our society was/is arranged traditionally. They, in fact, did/do.

Even then, the PNG way we are talking about here must not be confused with our traditional ways. By PNG way, we mean PNG solutions to PNG challenges. And those solutions need not necessarily be grounded in our cultural heritage.

Mate you make us look as if we are incapable of thinking through our issues and finding solutions for them. Papua New Guineans are naturally lateral thinkers - why don't we apply some of that wonderful trait to deal with our issues?

Or are we going to sit around and wait for someone else to come and tell us what is right for us?

Isn’t LPV a great example of a lateral solution to increasing women participation in our national politics?

[Michael Dom]

Being totally ignorant of what other options there may be for getting women into parliament I very much look forward to Ganjiki's next offering.

I must say though that I thought we wanted some women representation in parliament to take part in this 'gradual process of finding our own solutions'.

But I forget that in the PNG Way this business of running a country does not require women participation.

Let the men handle the really difficult and important decisions about running a country properly. (Great track record, ah?)

So, I guess the real question is not about getting women into parliament, but about how much PNG men of today are willing to empower the PNG women of today.

And I stress Men and Women of Today - Not Yesterday.

Not only as individual men and women, but as a people.

And starting at the very highest offices of the country.

What conscious and radical changes are we willing to make to our cultural heritage of 'meri pasim maus na stap isi!'?

Culture by it's very nature changes. Are we ready to take control of these changes that may be more beneficial to us in the long run, as one country (not an assortment of tribes)?

Is PNG ready take a look in the mirror?

[Mrs Barbara Short]

But, Ganjiki, women appear to be needed in the PNG Parliament if laws are to be passed to protect the rights of women and give them a fair go.

They will only get elected if wise PNG men see a suitable female candidate and vote for her. Does this happen in areas where women are looked on as second class citizens?

I find it hard to believe that there are not some areas where this attitude still exists.

I really congratulate the Eastern Highlands people for their vote of confidence in women by voting for Julie Soso.

[Phil Fitzpatrick]

What's the point of having 30% of the parliament comprised of women? That's less than a third. Even if they had a united agenda that's not enough clout to change anything.

The women of PNG should be aiming for 100% representation. But even in the unlikely event of achieving that what would it actually mean?

Would they bring a more honest and equitable government to PNG? I doubt it; they can be as bad as the men, sometimes worse, look at the crop that we've got in Australia!

And why would anyone want to be a politician anyway? They don't run the country, the public servants do that. A great big ego, whether it's male or female, is still a great big ego.

[David Kitchnoge]

There is a misguided conception out there that the mere act of meeting an imposed agenda of having at least 30% of parliament consisting of women would somehow solve our problems in one hit.

So if we were to meet the 30% requirement, the question would still be “what now”?

Is 30% an end in itself or a means to an end? If it is the latter, then doesn't it imply a gradual process.

Isn’t the act of finding our own solutions to our challenges a gradual process?

[Ganjiki D Wayne]

Thanks Dylan

I intend to explore alternatives in a later piece. Won't give too much here.

[Michael Dom]

UN imposing on PNG? Maybe we shouldn't be ratifying agreements.

Is gender balance important? Is more women's representation a worthy goal? And since women's issues are closely related to family and societal issues, isn't more representation desirable? Yes or yes eventually?

What do our MP's think?...mmmmaybe. So long as i get my way on the floor of parliament (and behind the scenes) and get to keep my cut of the cake. (Brah, yu kilia PNG wei tasol yah!)

One outcome of having reserved seats in parliament might be a change in the atmosphere during discussion, debating and voting for approving on policy and passing important legislation.

At present it's a boys' club and they can say anything they like and vote any way they like, usually, their own way. PNG takes the highway.

We have yet to see what this ninth parliament will churn out.

[David Kitchnoge]

The PNG way is the introduction of the LPV voting system which has landed 3 female MPs (for the first time since 1975) with more to come.

I totally agree with Ganjiki that PNGans must be able to figure out solutions to our challenges rather than having them imposed on us.

As I said earlier, don't insult our intelligence. We are very capable of finding solutions to our challanges

We've introduced an alternative to our voting system which is slowly but surely bearing the results we are after. How's that for a PNG initiative?

[Dylan Brown]

Ganjiki - I think it would be fair to say that there was substantive and genuine support for reserved seats bill within PNG (although not really majority).

I don't think it's as clear cut as the international community imposing targets - thus I think if it's decided that the reserved seats bill is not the appropriate method to achieve outcome - it's worth defining some of the alternative pathways.

[Ganjiki D Wayne]

Thanks Simon,

You seem to assume PNGeans dont have the ability to figure out our own targets. We imply to ourselves that we are too lazy to think up our own targets within our own contexts so that we can develop comfortably whilse remaining true to ourselves. To our national identiy.

The PNG Way is one of our National Goals. The reason we're losing our way is because we haven't given some thought to the PNG Way and what it means for us as a nation.

Without a focus we've been trying to adopt the standards of the world left right centre. We end up getting nowhere and frustrating ourselves.

[Dylan Brown]

Can you suggest some alternative strategies Ganjiki? I suspect people would be less enthusiastic about "it will happen in it's own time" if that turns out to be 50 years or so...

A few random thoughts off the top of my head:

1) Greater education around LPV (At least two of the female candidates came through via 2nd/3rd preferences)

2) Individual political parties to adopt proactive policies around endorsing female candidates

3) Self help networks like Emily's List (http://www.emilyslist.org.au/)

With politics in PNG being fairly tied into monetary wealth it might also be useful to look at gender split with wealth ownership (as it is hard for people to compete on level playing field if they don't have the same funds to campaign)

I also suspect it's not so much an issue of female candidates getting there...but a change in mindset of male/female voters

[Simon Claman]

Sorry Ganjiki, have to strongly disagree with this - this is short-sighted and patronising in itself.

We can not ignore inequality and key social attitudes and just take the attitude that 'we will do it our way: the PNG way'. The PNG way doesn't always work and is too often used as an excuse to do nothing.

Should we not tackle sexual violence head on and instead ignore international NGOs and reply 'we will do this the PNG way'?

Should we ignore the homophobic attitudes of many in our country, the inequality between rich and poor, the growing power of the political elites, the inherent corruption that is hindering our government and tell the world that we will deal with this in our time in our own way? This is not good enough.

I also don't like to be preached at by international governments or NGOs but this article is a cop out. I would rather be held up to international standards, attempt them and fail them then not have any standards at all. It is better to try to fix inequality than do very little or nothing at all.
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We believe the author's name to be a pseudonym, but have published the comment because of its merit. This we do rarely as we believe people should have the courage to stand by their views - KJ

[Bernard Yegiora]

The UN should let PNG develop or modernize at its own pace.

Stop patronizing PNG.

It is a gradual process to change a persons mind set.

[Corney K. Alone]

Spot on, Mr. Wayne, We have seen poor quality education as a result of dancing to "ïmposed targets" - even if that end is achieved through local language and Tok Pisin.

[Quote] The second United Nations Millennium Development Goal is to achieve Universal Primary Education, more specifically, to “ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling[ end of quote]

PNG should never be reluctantly hurled into the 100 meter sprint lane.

And mind you, PNGean leaders must have the guts to be wise and selective in what and how we do things here.

[David Kitchnoge]

Very well said Ganjiki. Take those global targets elsewhere and stop insulting our intelligence.

We will do it our way. We have and we will.

We've got three well deserving women in parliament this time and the number will increase for sure in the next election and the next and the next as LPV is firmly established as our means of choices.