Page 27 - Islands Business March 2022
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Politics
on who can say “I am following in my mother’s footsteps”. women.
The exclusion of women from political leadership is a para- The People’s Party has a policy of quotas for women candi-
dox in PNG, where there are a huge number of successful busi- dates and will be pushing to legislate that 50% of candidates
nesswomen – even in rural areas, where women are expected endorsed by political parties must be women.
to play only a supporting role. “But even without this,” says Bale, “for the 2022 PNG Na-
In its analysis of the embarrassing 2017 election result, the tional General Elections, I think we are going to see a record
International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) quoted number of women candidates standing, which makes me more
‘Kate’ of Voice for Change saying that people do want to elect optimistic than ever that after the results are tallied, PNG’s
women – but the barriers are huge. 11th Parliament will include women.
“Some [women] were not even able to make it to the polling “Probably not enough, but some or even just one is better
place because there were a lot of threats,” said Kate, “a lot than none.”
of buying and bribery of votes, and it was difficult. People do She believes the answer is not to create seats reserved for
want to vote for them, but because of the tribal system, the women.
clan system, they were using the young men aggressively to “I feel that such a step will forever cement women in a posi-
control the vote. tion as second-class MPs. There is the very real danger that it
“So they didn’t allow most of the women, and even some will result in the perception that the women’s representation
men, to vote fairly,” Kate told IWDA. box has been ticked and it will make it even more difficult for
“Prior to making my decision to contest,” says Bale, “a fair women to line up in the real seats.
bit of groundwork was done, with lots of just listening. “If we want to be in parliament, we need to be in the race.
“Overwhelmingly there was a strong message coming back Women candidates should not be a novelty, it should be the
that it’s time we look for a woman to vote for. I believe the normal.”
electorates in NCD are more ready than ever for women to
represent them.” editor@islandsbusiness.com
In the 2017 elections, fewer than 5% all candidates were
THE COST OF POLITICS
Continued from page 25 the [Pacific Islands Forum] leaders’ meeting in 2012, where the
leaders made the gender equality declaration, he took that to
In Palau, Sengebau Senior’s experience has been quite dif- heart and introduced the special measure.”
ferent. “Being a woman vice president was easy on the eyes The support of the former Prime Minister ensured the bill
and minds of the general public in Palau because our culture was passed after numerous discussions in Samoa’s parliament.
recognises a strong female counterpart to all male chiefs. However, varied interpretations of its application and intent
“The people were overjoyed, ecstatic, and I could feel last year became part of the post-election constitutional crisis.
the love. It is the basic principle of gender equality that was In other parts of the Pacific, there has been a mixed re-
already entrenched in Palauan culture.” sponse to Temporary Special Measures.
“I fully support TSM only because it is temporary,” says
Temporary Special Measures Qereqeretabua in Fiji.
Last year, Samoa voted Fiame Naomi Mata’afa as its first fe- “TSMs are absolutely necessary to support efforts in FSM to
male Prime Minister. In Samoa, only people with matai (chiefly) get women into Congress,” says Jack. “We have had lots of
titles can stand for elections, and only one in ten matai are discussions on this topic, but women still do not understand it.
women, making Fiame’s victory doubly significant. We recently had one woman elected last year to replace her
Specific policies to increase women’s representation in Pa- husband, who passed away. I hope and pray that she paves the
cific politics, such as Temporary Special Measures (TSM), have way for more women to run for Congress. I think the mere ef-
been proposed in some quarters. fort of deciding to run is a huge step for a lot of women here.”
At Vanuatu’s municipal level, five seats are reserved for However, for Palau, the Vice President told Islands Business
women. The Samoan model requires at least 10% of MPS in that she had discussed this with the leader of the largest
parliament to be women, through appointment of the highest women’s organisation in Palau, Mechesil Belau, and she said,
polling woman (or women) to parliament if the threshold is not “No special treatment for you women, you must earn your
met through the ballot. seat”.
Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa says the introduction
of this requirement was the work of her predecessor, Tuilaepa editor@islandsbusiness.com
Sailele Malielegaoi, who, “on his return from Rarotonga from
Islands Business, March 2022 27