All power to Powes

Editorial: The National, April 30, 2008
POWES Parkop has once again shown his realistic approach to governing the nation’s capital.
The National Capital District Governor has announced his intentions to have 50% of the NCDC Council vacancies filled by women.
It is worth mentioning that no other leader has been in a position where he can decree such a move but it is Powes Parkop who has seized the opportunity.
The National attracted a certain amount of scorn from some sectors when we decried what we still regard as the sop thrown to PNG women with the government announcement of a proposal to appoint a tiny handful of women to Parliament.
Mr Parkop’s move is, thank goodness, far more in tune with the times. It is obvious that this move has the potential to open the doors to local level government positions for the increased number of women standing.
We commend the NCD Governor on his timing.
But over and beyond that stands the real possibility of a flow-on of confidence on the part of women who will stand for the next national elections.
There can be no excuse in 2012 for any political party to fob off women by nominating half a dozen as a cynical gesture to public demand.
The performance of our major parties in terms of nominating women at the recent national elections was a disgrace.
Mr Parkop’s initiative will doubtless be viewed as revolutionary by many.
On the one hand, we would expect him to garner much praise from the women of the NCD.
On the other, he will be the butt of derision and animosity from that unfortunate core of men who cannot envision gender equality or the prospect of working for a woman boss.
We do indeed pity these narrow minded individuals, if only because they are fighting a losing game.
Tragically and all too often they resort to violence within their families to try and prop up a crumbling dictatorial structure at home.
The results are grim and known to us all; confirmation can be obtained at any public hospital casualty ward.
Mr Parkop is acknowledging what few leaders in our country have had the courage to acknowledge.
When our women are given even half a chance, they have shown for decades that they can excel.
Unfortunately, they’re often not only given but half a chance, they’re forced to work twice as hard to achieve their work goals, let alone carve a chink in the male-defended upper hierarchies within the public and private sectors.
We wonder if the men who insist on their superiority in the workplace realise how much of the work undertaken in the nation’s capital is in the hands of women.
When the men are near death from brutal assaults over a few beers, it’s the nurses who tend them and restore their health.
When the offspring of these rulers of the household send their children to primary school, they will almost certainly receive their vital basic education from women teachers.
Increasingly women represent their clients in court, pilot the aircraft that take men home for holidays, lecture men at international standard in universities and make medical discoveries in our research institutions that will benefit the whole population for generations to come.
And let it be added that other women, thousands of them, eke out a living on street corners and in markets providing the men with buai and with smokes, and their children with that iconic NCD confection, the humble ice block.
Now perhaps those informal sector mothers, scorned and kicked and abused on the streets and too often at home as well, will be able to have a voice in their governing council.
If women will only rise to the challenge, this is the beginning of a new era for them and indeed for the whole community.
For apart from their new-found voice, they will be able to show that more decision-making for women does not necessarily mean only for women, but for the whole community.
And that will be a refreshing change, for far too many of our urban laws are intended for men only.
We commend Mr Parkop for an excellent and far-reaching decision.