Parliament Report Card: 100% and 0%

J. Roughan

18 June 2009

Honiara 

This week saw Parliament go from top of the class to the very bottom within a few hours. First the 100% mark!

 

Parliament demonstrated its power to be a truly effective national voice by voting into the Governor General position a gentleman with impressive legal background, with many years of legal expertise and someone who was both mature and tested in the Public Service. Unfortunately it took four rounds of voting before the chamber finally did settle on Frank Kabui.

 

But earlier in the week Parliament fumbled the ball terribly when not one of Parliament's 50 members could bring themselves to nominate a single woman candidate's name for the GG's post. More than half the men who were actually nominated for this critical position did not possess the minimum requirements to hold such high office. Many of the nominated candidates never trained in law, or had in depth experience in other disciplines and lacked years of formal education training. But still their names appeared and were duly offered to parliament as suitable candidates for the highest post in the nation.

 

Yet, the nation already boasts of women who have earned Ph.D., medical doctors and Masters Degrees, been tried and worked successfully at the highest levels of Public Service and are considered by their peers to be mature, quite intelligent and deeply dependable. But not once did a woman's name make it to the short list while men with far less training, experience and education were seriously nominated.

 

That's why the Parliament Report Card is marked 0%!

 

Currently our newspapers carry lively readers' comments on the idea of women holding parliamentary seats come next year's election. What a great boost it would have been had today's parliament members nominated a woman for the GG post! It would have clearly shown that some Parliamentarians, at least, welcomed the idea that a woman could be considered for the highest position in the land.

 

But Parliament lost a golden opportunity!  Is there fear that if a woman had actually been nominated, she would now be the Solomon Islands GG in waiting? Australia and New Zealand, both of whom recently had women Governor Generals, seemed to have survived well since having a woman who held the GG post.

 

Parliament members hold special place in the minds and hearts of people. They are seen, by many, as being special moral leaders in the affairs of state. What they say and do, does make a difference to the rank and file of Solomon Islanders. They are opinion makers especially in those areas of life which are close to people's lives. 

 

While Parliament rightly voted in such a solid candidate for the GG's post as Mr. Frank Kabui, it would have been a great gesture had it also included a name or two of women, from the other half of the nation. It's that group of people who daily keep the local sky up by feeding, caring and tending for those who make up most of the nation.