‘Give women a chance, vote women for change’

ELECTION

Former MP Dame Carol Kidu takes voter education to a remote area of the country

By HARLYNE JOKU
GIVE women a chance, vote women for a change,” is the theme expounded by retired veteran woman politician Dame Carol Kidu the past eight months Dame Carol Kidu – longest serving female member of Parliament is passionately supportive of having more women elected in parliament.
She believes we must see an increase in women representatives in PNG to uphold the pillars of our representative democracy and create a balanced vote for the people of PNG.
“Don’t vote for a woman because she is a woman. Vote for her because she is well qualified, compassionate and genuinely cares about the welfare of the people, “Dame Carol keeps stressing at awareness workshops she has conducted.
For the past eight months leading up to this 2022 General Elections, Dame Carol has been at helm of the Australian National University (ANU) initiative – “Vote Women for Change,” awareness programme. She carried out 44 workshops in eight provinces throughout the country after an Australian University (ANU) study on the performance of female candidates in the 2017 elections was released in 2021 marking – 33 female candidates who had made remarkable performances amongst their male candidates placing in the top 10 of the seat they contested.
Of the 33, there were eight women who agreed to be part of the pilot program contesting in the 2022 general elections. These candidates and their communities were part of a targeted mentoring and awareness program promoting women’s political participation in PNG
PNG is one of only 3 countries in the world that has no women in its Parliament, and this is something of great concern. Studies from around the world show that those countries that have balanced representation of women in their parliaments experience high levels of development and low levels of corruption, imagine what could be achieved in PNG if we had a more balanced Parliament?
On Monday, April 18 Dame Carol travelled to remote Fane mission station up in the difficult mountainous Goilala district of the Central province to hold the final programmed awareness workshops.
No proper roads lead to Fane; people either walk by foot for days or travel by air on a chopper or a small plane. This was Dame Carol’s second last workshop to be held in PNG’s most difficult terrain.
Dame Carol’s team included Matilda Koma, intending candidate for the Goilala Open electorate, Meghan Toka – programme manager and myself as a freelance journalist. We were privileged to be flown in from Port Moresby by one of the most experienced PNG pilots Capt James Yanda on a small New Zealand-built Air Sanga plane – PAC 750 that could only carry nine passengers
For most of the team, it was a first to Fane except for Matilda who is from the area. After 20 minutes of flying over the magnificent blue mountain ridges, we came closer to Fane. As we descended there was this feeling of exhilaration as the plane thudded onto the narrow mountain ridge air strip making a fast race to a sudden stop in front of the two story historic missionary home.
We were greeted by a friendly community of about 200 and Fane Catholic Parish Priest Father Francis Pirit. Then after refreshment of Fane Coffee and sugar ripe bananas at Father Francis Dame Carol went ahead to meet with the people and introduce her mission. She gave an open invitation to them to the awareness workshop the following day (Tuesday April 19th). The group was made up mostly of men, women and youth from the surrounding community.
In the two days at Fane, Dame Carol and Meghan explained to participants in simple Tok Pisin why there was a need for more good women leaders in parliament. A recent former university graduate Sebastian Ketava volunteered to be our translator.
Dame Carol got participants, both men and women, involved in short drama and used storytelling to covey key. If we thought of our Parliament as the house of our nation, is it a balanced, well-functioning house? In most Melanesian and PNG homes there is always a woman, a mother caring for her family and a man. If a man is taken from the house does the house run well? No. If a woman is taken from the house does the house run well? No The message is one of promoting balance in our national house – we need both man and woman to have our house run well.
She used the metaphor of the Bird of Paradise to the PNG parliament. “The bird has two wings, man na meri. At the moment, in our Parliament there are no women so the bird has only one wing. With only one wing, the bird cannot fly. It can only fly when it has two wings,” she said.
She said women care of the daily welfare of their families and must be included in the decision making process in all aspects of life, including politics.

Dame Carol and Meghan Toka used simple graphics, posters, biros and note books and T shirts with the Vote Women for Change slogan. They got the participants to act out simple correct how to vote practices and copies of the PNG Constitution Goals in English and Tok Pisin and explained Section 2 of Equality and Participation.
The reaction from the 85 participants at the workshop was positive and interactive, according to the translator Sebastian Ketava.
“Personally Dame Carol’s workshop was interesting and interactive. Everyone took part and many of the things I learnt were new to me. Many of my participants both men and women are illiterate and do not have knowledge of the outside world. Our men especially were curious and wanted to learn more,” Sebastian said.
Sebastian added that several women said after the workshop they now know the truth about what takes place during elections and their right to vote. Throughout the years since independence they said they were dictated by the men to vote for a particular candidate who normally gave them handouts.
But now from Dame Carol’s workshop and explanation of the Mama Lo Bilong Independent Stret Bilong PNG and her explanation of Section 2, on equality and participation, they understand now that they have the right to take part and vote for whom they believe will be a good leader for them.
Section 2 (5) of the PNG Constitution states “Equal participation by woman citizens in all political, economic, social and religious activities.
“We were told by men how or whom to vote, now we know that we women can make our own decision on who to vote for,” another woman participant said.
Sebastian and most of the participants requested for more awareness workshops to be carried out in their area. He said the workshop was useful but more was needed to make a big influence.
He said having awareness at the eve of the elections is a bit too late with his people expecting more.
Intending candidate for Goilala Open Matilda Koma was grateful for Dame Carol taking the the awareness messages to her Fane home.
“I am thankful and grateful to Dame Carol, a vibrant successful former woman politician. With her teaching background she held the attention of my people through simplified messages in pictorial illustrations and drama. More awareness in this form is needed,” Koma said.
Dame Carol agreed. “Yes the workshop made an impact on the people we worked with but it is probably a little too late and like a drop in the ocean. There needs to be an ongoing community education programme, not just about woman in politics but many aspects of civic education. “She said.
Dame Carol served as Member for Moresby South from 1997 to 2012. She retired in 2012 since her intention was to serve only three terms in parliament (15 years) and move on from politics to fulfill other important things in life.
She has conducted 44 awareness workshops throughout PNG with positive reaction from the participants including men and women.
The “Vote Women for Change” awareness programme is sponsored by the Australian Government aimed at promoting women’s political participation at all levels of government in PNG and helping to change mindsets around this in communities.
“I want you to give your best vote for the best candidate to lead you in the next five years,” Dame Carol stressed.

• Harlyne Joku is a freelance journalist