Give women reserved seats

IT seems the reserved seats fire has gone out.
Even the staunchest supporters have gone quiet, driven to silence by the cacophony of criticism rising belatedly against the notion.
If letters to the editor in the newspapers are any indication, more and more people are condemning the very idea as being discriminatory.
The argument goes: “How can women who have been fighting for equal opportunity as men now are clamouring for a special deal of their own?
“Isn’t that not discriminatory in itself?
“Why replace discrimination with discrimination? It makes no sense at all.”
Such an argument is difficult to put down even if one were to argue from the premise that women have had a raw deal for so long that they do deserve a break.
This is all hypothetical, of course.
Nobody has really lived with the experience of reserved seats – excepting the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
There, they have three reserved seats written into the Constitution of the autonomous region.
Their experience, more than any other, would be far more instructive than any other.
And finally one with the experience – Francisca
Semoso – has spoken out.
Semoso’s voice is unique and it is strikingly balanced and nothing at all like the alarmist concoctions we have been subjected to both by our male members of parliament and many more coming out of the woodworks.
Semoso says the campaign trail is no different.
Reserved seat candidates and those going for open or regional seats spend money, walk and talk.
Everybody – male and female – get to vote for both groups.
The only difference is that candidates for the reserved seats are women.
Semoso should know. She contested both as a reserved seat and as an open seat candidate.
 Women candidates can be every bit as intimidating as male candidates so there is no holiday for reserved seats there, Semoso says.
The experience has given women leaders confidence and courage.
After only one term, Semoso did not seek another term as a reserved candidate although it was there for the taking.
She decided to go for the open seat.
She lost – by 20 votes – and fought police and election officials in public to make the point that her votes might have been tampered with.
That puts to shame the argument that women might grow comfortable with the special treatment and hold on to it.
Bougainville has thought it important that its women are represented and has written it into its Constitution.
Three women commissioners on the Constitution travelled widely throughout Bougainville to gather the people’s wishes before they recommended reserved seats.
In a region with pockets of matrilineal heritage, this is fair and representative.
The drafters of the Constitution have thought it worthwhile that its traditional leadership structure, through the chieftains, is represented in a modern parliament and has written that into the Constitution as well.
It is not discriminatory, it is a thing of pride for Bougainville, a something truly Bougainvillean and truly representative in its Constitution that it can hold out to the world as being truly original.
As the argument goes, yes women can go out there and walk the trail and talk the walk but, in the end, how many women really have the resources to contest elections against men who have amassed wealth for decades?
Women will get into parliament in greater numbers but it will take another de­cade yet if men leave them a democratic parliament to contest for.
Semoso is right when she said: “Reserved seats or no reserved seats, you can still win an election if you know your strengths.
“You can never be a man. You have to go the people as a woman and a leader.
“That is what the people are looking for.
“Let them say all the good things about you and the bad things about you.
“Then they will know you can weather the storm as well as any men.”
Women can be agents of change but for now they will need that reserved seat – for the sake of fairness.