Women folk should prove their worth

THE women of PNG must not make a big fuss over the 22 reserved seats promised by Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.
Giving such a huge number of seats freely to the women does not promote gender equality but gender discrimination.
The male folk sweat their guts out to become members of parliament.
Likewise, prospective women leaders must prove themselves.
Women are humans like men, so why should we treat them differently from men?
Even the Bible warns women not to lead. Women should close their mouths and be submissive to the men’s authority!
Man thinks he is smarter and always wants to break the biblical principle just by changing the position of the goal post in his pursuit to solve leadership problem.
If we think that women can make some differences, then we must follow the formal and accepted democratic process to elect women as our representatives.
The women folk have a lot of work to do to convince the men and their respective community members, society and in government departments.
They must demonstrate their leadership abilities, competency skills and charisma to exert influence in their respective areas of specialties, thus influencing people’s life.
The government, NGOs and the community should create the opportunity for women by providing the avenue for them to express their interest and unleash their potential.
If the women cannot take the challenges and expect the government and the male folk to be lenient on them, then their dream is an illusion.
It would then be better to leave this issue aside until a decade or so later.
Otherwise, it will create injustice to the male folk and will undermine or degrade the standard of our democratic process on electing a leader.

Michael Drake Kapu
Port Moresby