Women for politics mean business

Women will make up half of Parliament following the 2016 General Election, if one group gets their way.

Called Ala Mai Samoa, which literally means “Samoa Wake Up,” their goal is to have female candidates occupy at least 50 per cent of the seats at the Maota Fono.

Speaking during a recent United Nations event held in Samoa, group member, Lemalu Nele Leilua, said their project intends to achieve this through a sequence of well thought out activities to be implemented incrementally, taking into account the diversity of village governance systems as well as other sociocultural sub systems and personal values and principles.

“We are committed to ensuring that 50 per cent of Parliament seats shall be occupied by woman candidates at the conclusion of the 2016 General Election,” she said. “Our team will work towards achieving this honourable goal by mobilising support of village fonos and every voter, men, women and youth alike through supporting potential women candidates.

“It is also the intention of this B.T.I. (Breakthrough Initiative) to mentor, coach and help these women in whatever aspects they so wish.”

Lemalu said Ala Mai Samoa intends to find out the potential female candidates in each constituency and mobilise the necessary support they need in the context of a constituency, village fono and voters.

“In addition, we will assist and support them in clarifying specific issues relating to the election,” she said.

“Our approach is not to segregate the female voters and candidates from the men, but to work with men and youth as equal partners in this project.”

Through what she termed a “conversation of possibility”, Lemalu said a breakthrough in Ala Mai Samoa’s project would mean for the first time Samoa will have more than just several female Members of Parliament (M.P.’s).

“It means a more balanced, inclusive or representative dialogue and articulation of fundamental issues of particular interest to women will be debated (and) addressed effectively, for instance family safety and security, health (and) education,” Lemalu said.

“At the macro level women would offer new perspectives and rationales to the decision-making process shaped by their nurturing (and) caring values and principles.

“The voice and concerns of many women would then be heard in Parliament.

“It is also our hope that these concerns will be taken seriously by Parliament and reflected in the process of law making, laws (and) legislation and in the implementation of the same.

“Having more women representatives in Parliament would also mean women would have a voice in the monitoring (and) accountability requirements of these laws.”

Lemalu said if the concerns of half the population were taken seriously, it should contribute positively to the economic development of Samoa subsequently it should alleviate pockets of poverty in general and seen in specific localities.

“It means more positive development nationally will be the outcome of the project,” she said.

“We are emancipating awareness amongst men and women alike, that if the other half of the population contributes equally to Samoa’s development in every sub-system of society, the economic status of our country will be much higher.

“In the family context, economic wellbeing will contribute to peace and harmony at various levels family and extended families, village, church, district and nationwide.

“We are building a much deeper understanding between men, women and the youth that democracy needs the active participation of women as M.P.s.

“We hope through the process, our country and people will recognise and invest in building trust and respect, tolerance and acceptance, integrity and freedom so that voters are not coerced into voting but choose the right candidates into Parliament.

“Getting the right people into Parliament will result in better law and people will respect the process and the institution.”

Moving beyond the possibility and talking about opportunity for women, Lemalu said this second conversation provided Ala Mai Samoa with the chance to explore and become creative in answering the ‘what; and the ‘how’ questions.

“These conversations have been productive because we made us focus on feasible and practical ideas,” she said.

She said under their project their B.T.I. would address both leverage, that is to make a significant contribution to addressing the women status in the political and decision making domain, and visibility and measurability – something that is high profile and concerns nationally, regionally and globally, relatively near-term results and relevance.

“We declare that by the end of this project our breakthrough would be to have an equal representation of men and women candidates in the Samoa Parliament,” she said.

“This commitment will drive our team to work harder.

“If however 50 per cent cannot be achieved, at least a number higher than just five women M.P.s stipulated in the recent amendment is a leverage and progress towards recognising gender equality.

“At the micro level our breakthrough would encourage and nurture more women to take up leadership roles in any domain of our society.

“It requires that we consult widely and educate our men and women alike of the benefits of equal contribution in various systems.”

To measure the success of their campaign Ala Mai Samoa has a number of conditions of satisfaction.

“Identify which constituencies are more liberal and more amenable to our goal, at least 35 constituencies,” she said.

“Identify who the potential women candidates from each constituency are.

“Persuade other women who we feel have the potential but are not interested because of personal reasons.

“Focus on potentially 35 constituencies supportive of women candidates and candidates who have a greater opportunity to win the election – (the ) 30/60/10 phenomena.

“Get the women who contested past elections and share with them on strategies and things to avoid so that our team could help the intending women candidates.

“Share our strategies with the Parliamentary Advisor from New Zealand or Australia for more advice given their experience from their country and other Pacific island countries they have worked in.

“Mobilise our support for the election of potential women candidates through meeting with identified village fonos, women groups in those villages and youths, as well as other subsystems like the church leaders, sports clubs, private sector, civil society and donors.”

Lemalu said in an effort to achieve the 50 per cent mark, Ala Mai Samoa functions within the framework of a Parliamentary Action Plan.