WOMEN LOOK AFTER LOUJAYA KOUZA MP

The National 23 March 2015 Douglas Barara

I recall the jubilation right after the 2012 election when 3 women were elected into parliament, It was right after the disappointment of the reserved seats for women in parliament.

I witnessed an occasion in Goroka When Governor Julie Soso hosted her fellow female MPs at the national park.

To the thousands of women who gathered to receive the 3 MPs, one could feel the euphoric atmosphere that gripped the mass.

Two and a half years later, MP Loujaya Kouza is riding it rough and alone. I wonder was all the emotions and jubilation rhetoric and superficial? Have the women of this country been defeated by male chauvinism?

From the political jibes over the Lae commission by fellow male colleague MPs to constant flow of uncensored public opinion, dressing and haircuts, to harassment and threats of a deranged husband on responsibilities of a mother, MP Kouza is truly under siege.

What really dumbfounds me is the deafening silence of the women of PNG. Here is one of their own, a sister, mother and wife and she is getting roasted from all directions and not a single public support from the women of this country.

Like all women Kouza is emotional, sensitive, loving and responsive to her surroundings. To MP Kouza, you are a lady foremost, doing what is certainly right because the devil surely hates you.

COMMENT:  I too feel sad for Loujaya Kouza but see the issue going much deeper. We may all remember her singing hymns on the TV program Songs of Faith over 15 years ago. She is Christian.

She has made her Christian faith known with the removal of customary totems from parliament house. This subjected her to ridicule.

She was Minister for Community Development, Youth and Religion at a time when there was deep division within the Department with the removal of Secretary Joseph Klapat. She was removed as Minister.

But as a Christian, she would have found herself being opposed and sabotaged by the foreign lesbians of the United Nations. They would have wanted her support on legalization of gay and lesbian sex.

The Department for Community Development was seen by UN lesbians to be their personal property. This would be the springboard for gay and lesbian rights and adoption of children by gay and lesbian couples.

Dame Carol Kidu knew what side her bread was buttered on when she supported legalization of gay and lesbian sex. But she undoubtedly lost lesbian UN support with her view of women’s rights within the framework of family. Please click:

dame carol kidu on women and girls - family positive living ...
.blogspot.com/.../dame-carol-kidu-on-women-and-gi...Mar 7, 2015 - Sunday
Chronicle 8 March 2015. Women and girls don't live as isolated
beings. They live as part of families and communities. To educate girls ...

I am sure that Loujaya did not leave her door open to any UN lesbian who wanted to come without appointment. Perhaps they were not welcomed. Women’s groups supported by UN lesbians would be pressured to shun and scorn her.

But the hate campaign really boiled up in Lae at the Tutumang provincial assembly. It seems that the NEC has thrown Loujaya to the wolves. Her political colleagues in Morobe province seem to treat her as the enemy.

Lae politics has an independent streak a mile long going back to the days when Lae was the capital of New Guinea. Only 30 years ago, Lae had an Australian High Commissioner Tom Critchley.

Loujaya has been attacked on all sides. Her residency in a hotel has raised deep criticism. Yet we see politicians living in other hotels without a word of criticism. One has set his office up in a hotel. Not a word of criticism.

It seems she may be trapped into her ex-husband’s family by the fact that his family is looking after her children and demanding money.

But she has fallen victim to the women. It is so well known that women do not support women in parliament. Gender equality dies at the hands of women who take the view that any woman with a political profile is a bighead who needs to be cut down to size, regardless of what she stands for.

Perhaps Loujaya has to make known all the support she has planned and done in support of women. But the Tutumang will block any such efforts in Morobe Province.