|
Karl Schembri
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was warned by his party men yesterday that “giving in too much” to girl power may soon mean “that a woman will seize his seat”, as the testosterone-charged Nationalist Party general council was discussing women’s representation in the party structures.
The heated debate on the second day of the PN’s male-dominated extraordinary general council held at University pitted those who were in favour of boosting women’s participation within the party structures against those who argued against positive discrimination.
Most of the male councillors complained in the corridors that the changes were ill-timed when the party was facing the local election controversy, while the few women there insisted that men could not speak on their behalf.
The party was still recovering from the previous day’s hullabaloo that broke when MEP Simon Busuttil proposed to get the general council to reflect the percentage of men and women on sectional committees.
With the amendment proposed by Busuttil approved on Friday, much to John Dalli’s dismay, it was the same Dalli yesterday who proposed a similar amendment so that the party’s executive arm reflects the percentage of women on the general council.
“I hate talking of women in terms of percentages but now that we’ve started this process we have to be consistent,” Dalli said yesterday. “If needs be, we have to take this process in extremis.”
PN Secretary General Joe Saliba and Lawrence Gonzi agreed with Dalli’s proposal although the commotion that erupted before the vote saw vociferous councillors divided on the issue.
The issue was deemed to be so sensitive that a councillor asked for a secret ballot, prolonging the whole process even further. A total of 56 councillors voted in favour, against 40 ‘no’ votes, two abstentions and one invalid vote.
Even more controversial was another amendment proposed by Saliba that would have guaranteed women representatives from all the PN’s organisations (MZPN, APAN, etc) on the executive, something which the majority of councillors were vehemently against although almost none of the women present spoke out.
Gonzi went to great lengths to explain the importance of the proposal, insisting that the party had to face today’s realities.
“Do we want to deceive ourselves into believing that everything is alright?” Gonzi said. “Are we saying that we’re ready to accept important changes on a national level but not within our party? We should stop living in the clouds. I’m decided to open our party to everyone and if there are risks to be taken then let’s take them.”
Parliamentary Secretary Helen D’Amato protested vehemently when male councillors kept saying that positive discrimination denigrated women and that “we better have women elected because they are good rather than just because they’re women”.
“Positive discrimination happens all over the world, it’s not something we discovered here for the first time,” she replied. “It’s one way to get a critical mass of women involved in politics, so don’t come here thinking we’re inventing the wheel.”
But councillor Jean Pierre Debono, who is also the PN’s assistant director of information, warned Gonzi that gender reforms were going too far.
“Dr Gonzi, you better pay attention because you’ll soon find a woman approaching you from behind saying that she should be leader,” Debono said to roaring laughter.
He then proposed a counter-amendment to Saliba’s proposal, stating that for a woman to be automatically represented on the party’s executive committee, the PN organisation she hailed from would need to have at least three women on its executive.
This would mean that the youth, pensioners’, workers’ and entrepreneurs’ committees of the PN would need at least three women each for female members to be elected automatically on the executive committee, together with two other representatives from each movement.
Backed by Deputy Leader Tonio Borg, Debono’s amendment quashed Saliba’s with an overwhelming majority of 67 votes by 21. By then, most of the councillors had already left the building.
Currently the PN has around 800 councillors, 200 of whom are women, while its 80-member executive committee includes only eight women. The party’s administrative committee has one woman on its 17-member body.
The general council continues today amending the party’s statute to make its language more gender-neutral
|
