Editor,

I am pleased to see the formation of a woman's platform for the elections this year and here's hoping that they will add a new and independent dimension to the composition of Parliament. By independent, I mean that they will form a distinct and separate group with priorities which will set them apart from what we have seen from parliament over the last 150 plus years.

Given the impossibility of ever seeing a woman on the 9 seats set aside for the nobles, the women's voices in the House can only come from the commoners' votes - women of noble links please note that you have now become the least represented in the country - but that's another story. It is the voice of the commoner women which has been virtually absent from the House and most needed of representation. Can a woman of noble descent be able to do this successfully? There lies the conundrum for the new group to consider. Giving voice to those least heard in Parliament for generations was what the democratic changes were about and it would be a shame if the interests of commoner women were set aside once more for the sake of social propriety. The question which should be asked is whether women of noble descent can adequately represent the views and priorities of a different social class. If we were to go on the history of the nobility representing interests of anyone other than their own in the House, the blunt answer is no and rightly so. They are there primarily to represent their own interests first and foremost and have done this very well. To achieve this, everyone else's was relegated to a distant second. At best, the people's representatives themselves were minimalists when it came to women's rights.

Through the democratic changes, commoners' interests should now be better represented because of the increased number of people's representatives. It's a fact that the virtual absence of women from Parliament for almost a century and a half has had a detrimental effect on nationhood generally and the role of women in particular. The more gender-friendly environment under the changes is there to be exploited and while a Christian approach is at the forefront of the women's stated response, progressive and liberal initiatives rather than conservatism will produce the best political outcome for commoner women under our new democracy.

Sefita Hao'uli

sefita [dot] haouli [at] gmail [dot] com ( sefita [dot] haouli [at] gmail [dot] com)