River Gee County District # 3 Representative, Francis Saidy Dopoh II says there are core issues to propel women’s representation in the Legislature and that can begin by providing them the economic strength and might so that they are able to compete.
To defend an affirmative action that will empower women only politically will be another form of restricting them to that 30 percent when they can rise above that percentage, Rep. Dopoh said.
The reason he gave is that with a quota, the caliber of women will not elected.
He also said they will be reduced to just that level whereas when women are included, that will be the beginning of the representation of the marginalized groups.
“The intent of the affirmative action is to ensure that women are on par with men and it is on that basis that one will want to carry on investment in the women looking at the preference for women in business and even women who own properties, what preference do they have in terms of taxation or in the areas of employment and there should also be mechanisms put in place to protect them to the extent that when they get into politics, it will not just be to get on par but that their supporters who are women will also be empowered to have free minds when engaging the selection process,” Rep. Dopoh explained.
The Liberian lawmaker, who serves as secretary of the House’s committee on Elections, revealed that he is currently cleaning a draft bill that will be directed to legislating an affirmative action for women’s empowerment. It seeks to look at women in business, taxation and funding issues as well as women’s employment among other things and not just political issues.
The River Gee Lawmaker was speaking at the opening the two-day session of the Liberia Media Development Program second community radio conference in Ganta City on Wednesday, which was held under the theme, “Community Radio: Amplifying voices of citizens for electoral reform.”
Rep. Dopoh said if an affirmative action is to be taken in favor of women, it must not only be into politics but holistically that is in businesses and at workplaces.
He spoke strongly on how the quota system must begin from the Liberian Senate because members of that body control demographic territories, while those in the House control constituents (people) and identified that the issue will be on how to raise the needed revenue to have additional seats exclusively for women besides the 15 seats already allotted because current members might feel threatened of losing their seats.
However, on the other hand, Rep. Dopoh said the intent of democracy is for the development of the nation and that everyone has equitable benefit from the process but if people are elected on the basis of the number, there will never be the quality that is required in the Legislature for the purpose of oversight.
“The Legislature plays a pivotal role in the entire governance process because it is recognized as playing the roles of both the judge and jury; so that kind of power that the Legislature possesses needs a democratic process that provides the quality so that one does not have a Legislature of ‘so says one; so says all,” he pointed out.
He added that, that is not democracy because everything is defined by its intent; so it may appear to be sound that you are electing but it may not be valid or the other way around therefore, Liberians need to keep pressing ensuring that before people are elected based on a short analysis carried out about all the candidates involved in the process.
“You should continue to engage them on issues even when they are elected so that you provide suggestions like for example, we should continue to engage our electoral process to see where there should be reforms as well as in the Constitution; and regulations and policies because for oversight the lawmakers too must ensure that those laws are made consistent with the performance of the government,” he stated
Rep. Dopoh said one of the key areas is the governing process is the national budget.
He added: “And we think our colleagues at the Legislature should join us to ensure that the budget should not be realistic on the basis of what is said by the Executive instead it should be realistic in its entirety.
Speaking more on the recent national budget submitted to the Legislature from an informed financial professional background, the River Gee County representative said the budget is not fully submitted to the Legislature because what was submitted is a ‘book’ because the Public Financial Management Act provides that the budget shall be submitted with other instruments and key among those instruments is the budget framework paper.
“If you cannot prepare a budget in the absence of the budget framework paper because that paper tells you how the budget was developed and what are the policy guidelines and issues. Based on the framework paper, one is able to look at the budget and also with the revenue estimates, detailed projections. But as it is now I cannot speak to the budget because what I will be telling you now will just be numbers and what driving those numbers are unknown because they are not there,” Representative Dopoh said. C. Winnie Saywah-Jimmy writes