INDEPENDENT NEWS

Noisy Kauhue Urged To Avoid Childish Attacks

Published: Tue 6 Nov 2007 10:17 AM
Noisy Kauhue Urged To Avoid Childish Attacks
The Secretary to Cabinet Ruth Liloqula is calling on the General Secretary of the National Council of Women (NCW), Ella Kauhue to avoid using the media to advance her personal grudges against other women.
She said Kauhue's continuous attack on her is nothing more than trying to bring the attention of the public her dislike of women at government decision-making levels and in leadership.
Ms Liloqula made the remark in response to Ms Kauhue's second attempt to save face in a debate over a meeting with the Governor General Sir Nathaniel Waena last week.
Sir Nathaniel requested Ms Liloqula, Ms Sigimanu and Ms Kauhue to a meeting to clarify and correct constitutional issues that Ms Kauhue earlier raised against the government's intention to review the Facilitation of International Assistance Act (FIAA) that allows RAMSI into the country.
All three women were not informed of the agenda of the meeting until they met with Sir Nathaniel Waena.
Ms Kauhue inaccurately assumed that the meeting was a plot between the Office of the Prime Minister and the Governor General to block her from publicly criticizing the government's planned review of RAMSI.
But Ms Liloqula said her contribution at the meeting was to clarify important issues and to assure Ms Kauhue that she could communicate with Office of the Secretary to Cabinet to find out more about how decisions are made in the Executive Government.
"I as a woman will always have time to clarify any matters concerning the cabinet within my responsibilities once requested by other women," Ms Liloqula said.
Ms Liloqula during the meeting explained how and why the cabinet made decisions and clearly explained to Ms Kauhue the procedures and roles of the Attorney General and the Secretary to Cabinet during cabinet meeting where both women are present.
"Ms Kauhue is making a lot of ill-informed arguments and such attitude poses a lot of risk to misleading the public on issues of national importance.
"Again she needs to trust that people are telling the truth, or at least for this case I have told the truth that the Office of the Prime Minister is not in any way involved in directing this audience with the Governor General. She can be more effective in her anti-government campaign with accurate information," Ms Liloqula said.
Ms Liloqula welcomed Ms Kauhue to reveal all that was discussed during the meeting with the Governor General so that the public could judge for themselves on the issues discussed.
The Secretary to Cabinet said Ms Kauhue was given every opportunity to respond by the Governor General during the meeting and it is a matter of taking up the opportunity to ask questions for purposes of clarification.
"I encouraged her to talk and it is alright to do so at that time," Ms Liloqula said.
"To claim that she was not given a chance to speak her mind at the meeting is absolutely inaccurate," Liloqula said.
Liloqula said she was present at the meeting on invitation from the Governor General and it was not her own intention to be at the meeting.
"I was called at the same time that Ms Kauhue was called to attend to the meeting, believing that it was a chance for the three of us to discuss with Sir Nathaniel and his wife to address some priority issues of women in Solomon Islands," she said.
She said Ms Kauhue's claim that the meeting was a plan between the Office of the Prime Minister and the Governor General to intimidate her from freedom of speech is incorrect and an ill-informed assumption.
Meanwhile, Ms Liloqula said her respond to Ms Kauhue is to correct the misinformation that she advanced in the media and not an expression of personal resentment.
She said it is not a good initiative for senior women in the country to hurt each other instead of uniting to enhance the interests of women.
"Women advancing public attacks on other women on personal grounds will certainly paint a negative image on us," she said. "It certainly show how divided we are and that will threaten our good intentions to advance the interest of women in the country.
ENDS
More: Latest World News | Top World News | World Digest | Archives

Next in World

View as: DESKTOP | MOBILE © Scoop Media