By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Today we celebrate our mothers. We have been doing that for as long as memory can remember in recent times.
Mothers are unique for who they are and what they give to our lives.
We celebrate Mother’s Day as that very special occasion we set aside to say thank you and to show how we hold them dear to our hearts.
There is no other love like a mother’s love. How often has that expression melted our hardened emotions?
A mother’s love is never doubted. We know that from being raised as children in the warmth and protection of her bosom.
The older we become the more we appreciate this emotionally exclusive bond of love we have with them.
A celebration of Mothers Day gives recognition also to other evolving qualities in our women folks.
The role of leadership, over the passage of time, has predominantly been a male domain.
Women were relegated to the back as the strong influence responsible for the universal claim that “behind every great man is a strong woman”.
Our modern generation has brought new gender challenges in women. Leadership is one added to their inherent motherly responsibilities.
The changes are deserving of how women have asserted proven qualities and skills to be on equal footing with the men or even better as leaders.
Today in Samoa we have our first woman Prime Minister after 60 years as a sovereign nation.
For PM Fiame Naomi Mataafa it is an historic achievement in leadership that also sets the gender par for women with aspirations in the political arena.
Of course her elevated status was not an overnight sensation.
What it essentially represents is the success of a sustained push by women, determined to break down gender barriers of equality.
The momentum continues.
Credit academic excellence and natural leadership potential honed at first, and most convincingly, inside the classrooms
Well educated minds unraveled the qualities of leadership demanded in the work place and in other key areas of developments in our Samoan society.
Look around! See how our women folks are contributing to building Samoa as a strong and proud nation.
To see the women transition into roles once the domain for men deserves to be admired and respected.
At the pace this takeover is moving, the claim should be amended to ‘behind every great woman is a strong man.
The more visible example of this leadership trend is women as Chief Executive Officers in Government Ministries and State Owned Enterprises.
Their successful rise to the top is worthy of a Mothers Day salute for many reasons including the inspiration they provide for young women to emulate.
But if there is to be any serious cause for regret, it is to do with Samoa being in a bad place right now, for our women CEOs in the Public Service.
All the good and promising qualities of leadership they have demonstrated are at risk of being short-circuited by political malice.
The angry aftermath of our 2021 general elections has left many of the CEOs vulnerable to venom that has badly eroded our proud society of harmony – or what once was.
CEO working contracts for women as well as men were lost either through termination or denial of application for renewal from the political hostilities.
Four of our top women public servants, innocently caught in the cross-fire of this toxic residue of poison politics, are out of jobs.
The same for the men too! On this Mother’s Day the thoughts are with the women behind the male victims of this shameful underside of politics.
Mud raking acrimony has spread the venom even into the high political profile of PM Fiame.
Her leadership continues to be plagued by public innuendos and accusations of being bullied and undermined by powerful members in her own political party.
Claims of being manipulated by the wishes and whims of the people she is supposed to trust the most are unsettling and heartbreaking.
True or not the seed of doubt and uncertainties is out there for anxious public debate.
In some cases it is very protective of the true status of the Mother of the Nation.
Women PMs in other nations of the world are respected and admired for their dominating sense of leadership.
Britain’s first lady PM Margret Thatcher impressed so much with strength of character it earned her the iconic title of Iron Lady.
She went on to become the longest serving PM in the 20th century for Britain.
Our PM Fiame has been in office for more than a year now, what are the chances she will rise to the challenge as a Margret Thatcher for Samoa?
Does she have the strength of character to assert her leadership over her alleged so called political puppeteers she has entrusted her back to?
In the words of American President Obama “ Yes she can”.
Arise Oh Iron Lady Fiame!
To all the mothers of Samoa we salute you on your special day.
Happy Mothers Day