Mayor Sukhi Turner
is the first New Zealander to receive the Pravasi
Bharatiya Samman Award for the Indian Diaspora
Dunedin, New
Zealand, January 22, 2004
The
Mayor of Dunedin, Ms.(Sukhwinder) Sukhi Turner, has
been honoured by the Indian Government with its highest
award for non-resident Indian citizens or persons
of Indian origin. Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
honoured her with the ‘Bharatiya Samman Puraskar’(Indian
Diaspora Award), including a 100 gram gold medallion
and a citation at the opening of the
second three-day Indian Diaspora Day Conference on
January 9. The President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam,
who is the award’s patron, also met with the
awardees at the Presidential Palace. Mayor Turner
said she was honoured and humbled by the recognition.
Ms. Sulhi Turner moved to New Zealand in 1973 and
married to former New Zealand cricketer Glenn Turner
. She was born in India April 1952, educated at All
Saints' Anglican School, Naini Tal, and Bombay University.
She graduated BA in History and Political Science
from Bethany College West Virginia, USA, 1973. She
has two children.
She was elected to the Dunedin City Council in 1992,
as mayor in 1995 and again in 1998 and 2001. She has
been a community and environmental worker, small business
owner, and a teacher of Indian cookery. She has also
been an active member of various national organisations
including the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs and the Enviroshools
Foundation Trust, Dunedin Tourism Board since 2000,
and local Government New Zealand Council Member since
1998. She was awarded the Distinguished Companion
of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM) in 2002.
“In particular, the many people throughout Dunedin
who have helped make the City a wonderfully rich and
diverse place are being recognised through this award,”
she said.
Ms. Turner has never had any close relatives in politics
or government. Her motivation to stand for local government
was based on her desire to contribute to her community.
In line with her passion for the practice of democracy
she had her own ideas on what could be done for her
city. She stood for council on her own initiative
and was well known through her voluntary work in primary
and secondary schools, neighbourhood groups and various
environmental groups. As a woman she did not experience
difficulties running for council although she did
once elected, particularly from her colleagues. As
the first woman in the mayor's position in this city
she found she had to field some very nasty comments
from fellow Councillors regarding the supposed neglect
of her husband as well as various sexist statements.
This does not happen now
Ms. Turner sees herself as a leader. She believes
she has a responsibility to represent everyone in
her city in a fair and equitable manner. Despite this,
though, she also knows she needs to set an example
as a leader and ensure there are opportunities that
empower other women. She takes every chance offered
to her to encourage women to participate in their
community and stand for office. She has also attended
women in local government conferences. During her
time as Mayor, Ms. Turner has initiated the improvement
of Dunedin's water infrastructure and set up a weekly
people's clinic to ensure there is time available
for people to see her
Ms. Turner feels that people's perceptions of women
in local government have changed for the better over
the past 10 years as there are now many positive comments
about women Mayors and there is an increasing respect
and acknowledgement of women in local government.
During her time in office she thinks the culture of
her council has become a little more 'feminine', there
is more goodwill and the feedback she gets is that
more Dunedin people feel part of local government
now. Ms. Turner feels her approach and style as a
woman Mayor is different to that of her male colleagues
in that she likes to promote an open door, non-hierarchical
atmosphere where all are respected and listened to.
She had raised a big noise when the New Zealand government
expressed some reluctance to issue a visa to the Dalai
Lama, spiritual head of the Tibetan people, last year.
She had also amused New Zealanders a great deal by
recently asking for a ban on national political leaders
going overseas as the "politicians come back
wanting New Zealand to have what everybody else has".
"It's the small man's syndrome," Turner
had said at a meeting of environmentalists in Auckland
University. "They feel insecure about being leaders
of wee New Zealand."
For some time Turner has also been opposing the basic
idea behind the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation.
She has gone to the extent of calling APEC a scam
and challenged the notion that bigger is always better,
arguing that local economies are special and local
governments should invest in them.
It could have been her high profile that led Nelson
Mayor Paul Matheson to personally apologise to her
turbaned brother-in-law after he was insulted in a
bar in Nelson town in a hate attack. Matheson has
described the incident involving Maninderjit Singh
Sandhu, a Queenstown-based Sikh restaurateur, as "appalling".
Ms. Sukhi Turner praised the Union government for
organising the annual event. She said she was in talks
with the Punjab government and local non-government
organisations for the development of her ancestral
village near Moga.
