‘iLead: Ten Women, Ten Minutes’: Int’l Women’s Day event to encourage women political leaders

‘iLead’, an event organised by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) Sri Lanka, and NextGenSL to commemorate International Women’s Day 2021, was held with much fanfare at the Shangri-La Hotel on 8 March. 

Attended by a galaxy of VIP guests, the event featured ten women from diverse spheres of influence speaking for ten minutes on what they would do if they were to lead the country. Addressing the audience, Freidrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh Head Hubertus von Welk spoke about how freedom with responsibility in all walks of life, for everyone, was part of the Foundation’s core values, which made the empowerment of women part of its international agenda. 

In jointly organising the event, the FNF was extending its support to NextGenSL — a cross-party youth political platform – in its initiative to encourage and support women’s participation in politics. NextGenSL Co-Convenor Rasika Jayakody, who represents the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party, drew attention to the fact that only 70 women have featured in Sri Lanka’s legislature post-independence, while Milinda Rajapaksha, the Co-Convenor representing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) spoke about how important it was that this status quo was changed. 

The ten women featured at the event were, Kasturi Chellaraj Wilson, the Group CEO of the Hemas conglomerate, Varuni Amunugama, the Joint Managing Director of the Triad group, Dr. Santhushya Fernando, a Public Health Specialist and the Deputy Director of the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital, Sarah Kabir, a peacebuilding and reconciliation researcher and activist, who is also an author, Sriyani Kulawansa, a former Olympic-qualified athlete, Nilshani de Silva, a differently-abled teacher and motivational speaker, Professor Janitha Liyanage, the Vice-Chairperson of the University Grants Commission, Ameena Hussein, a sociologist and author and Samadhani Kiriwandeniya, the former Chairperson of the Sanasa Bank. Indeewari Amuwatte, Head of English News at TV Derana was due to speak but could not make it. 

Speaking first, Varuni Amunugama said she would change the slogan for change from ‘nathi bari rattak’ to ‘athi, haki ratak’ (a ‘don’t have, can’t do’ country, to a ‘have and can do’ country). She said there needed to be fixed policies that do not change – whether in education, economy, social issues, sustainability or otherwise. She also said people’s attitudes should change and that they should not be constantly looking for handouts and but be willing to get their hands dirty, and that handouts should be kept for people who are actually poor which can be determined by religious priests and the like and not through Samurdhi which she felt is usually political. 

She said that English would be made a key part of the education system, and that civic responsibility would be introduced as a subject so that children are taught to be proud and grateful to their country. She also said she would make military training mandatory after 18 to ensure a disciplined generation and that misinformation would be stemmed on social media through control and censorship and by forming a ‘war room’ through which all information is filtered, so that only positive news gets to the country. 

Dr. Santhushya Fernando, recognising the fact that we lived in an age of ‘populism, anti-politics and post-politics’ in which people mock politics and politicians but also seek political patronage, said that in large part the issues we faced in the country today were due to the failure of the ‘civic and moral imagination of citizens’. She also spoke very passionately about how she would bring in a secular constitution and change laws that were based on centuries-old Roman-Dutch and English laws that have been given up by the very countries who introduced them to Sri Lanka — who have now become secular. 

Drawing attention to the fact that it took 46 years to elect a female President, and that it took that President to finally introduce a Child Protection Bill and the National Child Protection Authority, she said that she would immediately implement in full force the Child Protection Bill in a country in which a child is abused every two hours.

Nilshani de Silva spoke passionately about how the support of her parents and alma mater Bishop’s College had got her to where she was in life, but wondered about what support there was for those like her once their parents or caregivers were no more. She drew attention to the incident in which a young boy who was differently-abled like herself was abused, a few years ago at a well-known pastry shop but had been unable to communicate to his family fully what had happened to him. 

How many more like him were there, she wondered, and also wondered about how many women and children were equally vulnerable. Drawing back to her experiences in school where she was accepted, acknowledged and made part of a ‘normal’ class, Nilshani said that children didn’t need to be taught kindness or to be friends and for this reason, she would take her changes to schools, and to the children, in order to build a more just and equal society.

Former Olympic athlete Sriyani Kulawansa spoke passionately about the support – or lack thereof – for those involved in sports at an international or national level, especially after their sporting career was over and said there needed to be policies implemented that would benefit athletes in the long run. She reminisced on how, when asked by the media, what she wanted after winning, she had asked for electricity for her village, which did not have electricity at the time. 

But, she said, looking back, although there had been some development in some areas – roads were tarred and there was electricity - there had been no development in some areas at all. She said this was not just the fault of successive governments, which people choose to blame, but also the people, who allow their divisiveness to be exploited by politicians.

Kasturi Chellarajah Wilson also spoke about Sri Lanka’s political system that was geared for ‘people to use politicians for favours’ but said that people – and politicians – should change that mindset and do what is right by the country. She agreed with Varuni Amunugama that policies should be fixed and not changed by successive governments, and asked for civil service and politics to be decoupled so that political influence no longer dictates who runs ministries and who is appointed to secretarial posts. 

Acknowledging that changing the culture would be difficult, she said that she would still like a country that is united and not divided every two years by race, religion or ethnicity and said that parents and teachers should take up the challenge of teaching children these things and that the education system should also be changed to be more practical. 

Sarah Kabir spoke about a topic she felt most in Sri Lanka ‘did not have the luxury to dream’ – that of being President of the country. Speaking of herself, she said she had never previously taken the question seriously because she knew she would and could never be elected President just on the basis of the fact that she was a woman and that she was from a minority. However, if given the opportunity, she said she would ensure that Sri Lankanness was not reduced to one aspect of a person’s identity and that she would encourage diversity, an end to apathetic citizenry and push for truth over pseudo-nationalism and for empathy.

She also said she believed in justice and an acknowledgement of the past, and pledged that as a leader she would not let her ego get in the way but accept limitation and be open to learning. 

Professor Janitha Liyanage agreed with Varuni Amunugama that women talked less and worked more, but said that if she was made President she would invite every one of the women on the panel to be in her Cabinet. She said she would understand that not everyone was experts in every field but that they could work in the areas they were best at. 

As an educator, Professor Janitha said she would change education from a text-book, teacher-centred system in which students were expected to memorise and cram to a skills-base, child-led system that would allow them to be more creative and learn soft skills. She disagreed however that education policy should be changed, saying there had been too many changes to it over the years already. 

Ameena Hussein, drawing attention to the fact that yesterday’s event was probably the only time in history that Sri Lanka had three minority Presidents on one stage, said that although she believed, when she was younger, that there was great potential for women in Sri Lanka, she feels the country had been getting more and more repressive and less liberal as a result of which women were being more constrained. She also agreed that a secular constitution was necessary, not because she did not believe in religion but because she believed religion should not have a place in the state’s decision-making process. 

Samadhani Kiriwandeniya said that she would look at three key areas in a sustainable manner. These areas were social, environment and economics. In the ‘social’ area, she said she would remove ethnicity from birth certificates and would also ensure that all three languages are taught to all. She said the area of environment was well documented by activists and there was enough to be done there but in terms of economics, social data should be included into economic analysis as a stock of wealth, not as an indicator of progress due to money. 

The discussion was attended by VIP guests like Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, his wife Jalani Premadasa, Eran Wickramaratne, Dr. Harsha de Silva, State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal, members of civil society, business people, media heads and more.