Celebrating women: Towards an inclusive political culture

• International Alert, South Asia Policy & Research Institute forum suggests way forward

To mark International Women’s Day which fell on 8 March, the International Alert Sri Lanka in collaboration with The South Asia Policy and Research Institute (SAPRI) held a useful form titled ‘Celebrating Women: Towards an Inclusive Political Culture’ last Friday at the BMICH. The forum was based on two thematic areas: Session I – Women in Politics: Prioritising Gender Sensitive Legislature and Session II – Understanding the Importance for Women to Engage in Politics. Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga delivered the keynote address. Among other speakers were State Minister of Children’s Affairs Rosy Senanayake, Deputy Minister of Irrigation and Agriculture MP Anoma Gamage, Dr. Sudharshini Fernandopulle, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Subinay Nandy and Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Robyn Mudie     By Shanika Sriyananda Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga on Friday called on religious leaders not only in Sri Lanka but around the world to start a dialogue to promote equality for women. “I believe the religious leaders not only in Sri Lanka but all over the world can play a vital role in this. I don’t know whether I am hurting the sensitivities of some of the people but the basis of our religions seriously encourage and provoke the whole vision and concept of male dominance,” she said delivering the keynote address at the conference to mark the International Women’s Day held in Colombo. The conference themed ‘Celebrating Women: Towards an Inclusive Political Culture’ was organised by the International Alert Sri Lanka together with the South Asia Policy and Research Institute (SAPRI).   Role of religions in ensuring equality for women “I don’t expect the present religious leaders to change the centuries of belief spread among their believers. But at least in their sermons, in their teachings in their religious activities, they could speak in such a manner that they take the message to their followers of the absolute necessity for the equality of women,” she said. “I know there have been many fora, especially in the recent past, in the last two decades may be, of religious leaders globally talking about how to promote moderate thinking in the religions as opposed to fundamentalism and terrorism,” Kumaratunga said, “But I have never heard in any of those forums, as I have participated and spoken in some of them, requesting the religious leaders there or discussing and also the necessity for them to speak on the subject of women’s rights and opportunities. This may be something we can think of because religious leaders can play such an important role in the lives of people.” Former President Kumaratunga, who is the chair of SAPRI, said that unfortunately the very concepts of at least the major religions in the world are all advantageous to men, without any doubt. “Today some of these religions, please forgive me for saying this, have evolved for whatever reason to fundamentalist tendencies which may not have anything to do with original religion and the teachings of the religious leaders, which in addition to all kinds of other terrible things that they perpetrate upon humanity and specially persons of those religions are also hugely worsening the situation of the woman, even more as saying women, even the girl child, could not even educate themselves. They are putting us back millennia, into the darkest of the dark ages,” she pointed out.   Women’s rights and equal opportunities Kumaratunga said although women have spoken about their rights and equal opportunities for them in a very insistent and continued manner for nearly two centuries and implemented the UNCHR’s resolution 1325 effectively and signed conventions, there was no significant advancement, especially in comparison to the amount of energy and work that has been put into it. “Internationally in the developing world, in the developed countries, women still do have a second place, if not the last place in some instances,” she said, spelling out some of the challenges that she viewed as the main causes hampering the forward movement in achieving women’s rights and equal opportunities. Kumaratunga said that women talk about these issues in a world which is still quite definitely dominated by the male species. “The entire world concept has been dominated for several millennia to suit a male-dominated society, a male-dominated world. All aspects of human life, of societies, of governments have been fashioned to suit this situation of dominance of the male of the species over the female. Social cultural concepts and practices all favour men. The economic structures function in such a manner that it is men who run it. Government and its super structures, even its infrastructure, is designed the same way,” she claimed. She said that there would be thousands of conferences, seminars and workshops to talk about those issues but if the basic concepts that fashion our lives, our thinking and our attitudes were not transformed, women could not win the battle. “In the UK, the US and in the other developed Western countries, what is the percentage of the women represented in the Parliament, in local bodies? Not 50%, certainly not. Nowhere near that, but certainly better than in our country. In Sri Lanka the situation is absolutely putrid; 6% in Parliament, 4% in Provincial Councils and 2% in local Government bodies. This is the country that produced the world’s first woman Prime Minister. They are very proud to say it. But what did we do about it?” questioned Kumaratunga.   Male domination in local politics Citing her own experiences as an example, she said: “When I was the President, I insisted on my party following this before implementing it in the rest of the country. When we were considering nominations for local government bodies, that is the largest number of representation of local people, I said let us make at least 35% of the nominees from our party women and of the whole another 35% will be youth,” she said, adding that as a result she had to face protests from her ministers and party leaders. “It was unbelievable. They didn’t say they didn’t want the women nominated, but trotted out all kinds of excuses. I insisted and said ‘no, as the President of the party, I will not allow the Secretary of the party to sign the nomination papers unless they come with 35% women’s names.” Guess what they did? A decision was taken by the party’s Central Committee, the most important decision-making body, and the lists came with 2% or say 5% of women’s names. One or two names among 25 or 30. I asked ‘What is this?’ They replied, ‘No Madam, no women are willing to come.’ They had not asked the women to come into elections. “I had no time to go in to the villages and ask women for names. It was the men who were the organisers of the electorate who called for applications. No women were asked,” she said. Kumaratunga said that this situation was created as implementation rests with the men, male-dominated governments and institutions. “What I’m trying to say is, however much we bring in laws, the conventions – international and national and whatever you may like – and the male-dominated institutions in our societies, in our nations, will not like it.” The former President said that the largest amount of foreign exchange is earned by women in three production areas – the estate and plantations sector, garments sector, and women who sell their labour in foreign countries, especially in the Middle East. “But what have we done for them? They have not been given anything special. My Government gave some facilities and other governments have given a few things. These are just crumbs that we drop off our tables. But nothing more than that. Our men are dominating us, dictating to us, living in an economy run by the women, but the women are treated as third class citizens in the country,” she claimed. Kumaratunga said that the money poured in to have discussions, meetings, seminars and workshops needed to be diverted into transforming the thinking and attitudes of our people. “I would say the first thing is to transform the thinking and attitudes on this issue and let us start with the children, with education. The entire education system in Sri Lanka and in the rest of the world has to be revamped. That is probably the most important and most essential thing we can do,” she pointed out.       Violence against women State Minister for Children’s Affairs Rosy Senanayake urged the Government to take immediate action against criminals. Sharing data from the Census and Statistics Department report on violence against women and children, she said that violence against women had rapidly increased from 2012 to 2014. “Violence against women and children has increased by 20%. This is a very sad state of affairs. We all know we work towards the betterment of the children and women but still it shows a rapid increase. Why? Because the State has failed to deal with criminals. Don’t let them to get off the hook,” she requested. Minister Senanayake said there were 39,604 reported cases of violence against women from 2009 to 2014, according to the Census and Statistics Department, and out of all the cases before courts, the highest number of cases were with regard to children. “What has the Justice Ministry done to make sure the perpetrators have been taken to task? It is sad to note that the reported cases on violence against women and children is almost 75,000 and the number of perpetrators who are at this point of time serving sentences is only 713,” she claimed.   Explaining why she was late for the conference, she said the Minister of Women’s Affairs was presenting the Commission report on violence against women to Parliament that day and she had to be there to support the cause. “The then Opposition Leader and now Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a Commission to look into violence against women and this report was presented to Parliament by the Women’s Minister today. I had to be there to support the report to make sure that we would be on a better platform to eradicate violence against women,” she said. Senanayake also commended former President Kumaratunga for leading the change of the political culture in the country. “Being such a strong personality that we women can look up to, even after 10 years of being silent, she was able to bring a change in the country’s political culture. We thank you Madam for taking initiatives quite silently,” Senanayake said, smiling.     Women and 100-day program Senanayake also commended President Maithripala Sirisena for promoting 25% women representation in local government institutions and provincial councils under his 100-day program. “He promised to implement certain constitutional changes within his 100-day program. Some have been done and some are in the process of being done. We all are working tirelessly to fulfil the promises of the 100-day program,” she said. Minister Senanayake said she must thank the Prime Minister who had categorically said that he would not have peace at home until the quota of 25% for women in local government institutions and provincial councils was implemented. “We will work to make sure that this percentage will be there in both sectors,” she promised, adding that discussions were continuing with the relevant authorities including the Elections Commissioner to find ways and means of increasing women’s representation to 25%. “We have very powerful women and women’s movements which are strongly advocating for women to be in the forefront, especially in Parliament, provincial councils and local government bodies. We have hope,” Senanayake said. Session I – Women in Politics: Prioritising Gender Sensitive Legislature   The conference was based on two thematic areas: Session I – Women in Politics: Prioritising Gender Sensitive Legislature and Session II – Understanding the Importance for Women to Engage in Politics. Anoma Gamage, Deputy Minister of Irrigation and Agriculture speaking on the Women’s Caucus and gender sensitive legislature said women were stronger than men but it was difficult for women to enter into politics in male-dominated countries. “We all talk about International Women’s Day but what I feel is that we forget women and their contribution soon after we go home. We have talked heaps about women and their rights but we have failed to take politics to the grass root level,” she said. Gamage said that she was thankful to the President and Prime Minister for giving ministerial portfolios to all five women MPs in Parliament. “This is the first time in history that all five female MPs in the Government got this opportunity as they have realised that women can contribute to politics and serve more effectively,” she said. According to the Deputy Minister, it is a daunting task for a woman to enter into politics. “Most of the women politicians in Sri Lanka are somehow connected to a male politician, either their father or husband or a relation is a politician and that relationship has paved the way for them to enter into politics. There are only a very few who have no such political connections in politics in Sri Lanka,” she said, adding that women politicians were more genuine than their male counterparts. “I feel there is no use in having demonstrations or rallies crying for women’s rights; women need to start from the village level. It is very important to make women economically and politically strong,” Gamage pointed out. During the first session MP Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle, UK Councillor Lakmini Shah and Commonwealth Secretariat Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division Criminal Law Section former Head Shirani de Fontgalland expressed their experiences while former MP and former Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Singapore Ferial Ashraff highlighted her views as the moderator.   In the second session Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Robyn Mudie, Jana Naujoks from International Alert and Global Shapers Colombo Hub Deputy Curator Sharanya Sekaram were in the panel discussion which was moderated by Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) Executive Director Dr. Udan Fernando.   Challenges in developing gender sensitive legislation Speaking on challenges in developing gender sensitive legislation in Sri Lanka, Dr. Fernandopulle said: “The Women’s Caucus was established in 2006 before Deputy Minister Anoma Gamage and I entered Parliament. However, it became active from 2010. We also drafted an action plan to identify one of the major activities to increase female participation at all levels – Parliament, provincial councils and local government bodies. We had several discussions with the ministries and civil societies but I must confess it has remained so because we have been discussing but we don’t have a working situation to support what we discussed into action. “In the meantime the amendments to the Local Government Bill were presented. Earlier there was a 10% compulsory nomination for women and young persons. With the amendments compulsory 10% was also taken out; we requested 25% representation for women and that was turned down. I know Minister Rosy Senanayake presented a private member’s bill requesting 25% representation compulsory to women in local government but I am not sure what has happened to that,” she said. Dr. Fernandopulle said there were only 13 women MPs compared to 212 male counterparts in Parliament and getting all 13 MPs on board was also rather difficult since their priorities lay with their electorates and districts. Taking about challenges, she said: “Of the 13 MPs, some of them are not very keen on getting involved. We ask for special reserved seats but male counterparts are not very happy as they think it undermines them,” she said. Dr. Fernandopulle further explaining about difficulties faced by female politicians said convincing the party leaders remained a hard task as most of them did not take this matter seriously. “They always think that women should be at home and not in politics. I am happy that the young MPs have better attitudes and some of them are supporting our cause. When the Local Government Bill was amended, some of our leaders said that the Constitution provided for equal opportunities and questioned why a 25% quota was being requested,” she revealed. She also cited poor interest among women to enter politics as a challenge in getting more female participation in politics. “Some of the women are not interested in coming forward to give nominations and on the other hand it is difficult to find capable and educated women to enter into politics. The leaders are also think that women are not suitable to enter into politics as they find difficulty in balancing family life and politics,” she said. Dr. Fernandopulle commended the present Government for considering amending the present Constitution and abolishing the preferential system. “I think this is the ideal time for women to lobby party leaders to have a fixed percentage of nominations for women and to demand at least 25% from the National List. We would like civil society and women leaders who back this move to join us in this cause,” she said. Meanwhile, the moderator of the panel discussion Ashraff said that with regard to the National List, women should at least ask for 50% representation considering the equality aspect.   Driving the gender equality agenda forward London Borough of Newham UK Councillor Lakmini Shah giving her perspectives and experience of an ethnic minority female politician in the UK explained that the main barriers that stop women from engaging in politics were cultural, educational and financial barriers. “I like to mention, wherever we are in the world, as women we experience the same issues and concerns. What is important is the government identifying the most important issues women face today and accordingly changing the legislation to create a fairer and more equal society. I like to focus on legislation relating to the work force in the UK, with regard to gender equality issues which encourage and support women in employment. These are addressed in the key legislations of equal pay, the Sex Discrimination Act, Part-Time Workers Act, maternity leave and pay legislation, Maternity Leave Act and Flexible Working Legislation Act,” she said. To understand women, it would be great to have more women in politics so they can drive the gender equality agenda forward, Shah pointed out, adding that in Borough, one-third of the elected members were women. “There are parliamentary seats for which only women are shortlisted. This is the political vision of the Labour Party. Other political parties also have such policies to encourage women to come into politics. I would like to share some of my personal experiences in the UK. I have learnt that being an elected member is a duty bound by noble principles. When I came into politics, my senior English colleagues supported me to develop my political carrier; women were the ones who voted for me,” she said. According to Shah, inductions, training and opposite support were provided for women who wanted to get into employment. “They will get help with training and the skills required to get into employment. The ethnic minority women who can’t speak English will get help to go to college to learn English. These are all funded by the Government. Single mothers who have problems with housing issues can get help for housing. Women who suffer from domestic violence are given support by local councils and the Police. Women who go to work and are from low income groups get support with child care,” she said. Pix by Shehan Gunasekera