WOMEN IN POLITICS: A PROSPECT FOR CHANGE?

October 29, 2003 – (The Island – Cat’s Eye) Do not throw pearls before swine, for they will turn and rend you ... what suits European women will not suit us, said Sir Ponambalam Ramanathan infamously in his reply to the Donoughmore Commissioners on the demand for women's franchise in 1927.

Florinda Wijekoon of the Women's Franchise Union, was to retort "The Honourable Knight has done us a service .... Because that statement of his has strengthened our cause and has added more to our members."

The cause at the time was the vote for women, and of course the Donoughmore Commission was to disregard the sentiments of the diehards and grant universal suffrage, including women's franchise. The demand for women's right to vote was led by the Ceylon Women's Franchise Union formed in 1928, and the women had the support of the Trade Union movement and A. E. Goonesinha's Labour Party. Their cause was also championed by radicals led by George E. de Silva and included support from the Jaffna Youth Congress.
Opposing women's franchise were conservative elements within the Ceylon National Congress and the reactionary Unionist Party.

Thus Ceylon was the first British Colony to achieve universal suffrage. At the elections to the State Council in 1931, the number of voters increased from 205,000 in 1924 to 1,500,000 in 1931. No women contested the first elections to the State Council. However, in November 1931, following the death of her father, Adeleine Molamure contested the Ruwanwella seat, and won with a majority of over 9000. Naysum Saravananmuttu was the second woman to be elected to the State Council from Colombo North. At the first Parliament post independence, in 1948, only two women were elected, both from the Lanka Sama Samaja Party - Florence Senanayake and Kusuma Gunawardene. The percentage of women in Parliament between the 1930s and the present has never exceeded 5%.

As Casting Pearls - The Women's Franchise Movement in Sri Lanka, an excellent record of women's history of the period, published by the
Social Scientists Association notes in a postscript -

"The struggle to increase the participation of women in politics continues into the 21st century. Sri Lanka had the world's first woman Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranike elected in 1960, and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge was elected President in 1994 and 2000. Yet despite these milestones, and the active electoral participation of large numbers of women, Sri Lanka has yet to see any significant representation of women either as candidates or elected members of Parliament and local bodies. One can only hope that as a result of further women's activism, the centenary of universal suffrage, in 2031, will be celebrated as a period of gender equity in political representation."

Electoral Reform Proposals

Women took another step forward in that direction in October 2003 when various women's groups and coalitions including representatives from the Ministry of Women's Affairs went before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform with their proposals for increasing women's representation and democratising the electoral process.

This Parliamentary Select Committee is made up of 21 multi-party representatives - 20 men and 1 woman. This time around we hope for a more positive attitude towards women's representation. We also hope that the representatives from the Left, the Tamils, the Muslims and the Sinhalese will follow in the footsteps of their more enlightened forefathers who supported women's suffrage at the turn of the last century and will take that victory to its logical conclusion, by enabling women to not only vote, but also to be truly represented in the political decision making of this country.

At the Select Committee women's groups advocated affirmative action as an issue of priority, to further democracy and equality for women. They pointed out that without State action (in the form of legislation and policy reform) and support, non-governmental efforts will be insufficient to make a substantial impact to increase the political representation of women.

Women noted that there is widespread support among women's groups in Sri Lanka for a system of quotas at the levels of local government, provincial councils and Parliament which would ensure that at least 30% of women are elected. It is accepted internationally that to make substantial change at the level of representation and decision making, any marginalized group must strive for at least a third of the seats on offer so that they can constitute a critical mass.

Women making their representations before the Parliamentary Select Committee noted that a mere reservation in the party nomination list would not guarantee the election of a substantial number of women. Without a mechanism that positively guarantees a place for women, they will continue to be marginalised from political and decision-making processes, and vital issues of relevance to the lives of women will continue to be determined by men.

Among some of the substantive recommendations put forward by the Women and Media Collective, the Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, and the network Mothers and Daughters of Lanka, who have all done extensive work at community level among women who were concerned with the political process and political representation were:

To replace the existing Proportional Representation (PR) with a mixed system of representation with the introduction of a combined PR system and the First Past the Post (FPTP) system to maximize the participation of women.

This recommendation is made because the manner in which the PR system is implemented in Sri Lanka has not resulted in any favourable advance of women's representation at the local or the national level.

- There should be 1/3rd reserved seats on the constituencies elected on the FPTP and 1/3 of reservations for women when it comes to appointing members from the national list. Where the use of the proportional representation system is concerned preference voting should be abolished and instead a closed list should be introduced with a mandatory requirement that the party allocate 1/3rd of seats won for women. The use of the PR system would compensate for any disproportionality produced by the use of the FPTP system, which has been a particular concern of minority communities.

There was also a request that the youth quota of 40% (on nomination lists) operative at the local government elections should be allocated equally between male and female youth and not be used with such blatant disproportion in favour of young male candidates.

Discrimination

Many of the representatives on the Select Committee were however most uncertain if political parties would be able to put forward the number of female candidates required. The doubting MPs need to be convinced by the women in their own parties and in their constituencies. Women's groups have discovered a different reality. Women of all parties complain with one voice that there is no internal party democracy that allows them equal access to positions of decision making within party hierarchies, especially the all-important Central Committees and Nominations Committees. Women also complain that time and again their requests for candidature is disregarded or ignored. Male party bosses who reject women attempting to come forward in their own right, however, have no hesitation whatever in nominating widows or daughters of male politicians. Women contend that these are the practices that give women's representation a bad reputation and in turn, shore up male reluctance to nominate women who don't have strong male backing.

Violence

Violence and impunity within the electoral process has been another concern for women. Here again party bosses are quick to express reluctance to expose women candidates to the high level of violence that is prevalent during election time. The problem, say women, is rather in the political system that allows such violence and impunity which political party hierarchies (often those who instigate or turn a blind eye to the practice) must stop. Aspiring women candidates also argue that they are willing to contest despite the violence, and that they have to contest and win in greater numbers to begin a process of changing this climate of political violence and impunity. Women are outraged that the very violators of the tenets of democratic practice make such abuse the excuse to deprive women of their rights to contest in free and fair elections.

- Women's groups also called upon the Select Committee to prohibit parties from placing on nomination lists those with criminal convictions. They also advocated a stronger system that would punish violations of human rights and election laws.

- Women's groups also noted that as current election laws in Sri Lanka do not have sufficient deterrent impact on the party itself, as opposed to an individual candidate, penalties should be imposed on political parties for the corrupt and illegal practices of individuals acting as agents of parties. The relevant acts relating to local authorities, provincial and parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka should be amended to incorporate these penalties.

State Resources

The abuse of State resources was another matter that was raised by women's groups. They noted that the enforcement provisions relating to directions by the Election Commissioner prohibiting the use of any movable or immovable property belonging to the State or any public corporation by any candidate, political party or independent group as well as for the purpose of promoting or preventing the election, are non-existent in the 17th Amendment which only imposes a vague duty on every person or officer in whose custody or control such property lies, to comply with and give effect to such direction.

The women's groups therefore requested the introduction of a clause, which relates not only to the Commissioner's authority with regard to state resources, but also compels any person who contravenes, fails or neglects to comply with any direction or order issued by the Commissioner or any provision of the law relating to elections, guilty of an offence.

Expenditure

The question of election-linked expenditure was another matter that women's groups wished to highlight noting that women candidates often had no recourse to such high sources of finance. Women have often noted that the election costs effectively cut off the chances of poorer candidates and bred a corrupt system of electioneering.

Among the recommendations made to the Select Committee were that a ceiling should be imposed on campaign spending and candidates should be required to make the requisite declaration to that effect with punishment amounting to the forfeiture of the seat won for violation of these laws.

It was further observed that transparency and accountability can also be achieved through requiring candidates to keep separate accounts of all expenditure incurred by him or her from the date of nomination to the date of election. The relevant acts relating to local authorities, provincial and parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka should be amended to incorporate these stipulations.

Featured in SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE, 29 October 2003