Outlook
Violence, Women and Politics: A Sri Lankan Purview
CENWOR*Despite women’s activism in obtaining voting rights along with men in 1931, high female literacy rates and equal participation as voters, women’s representation at various levels of political structures has been consistently low in Sri Lanka. Today women occupy just 5.7% of the national legislature, up from 4% after independence in 1948, 5% in provincial councils and 1.9% in local government. Out of 107 members in the cabinet, women members hold only three ministerial posts. Most of the elected women come from political families and have been propelled into offices mainly after the assassination of their spouses. The violence that has characterized contemporary political scene, the militarization and brutalization of the Sri Lanka polity brought about by armed insurrection by the Southern youth and a demand for a separate state by a minority Tamil group that saw a full scale war in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka and terrorism in all parts of the country are the major reasons for low participation of women in politics. The violence, assassinations, corruption and malpractices associated with politics prevalent in the society have deterred both men and women from entering politics.
Adversarial politics, political thuggery and violence are endemic in Sri Lankan society. A change over from the Westminster system of government that was adopted at the time of political independence to a proportional system of representation did not pave the way for additional women in the legislature. A flawed electoral system and patriarchal party structures have prevented a critical mass of women in either parliament or other assemblies. In addition to inter party rivalries the contest for the preferential votes for a candidate to obtain a seat also results in intra party competition. Stakes for women politicians are high due to the substantial benefits that politicians receive officially and unofficially.
Violence, male leadership and sexism in political parties have exacerbated the reluctance of women to enter the political arena. Women candidates faced extreme electoral violence during the 1999 election in North Western Provincial Council at a time when a woman was the head of state. Women candidates as well as women voters were assaulted and hit with iron bars, had acid thrown at them, were stripped of their clothes and threatened with rape. A year earlier, in 1998, the militants assassinated the first woman mayor elected at the local government elections held in Jaffna. However, except in the North and East that experienced a very high degree of intimidation and other malpractices the number of reported incidents of violence against women declined in the last general election held in 2005 mainly due to the effective steps taken by the Elections Commissioner and the Police. Yet it cannot be denied that the prevailing culture of violence in Sri Lanka is an obstacle to women entering active politics.
Just as women have been victims, they also have been perpetrators and contributed to violence. Women joined the violent armed southern youth insurrection in substantial numbers while in the north women have become suicide bombers striking at politicians and other high profile personalities as well as the civilians. Women in mainstream politics too have been guilty of resorting violence in order to gain and retain power. In the elections in the North Western Provincial Council referred earlier in the report, it was found that women candidates had used violent medium to intimidate rivals.
The legal system provides redress against election malpractices such as intimidation and bribery but not against violence. Such redress has to be obtained under civil and criminal laws. However, it has been noted in election monitoring reports that very few women report incidents of violence and even a fewer number of women seek legal redress. However, some women have fought back. A women’s group, the Sinhala-Tamil Rural Women’s Network, contested the Central Provincial Council elections in 1999 and put forward fourteen women and six men using a gender platform. The task they faced at was enormous, as they had to compete against recognized, national political parties in a climate of heightened violence. Its membership was nearly 30,000 of which about a 5,000 were men. But they polled only a little over 2,300 votes. The party leader, who had been threatened with rape by her opponent, blamed the defeat on widespread intimidation and malpractices. Since then a few women have come forward as independent candidates at elections but none have been able to win against the major parties. There have been no women only parties either.
The low representation of women and the almost impossibility of women to contest the election as independent candidates or as an independent party have led to the demand for 25%-30% quota in the legislature. Suggestions made by civil society organizations for electoral reforms have stressed the need to provide space for women to be represented at all levels of the governance structure. The current policy document of Sri Lanka, the Mahinda Chinthana, has proposed the introduction of a 25% quota for women at elections. The Parliamentary Selection Committee on Electoral Reforms of 2007 recognized the need for more female participation and recommended that all parties take steps to ensure fair representation of women candidates in the national list of election .It also recommended parties to formulate necessary legal provisions and to make it mandatory that every third candidate nominated by a party secretary from the national list need to be a woman candidate and that all the political parties need to include provisions in their policies to ensure the nomination of women candidates .
Sri Lanka ranks low on the Gender Empowerment Measurement due to poor political participation and violent political culture. The Millennium Development Goals envisages increasing the proportion of women in the national parliament. It is not impossible to achieve the opted targets if the recommended changes are made.
