Gender parity in politics

On the eve of the dissolution of the last Parliament, all, or most of the women legislators set aside their political differences to join hands in a rare show of unity demanding greater gender representation in elected office.

At a news conference which hardly received the media attention it might have otherwise warranted, these women asked political parties to put forward more female candidates at the upcoming general election – and by extension, for the voters to pick them so that the country could be better served by their presence in the august assembly. They also wanted more female presence at the Pradeshiya Sabhas and municipalities for the same reasons.

Moves to have a quota, or a minimum number of candidates on offer by each party were looked at by numerous parliamentary committees that have gone into electoral law reforms over the years. These quotas are always a departure from merit-based systems. It is understandable that countries that discriminate against persons depending on their caste, colour or gender are given quotas in university enrolments or government jobs – even promotions. Whether such discriminatory practices apply to Sri Lanka can be hotly debated. Caste politics played an influential role once upon a time, especially in the North and the deep South. Over the years, however, this influence has waned and had the legislators at the time introduced quotas on a caste basis, the question would have been whether it would have only aggravated the divisions in the social fabric of the country.

The recently dissolved Parliament had only 12 female MPs out of 225 members. Of the dozen, ten have been either widows, sisters or daughters of male politicians. They have continued the trend set by the world’s first woman Head of Government, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike who stepped into her assassinated husband’s sandals six decades ago.

There is the question of whether Parliament is a suitable place for any decent woman given the foul language, sexist bullying and uncouth, rowdy behaviour of many male MPs. The people have witnessed this in full measure in recent years.

However, a research paper on the performances of these lady MPs, at least in Parliament unfortunately is not particularly impressive. The best performer in her contributions to parliamentary debates has been a TNA MP who has participated in 104 debates, speaking on 15 topics with an overall rank of 74/234 (234 being the number of MPs who sat in the entire four and a half years of this Parliament minus the Speaker). Other than for two female MPs, all others score a pitiful ranking of over 100/234.

No doubt there could be a counter argument to show that many male MPs have fared worse. That is a wholly different matter which is not gender based but an example of the general deterioration in the calibre of men holding public office.

A recent remark by the Chairman of the National Elections Commission ( NEC) that defeated candidates should be eligible to enter Parliament through the National List has drawn some criticism as well. These are not areas the NEC Chairman needs offer his unsolicited advice on. He seems to revel in controversy, and on the basis that any publicity is good publicity.

Yet, if one were to go into that subject, the problem of defeated candidates being eligible for National List appointments, through the back door as it were, is not wrong in principle if that candidate can make a genuine and worthwhile contribution to the work of the Legislature.

In earlier Parliaments, there were Appointed MPs who were to represent minorities and otherwise unrepresented groups. What has been a worrying factor in recent years with the National List is that the political leadership of this country has abused the category. Many entered Parliament through this list because they had the thick skin to hang around the leader’s house and show their loyalty only for some of them to stab their leader in the back later.

Unfortunately, the political leaders did not spend time to scout around for the ‘great and the good’ who could add some brilliance to an otherwise lacklustre Legislature – be they men or women.