Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Parliaments Representation
of Women:
A Selective Review ofSri Lankas Hansards
from 2005-2014
Parliaments Representation
of Women:
A Selective Review ofSri Lankas Hansards
from 2005-2014
Velayudan Jayachithra
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Content
Chapter 1
Introduction :
Women and Parliamentary Talk:
Representation, Conceptualizations, and Discursive Framings
Esther Surenthiraraj .....................................................09
Chapter 2
How Women Count:
The Construction of Women and Gender Relations in Budget
Speeches in Sri Lanka (2005-2014)
Vijay Nagaraj and Chulani Kodikara ..................................27
Chapter 3
Women Men and War Talk:
The Gendered nature of Parliamentary speech on the war.
Farzana Haniffa and Kumudini Samuel ..............................45
Chapter 4
Breast Milk and the Sari:
Conceptualisations of Womens Issues in Parliament
Shermal Wijewardene and Pradeep Peiris .......................... 61
Chapter
Debating Women
Sepali Kottegoda
.......................................................
87
109
5v
vi
6
Foreword
Sepali Kottegoda
Women and Media Collective
January 2016.
Chapter 1
Introduction:
Women and Parliamentary talk:
Representation, Conceptualizations, and
Discursive Framings
Esther Surenthiraraj
Year
Total
elected
2004
2010
2015
225
225
225
No. of
women
elected
13
10
11
No. of
women on
National List
3
2
% of
women in
Parliament
5.8
5.8
5.8
Table 1: Women elected to Parliament (adapted from Kodikara, 2009 and www.parliament.
lk with inclusions made by author)
(p. 25-26). Womens entrance into politics via family ties, they
argue, is characteristic of dynastic politics that have influenced
and continue to influence South Asian politics. Overall, womens
entrance into politics seems to be representative of their familyled constituency rather than their gender (Wickremasinghe &
Kodikara, 2012, p. 778). Others who are not directly connected
to political families are still beholden to male patrons and support
bases, revealing the strongly patriarchal structures within which
women need to garner support for election (Pinto Jayawardena &
Kodikara, 2003).
Two responses to womens more common entrance into politics
as proxy candidates, however, could be advanced. Firstly, in spite
of being admitted into active politics in the roles of widow, wife
or daughter of male counterparts, women have had to contend
constantly with patriarchal norms within politics. In fact, while
these positions themselves are constructed within patriarchal
political systems, their alternatives (i.e. sex symbol, whore etc.)
are also applied to the same women politicians. De Alwis (1995)
elucidates this stance in her analysis of the construction of a
respectable lady in relation to two prominent women politicians
of the past: Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Hema Premadasa. In her
discussion of this figure, she makes reference to important works
that engage with motherhood and the nation, and highlights
its centrality to her own counter argument. In response to the
argument advanced by Chatterjee (qtd. in de Alwis, 1995), that it is
the signs of motherhood as manifesting spiritual qualities such as
sacrifice and devotion that permit a woman to navigate the public
space, de Alwis own stance is that in spite of this spirituality that
women embrace, they are constantly prey to counter-discourses
that sexualize them (p. 138). She argues that spirituality, or what
she refers to as respectability, is both created and dismantled by
social practices. She notes that the patriarchal gaze of the nation
upholds a woman in the public sphere as both sacred and sexual in
such ways that a woman is unable to break away from both these
symbols when she traverses politics.
13
Parliamentary discourse
Parliamentary discourse is one of the many genres of political
discourse, and much has been written about this genre from a
discourse analytical perspective5. Although most of these studies
focus on Western systems of governance, they focus also on
5. For a collection of scholarly work on parliamentary discourse see Bayley (2004)
and Ilie 2006; see Wodak (2009) for an ethnographic approach to the workings of
language in the EU.
18
19
On this volume
This intervention on talk in the Sri Lankan Parliament employs
critical discourse analysis as its primary methodological tool.
According to Fairclough (1995) this tool integrat[es] (a) analysis of
text, (b) analysis of processes of text production, consumption and
distribution, and (c) sociocultural analysis of the discursive event
as a whole (p. 23). While the chapters in this book primarily
consider texts and the discursive event/s within which they are
manifested, it still subscribes to the underlying principles of critical
discourse analysis i.e. textual analysis and social issues carry equal
weight in the process of performing analysis (Fairclough, 2003). In
considering speech, however, it is the text recorded in the Hansards
that function as the text that is analyzed. While the Hansards are
heavily edited for grammar and sentence structure, and sections
of Parliamentary proceedings are expunged on the order of the
Chair, it is still a powerful record that provides a wealth of material
for scrutiny. Although the performative aspects of a speech act are
not considered in its analysis, the chapters of this book illustrate
the richness of material present in the Hansards when it is viewed
as a discursive document.
This book provides a thick description of the references made
to women in Parliament. In this regard, it is different to other
attempts at quantifying Parliamentary discourses around women6,
adopting instead a qualitative approach. While recognizing the
value of quantitative research, the aim of this volume is to unpack
and understand the ideological underpinnings of discourses
surrounding the understanding of and engagement with the
woman-citizen. Through its findings this study also calls for a
transformation of Parliamentary talk on women. As such, the
texts it reads and the approach it takes exemplifies its objectives.
The period selected for analysis 2005 to 2014 could be
characterized in general as having a stable and well-established
government headed by President Mahinda Rajapakse. The
6. See for example www.manthri.lk which ranks MPs based on their interventions on a
variety of topics including Children/Women/Elders Rights.
20
23
References
Bastian, R. (2013). The political economy of post-war Sri Lanka.
Colombo: ICES.
Bayley, P. (Ed.). (2004). Cross-cultural perspectives on parliamentary
discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
De Alwis, M. & Jayawardena, K. (2001). Casting pearls: The womens
franchise movement in Sri Lanka. Colombo: Social Scientists
Association.
De Alwis, M. (1995). Gender, politics and the respectable lady. In
P. Jeganathan & Q. Ismail, (Eds.), Unmasking the nation: The politics
of identity and history in modern Sri Lanka (pp. 137-157). Colombo:
Social Scientists Association.
Deshodaya Movement. UNFGG, UPFA, JVP & TNA Manifestos:
Parliamentary Elections 2015 Summary.
Duff y, M. (2005). Reproducing labor inequalities: Challenges for
Feminists Conceptualizing Care at the Intersections of Gender,
Race, and Class. Gender & Society 19 (1): 66-82.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social
research. London: Routledge.
---. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: Th e critical study of language.
London: Longman.
Gomez, M. & Gomez, S. (2001). Preferring women. Colombo:
Canadian International Development Agency.
Gunewardena, S. J. (2013). Rural Sinhalese women, nationalism
and narratives of development in Sri Lankas post-war political
economy. In J. Elias & S. J. Gunawardena, (Eds.), The global political
economy of the household in Asia (pp. 59-74). New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
24
25
26
Chapter 2
Following from the idea that some discourses have greater status
than others, we approach the budget speeches delivered by the
President as a particularly powerful policy discourse. While
most people will exercise control over their daily conversations
with family members, friends, or colleagues, they rarely make a
contribution to public discourse (van Dijk, 1993). In contrast,
leaders of powerful social groups and political institutions have
more or less exclusive access to and greater control over public
discourse. These discourses are thus also the means through which
individuals and groups convince others to consent to a certain
ordering of society (Cooper, 2003). Such a view directs attention
to the institutional mechanisms that allows some knowledge
to become dominant in the struggle for control over discourses
(Bachchi and Eveline, 2010).
We are not engaged in this essay with actual resource allocations,
or the gender dimensions of budgets as a whole, but with how
budget speeches as discourse invoke, hail, subjectify and bear
on women and gender relations. We are conscious that budget
speeches are not isolated political statements. Rather they emerge
from, are connected to, and form part of a larger body of power
speech within the context of Parliamentary discourse, procedure
and politics in general. Connecting and referencing budget speech
to other politically significant speech acts, policy statements and
the broader political context is therefore important. In this regard,
this chapter looks particularly to the Mahinda Chintana (initially
Rajapakses election manifesto but subsequently the national
policy framework) of 2005 as well as 2010.
It also takes the post-war political context, especially a resurgent
militarised Sinhala Buddhist post-war nationalism, as a key
referent. The end of Sri Lankas war in May 2009 inaugurated a
resurgence of nationalism and attempts to redefine national
identity on the basis of a hegemonic Sinhala-Buddhist identity
premised on the victory over the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), the
valorization of the military, the binary construction of traitors
and patriots, and the lack of tolerance for all dissent. Central
29
Familial Ideology
The family and its preservation and welfare are a recurring theme
in several of the budget speeches analysed for this study. This is
not surprising as familial ideology was a key pillar of government
policy during the period 2005-2014. Rajapakse had signaled to the
importance of the family in his first election manifesto of 2005.
In the section An Affectionate Family, the 2005 manifesto noted:
30
31
A government policy document in 1959 noted that rapid population growth was
a barrier to economic development and asked the question whether the course of
the birth rate could be influenced by a deliberate effort on the part of social policy,
which excludes at the same time all forms of compulsion? and answered it in the
affirmative (National Planning Council 1959, p. 16). Since then the government has
actively promoted and provided access to family planning. As a result fertility rates in
Sri Lanka fell from 5.32% in 1953 to 3.45% in 1981 and to 1.96 between 1995 -2000.
33
35
36
39
Conclusion
This paper has sought to demystify the ways in which women
are talked about and womens issues are represented in budget
speeches, taking into account the broader presidential discourse
on women and gender in Sri Lanka during the period 2005-2014.
Indeed, the speeches in the period reviewed here are especially
significant because the finance minister was none other than
the President himself. It is the density of meanings rather than
the actual semantic traces or frequency of references that render
budget speeches significant as discourse.
Looking at budget speech during this period, womens fiscal
entitlements emerge as being tied into multiple frameworks
of burden and responsibility. These include motherhood;
safeguarding children, family and society; reproducing the nation,
and micro-capital accumulation. The construction of women in Sri
Lankas fiscal policy discourse as embodied in the budget speeches
under review is driven by a broader paternalism underpinned by
authoritarian or benevolent neoliberal capitalism under the aegis
of a patriarchal and pastoral state that valorises family values
and traditional gender roles. Women are cast primarily in terms
as consumers of protection, social reproducers of care or microfinancial capital, and trustees of household capital.
Drawing from Bacchi (2012), we may describe the discursive
strategy at play in these budget speeches as resembling a dividing
practice in the Foucauldian sense of the term: a practice that
sets groups of people against each other in ways that facilitate
governing of the majority and which leave the subject divided
inside herself. (Ibid:148-149). Moreover, women are positioned
as passive, with things being 'done' to them in order to 'make'
them 'goals of action' but not 'agents of action' (Fairclough, 1993
p. 181 in Jones 2010).
42
References
Bacchi, Carol. (2000). Policy as Discourse: What does it mean?
Where does it get us?, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of
Education, 21(1), 45-57.
Bacchi, Carol. (2012). Strategic interventions and ontological
politics: Research as political practice in Angelique Bletsas and
Christine Beasley (eds.) Engaging with Carol Bacchi: Strategic
Interventions and Exchanges, Univ. of Adelaide Press.
Bacchi, Carol and Eveline, Joan. (2010). Introduction. In
Mainstreaming Politics: Gendering Practices and Feminist Theory,
ed. Carol Bachchi and Joan Eveline, 1-16. Adelaide: University of
Adelaide Press.
Carpenter, Charli. (2005). Women, Children and Other Vulnerable
Groups: Gender, Strategic Frames and the Protection of Civilians
as a Transnational Issue, International Studies Quarterly, 49(2),
295-334.
Dutil, Patrice ed. (2011). The Guardian: Perspectives on the Ontario
Ministry of Finance, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gill, Zo. (2012). Located Subjects: The daily lives of policy
workers in Angelique Bletsas and Christine Beasley (eds.) Engaging
with Carol Bacchi: Strategic Interventions and Exchanges, Univ. of
Adelaide Press.
Jones, Sally. (2012). Gendered Discourses of Entrepreneurship in
HE: The Fictive Entrepreneur and the Fictive Student, available at
www.isbe.org.uk/content/assets/Best_Conference _Paper-_Sally_
Jones.pdf retrieved 25 October 2015.
Kapur, Ratna and Brenda Cossman. (1996). Subversive Sites:
Feminist Engagements with Law in India. New Delhi: Sage
Publications.
Kodikara, Chulani. (2012). Only Until the Rice is Cooked?
The Domestic Violence Act, Familial Ideology and Cultural Narratives
in Sri Lanka. Working Paper No. 1, Colombo: International Centre
for Ethnic Studies.
43
44
Chapter 3
48
problems they may face, are not seen as important. The questions
follow, what is the status of the humanity of women in general in a
context where the body of the pregnant woman is thus valourised?
What is the status of the humanity of other people? Further, while
protecting the pregnant female body is treated as the ultimate index
of our humanity, the series of care giving and socializing functions
that women are compelled to carry out and that are rendered
highly volatile in a time of war are again not considered. In this
celebration of a particular masculinity the 89,000 war widows who
are to be found in the Northern and Eastern provinces alone are
not referenced. Assertions about the sanctity of the female body
are especially distressing when thought about in the post-war era
where reports have drawn attention to war-time sexual violence
by the State security forces.3 What is clearest in this discourse is
that narratives about womens bodies reproductive function are
instrumentalized to justify the war and to venerate a particular
form of military masculinity. Unfortunately there is little concern
expressed about the myriad other ways in which women suffer
during and after war.4
The next example of parliamentary discourse speaks further to the
manner in which women are seen from a perspective of victimhood
or dependency. This more benign example is a response by
3. The Human Right Watch Report of February 2013 claims rapes of both men and
women in detention. https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/02/26/we-will-teach-youlesson/sexual-violence-against-tamils-sri-lankan-security-forces. For a perspective
that critiques Tamil nationalists preoccupation with womens bodies, and specifically,
of Tamil womens experience of rape see Sivamohan Sumathy, Territorial Claims,
Home, Land and Movement: womens history of violence and resistance of the war
years in Sri Lankas north.(forthcoming from Zuban)
4. Several years after the war ended in 2009, parliamentarians were able to acknowledge
the 89,000 widows and the general cost of the war, but this acknowledgement was
delivered in a tone that indicated a new discovery and not as describing an issue that
was present throughout the war.
support system for the parents. Women are framed in this discourse
as dependents and victims who run households in the absence of
the men, and as therefore deserving both the compensation and
the services of the state in order to ensure that the household
would not be affected by the death of the soldier. Again the role for
the women is assumed to be one that accommodates the absent
male required for military service.
Karaliyaddas point of reference is only framed by the war, its
needs, and its victory. His point of departure vis a vis women,
parents, and family is also framed in terms of the needs of the
victorious soldier. Even the soldier is couched in terms of his
role as a hero, a victor, a part of a triumph. He too is completely
objectified and has no identity other than that which is linked to
victory and heroism. The woman is only considered because she is
the wife and the wife of the victorious soldier or the rana viruwa,
since the soldier is objectified as the hero. He does not exist
outside this framing.
In this framing widows and children are given special consideration
when accessing State resources. There are substantial interventions
in the area of education for children. For the women, there
are psychosocial and legal services. There is assistance to
build houses. Land is given to those who do not have land and
assistance for building is also provided. Rhetorically at least, the
State is committed institutionally to maintain the gender order
that permits men to enter the military and for women to be the
caregivers in the household. The State rhetoric commits to taking
on the role of the provider in the absence of the soldier/head of
household/breadwinner. However, while the assumption behind
the discourse is one of pastoral care, whether in practice such care
does efficiently manifest itself remains a question. As MP Rosy
Senanayake pointed out, in parliament, in relation to the budget
of the Ministry of Child Development and Womens Affairs, the
budget allocated for the enhancement of the economy of womenheaded households addressed the needs of only 1,700 such women.
Senanayake stated that there are 89,000 war widows in the North
and 30,000 in the south. (Hansard, 22 November, 2012).
55
ready to move the redde a bit and see what is actually concealed
under it.
He says:
They have made the war into the cloth (redde) better to
call it a cloth than a Kadathurawa (screen) - by saying that
the war exists under the cloth, that there is something
good going on under the cloth, and that the government
wants to get on with whatever they are doing. There is no
point in blaming the government for that. That is what a
government is like. The people are not yet in a position
to raise the cloth and actually see if there is something
going on under the cloth that matches what is being
praised and glorified. People are not yet ready to do that.
They are saying that there is a beautiful woman under
the cloth. But nobody is ready to move the cloth a little
bit and actually see if this is true. Now it is time to move
the cloth a little bit and look underneath. What is the
situation in the country now? No one is looking at that.
When they say that they are going to capture Kilinochchi
tomorrow, that they are capturing it the day after, that is
what is being accepted. (K. D. Lalkantha, MP, Hansard 9
September 2008, column 132)
The MP does not hesitate to use sexist and sexualized rhetoric to
express his critique of the war, playing on references to illicit sex,
a voyeuristic titillation of it, and the woman who is the provider
of that sex.
There was no criticism directed either by male or female MPs
to the nature of the language used by K. D. Lalkantha or Wimal
Weerawansa.
58
59
References
de Mel, Neloufer. (2007). Militarizing Sri Lanka: Popular
Culture Memory and narrative in the armed conflict.
Los Angeles: Sage.
Kahandagama, Anushka. (2015). Depictions of Masculinity in
Sri Lankan Sinhala Cinema. (MA dissertation). Department of
Sociology, University of Colombo.
Enloe, Cynthia. (2004). The Curious Feminist: Searching for
Women in a New Age of Empire. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
60
Chapter 4
Introduction
63
the issues of ideological import. Not only does this make the
Minister unreceptive to seeing women as autonomous political
subjects, but it also takes up all the space of the discourse and
suppresses and dismisses alternative views.
The metaphorical construction of the Ministry in the Ministers
speeches shows that he does not take it seriously as a political
institution. The Minister uses gendered metaphor to justify the need
for more financial resources for the Ministry. Ostensibly meant to
reflect the specificity of the Ministry, these are metaphors which
draw on stereotypes of women and sexist idiomatic constructions.
For instance, in the speech below, the Minister uses the sari to
symbolise women, and wanting more saris as an analogy for never
being satisfied with the resource allocation for his Ministry.
As the Minister in charge of Child Development and
Womens Affairs, I know that little children are never
satisfied with what they are given and, similarly,
women also will never be satisfied with what they get.
To get a better sari than the one she is wearing today
is her expectation. That is also my expectation. Despite
whatever allocation is given for women and children in
this country, I need to say that it is not enough. I must
say that I am not satisfied. (Hansard, 10 November 2014,
column 1091)
This use of the sari to symbolise womens issues is highly reductive
and stereotypical; it indicates the narrowly parochial framework
within which the former Minister comprehends women. This
attempted feminising of an economic issue trivialises what should
be a serious matter by making it seem cosmetic and cute. There
is a sexist assumption that womens dress is a fitting analogy for
womens issues. The analogy is presumed to be effective because it
works off a form of sexist proverbial knowledge of women, chiefly
that they are never satisfied.
66
Welfare
Welfare characterises a discourse about the state providing
benefits and resources, and it hails the recipient normatively as a
version of womanhood that maintains the patriarchal status quo.
This is a particular construction of a woman who is married, most
often a mother, who is engaged in small-scale self-employment,
and stays within the traditional patriarchal division of labour.
69
72
73
76
77
81
82
Conclusion
This analysis offers insights into the relationship between the
designated political representative on womens issues and the
substantive representation of womens issues in Parliament.
Because it was the first time that a male politician represented
Womens Affairs, Former Minister Karaliyaddas appointment
was considered exceptional. The understanding that he and other
Parliamentarians demonstrated was that he would have to define
his own speaking position. Not having a critical discourse about
the substantive representation of womens issues contributed to
a situation where the former Minister was able to exercise a great
deal of agency in terms of discursively constructing womens
concerns. It was in those circumstances that the former Minister
was able to personalise his role and the construction of womens
issues to the extent that he did. His discursive strategy of allowing
his personal ideology a significant role alongside his institutional
voice highlights the many gaps between the existence of an official
Ministry standpoint and how much influence it has in Parliament.
It is not unusual for Ministers to hold and voice personal views on
their subject, and they are often called upon to do so in Parliament.
This analysis illustrates the need to understand to what extent
a Minister for Womens Affairs feels bound by her or his official
Ministry script, which ideally reflects some of the policies on
which the government was voted in and is therefore a pact with the
people, and how much room there is for the Minister to interpret
Ministry business legitimately with his or her personal bias.
This chapter shows the limits of the discursive framework for
substantively addressing womens issues. Our analysis of the
debates illustrates that Parliament functions with particular
ideologies that make it seem possible to talk about womens
concerns without seeing the politics of gender. Gender ideologies,
critiques of power inequality, and structural discrimination
are hardly credited as the basis of argument, whereas culture
offers the language to talk about womens issues sans politics.
Former Minister Karaliyaddas interventions illustrated that
83
84
References
Celis, K., Childs, S., Kantola, J., & Lena, M. (2008). Rethinking
Womens Substantive Representation. Representation, 44(2), 99110.
Stokke, K. (2009). Crafting Liberal Peace? International Peace
Promotion and the Contextual Politics of Peace in Sri Lanka.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 932-939.
Thaheer, M., Peiris. P., & Pathiraja. K. (2013). Reconciliation in
Sri Lanka: Voices from Former War Zones. International Centre for
Ethnic Studies.
Uyangoda. J. (2011). Travails of State Reform in the Context of
Protracted Civil War in Sri Lanka. In Stokke K., & Uyangoda, J
(Eds.), Liberal Peace in Question: Politics of State and Market Reform
in Sri Lanka, New York and London: Anthem Press, 35-62.
85
86
Chapter 5
Debating Women
Sepali Kottegoda
88
discourse and the rest of this chapter will discuss how they have
been used by the speakers.
Finally, some conclusions will be drawn about the significance (if
any) of the parliamentary debate discourse in contributing to the
framing of the current national discourse on women/gender.
The six identified key phrases/words are:
Our Country
Ethnicity, Religion, and Sexuality
Social Justice
Patriarchy
Gender, Womens Rights, and Equality
Womens Liberation.
2. Our Country
The word Our (Sinhala = ap) is used by almost all the speakers
studied and is often coupled with the word Country (Ape Rata).
There are, however, differences in the way the female and male
parliamentarians relate to these words.
In their speeches during this debate, the women Parliamentarians
acknowledge womens achievements in the administrative sphere,
but also highlight their low representation in politics and the need
for measures to rectify this. They also point out the challenges that
women face, the pervasive incidents of violence against women,
the inadequacy of laws in place, and the poor implementation of
legislation.
These issues are spoken of in relation to the concept of belonging,
of being a part of the identity of the country. The women
parliamentarians focussed, variously, on the high educational
achievements of women, the high health indicators for women,
the first woman prime minister in the world being from Sri Lanka,
and, of queens and female warriors in ancient times. This was done
by these speakers expressly to consolidate their own vision and
goal of uplifting womens current status in the country.
90
1. Ape rate kaanthaavo godanegune asiyatika nishpaadana samaaja rataavak thula bava api
dannava
2. Samastha samajayatama aadambara viya heki Kaanthaavan lokaye anek ratavalata vadaa
ada ape rate innava. Hebai ape rate kaanthavanta thibena nidhahasa apata aasannaye
pihita thibena ratavalvalath nehe.
91
3. Social Justice
The concepts and arguments presented in this debate on Social
Justice to Women focussed on the socio-economic positioning
of women and the need to ensure justice for example, the
need to recognise womens worth and the protection of women
from violence. Issues of womens role in the economy, in the
family, women as victims of physical and sexual abuse, womens
representation in politics, women as mothers are all woven into
the interventions by the MPs.
MP Chandrani Bandaras3 opening remarks comprehensively
set out the main concerns for women. They include: womens
accepted social role looking after children in the family; the social
division between women and men coming from ancient times,
differentiating their roles (Hansard 22 March 2012, Column
1486).)4; the need to recognize that these lead to discrimination
3. United National Party MP Chandrani Bandara was appointed Minister of Womens
Affairs & Child Development in 2015.
4. .. sita sthree purusha samaaja bedeema padanam kota ganimin kaanthavata
purushayaata vadaa venas kaarya bharryan resak himi viya
92
and affect the space women have to enjoy their rights. (Ibid.)5;
womens enormous contribution to the economic development of
the country, such as foreign exchange earnings through foreign
employment, employment in the garment industry and, in the tea
industry; the high educational and health indicators for women;
and the poor representation of women in politics.
The debate that follows flows along these lines for the most part.
Speaker after speaker pointed out the pervasive trend (at the time)
in acts of violence against women and the need to bring justice for
survivors. MP Thalatha Atukorale observes that despite the Chief
Justice (at the time) being a woman and some women holding high
positions, the cases of violence against women are not resolved
because the law is not allowed to take its own course. (Hansard,
22 March 2012, Column 1506)6 MP Sumedha Jayasena notes
that the laws pertaining to rape are not implemented strongly.
She argues that because of this, males in our society are able to
commit crimes and be released. (Hansard, 22 March 2012, Column
1501) ).7
The importance of increasing the political representation of
women was seen by most as a key avenue to bring about legislative
directives for womens justice. Rosy Senenayake informs the house
of the reforms being drafted to increase womens representation
to at least a mandatory 20% in the political arena through a
proposed mix electoral system (Hansard, 22 March 2012, Column
1490)8. Nirupama Rajapakse reiterates the urgency of:
16. Shri Lankaave Kaanthaavo siyalu denaama pirimi pakshaya samnga urenura getila
thaman ipadichcha, thamange maubima venuven paksha bhedayen, jaathi bhedayakin, kula
bhedayakin, aagam bhedayakin thorava viruddhatvaya prakaasha karannata yeduna
17. Api gederan Budun amma lesa kaanthaavanta selakuve Buddhu dhahamin lath aabhashaya
nisai).
18. Sinhala Bauddha janathaava bahutharayak jeevath vana me ape rate vaage bana ahana
jaathiyak nehe. Bana kiyana jaathiyak nehe. . Hebai avasaanaye me vage anthima
vidhiyata naraka veda karana Bauddha ratakuth nethiva ethi.
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6. Patriarchy
While among feminists, there is at times concern that womens
rights activists in the larger society overlook or lack an
understanding of Patriarchy as an ideology as well as a structuring
of relationships of power, this Parliamentary debate sees the word
being interpreted in different ways.
MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake remarks that unlike the political
changes that took place in Europe, Sri Lankan politics, with regard
to women, remained within the patriarchal structures and male
dominated society of the Asiatic Mode of Production. He illustrates
his argument by pointing to the image of the Asian woman as
one clothed in the Kandyan saree and puffed sleeve blouse, and
braided hair. (Hansard, 22 March 2012, Column 1494).20
7. Womens Liberation
The analytical understanding of the concept of patriarchy is core
to mainstream feminist politics. But given that this debate was
not expected to and did not materialise into a feminist debate, it
is noteworthy that organised activism for womens rights was,
nevertheless, articulated as womens liberation. There are two
references, both by male Parliamentarians, to womens liberation.
The involvement of these two MPs in long-term major social
movements for systemic change one for socio-economic class
liberation and the other for ethno-national liberation - is likely
to be the common ideological denominator here. This also brings
to light the lack of engagement of the women speakers with such
social transformational movements as different from membership
in political parties.
21. .... ape sanskrutiya thula ada thibenne peethru mulika namuth, amma Kendra kara gath
samaajayak
100
Conclusion
As shown above in the examination of the actual parliamentary
discourse, this debate brings out an array of views in
parliamentarians understanding of the issues that women face in
the country. The concept of women is set out in the title of the
debate as a homogenous, uncontested category. The debate however
provides a unique platform for articulations of a multiplicity of
identities and facets of what it means to be a woman in modern
Sri Lanka. The number and range of key terms used by the speakers
indicates a somewhat elaborate understanding of womens issues
even if this understanding by these parliamentarians does not
meet the exacting analytical benchmarks of Feminism.
(a) Common themes: There was unanimity among all the speakers
on several issues: violence perpetrated against women and
girls women as victims and as survivors of violence; women
as contributors to the countrys economy as migrant workers,
garment factory workers, and workers in the plantation sectors;
and the contradictions between high social development indicators
(education, health) and the low representation of women in the
political arena and decision making.
The debate also allowed parliamentarians to venture into
topics hitherto subsumed in Parliamentary debates: topics of
patriarchy, equality, gender, and womens liberation. There are
clearly differences in the understanding of these concepts in the
many voices coming together to highlight some issues (violence
against women and children) and in the understanding of others
using their political experience to focus on other issues (rights,
oppression, patriarchy, and sexuality).
(b) Issues raised in these speeches in the larger national context:
Positioning this debate within the context of some of the issues
that were being reported on and discussed in the public sphere
is also helpful in drawing links between the public and the policy
discourse at the time (2012).
102
107
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