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| Sunday, 19 January 2003 |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 Women The announcement of a 'Women's Committee' to ensure that the role of women is acknowledged and upheld in a comprehensive and systematic manner throughout the peace-making and post-war recovery process in the North-East region is most welcome and a concrete expression of the United National Front Government's commitment to gender democracy. While masculinity and the patriarchal have dominated our societies for centuries, the feminine and matriarchal dimension, noteworthy in very ancient times but long suppressed, has re-emerged in recent democratic politics in the whole region with Sri Lanka leading the way in Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first elected female head of government. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga also epitomises this matriarchal stream in our community and politics with her successive elections to office as head of Government and then head of State. Despite this emerging tendency, the modern Sri Lankan State has done comparatively little in past decades to ensure the equal participation of women in society and in the country's various decision-making processes from the local to the national levels, and from the social and cultural to the economic and political spheres. Although having successive women leaders, the Sri Lanka Freedom party and the People's Alliance have singularly failed to make a serious or significant contribution to gender justice in its tenures of government. In contrast, it is a past United National Party Government that first set up a Women's Bureau at State level and then, subsequently, set up a Ministry of Women's Affairs. To the current UNP-led United Front Government goes the credit of the first major policy emphasis on gender issues with its separate 'Women's Manifesto' during the last general elections. That that 'Manifesto' is not mere window dressing is clear from the subsequent policy formulations on gender equality and women's needs in relation to various specific issues. Given the very major contribution women make in both the home and in the national economy, and the stark discrimination and marginalisation they suffer in almost every aspect of society, there is much more to be done, especially in the protection and enhancement of social and economic facilities and rights and, the employment conditions of women. The new women's committee of senior women's rights activists and experts, appointed under a decision taken at the Oslo round of Government-LTTE negotiations, is an important step in ensuring that the critical role of women in peace-making and post-war recovery is not only recognised but also structurally incorporated so that their contribution can be made at every level. Japan The return of Japanese international peace-maker Yasushi Akashi to Sri Lanka last week within a short span of two months since his first visit is indicative of Japan's strong commitment to peace in this country. Even if there may be misgivings in some quarters, all of Sri Lanka and, indeed, the whole of South Asia, must welcome this kind of peace-making role by Asia's most influential industrial power. After all, Japan has a long history of friendly cultural and political ties with our sub-region. While the West engaged militarily with Japan over the control of East Asia during the Second World War, in South Asia, then straining to free itself of the yoke of European colonialism, Japan's defiance of the West was perceived as a complementary and helpful geo-political factor. In the post-war era, Japan has been an early investor in the region, risking much and collaborating well with local business communities so that the region has benefited from an infusion of Japanese capital, technology and entrepreneurial genius. Japan, in recent years has also played a key role in Asian diplomacy, with Tokyo's peace-making role in Cambodia its most significant contribution to peace and stability in the region. With Sri Lanka sharing a spiritual heritage, Buddhism, with Japan, there can be no misgivings with Tokyo's involvement, either diplomatic or economic, in resolving the ethnic conflict. |
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