Women better off after dawn of peace

by Shanika SRIYANANDA

Ramyalatha Perera thought that her vote would change the 'fate' of the country. She had an objective to fulfil! No preferred colour! She wanted this time 'blue' to dominate the country so that her objective would bear fruit.

Ramyalatha Perera

The woman in her mid 40s was one of the many Sri Lankan women who kept her fingers crossed until her children came home safely from tuition classes.

The slightest delay in her husband's returning home after work made her heart beat more:

It was a nightmare for us for so many years to put up with LTTE exploding bombs one after another. No one was there to help us. We thought there was no future for our children", she recalled the blood curdling years under LTTE terror.

Ramyalatha says though she is not a supporter of any political party and no politician that she liked, she honours and respects those leaders who saved them from the terrorist peril.

"I voted for President Mahinda Rajapaksa", she who now lives in Kohuwala says.

Ramayalatha, a mother of two grown-up children says that she can now heave a sigh of relief the country is free of terror today.

"My only wish for President Rajapaksa is to continue this peaceful environment in the future too" she says.

Like Ramayalatha, thousands of women came forward to elect President Rajapaksa for a second term. According to the analysts, more women had cast their votes on January 26 compared to previous elections.

It was Sri Lankan women who suffered most in the 30-year war. The number of war widows kept on increasing and they became the sole breadwinners of many families.

Whether they were family members of the security personnel or LTTE carders, it was the women who became the beasts of burden!

Determined to continue the terror free country, women were in long queues to cast their votes to elect their future leader on January 26.

Maduri Wijesinghe of Kesbewa too wanted her teenage children to grow up in a violence-free country. I went early in the morning to cast my vote. As women we want peace at home and everywhere. We had enough sleepless nights in the past", she lamented.

Maduri, bank employee in Colombo and her husband who is working in a private company used to go to office separately. "I took my younger daughter with me and my husband went with the other. This we did to avoid both of us being killed in a bomb explosion. We thought, if we travelled together and caught up in a explosion our children would lose both the parents. You can see how much fear we had before May 19?", she questioned.

There is no need to explain further why women opted to vote for President Rajapaksa, Maduri said.

Like Ramayalatha

She has full confidence that the leader who eradicated terrorism in the country would certainly develop the country during his second term of office.Kamala Perera is another grieving mother who wept when her daughter married to a Navy officer was seen crying. "When we hear soldiers getting killed in the battlefront, I always prayed to save him so that my daughter would not be a widow. President Rajapaksa was brave enough to give leadership to the military to go ahead until they killed Prabhakaran", she says.

Many women who in the 'Sunday Observer' spoke to said that they wanted a brighter future and not a 'change'!

The President of Women Lawyers Association Chathurika Wijesinghe said that the main reason for the new trend was that the women are happy as there is no war and the family disputes were reduced with the Government's push for reduced alcohol consumption and smoking.

"Mathata Thitha" has worked out well. This helped improve the household savings and eventually it contributed to the national economy. This is a significant change brought about by the government", she says.

Chathurika says that women also anticipate a more disciplined society under President Rajapaksa as he has pledged to set the ground for this in his 'Mahinda Chinthanaya'.

"More importantly, they voted him for bringing peace, back to the country", Chathurika says.