Start addressing harassment of women from Parliament

State Minister Diana Gamage is not someone to go quietly as she’s shown time and time again particularly during parliamentary debates. The lady does like to court controversy but recently she was gutsy enough to call out SJB MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara for using the most uncharitable reference to her from the floor of the House.

“This (his words) is actually sexual abuse in the form of words. This is an insult to all women in the country which accounts to 52% of the population. It is women who elect MPs to Parliament. These MPs have no right to insult women,” MP Gamage told the House.

MP Madduma Bandara’s apology of sorts was worse than if he had remained silent. His explanation was a bigger insult to women than making amends for his use of unparliamentary language in the House. He stated, “On my way to Parliament, I saw some dogs, and there was a mad one among them. I referred to that mad dog. I am sorry if it caused inconvenience to the State Minister.”

State Minister Gamage is not the first female lawmaker to be subject to misogynistic remarks by their male colleagues. SJP MP Rohini Kaviratne was a target of expletive language by Education Minister Susil Premjayantha some months ago. When the matter was raised by Kaviratne, the Minister made a half-hearted apology saying he was sorry if he had said anything hurtful to Kavirathna and assured she was not the target of his comment. The problem with these very senior politicians is that they don’t seem to realise how deeply offensive their remarks are to women in general.

A few weeks ago, Tourism Minister Harin Fernando was shown hobnobbing with Danushka Gunathilaka in Australia while the latter was facing serious charges including those of sexual assault. Gunathilaka was subsequently cleared of the charges but a Government minister visiting him prior to the court decision and making a public statement isn’t becoming an elected representative.

All this when Parliament itself is under scrutiny of late with allegations that some of the female staffers who work in the cleaning services have been subject to sexual harassment by some senior officials attached to the Legislature. The Secretary General of Parliament Kushani Rohanadeera has initiated an inquiry into these serious allegations but inside sources say there is still resistance from the male hierarchy to any such inquiry and it’s more likely than not they will get away while the women involved are likely to be subject to more victimisation.

The unfortunate reality is that while a dismally few women get elected as MPs to Sri Lanka’s Parliament, just 13 out of 225 in this Parliament, the few who make it too do not get their due place.

While women make up the majority, we live in a country where women are subject to sexual harassment on a daily basis; be they walking on the road or travelling in public transport or in workplaces, women face harassment. It is a vast number of these women who go to polling stations and vote for male lawmakers so that they can get elected to high office and represent them. But instead, what we see is a number of them using the floor of the House to speak with disrespect to their female counterparts and then showing no remorse when they are called out.

If an MP thinks it is fine to address a female MP in an insulting and demeaning manner and if there is no action taken by Parliament against such persons, the message it sends out to the public at large is very clear. You can disrespect and insult women and get away without any punishment.

Diana Gamage and Rohini Kaviratne are women who have the floor of the House from which they can raise their voice but there are millions of other women who have no such opportunity. Which is why male MPs who think it is alright to ridicule and insult their female colleagues must be called out and subject to censure so that there is no place for such men to shield themselves with the cloak of respectability in society.