Editorial - No knights in the wolves’ den
16 December 2012 06:30 pm
The saying goes that in the olden days a woman could walk from Dondra to Point Pedro with a gemstone in her hand with the assurance that no harm would come to her. The saying has become trite with the years and in the contemporary context, such a level of security is the very stuff the dreams are made of.
Hence, the woman with the gemstone, with or without her treasure, should avoid one more place at any cost—that is Parliament.
Last week, the lawyers of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, in a letter to the Speaker revealed the repulsive conduct of the members of the Parliamentary Select Committee during the proceedings; one of the reasons that compelled Dr. Bandaranayake to walk out. According to the letter, the language and the manner in which she was addressed were not fit for a chief justice, or any other woman for that matter.
If the so-called public representatives who were elected with an overwhelming mandate could refer to the Chief Justice as a ‘mad woman’, it says a lot about their sanity as well as that of the voters.
This however, is not the only shocking incident reported from House.
A few weeks ago, dodging a question asked by UNP MP Rosy Senanayake, Transport Minister Kumara Welgama told that he had no words to express his feelings towards Ms.Senanayake, where he suggestively said she would meet him outside Parliament.
By behaving thus, the respected MPs have shown solidarity to the name-calling, Adam-teasing perverts on the road.
Though hard to come to grips with reality, this is the status quo of a political party that had bred the first woman prime minister of the world and followed by her daughter, the country’s first woman president; ironically two ‘Bandaranaikes.’ Their namesake, the first woman CJ of the country, was insulted in the most blatant manner by the frontline members of the same party who have by doing thus, insulted the pioneers of it.
Hereafter, the public cannot be too blind not to see the emperor’s clothes of these MPs when they talk about women’s rights and protection to woo the public. The voters who need to see their children, wives, sisters and mothers safe, should make sure that this perversity is not granted a sequel.
What was more disturbing, however was the silence of the other women MPs in the House who did not think it was a situation where their voices needed to be heard. Irrespective of the party they represent, those who reached the helm with the banner to encourage women’s participation in the decision-making process have a moral obligation to live up to their promise. After all, by letting their numbers be beaten by the perversity of the others, their hands would have to be satisfied with the cradle-rocking.
Clearly, the power they wield has made them much more than damsels in distress. After all, one cannot expect to see knights in shining armour in a wolves’ den.