{"id":104751,"date":"2020-07-22T17:05:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T00:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104751"},"modified":"2020-07-22T17:07:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T00:07:28","slug":"the-political-culture-in-sri-lanka-is-misogynist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/22\/the-political-culture-in-sri-lanka-is-misogynist\/","title":{"rendered":"The political culture in Sri Lanka is misogynist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ambika Satkunanathan<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
  • We\nmust acknowledge torture is a problem<\/strong><\/li>
  •  Laws\nalone cannot achieve social change<\/strong><\/li>
  •  Media\nshould not sexualize and infantilize women<\/strong><\/li>
  •  Nationalism\nhas the power to empower as well as to enslave<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The normalization of violence in Sri\nLanka is a deep seated social problem, says Ambika Satkunanathan, who is a\nlawyer and human rights advocate on the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) National\nList for the upcoming parliamentary polls. A former member of the Human Rights\nCommission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and chairperson of the Neelan Tiruchelvam\nTrust, Satkunanathan has campaigned for gender equality, social justice and\npeace. She spoke to Daily Mirror on several issues including police violence,\nwomen\u2019s rights and nationalism. Excerpts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Q  How\nserious is police violence and torture in Sri Lanka? And what systemic and\nstructural changes are needed to counter it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Police violence is systemic, spans\nsuccessive governments and has been identified as such by the Supreme Court\n(SC), the HRCSL and civil society. In 1995, the SC noted Fundamental Rights\n(FR) violations by the police were continuing even 18 years after the 1978\nConstitution, which contains protections against torture. The reason for police\nimpunity is the immunity enjoyed by those who commit such violations. This\nimmunity creates the belief they can use violence and  never be held\naccountable. 
    \nWe must address the root causes of police brutality. First, we must acknowledge\ntorture is a problem, and not deny it. Secondly, we must hold perpetrators\naccountable. The 30-year war impacted how we view violence and people became\nnumb to violence to cope with their daily lives. Violence has hence been\nnormalized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Q  Sri\nLanka enacted the \u2018Convention against Torture Act\u2019 in 1994. Why are such laws\nso ineffective?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Laws alone cannot achieve social\nchange. Addressing police violence requires reviewing basic police structures\nand practices, and making them public. We must design preventive, remedial and\naccountability measures and involve sociologists, criminologists and\npsychologists in the process. We must invest in communities to address the\ndrivers of crime. For example, increasing job opportunities, preventing\nhomelessness, moving non-violent offenders away from prisons and into\nrehabilitation, and crafting community responses to non-violent offences and\ndecriminalizing them. 
    \nPromising safety through criminalization, imprisonment and the threat of\nviolence, makes us all more insecure and unsafe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Q  The\nthreat of violence is often not seen as a form of violence. How does this\ncontribute to the normalization of violence?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The threat of violence creates fear\nwhich society believes will deter \u2018bad people\u2019 from committing crimes. Even\nwith children, the threat of violence  – a smack or some sort of\nphysical punishment – is used to discipline\nthem in the belief it will prevent them from further mischief. But instead\ndoesn\u2019t it teach children it\u2019s alright to use violence to achieve outcomes?\nDoesn\u2019t it make it acceptable in their minds to hit another child in the\nclassroom or push them in the playground? 
    \nDisturbingly, I have found people who have no problem with violence being used\nagainst those they believe are \u2018bad\u2019. This is of course subjective and shaped\nby each one\u2019s beliefs and prejudice. It is viewed as violence only when they\npersonally experience it, or when used against those viewed as \u2018good\u2019 or\n\u2018innocent\u2019, like the 14-year-old autistic boy from Aluthgama. But if a drug\ntrafficker is tortured, how many would be outraged? 
    \nThe selective acceptance of violence normalizes it in our psyche and practice,\nmaking society more violent. How this acceptance is entrenched in our psyche is\nevident in our everyday dealings with each other. Also, when institutions deny\nremedies to citizens, violence is seen as a means of dispute resolution and\naccountability. People stoning or setting fire to vehicles in a road accident\nis an example of them thinking it is normal to engage in violence, which they\nbelieve is a means of holding someone accountable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Q  You\nhave also pointed to the police being a masculine and hierarchical institution,\nand how that contributes to the culture of violence. Isn\u2019t this true of many\nother Sri Lankan institutions too?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yes, very much so. We are a\npatriarchal society. We pay lip service to women\u2019s equality but treat women in\na paternalistic way, as if they don\u2019t know what is good for them. Often, women\nare not allowed to make life decisions for themselves, and are restricted by\nrules and practices. Women that challenge these are labelled as having \u2018bad\nmoral character\u2019 or being \u2018too western\u2019 and so on.
    \nEquality and equal treatment before the law are enshrined in our Constitution,\nbut are often not observed in practice. So the patriarchal nature of society is\nembedded in the processes and culture of organisations, leading to\ninstitutional structures and procedures discriminating against women. For\nexample, there are no cadre positions for women in the Senior DIG and DIG\npositions in the Police Department, which several women police officers have\nchallenged via FR petitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Q  What is your take\non attempts to improve women\u2019s political participation in Sri Lanka? For\nexample, allocating a 25% quota for women at the 2018 Local Government\nelections. How effective are such affirmative action measures?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Much more needs to be done in\naddition to affirmative action measures. Quotas alone cannot increase women\u2019s\npolitical participation and representation. Even though women play an important\nrole campaigning and mobilizing support for political parties, they are left\nout of party decision making and ignored as potential candidates. Furthermore,\nthe political culture in Sri Lanka is misogynist, and women are subject to\nvicious and scurrilous attacks which are aimed at demeaning them. Addressing\nthis requires changing social attitudes and the media following ethical\npractices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Q  What\nethical practices should the media follow in this regard? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The media should only report\nverified news and avoid gossip, rumours and fake news. They should stop using\nsexist, derogatory and judgmental language when referring to women. Stop\nsexualizing and infantilizing women. Move away from \u2018manels\u2019 and have women on\ntalk shows and discussion panels. Have more women in decision-making positions\nin the media with the power to actually make decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Q  The\nPresident has empowered the security forces to maintain public order under the\nPublic Security Ordinance (PSO). His predecessor did the same, and people have\ncome to accept it. How do you view this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In a democracy maintaining law and\norder is not the function of the military. The PSO provides for this only in\ntimes of emergency. When done routinely, it normalizes the exception and\nmilitarizes the process of maintaining law and order. This creates space for\nrights violations and contributes to the overall militarization of\nsociety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Q  You\nare on the TNA National List. Some see politics and nationalism as a harmful\ncombination, some see it in a more positive light. How do you see it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Historically, Tamil nationalism is a\ndefensive nationalism that emerged in response to Sinhala nationalism. It was\nbased on demands for equal rights in language, education, land settlement, and\nthe right to have a voice in governance through power sharing between the\ncentre and areas where Tamils were a majority, and the right to be free from\ndiscrimination or violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    \nIn Sri Lanka the concept of \u2018nation\u2019 is equated with secession. This is a\nmisrepresentation, as illustrated by the late Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam. He says\ncommunities, like Tamils, perceive themselves not merely as a numerical\nminority but a nationality, with a collective identity and rights linked to it.\nThis perception is compounded by oppressive state actions, which can push\ncommunities away from a secular idea of themselves and towards a more\nfundamental identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    \nWhen the state failed to address the demands of the peaceful Tamil movement for\nrights, it evolved into an armed struggle, based on militant nationalism. This\nalso led to violence against Sinhala civilians, internal violence, and deepened\nrifts between Tamils and Muslims due to the forced eviction of Muslims from the\nNorth and violence against them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This shows how nationalism, which\nunder colonialism was anti-imperialist, can become a nationalism constructed on\nthe \u2018other\u2019 rather than common citizenship. The tragedy of such nationalism is\nit makes \u2018enemies\u2019 of even allies. Dr Tiruchelvam, was viewed as traitor by\nmany in the Sinhala community for advocating a peaceful, federal solution to\nthe ethnic conflict that addressed legitimate Tamil demands and aspirations.\nConcurrently, he was viewed as an enemy by the LTTE and sections of the Tamil\ncommunity for working with the state on constitutional reform, and paid with\nhis life. Hence, this form of nationalism has the power to empower as well as\nto enslave.
    \nAddressing Tamil nationalist claims requires dealing with the root causes of\nthe ethnic conflict. It requires us to stop being afraid of devolution and\nfalling prey to false equations of it to secession. It requires any\nconstitutional arrangement to respond to the collective perception of the\nTamils who see themselves as a nation, which is linked to having a majority\nterritorial presence in certain areas with a distinct history. As Dr\nTiruchelvam has stated, there are constitutional arrangements in multi-ethnic\nsocieties that preserve unity, while also preserving the collective identity\nand rights of ethnic groups within a political framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    Media Terrorism- Not Again?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Palitha Senanayake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The article carried by the Ceylon Daily\nMirror on 15th<\/sup> July under the title \u2018Sri Lankan Political Culture is\nMisogynist\u2019,  composed by Gehan de\nChickera  with a Q & A session with M\/s\nAmbika Sathkunanathan  deserves  a response as its highly inappropriate\ncontents make partisan and baseless allegation against the Sri Lankan society\nat large with unfair insinuations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To start with, it is difficult for us to\njustify when this lady calls our political society \u2018Misogynistic\u2019; whether\nshe   is referring to the Sri Lankan society that is\n75 % Sinhalese or to the Tamil or the Indian societies. As for the Sinhalese\nsociety, it is a well-known fact that it is a matriarchal society.  It is the mother that is held in high esteem\nin the Sinhala family even though the father enjoys the traditional \u2018Head of\nfamily\u2019 status.  Mother is more\nemotionally close to the children and therefore often has the power to be the director\nand the conciliator of family matters. Even the father acknowledges the mother\u2019s\nrole as the provider of meals, the keeper of the house and finally as the link\nbetween the father and children. \nTherefore, it is unrealistic and also unethical to discount the role of women\nwho invariably would be mothers,  in the\nSri Lankan  society, judging merely by\nthe numbers that make representation in a political body.   Politics in Sri Lanka, in the current\ncontext of things, is not a very suitable profession for women as it has turned\nout to be too physical and self- seeking. Thus, even though these representative\nbodies may be made of more men, it is difficult to envisage a situation where\nmen in these bodies would decide to endanger the position of their wives,\nmothers or daughters in their political articulations. In India however, where\na woman who cannot bear a male heir is considered of no value, and where a young\ngirl gets raped every half an hour, the situation could be different.  On the other hand, if the writer deems\npolitical representation to be the primary indicator of gender equality we must\nnot forget that Sri Lanka produced the first woman Prime Minister of the world\nback in 1960! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The inappropriateness in that article\nhowever is that, when a journalist decides to pick a personality to air views\non such a broad spectrum, he\/she should a personality with some balance and\nalso should be representative of the Sri Lankan society. The irony is that this\njournalist has picked this lady who represents a racial party that acknowledged\nthe LTTE as the \u2018sole representative of the Tamils\u2019 to articulate her views on VIOLENCE!  Have we forgotten that the LTTE was named the\n\u2018most ruthless and organized terrorist organization\u2019 in the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     If\nshe was asked to speak about the Tamil society or the hackneyed \u2018Tamil\ngrievances\u2019 or \u2018Tamil aspirations\u2019, then there is hardly an issue because we\nknow that Tamil politicians still peddle the racial line even after it has\ncaused all that devastation to the Tamil society in particular and to the Sri\nLankan society in general.   The issue however is that, what right does she\nhave to pass judgment on \ninstitutionalized violence in the Sri Lankan society when she represents\nthe party that has backed the most violent terrorism, the world ever knew?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This journalist Gehan De Chikera seemed to\nbe having an axe to grind with the police as he seemed keen to elicit some\ncriticism against police violence from the interviewee.  No civilized person would condone violence,\nspecially police violence, in a society. The reality however, is that the\npolice naturally get brutalize to the extent the society, at large, is\nbrutalized in a particular country. For instance when some Muslims carried out\nthe Easter attack it is natural that a few innocent Muslims also may get affected\ndue to they being Muslims. Thus, the more treacherous the society is, the more\nviolent the law enforcement would be in enforcing the law.  In a country like New Zealand where violence\nis unheard of, the police too could be unheard of. Yet what could we expect in\na country like Sri Lanka where the most violent terror group was entertained and\njustified by the majority of its political leaders, due either to, their crass\npolitical opportunism or sheer asinine subservience to the west?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This lady maintains that  \u2018Historically, Tamil nationalism is a defensive nationalism\nthat emerged in response to Sinhala nationalism\u2019<\/em>. This\nstatement indicates that either she does not know the history of Tamil politics\nin this country or that she is trying to distort the history as many Tamil\npropagandist have done over the years. It was in 1931 that Ponnambalam  Arunachalam \nresigned from the Ceylon National Congress where he was the\nPresident  and formed the Tamil Congress,\nthe first communal political party in this country declaring \u2018Tamil culture to\nbe the cradle of world civilization\u2019.  It\nshould also be mentioned that when the Donomore reforms proposed to grant the\nUniversal Franchise to Ceylon  in 1931,\nit was this Tamil Congress that opposed the move on the grounds that \u2018one man\none vote system is unfair\u2019 as the Sinhalese were in the majority and hence it\nwould result in the Government being taken over by the Sinhalese. Then again in\n1945, when the non- fee levying education was proposed to the whole country it\nwas the Tamil Congress and the Catholic Church that canvassed against the\nproposal to the extent of unseating the then Education Minister from his Parliamentary\nseat of Mathugama.  Therefore, Tamil\nNationalism has been offensive from the day colonialists decided to end their\noccupation in this country and to maintain that it is defensive is to distort\nthe facts to suit the present context of things.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another enigmatic statement the article\nattributes to this lady is that, \u2018late Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam  said communities, like Tamils, perceive\nthemselves, not merely as a numerical minority but a nationality, with a\ncollective identity and rights linked to it\u2019<\/em>. This again is untenable\nbecause the concept of the \u2018nation\u2019, as understood the world over, is the body\nof all the people in a particular country. The Oxford Dictionary also says\nthat, \u2018A person\u2019s citizenship in a country is about the sense of nationhood\u2019.   We have a world body called the United\nNations and that has only 196 member nations. On the other hand if every\ncommunity in every country is to call itself a \u2018nation\u2019 then there would have\nbeen about 1000 members in the UNO with India alone accounting for about 100\n\u2018nations\u2019. Therefore such theories and interpretations only depict nationalism,\nin its hubristic form that refuses to assimilate in to the mainstream of the\ncountry you live. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This\nlady is also said to be a \u2018human rights activist\u2019. This appears to be a\nparadoxical position because when Mr Sambanthan, the current TNA leader,\ndeclared that, \u2018The LTTE is the sole representative of Tamils\u2019 he made all the\nTamils in to terrorists. Not just terrorists but the \u2018most ruthless and\norganized terrorists\u2019. In such a context it is indeed paradoxical that Mr\nSamabanthan and his TNA could also become human rights activists in no time.\nAre we talking about the \u2018human rights\u2019 of terrorists or does human rights\nactivism have a symbiotic relationship with terrorism? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nreality in the international today is that when you say that you are a \u2018Human\nrights activist\u2019 you are essentially a politician because human rights today\nhave become a mere political tool devoid of any human value. It is those that\ncall themselves \u2018Human rights crusaders of the world\u2019 that is bombing\nAfganisthan, Syria and Yemen today. It is when you wish to violate human life\nthat you adorned yourself with the title \u2018human rights activist\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nlong and short of this whole scenario is that certain journalist like Gehan De\nChikera is trying to portray Tamil politicians now as \u2018human rights crusaders\u2019\nso that they could continue to denigrate the Sri Lankan state as a human rights\nviolator. Now they expect the people to have forgotten how the LTTE took away\nthe right to life of about 80,000 Sri Lankans over a period of 35 years. It was\nthis same Sri Lankan English media, with journalist like Gehan Perera who\njustified all that killings stating that the Tamils had a \u2018cause\u2019 and that they\nwere discriminated against. They pointed to July 83 as the \u2018cause\u2019 of LTTE\nviolence when July 83 was only the effect of LTTE terrorism since 1975. The\ntruth is that, by July 83 the LTTE had killed 42 policemen, 13 bank employees,8\npoliticians, 13 army offices and 21 civilians. The English media has some\npowerful writers and most of these English writers, being Christians, had a\ncommon cause with Tamils. This was because the Christians, just as the Tamils,\nwere the privileged class under the British and hence it was their duty to\nprevent this country from being taken over by the majority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If\nyou kill one, you become a murderer but if you kill 80,000 you are a \u2018crusader\nwith a cause\u2019. Thus, the Sri Lankan English media is responsible in no small\nmeasure for the terrorism this country underwent for 35years killing almost\n100,000 people with an economic loss of about 20 billion US $. We always knew\nthat Prabhkaran was a criminal who liked to act like a cowboy shooting people\nand to thrill himself with real life action, but it was the media that made him\n\u2018a freedom fighter\u2019, and a \u2018Crusader of Peace\u2019. They demonized the SL army and\nsaid that \u2018War is not a solution\u2019 and allowed Prabhakaran to thrive. They even\nwent to the extent of calling the attempts to censure the LTTE as \u2018anti peace\u2019.\nDespite all that advocacy, how we attained peace  is now history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However,\nwith this type of articles, it now appears that the media is making an attempt\nto project the same Tamil politicians who backed the LTTE to be human rights\nactivists and make the violation of human rights the \u2018continuing cause\u2019 of a\nfuture conflict. We know that \u2018The Daily Mirror\u2019 has an anti- Sinhala Buddhist\nagenda and that all newspapers do have some agenda, in keeping with the wishes\nof the newspaper owners. Therefore, if Mr Ranjith Wijewardena and Mr Ruwan\nWijewardene opts to have an anti- majority view, a reader may not question it,\nbut the issue however is when we try to make terrorist in to human rights\ncrusaders overnight the media could be promoting crimes in the name of \u2018human\nrights\u2019 and demonizing those that try to prevent such crimes as \u2018Human rights\nviolators\u2019. Please remember that if we run in to a war situation again the\nresulting indiscriminate violence will not be a respecter of a particular\nreligion or a race!   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ambika Satkunanathan We must acknowledge torture is a problem  Laws alone cannot achieve social change  Media should not sexualize and infantilize women  Nationalism has the power to empower as well as to enslave The normalization of violence in Sri Lanka is a deep seated social problem, says Ambika Satkunanathan, who is a lawyer and human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}