{"id":105572,"date":"2020-08-16T16:18:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T23:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105572"},"modified":"2020-08-16T16:18:35","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T23:18:35","slug":"re-the-national-list-parliamentary-seat-of-the-national-peoples-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/16\/re-the-national-list-parliamentary-seat-of-the-national-peoples-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Re: The National List Parliamentary Seat of the National People\u2019s Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Progressive Women’s Collective<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Progressive Women’s Collective (PWC) is delighted with the\nannouncement that theNational List parliamentary seatof the National People\u2019s\nPower (NPP) has been offered to, and accepted by, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya. Dr. Amarasuriya\nis an extremely accomplished activist and educator, and we are thrilled that\nsuch an active advocate for education rights and women\u2019s rights will represent\nthe NPP at the Parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PWC has consistently advocated for the increase of women in\npolitical leadership and decision-making. Along with NPP, PWC supported and\nlobbied for 20 number of women candidates put forward by the NPP in the\nrecently concluded parliamentary election. The appointment of Dr. Amarasuriya\nas the National List candidate, we believe, shows the NPP\u2019s true and integral\ncommitment to the feminist vision outlined in the PWC policy as well as NPP’s\noverall policy regarding women\u2019s participation in politics. This is principle\nin action\u2014walking the talk. We are also thrilled that it is our colleague Dr.\nAmarasuriya who will represent us, and women and men in Sri Lanka as an NPP\nMember of Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Amarasuriya has been an ardent advocate for public educational\nrights in Sri Lanka, supporting and leading movements which demand structural\nchange in our education system. Dr. Amarasuriya has always been led by a\npassionate commitment to ensuring that education in Sri Lanka be accessible,\nequitable, just and truly public. But her commitment to social transformation\nisn’t limited to any one issue. Dr. Amarasuriya, in her role as a member of the\nPublic Representations Committee for Constitutional Reform, advocated for\npublic representations to be taken seriously on matters of the state, religion,\nsocio-economic rights and more. Her deep respect for a diverse range of\nstakeholders was evident through this process, and it enabled her to bring these\nrepresentations into multiple fora and public discourse in a meaningful way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Amarasuriya’s contributions within the Progressive Women’s\nCollective have been invaluable. Her insightfulness and perceptiveness enabled\nher to make incisive contributions in shaping PWC’s feminist vision and policy.\nShe has also advocated tirelessly for the adoption of a feminist lens within\nthe broader NPP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is common to see petty politicking within political parties\nfollowing elections, where party leadership typically sideline original\nNational List candidates or female candidates in the final seat allotment, in\nfavour of candidates who didn’t get sufficient preferential votes to win a\nseat. We trust that this is an instance where NPP has shown our commitment to democratic\nand participatory politics, eschewing patronage politics and exclusionary\npractices. We are setting a new trend in politics, where politics is no longer\na matter of self-gain and individual advantage, but a broad praxis where\nprinciples and vision rules the order of political decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As women, we believe that NPP’s decision to allot the National\nList seat to Dr. Amarasuriya is a defining moment in our Left political\nhistory. We deeply appreciate this move by the NPP as bold decision. In this\ntime of profound electoral setbacks for left political parties, we remain\nhopeful that the NPP will become a touchstone of political incorruptibility and\nethical behaviours, committed to a safer, healthier, and economically\nsustainable society. We also laud the courage that Dr. Amarasuriya has shown by\naccepting this invitation of the NPP during such challenging times. For us, as\nthe PWC, this is an indication that the long road ahead will be one of unity,\nrespect, and commitment to women\u2019s rights in Sri Lanka, a sign, that the times\nare, indeed, changing, after decades of political neglect of female leaders by\nleft and right political parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progressive\nWomen’s Collective<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Progressive Women’s Collective The Progressive Women’s Collective (PWC) is delighted with the announcement that theNational List parliamentary seatof the National People\u2019s Power (NPP) has been offered to, and accepted by, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya. Dr. Amarasuriya is an extremely accomplished activist and educator, and we are thrilled that such an active advocate for education rights and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105572","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=105572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}