Sunethra Wickramasingha

Member
Municipal Council
Colombo
Sri Lanka

Entering Local Politics

At present I am a member of the opposition of the Council for Colombo. I am responsible for identifying problems related to decisions and implementations made by the ruling party. I offer counter advice in an effort to prevent harmful actions against the citizens and the environment of the city, I also work to solve the infrastructural problems of the voters in the area.

With regard to my personal background, my parents are ordinary people in civil society. I have been married since 1968 and have two daughters and one son. I have passed my general Certificate of Education (ordinary level) in Sinhala medium.

My entry into local politics was strongly influenced by my uncle. My mothers brother D.S Mallawarachi was a popular politician in the 1960s . He was a member of the leftist party - The Lanka Samasamaja party, and continuously represented the Colombo Municipal Council for 12 years until his demise. I have always felt a strong commitment to work for the poor. I am surrounded by a poor population, and their socio-economic and need for common amenities encouraged me to enter into politics. My husband also encouraged me.

A Woman's Perspective

I did not face any obstacles as a woman when entering politics or running for office, but I face them as a politician. However, these problems are common to both sexes. Threats from opposition candidates and parties during election time is not uncommon. I have to face and overcome these obstacles as a politician with my supporters and I should not be isolated from my voters. Therefore I have to do my best as a councilor for my people.

Although I am the only woman member in the Colombo Municipal Council Office as well as all neighboring urban local governments I do not feel I have faced any discrimination. On the contrary, I believe I am respected at all times in the Council.

As a woman leader, I have made efforts to improve the status of women in general in Colombo through organizing school book donations which have been able to reduce the burden on women of poor families. I have also worked to increase the number of public amenities such as water service and toilet facilities for poor households through the municipal council.

Breaking The Barriers

The main factors, I believe, that prevents women from entering politics can be categorized as follows: they prefer to remain as house wives due to cultural reasons; the name-tag 'politician' is not perceived as good and honest in Sri Lankan society; corrupt politicians work to keep women away from politics; and a lot of money has to be spent to win a seat and women often do not have the financial means necessary. In my opinion women's participation will be favoured if there is legislation to have a minimum number of women representatives in Council.

On a personal level I have made an effort to increase female participation through submitting a proposal to my political party in which I stressed that a policy be drafted that provides at least 30 per cent representation of women in the governance of cities and even in parliament . My intention is to submit the same proposal to other leading political parties and to bring them to a common consensus.

I think it is important that women should take an active role in the governance of cities, as women easily understand the socio -economic issues of house wives and the expense of running households. When women are in positions where they are responsible for ruling the cities and the country, immediate steps can be taken to redeem economic burdens. Women are concerned with child abuse and can take immediate steps to work against social misdeeds.

There should be a launch of awareness and capacity building programmes to convince women of the importance of their participation in politics. Women should also be motivated and encouraged to come forward and offer suggestions to solve problems in society. If women are better represented and more powerful, they would be able to voice their concerns more effectively.

Over the past ten years there seems to have been very little change in peoples perceptions of women in politics, as this is not really an issue. In Sri Lanka the focus is more on party politics rather than gender.

I consider my best achievement in office so far to be the proposal, obtainment of funds, supervision, construction and the establishment of a public library for my electorate. I hope to become a member of the ruling party with the main objective of providing more libraries in low income settlements.