Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Sarah Jane Lebrasse
Published on 2024-04-02 04:00:25
Electoral specialist and former Finance Minister Rama Sithanen suggests that a Best Loser System could be applied to gender in the short term if the will to address the democratic deficit related to the number of women sitting in Parliament is seriously considered by political leaders ahead of the upcoming elections. He spoke at a symposium organized by Gender Links and the Gender Equality Foundation in collaboration with the European Union, on the issue of gender parity in politics and Parliament, on Saturday at The Docks. Access to finances, the vulgar and hateful language used in politics, and domestic violence are just some of the obstacles that women must overcome when they wish to engage in politics.
The former Finance Minister made three proposals. In addition to an expanded Best Loser system, he proposes aligning women in each constituency in the medium term and achieving gender parity in the long term. For the Gender Best Loser system, he emphasizes that it’s very simple: if there are less than 33% women in Parliament after the general elections, why not appoint them according to the Best Loser system, based on gender at the same time as the community.
During his presentation, with supporting figures, he highlighted that Mauritius has a very low rate of female representation in Parliament compared to other countries and progress has been very slow. Addressing one of the obstacles that women face in politics, access to finances raised by Lovania Pertab from Transparency International, Rama Sithanen stressed that a solution can be found.
According to Lovania Pertab, “once the issue of political party financing is resolved, we will have overcome this obstacle” because she believes that “dirty money enters this sphere.” Rama Sithanen also indicated that in competitive sectors like finance, except for banks, and the judiciary, there is no concern regarding female representation.
“If there’s no competition, the system can move forward. In places where there is no competition, the system gets stuck,” he said. Responding to a question from Suzelle Baptiste, secretary of the Chagos Refugees Group, regarding a representative of the community in Parliament, Rama Sithanen pointed out that it is possible but not necessarily a woman. The former Finance Minister emphasizes that “in Parliament, a deputy’s priority is his party and not the gender issue.” Hence the lack of denunciation of insults towards women by deputies, which was noted during Saturday’s session.
Following the almost unanimous observation that nothing has changed in terms of gender parity in 22 or 25 years, Sheila Bunwaree, a politician and university activist, believes that the question needs to be conceptualized differently and how all organizations in the country can be used and consider all the islands of the republic.
For her, women must mobilize to “fight for your rights,” and this should be done without personal interest. She notes that “there are so many gender issues to be addressed but it is not functional.” She continues, “a man chairs the committee and he does not understand anything about gender issues. We rarely meet. We have a Parliamentary Committee that does not work on the issues as it should.” She adds that “when we get to the Civil society, we are still very divided.”
Johanne Rannoojee, co-founder of La Politique expliquée aux jeunes (LPEJ), believes that a Political Literacy system must be put in place to avoid the hateful and disrespectful language that often repels women from joining politics. They are also hindered by family reasons or fear of jeopardizing their career. “It is unacceptable that they always have to watch over their shoulders,” she says.
Former Director of Public Prosecutions, Satyajit Boolell, points out that there is a dichotomy between these two issues. “On the one hand, we want to create individual opportunities and on the other hand, have more women in institutions,” he finds. However, he continues, this is irreconcilable.
“On the other hand, we can work on both at the same time,” concedes Satyajit Boolell, who highlights that there is another issue that goes beyond this gender issue: access to the Decision-Making Process. It is difficult to join political parties that are very closed circles. “This has fossilized,” he laments; “and also, since independence, there has been an obsession about ethnicity. This prevents us from emerging as a nation.”
Satyajit Boolell also pointed out “violence against women.” “There is too much violence against women. They are the most vulnerable – within the home.” He hopes that there will be a serious reflection on the subject “to contain and eliminate this problem in the future.”
The symposium was moderated by Roukaya Kasenally and Azhagan Chenganna of the University of Mauritius. Also speaking at the event were Anushka Virahsawmy, director of Gender Links Mauritius, Mohini Bali, founder of Gender Equality Foundation, Milko Van Gool, representative of the European Union delegation to Mauritius and the Seychelles, Pramila Patten, UN Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, and Sheila Bappoo, former minister. Young people spoke through a pre-recorded video.
Read the original article(French) on Le Mauricien
