Maravi

Women’s participation in this year’s elections

Women’s participation in this year’s elections
By The Post
Tue 12 July 2011, 12:00 CAT

The issue of women’s participation in the politics and political leadership of our country should be on the agenda of this year’s elections.

Women have a full right to become actively involved in all areas of our public life, and this right must be affirmed and guaranteed. And it is pleasing to note that a good number of women are becoming more conscious of their human dignity and are demanding rights to participate in public life.

It is pleasing to see so many women of very high calibre, women with great records of civil and political activism jumping into the political arena to participate in this year’s elections.

It was pleasing to see so many women coming from the leadership of our country’s women’s movement like Sara Longwe, Susan Sikaneta, Inonge Wina, Eileen Imbwae, Sylvia Masebo, Nkandu Luo, among many others, take their rightful place in the activities of our political parties. They have every right to be part of the decision-making processes of our country.

And we hope our political parties will respond favourably and have as many women as possible adopted as parliamentary and local government candidates.

We cannot say much about them being adopted as presidential candidates because this seems to be already settled in all our key political parties. The SADC Protocol on women participation sets a 30 per cent threshold of women participation.

It seems none of our political parties is likely to achieve this in this year’s elections. But credit should be given to those who will show greatest effort in integrating women in the leadership structures of their parties and those who adopt the greatest number of women as candidates.

Women have the right and duty to take part in the political and administrative work of our country.

We say this because women are not being given the full opportunity to make meaningful contributions to national development through participation in political life. Many people, including women themselves, still believe that a woman cannot perform completely in the same way as a man in politics.

This has led to some people never supporting the candidature of women or voting for a woman to be a leader. This deprives our nation of talent to really promote integral development.

Advancement will not go very far unless women are enabled to enjoy the same opportunities as men in the political leadership of our country. Women must be represented at decision-making levels in both economics and politics for us to sustainably achieve our development goals.

We say this because women bring special gifts to the progress of our country. If they are not listened to and are discriminated against or marginalised, then we simply will not have sustainable and equitable progress.

It is therefore important that the leaders of our political parties pledge political action to educate themselves and their members to a more correct view of women and to actively redress the injustices done to women in our politics.

Women must not be treated as mere passive participants in the politics of our country. But they must enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms befitting all citizens in the public life of our country.

The participation of women is of central importance to the future development of our country and should therefore be placed as a campaign issue of this year’s elections.

The participation of women is of central importance to the future development of our nation. We should therefore, as a nation, seek the true empowerment of women to enable them to participate in decision-making processes in our country.

It is obvious to everyone that women are now showing great interest to take part in public life and they will not tolerate being treated as inanimate objects or mere instruments, but claim the rights and duties that befit a citizen.

It is therefore important that all our political parties promote equal opportunity for women’s representation in decision-making by ensuring that as many women as possible are adopted as candidates for this year’s election. True empowering of women enables them to participate in decision-making processes in our country.

A fundamental condition for the establishment of democracy is, therefore, the recognition of the rights of women without any discrimination.

A real democracy has to be built on the basis of justice and has to look to the common good. Democracy rests upon human rights. And the participation of women in the political leadership of their country is a human right.

To promote and guarantee the meaningful participation of our women in politics and the elections that accompany them, more is needed than political institutions.

We must hold to some values and norms, some expectations and aspirations. This is the environment, the atmosphere that will increase the participation of women in the political leadership of our country. The right to participation in governance requires participatory democracy.

Participatory democracy requires, not only democratic structures, but also the reign of democratic values in the hearts and minds of the people. As we have seen over the last 20 years of our multiparty political dispensation, democratic structures without the corresponding democratic values in the hearts and minds of the people are rootless.

There is need for a democratic culture characterised by the respect for the rights of women; the respect of the human rights. Our multipartism indeed favours democracy but cannot always guarantee the full and meaningful participation of women. Clearly, the meaningful participation of women in the political leadership of our country will only be possible if it is based on a correct conception of the human person.

This involves an assessment and integration of our interests on the basis of a balanced hierarchy of values; and ultimately this demands a correct understanding of the dignity and rights of our women, of all our people. And accordingly, if a person has received the necessary talent by the favour of God, that person would fail in their duty if, for selfish motives, the person refuses to take their share in public life and affairs.

Any person who is qualified to become a leader is guilty if she or he refuses the task.

The apathy of potential leaders can bring anarchy to the country, by leaving all the responsibility to inefficient or unworthy people. We all know that we have many competent and worth women who should be given the opportunity and space to participate in the political leadership of our country. But we have not given them meaningful opportunity to do so. This is the time to change things.

And only those who are willing to change should be supported. Only political parties that have accorded women meaningful participation should be supported and voted for. This is a very, very important issue. And let’s make this issue an important campaign issue in this year’s elections.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, WOMEN

posted by MrK @ 5:43 PM