Fish rotting from head down

Wednesday 9th August, 2023

It was reported, the other day, that several female members of the parliamentary staff had been sexually abused by some male officials. When this issue was taken up in the House yesterday, the Chair said a three-member committee had been appointed to probe the allegations of sexual abuse. SJB MP Rohini Kumari Wijeratne said the culprits were forcing the female workers to sign a letter, refuting the allegations of sexual abuse. This is a very serious situation. It is not difficult to trace those who are intimidating the victims of sexual abuse into silence. They must be interdicted immediately. One can only hope that Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena will get tough with them, and ensure that justice is served to their voiceless victims.

MP Wijeratne has said the allegations of sexual abuse of female workers will tarnish the image of Parliament and therefore stern action has to be taken against the perpetrators. Her concerns should be appreciated, but the question is whether Parliament has any reputation to be besmirched where the harassment of women is concerned. There have been allegations of sexual harassment of even female MPs.

Most of all, some of the political parties represented in Parliament at present are notorious for violence against women. One of the first few things the UNP did, after its mammoth victory in 1977, was to secure the release of a convicted rapist serving a jail term. He was Sunil Perera aka Gonawala Sunil. He had been jailed for raping a teenage girl at a party. The UNP goons unleashing post-election violence surrounded female SLFP supporters and stripped them naked in public. One of the victims of such attacks was Kamala Ranatunga, who became an MP. Some of the senior members of the current Parliament were in the Jayewardene regime, which was responsible for numerous crimes against women.

The Premadasa regime defended many thugs including Soththi Upali, a dangerous underworld figure, who used to drag women to the Borella cemetery at night and rape them. He remained above the law until the collapse of the UNP regime in 1994. Senior police officers would even salute him! President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s government also carried out attacks against women. During the 1999 North-Western Provincial Council election, SLFP goons attacked UNP supporters including women and paraded them naked. Most of the present-day SLPP politicians were members of the Kumaratunga government. One of the main issues that brought down the SLFP-led United Front government in 1977 was the rape, torture and murder of a woman named Premawathie Manamperi during the first JVP uprising in 1971.

During the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, one of its local politicians and his goons gang-raped a British woman after killing her boyfriend at a tourist hotel in Tangalle in 2011. But for international pressure on that regime, those savages would have got off scot-free. Thankfully, they were sent to jail. Thus, the UNP, the SLFP and their offshoots are not free from blame for violence against women.

There have been numerous instances where female MPs, especially State Minister Diana Gamage, suffered verbal sexual abuse in Parliament. Some Opposition MPs are among the worst culprits. In 2016, the then Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs Chandrani Bandara, speaking in Parliament, called for a probe into allegations of sexual harassment of some female MPs. A few years ago, the female local councillors sank their political differences and joined forces to fight against sexual harassment; they said they were not allowed to speak during council meetings, where they would face jeers, catcalls and lewd comments from their male counterparts.

What’s the world coming to when the female workers at the country’s highest law-making body become victims of sexual predators, who get away with their crimes? No wonder women and children are becoming increasingly vulnerable in this country. A fish is said to rot from the head down.