The 56%
By Vishwamithra –
“It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.” ~ Thomas Hardy
Fifty six percent, that is the percentage of women voters in Sri Lanka. With no disrespect for our men folks, every man, woman and child has a mother; not necessarily a confirmed father; but mother, beyond question. They may also have a sister, grandmother, aunt and a cousin sister; they are all in the maybe category. That woman, that mother, is the Queen of each household. She decides what to cook; she decides what time to put the children to bed and what time to wake them up. When no-one is present at home, she takes the shopping bag and goes to the market place and buys what she thinks is to be cooked. She decides what time to feed the children and the children’s father. After feeding the entire household, she goes to the kitchen and eats, with her plate in hand, standing. That is the way our average rural woman spends her time and controls the home, in her own way; no one has given it to her hand, she assumes leadership gladly and without any question.
She controls the home budget; she tells the husband when something is wrong with the children, whether it’s just a cold or a cough. She buys clothes for everyone else and if there is something left in the purse, then she might buy a skirt, a blouse material or a sari for herself. She does not expect anything in return; she does her chores day in and day out, like a machine with a compassionate heart and a steady mind, three hundred and sixty five days an year. Whether gratitude is shown or not by the other members of the home, she attends to these functional duties without a complaint, without any hue or cry. Such women, such unsung heroins make up fifty six percent of the voting population in the country.
It is to this fifty six (56%) percent the National People’s Power (NPP) has chosen to appeal. A timely tribute to the women of our time! (Mage kaalaye gahaniya). Premasiri Khemadasa, yesteryear’s maestro who created one whole symphony dedicated to the Mother of my Time (Mage kaalaye mawuni), would not have hesitated one second to pay his musical homage to this unique person in our lives. Woman indeed deserves it and much more.
Not only as a primary pillar in their political strategy, the NPP’s glowing tribute to our women as a spiritual rendition has hypnotized and captured the entire population of women in our society today. They are young; they are middle-aged and they are old. Some walk to the meeting-ground dragging their weather-beaten feet, without any footwear. Seemingly secure from the blistering sun under a little umbrella, dressed in the best clothes that they can find in their possession, with expectant yet inscrutable countenances and hard penetrating and weary eyes they look around, oblivious to the hawkish eyes of the onlookers and settle down in their seats. If they fail to get a seat, they, without complaining, keep standing, wondering who are these men and women trying allure us to their school of thought. A very justifiable inquiry indeed.
Whoever first thought through this process of holding rallies exclusively for women and naming the process ‘Gahenu eka mitata’ (a fistful of women) has ventured into a brilliant exercise of politics and electioneering. NPP’s intention to hedge in each segment of our population seems to be a very clever ploy. No other political party has done this up to date. What others have achieved so far has been limited to a cosmetic ‘women’s association meeting, may be once or twice an year. To hold one rally after another covering all districts in the country alone is a daunting task. However, the success is not in the organization, although it should be lauded without any reservation. The real success is the numbers in which each rally is attended voluntarily by our women.
They started their women’s campaign from Matara in the deep south. From there to Hambantota to Galle to Moneragala, Puttalam, Badulla, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Kalutara and Matale and so on. Planning is easy; yet to implement and achieve the desired results is another story altogether. The real results can be ascertained only at an election. But the enthusiasm and the vigor that the women’s campaign has engendered is beyond anybody’s wildest imagination. In order to prompt the average housewife, a village damsel, an aged grandmother to attend a political rally is not an ordinary task. It needs a lot cajoling; it needs a lot of door-knocking and then persuading these women to attend a mere political rally takes a lot of planning, a lot of scheduling, a lot of cold-calling and a lot of empathetic canvassing.
The NPP has recognized the basic data and treated that data in accordance with the appropriate scrutiny and understanding and also identifying the real need to address such data with enormous respect without prejudice and preconceptions. No political party to date has engaged their second and third tier members to such exhaustive measure as has the National People’s Power.
When one studies the faces and profiles of the women who attend these meetings, one finds, a trove of diverse feelings and emotions. The training which has obviously gone into the total exercise of this significant organization cannot be underrated. No organization can attain such weighty and refined success without a total effort by all that matter. The very painstaking attention to detail surely brings forth the devotion and skills the NPP has displayed to date.
Cornering fifty six percentage of the total voting bloc in the country is indeed, as I mentioned earlier, a clever feat of political craft. Apparently, the NPP is not going to stop there. A separate thrust into the other segments of our population such as the Maha Sanga, the youth, farmers, the fishermen and so on and so forth would certainly ensure a much better performance at the elections and the wonder is almost all are awaiting the outcome with abundance of exuberance and energy.
Both Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa must be shivering. Ranil, of course, has totally destroyed the United National Party and he simply cannot even dream of launching such a detail-oriented political campaign. But Sajith and his henchmen have fallen asleep at the switch. Either they have been beaten to the finish line or they do not have within their Samagi Jana Balavegaya(SJB) any campaigner who could think on those lines of political organization. On the other hand, the Pohottuwa clan simply cannot approach the masses. They will be received with cat-calls and rotten tomatoes and stinking bad eggs. Not a very inviting prospect!
In addition to the organization of women around their Party, the NPP also has achieved another useful task of identifying their second, third and fourth level public speakers. Some of the women-speakers at these rallies have come of age. Each speaker has shown disciplined delivery, mastery in the vernacular and staying away from indulgence in vituperative politics. People judge them when such self-discipline and control is exhibited on the political platform. Their displays of arts and cultural items is so close to the rural men and women; their expressions are measured as well as spontaneous.
In other words, the NPP has managed to kill more than one bird with the same stone. Such a multi-pronged, multifaceted political crusade was last seen during the 1977 campaign run by JR Jayewardene. Well, that was forty seven (47) years ago. And during those 47 years, two generations have come to our midst. In fact, AKD and his immediate entourage have gone where Rohana Wijeweera had never been.
Wijeweera’s exhibitionistic campaigning did not bear any fruit. For that matter, Wijeweera’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) never emerged from its cocoonish cells. The people who attended the JVP rallies during Wijeweera’s time were the same lot. The crowd that attended a Hyde Park meeting also attended a meeting held in Hambantota or Nuwara Eliya. Nonetheless, Wijeweera’s JVP did not function as a mass-based organization. It was structured along the lines of those political movements whose ultimate goal was to capture power by hook or by crook. National People’s Power evolved as a mass movement whose structures have been architected in accordance with the conventional political parties. At least to that extent, the JVP has developed into a conventional mass-based political party hellbent on gaining power democratically. Instead of creating enemies, AKD and his NPP are learning how to make and earn friends, especially among the masses.
Politics in a democratic setup is the art of making friends. Without friends, you don’t have votes and without votes you don’t win elections and come to power. Ranil, Sajith and the Rajapaksas have to come to terms with the emergence of the NPP and its mass-based campaigns. There is no certainty that the NPP would come to power at the next elections. For that matter, there is no person born yet who can predict what happens at an election. The people have to pass their judgment at the booth. With all their expertise and shrewd planning, I’m sure the NPP is also paying sufficient attention to the unpredictables of politics. At least for the moment, a superior performance by the NPP is more than possible. And the 56% will be a decisive factor in their fate.
*The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com
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