Publicité

Female candidates: Promises and Lies

24 octobre 2019, 08:54

Par

Partager cet article

Facebook X WhatsApp

lexpress.mu | Toute l'actualité de l'île Maurice en temps réel.

Who said that they were going to put one female candidate in each constituency for the next General Elections? Certainly not me as I am not a leader of any political party and will never be as I am a woman. But all leaders said so and one of them said it even louder. That man is called Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam.

In all my naïveté, I thought that he was taking his time to finalise his list of candidates because he wanted to do better than the MMM and the Mauritian Alliance. Because he wanted to keep up with his promises. Because he wanted to show all SADC countries that he is a man of principle. Because he wanted to be in line with the New Local Government Act which stipulates 33% women or men candidates in local government elections. But, when I saw his list of candidates, I told myself “Loga how can you be so naïve”. This man did worse. Not only he aligned only 20% women like the MMM and Mauritian Alliance, his Secretary General (SG), Kalyanee Juggoo is not even a candidate. As far as I know, the SG of a party holds the second place after the leader in the hierarchy of a political party and must be treated as such.

The Labour Party is in the only political party in Mauritius which has a woman as a SG. When Kalyanee Juggoo was appointed SG in 2013, I wrote an article to congratulate the Labour Party for this ground-breaking decision. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! I did not realise that Ramgoolam appointed a woman for his own benefit. Juggoo works with over 500 women throughout Mauritius in the 20 constituencies. She chairs the monthly meeting of the women’s league. She organises all events and training works. What is her reward? She was booted out of the eight men committee which decided on the list of candidates.

Women are to be seen and not heard. Women are to be used and reused like dirty kitchen towels until they can no longer be used. If our political parties do not believe in those who gave them life, in those who raised them and in those who made them what they are today, are they not responsible in helping to perpetuate the marginalisation of 51% of the Mauritian population? How can men in general behave towards women when those in power are not leading the way towards equality? No wonder that violence on women is rife in this country. No wonder that the Children’s Bill has not been passed. No wonder that there are not enough structures to accommodate survivors.

The chauvinistic male leaders do not believe in women but only need them so that they can be used as electoral campaign agents.