Popular “Sexist” Outburst And “Independent” Election Monitoring
By Kusal Perera -January 27, 2014
Kusal Perara
Nominations for the Western and Southern Provincial Council elections will close on 03 March next and the run up to nominations have already stirred much amusement in the local media with new female names and faces announcing their entry into politics. The ruling UPFA in particular has succeeded in listing some names that caught immediate public attention and Face Book comments. So did the statement by Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) on these prospective candidates. If not all, most media using the CaFFE statement, enjoyed playing with captions that talked of “sex symbols”.
In the CaFFE official website “http://www.caffesrilanka.org/more-4a-9121-2.html” the statement says, [quote] The main political parties have commenced interviews to select candidates for each district. Reports have revealed that a large number of regional politicians with years of experience behind them have been neglected in favor of ‘sex symbols.’………. CaFFE urges all political parties and independent groups to disengage from petty politics by promoting ‘sex symbols’ for short term gain…… [emphasis added and unquote] They concede that ‘sex symbols.’ they refer to, are [quote]movie stars and beauty queens without political experience and knowledge [emphasis added and unquote]
This shows a fundamental intellectual flaw in CaFFE and its brains. It assumes sex and intellectual ability don’t ever go together. Well, they often go together. Its not sex that has to be argued for or against them, but their understanding of politics. That may not be what the Sri Lankan voter checks when voting. The entry into politics of many “black characters” CaFFE didn’t bother to issue statements on, would not have happened if voters decided on knowledge and political experience. CaFFE thus proves, it is as ordinary as any feudal lord and thus don’t have the ability to lead democratic interventions in a modern society.
The very “sexist language” employed by a supposed election monitoring agency that talk of justice and fair play in a modern democratic society, raise far more serious issues about themselves and their conduct as “independent monitors”. Before that, let me dwell a little on “celebrities and moviestars” taking to politics. The man who generated “Reagonomics” as the 40th President of the USA was a moviestar by the name of Ronald Reagon. But that’s an American film idol, CaFFE may say, for in Sri Lanka, President Rajapaksa did it the other way round. He took to film and tele drama acting, long after taking to politics.
Moviestars taking to politics is nothing new here nor even in next door India. An Indian entertainment world website, “TopYaps” rates top 10 moviestars who became politicians. They start with Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran, said to have been born in then Ceylon, but a legend in Indian Tamil film industry as “MGR” who dominated TN politics as its Chief Minister for a long period. His later co-star and present CM Jeyalalithaa, Thelugu-Kannada-Malayali and Bengali film idol Jaya Pradha, Thelugu star Chitranjeevi, Hindi film idol Vinodh Kanna who later became the Cultural and Tourism minister of the Central government in 1999, Hindi film star Shatrugan Singha, five time Indian National Film Award winner and a highly acclaimed actress plus a social activist Shabhana Azmi appointed to the Rajya Sabha, one of the most versatile actresses in Indian cinema Jaya Bachchan, Hindi actor Dharmendra who stormed the Indian film world much before Bollywod and a maverick but a super star of the Tamil Nadu screen, Govindha are others in the “TopYap” top ten.
