Politics in women

If we take the view that women have become the weaker part of the human population,then it seems to me that among our political leaders in Parliament, 75 per cent of them are women. Check it out.

A few years ago, one business leader here came to the same conclusion about the members of his Board of Directors.{{more}}

The consistent call for more women to take leadership in parliamentary politics should perhaps be put to rest. It may be that what we need is more political leadership in women (and men), not more women in political leadership. Arithmetical addition is hardly the means to positive transformation in our politics. Open political revolt is the crying need for advancement in our politics.

FROM TRIBAL POLITICS TO A POLITICAL NATION

One revolt that we need to start is the revolt against tribal politics; aiming to build a politically wise and astute nation. The broad Vincentian population must be able to dissect power, to see its instruments and to identify the weapons turned against us to teach us powerlessness. A political nation will not sink to tribal cannibalism. We will rise to dethrone not just the leaders of the tribes, we will unburden ourselves of the political machinery that encourages us to want a tribal identity and a decrepit politics. The splintered nation is easy prey for lumpen Masas from old and new empires to steal our joy and our wealth. A political SVG, educated in revolutionary unity, love, effort and insistent innovation will be a worthy part of a new Caribbean. Politics will be within us, uplifting and uniting us, and there will be women at the forefront, in the middle, and standing rearguard.

FROM FEMALE SUBMISSION TO FEMALE AFFIRMATION

A second political revolt that we must start is the society’s affirmative action and appreciation of all women, the female sector. This is quite different from, though not opposed to, our Vincentian women asserting the worth and beauty that they possess and are. We take up arms against female mutilation inserted in the financial, coital and other cultural relations of Vincentian life and reality. No girl child is taught to be a sexual adornment, or receptacle, or prey. No boy child identifies himself as predator, affection proprietor, or proud son of a village ram or harem manager. No male adult assumes a Masa mentality over the working class or dependent female. No achieving woman finds her accomplished operations to be a handicap at the top of the male pyramid or in the ‘mass’ base. The revolt of female affirmation is a political choice that no comfortable elite will champion. It is here that the political advance of woman really counts. Where women congregate, especially in places like religious organizations, the revolution of respect and moral space must ignite. And yet, yes, in such places, rigid boundaries stand guard alongside men. A politically wise SVG must bear the mark of an all Vincentian affirmation of our women.

FROM PERFORMANCE TO APPRAISAL OF PARLIAMENT

Parliamentary elections are often a highly acclaimed show, mobilizing intense emotion, extensive financing, decentralized presences, strong popular feeling and policy fictions. At the end of the festive season, Parliament disbands its apparatus and goes home to its city home. The population-massqueraders too, retire home. There is no open appraisal of Parliament by anybody other than Parliamentarians. So it seems. For an advance in our politics, an open revolt against this type of Parliament is overdue. Perhaps at the season when the Minister of Finance presents the Estimates, then the Appropriation Bill, a step towards revolt could be launched. Documents prepared for Parliament must become distributed to interest groups and the population at large. This must be done in time for close scrutiny and political assessment, not just of the documents, but of what the documents enable the citizens to discern about the Parliament and the Executive. Will there be such a season in the near or medium future? The revolt is surely due.