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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 5
(12 of 22 pages)
But sometimes we should not compare potatoes with onions. When you compare say
[inaudible] Ghandi, Sonya Ghandi, there is a particular background to why they got the position they got. The Nehru
dynasty and the rest of the reason, you know that Sonya was drafted to become president of the congress party when
everything went wrong. So that's the particular background.
When you look at it the two ladies in Bangladesh, there is also a particular background to them, how they got to
power. One was the daughter [inaudible] and the other one was the wife of a president assassinated. Now, the same
also might go to Sri Lanka or Ceylon. The [inaudible] where the mother is the Prime Minister and the daughter is
president, [inaudible] or whatever, I think if the name is correct, is out of a particular historical situation.
So some of these of things we have got to be very careful to make a comparison.
Now, very often, maybe with a certain degree of truth, men say that women, they are their own enemies, because
they don't vote for their colleagues, whence once they are elected they become -- they run away from their sisters
and become comrades of man and things like that.
Now, about two years the UNDP organizer conference in the general assembly of the UN on governance and municipal
authorities and so on, and the colleague from Australia, Mandro Rainos (ph), made the remark when some -- one colleague,
a man, said that the women are their own enemies. He said, now they can't be our enemies as long as they are men.
But now, I'm going to close very soon.
At the IPU conference, in the Parliamentary Union Conference about a year ago, too, in Beijing, I got on the stage
and I asked two particular friends, sisters, Nanchu Heptula (ph) from India of the lower house, who was deputy
chairperson and Kathy from Indonesia, why are you people -- the Women's Conference, which precedes the major conference
is open by a man, normally who is the president of the International Council and then the men go away. You say
to them, go away now, you are going to caucus alone. Why do you caucus and leave the problem outside, when the
problem is supposed to be part of the debate and the discussion. So involve us. Women's problem is a human problem
or a women problem? If it's permanently, exclusively a women problem, then tell us, then you might not find a solution
to that problem forever.
Now, sometimes women colleagues also don't want -- sometimes they're 50 percent or 51. Madam Prime Minister was
talking yesterday about 33 percent the ruling party allows to be elected. Why 33 percent? If they are 51 percent,
why not 51 percent? Why not 50/50? And sometimes women say it's insulting to say they must be based on quotas,
so that they can move faster.
Now, when you take Finland or Sweden or Norway, where they have women, maybe 50 percent in the cabinet or 45 percent
in parliament or 50 percent, that has been a long history of culture and education.
So, now we in the Third World and Germany, of course, are we going to -- we, the Third World, the magic democracy,
are we going to wait for so long before the women have their full share of power, to throw their weight in numbers
on the table, so that the tables can be turned down? So we have got to find out, what is the time frame that we
have in mind for women, proper empowerment in political and economic decision making processes. And unless we are
not in a hurry, we say, take it, you know, slow, the process will take care of itself and definitely there will
be no momentum and then there are no clear goals and no clear timetable and then the objective of the goals would
be blurred and probably at the end of the day will be missed. So somehow we should talk about strategies, how to
empower women properly. Because once in power, women will say, if you educate one woman, we educate the whole society.
If you educate one man, you take him to the bar. Maybe what my colleague was saying, he's [inaudible].
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