<B>By Touria PRAYAG</B>

The learned lady from the party of ladies for ladies and about ladies made an appeal to every woman to vote for a woman.

The under representation of women in political decision-making the world over is readily apparent. That it is worse in Mauritius is a fact, which needs no research to substantiate. What is less obvious are the factors, which impede women?s access to top-level public life, a debate for another day.

There is no denying the fact that a true and legitimate democracy cannot be achieved as long as women are excluded from positions of power. Whether through conviction or social conditioning, women have different roles, functions and values and it is reasonable to believe that they are in a better position to press for their needs as they can feel where the hurt is.

What I am not sure about is whether a call to vote for women just because they are women is any better intellectually than the calls made by some people to vote for their ?ban?, just because they are their ?ban?, and which is of such an intellectual paucity that it deserves no comment. Will voting for women right the many wrongs that women in this country are subjected to? Do I have to vote for a woman to improve my lot as a woman?

As it happens, I have. More than once, I voted for several women and I do not remember their names anymore. If they have done anything worthwhile, our history books have not retained it. And I voted for others, whose achievements I am proud of.

I remember this woman I voted for and who entered our history books for the number of tantrums she threw every time her personal needs were not seen to. When she was refused a ticket, she tried her hand at several things and proved that she was good at none. Then she found the winning formula and is now in a big city drawing an insane salary, a scrumptious entertainment allowance and a huge amount of time to spend it. The photos she had taken with her Hollywood idol, while she was in office and supposedly attending a conference in the US, conspicuously decorate her mantelpiece. I am really proud of her achievements? for herself.

Unrepentant, I voted for another woman. She makes me so proud of the way she sits so gracefully in her government limousine and drives around with her sister and niece. She would have achieved a lot for the women who voted for her if a group of ungrateful constituents had not ?kidnapped? her. Thank goodness she was saved in the nick of time!

Not losing hope in womankind, I voted for these other women. Very nice ladies, really. I feel proud of the way they glide into the Legislative Assembly, in their elegant saris, all the better ?pour fer zoli?. They leave behind a whiff of expensive perfume, all the better for not inconveniencing others as they whisper in each other?s ears while the men are passing decisions, which affect other women. One of them gave very high hopes when she talked about her sympathy with victims of rape and incest and their right to abortion. Her language has changed since and her actions have been limited to having endless and predictably unfruitful discussions with socio-cultural groups. Last time I heard of her and her colleague, they were ?fer joli? in an event sponsored by British American Tobacco, helping to promote the death-peddling industry. I guess they forgot the event was illegal in the first place. Or maybe they were there because they felt this could be a very good method of birth control. More ingenuous than abortion. I have voted for other women. I will continue to vote for not one but many women but our idyllic vision of women should not slide a veil on the fact that if we are truly democratic at the core, we ought to cast our precious and hard-fought for right to suffrage on men and women from all communities with unimpeachable reputations and credible manifestoes. Let no one read in this an attempt at running down my own kind or those who speak on their behalf. That would be missing the aim of this paper. Nor is it the ambition and be-all-and end-all of every woman to sit in the Legislative Assembly. My conviction, though, is that any overgeneralization in the name of some misplaced feminism is likely, if implemented, to hurt the country and that means hurting that section of it, which is the most vulnerable: women.