Letters
View(s):Election issues for the ‘Haves’
My recent ‘walk-about’ in the city and ‘social chatter’ reveal that a not-insignificant minority of middle and upper class voters continue to live in their self-built soft cocoons and look primarily to their immediate comfort zones in deciding on who they should vote for at the forthcoming Presidential election.
The city looks so nice; the expressways are in line with Singapore or Malaysia; shopping in Colombo is so exciting and now and oh! the new restaurants! This applies not only to the richer housewives but also to quite a few business types who have ingratiated themselves with the powers that be and are happy that “my business is doing well” or “my wife and I are able to educate our children in the UK”. Living in these cocoons they, so glibly question – should we rock the boat now and vote for change? Some other pseudo-intellectual types profoundly proclaim that a change will only help the minority Diaspora to further destabilise our country. How deeply patriotic indeed!
Where stands the rule of law that is so essential for the rights and safety of all citizens and the functioning of a true democracy? Need we cite examples of how laws are violated with absolute impunity by those who occupy seats of power? Not just by them but also by the sycophants who surround them in such large numbers. It is the absence of the basics of good governance and the rule of law that provides the ammunition for the minority Diaspora to fire their salvos at us.
The minorities living alongside the majority in Sri Lanka will see no use for this Diaspora if only the rule of law reigns supreme and all citizens can live in peace in our motherland pursuing our goals without fear or favour. Yes, being a developing country we perhaps need to make a few practical exceptions for aberrations by a few. But what we see today are not aberrations. Instead, it is a growing style of organised operations while the law enforcement authorities look on helplessly.
If we are serious regarding national stability, we need to ensure good governance and the rule of law without merely voicing platitudes. For this, a change of guard in Sri Lanka is the need of the hour. Some may ask what guarantee is there that the current ‘Common Opposition’ will deliver on their promises? This is a reasonable question. But the alternative before us is 10 years of rule that has engineered and now entrenched a system of lawlessness and corruption. A further 7-8 years of their rule will only worsen the situation. Hence, should we not take what could well be a last opportunity we have to give the ‘Common Opposition’ led by a ‘commoner’ a chance to bring back the rule of law and good governance to Sri Lanka? The milieu this opposition is made up of certainly gives many of us hope that our country can expect better days with a change of regime.
Moving on to the earlier types who live in their soft cocoons, the options before them are simple. In modern history, no nation that has continued to suppress the democratic rights of its citizens and forced its people into submission under whatever guise – be it nationalism, religion or development or what have you — has been able to sustain such suppression for long. History shows that regimes have been changed peacefully through the ballot. Some have undergone the travails of revolution at a tremendous cost to society.
Sri Lankans today have an opportunity to change a corrupt and repressive regime through a peaceful ballot — and this opportunity if lost will only lead to adverse and drastic consequences on our society, not excluding the little soft cocoons these folks try to insulate themselves in.
As for the expressways, shopping malls and high-end restaurants, have no worry. We are in the globalised 21st century and there is no turning the clock back. With a 30-year conflict behind us – for which we give credit to the President for the ‘political leadership’ he gave – our society and economy can only go forward. The forward march can most effectively be made only in a free society based on the rule of law and good governance.
The sooner we understand this reality the better it will be for Sri Lanka. So these ‘Haves’ need to peep out of their comfort zones, look at the broader canvas, join the right-minded and purposefully vote for change.
S. Dasanayaka
We must change the system, let us do it now
In recent days there has been a most interesting debate about the abolition of the Executive Presidential system. This ‘wish’ has taken the proportions of a demand because the present government, which is identified with the Executive President, has, during his second period as President taken decisions which are perceived as arbitrary, authoritarian and not in the national interest.
The demand is that either the Executive Presidency be abolished or at the very least the excessive powers of the President be removed and a National Government comprising all main political parties be formed to usher in a truly democratic system to ensure good governance and the supremacy of the rule of law to ensure justice for all.
Regarding the idea of forming a National Government, let us consider reintroducing a revised and improved version of the Executive Committee System that existed under the Donoughmore Constitution; we could then do away with the Presidential form of government and reintroduce a government led by the Cabinet with a separation of powers and also have the 17th Amendment back ensuring independent institutions such as the Elections Commission, the Judicial Services Commission, the Anti-Bribery and Corruption Commission, the Elections Commission, the Police Commission etc.
We should also reintroduce Article 29 from the Soulbury Constitution to safeguard the minorities of our country for they are also our people. They must be involved in the decision-making process at the centre.
Under the Executive Committee System, power would be shared and we would have true participatory democracy, it would also make for consensus building and serve to end confrontational politics as we know it today. The system must be taken to the Provincial Councils too.
We should also reform the electoral system which is a caricature of what it should be and also the political party system, which came to us from Britain and was a copy of the British Parliamentary system which they bequeathed to us. It may have its advantages but let us reflect on a situation where we had no political parties but elected individuals to our legislature in their personal capacities.
A former government official and later a Member of Parliament, U.B. Wijekoon wrote a book titled ‘The Curse of Party Politics’. It would be most useful to take account of what he had to say. Yes, let us seek to end confrontational politics in our country. We must in the first instance ban all communal parties as they do in Singapore and Malaysia.
The two main political parties and also the JHU have pledged to further a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, democratic political system. The UNP and the SLFP profess to pursuing ‘Free Market’ economic policies; their foreign policies are identical; their social policies are the same; the approach to the ‘national problem— is also identical—– devolution of power, (there may be differences regarding the extent of ‘devolution’)—but they have both accepted that devolution may be, I repeat, may be the answer to our problem in the north.
The verdict of the people of this country at the next general election will once again be decisive. When the people vote for the two major parties they also endorse the above mentioned policies. At an election they would want either of these parties to govern, or at best for them to come together with the Muslim Congress, the Tamil United Front the JHU and the JVP to have a true National Government for the governance of the country.
No branch of the government should be placed in such a position as to be able to dictate policy or control government. Power sharing should be the fundamental basis for governance, any departure therefrom would make a mockery of the will of the people as expressed through an election.
When we see the situation in our country one wonders whether we have been anaesthetised to injustice, violence, corruption and what is fundamentally wrong? I have often thought that we the people are the victims, victims trapped in a certain system created for us by itinerant politicians. But then again are we not co-conspirators, for by not confronting them we allow the power-hungry politicians to dictate terms and decide for us?
Take the example of political parties entering into coalitions which they have no mandate to enter into or virtually buying politicians from the Opposition to obtain support for spurious legislation: Have we abdicated after we gave them the vote? Need we to be so helpless? I say NO. We must come forward and take responsibility and not let ‘evil’, in whatever form, triumph.
It is we who have allowed the political culture of this country to degenerate. Is it not a sad indictment on us that we who do not trust the politician, we who do not believe them, are compelled to suffer them even when they act in their own interest merely to stay in power?
The political culture of this country has been built on adversarial, confrontational politics without regard to the national interest. There has also been an erosion of human values. Our politicians have missed the wood for the trees. This is the unfortunate tradition which we seem to want to perpetuate. The cement that has held this form of confrontational politics together has been, the vulgar pursuit of political power, for with it goes the opportunity to mount the gravy train and get rich. Have we not become a morally degenerate society?
We need to usher in the Age of Cooperation and leave behind us the Age of Confrontation, which has done immeasurable harm to this country. Let us seek to build a caring and considerate humane society where values, principles, ethics and discipline form the foundation.
Whilst other countries are galloping ahead we are moving backwards. The disease of confrontation has spread to all levels of our society. The politician is at the bottom of this — we must pull back from the abyss. Our political parties must learn to co-exist and make political cooperation an art form.
We must change the system, let us do it now.
K. Godage
Colombo