Columns

From a strategic point of view, it was a great sleight of hand for this Government to have successfully ‘packaged’ the 19th Amendment to the Constitution as a notable constitutional gain for Sri Lanka, despite its many problematic provisions.
Some of these seemingly progressive but actually deadening provisions include bringing back the 17th Amendment’s Constitutional Council (CC) but without its majority of independent members. The failure of the current politically constituted CC to announce transparent procedures regarding the nomination of persons to constitutional commissions and key posts is a case in point. The 19th Amendment’s inclusion of a retarded Right to Information clause which is directly at odds with the Right to Information Bill is another illustration.

Frolicsome antics of the animal kind
Also unacceptable is a crafty constitutional allowance permitting a bloated number of ministers under the euphemism of a ‘national government.’ Lest we forget, this was exactly the criticism that was leveled against the Rajapaksa regime, without the convenient cover of a ‘national government’ at the time.

This week, parliamentarians screeched, hooted and jeered at each other on the floor of the House over the scandalous increase of ministers, deputy ministers and state to ninety two. Unblushingly stubborn in the face of the unseemly fracas, the ‘yahapalanaya’ (good governance) Government announced that it had room for still more. These frolicsome antics more worthy of the animal kind were ironically evidenced at the very same time that a Code of Conduct was announced for parliamentarians.

Further, we were told that increased allowances and other perks for parliamentarians, which had earlier been abandoned in the face of mounting public anger, may be brought back again. And President Maithripala Sirisena defiantly justified an astronomical sum of public funds being expended for a farmers conference a few days ago on the basis that the farmers deserve it.

In the meantime even as the Government furiously backtracked on China funded development projects which they had earlier railed against, the Prime Minister and his team traipsed to Beijing to avert the economic crisis threatening the country. Indeed, one is hard put to laugh or to cry at these sorry happenings. If we are in such dire straits, should not the Government set the first example by a leaner Cabinet and less extravagance? Is this not basic commonsense?

Both parties are the bane of the country
So it is now getting to be clearer as to why the ‘national government’ was formed. Instead of one party robbing the country blind as has customarily been the case, we now have all hands in the national till. Popular singer Sunil Perera’s indictment that Sri Lanka’s two main parties, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) have been the bane of the country is receiving wide popular acclaim. Ordinary Sri Lankans are viewing parliamentarians on both sides of the divide with considerable fury. And to be clear, this stinging accusation encompasses the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) as well. The JVP’s hypocritical contortions limited to blistering speeches critical of the Government and media shows will certainly not increase its dwindling voter base.

Slowly and surely it is now becoming apparent that Sri Lanka’s democratic collapse is of a more ingrained nature than purely attributable to the Rajapaksa decade. Though this may be convenient for many to peddle as their favorite topic of conversation, the reality is far more unpalatable. By the time that Mahinda Rajapaksa came to sit on the chair of the Executive Presidency, Sri Lanka’s democratic systems and constitutional structures had already been seriously undermined. The judicial system had been irreversibly politicized. It was a precarious house of cards, waiting for a slight jolt to bring the entire structure crashing down. This is precisely what happened under the Rajapaksa Presidency.

Undermined by decades of apathy
And that particular end result was enabled by the sheep-like quality of the country’s ‘intellectual’ polity whose capacity to independently critique and interrogate had been undermined by years of apathy and (quite literally) open mouthed bewilderment as systems and institutions rotted away. I remember an infuriating conversation years ago when an academic opined that the independence of the office of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice and of the judicial institution was solely a matter to be agitated for by the Bar. This was not the province of the wider legal community, it was observed in wide-eyed seriousness.

Culpable shortsightedness aside, political partisanship was also why inaction was evidenced. The crux of that conversation concerned the failings of the Kumaratunga Presidency. Later, when the Rajapaksa regime destroyed the remnants of judicial independence, there was a radical change in position with indignation being expressed. The hypocrisy in this change in attitude was exceedingly profound. For as the Rajapaksas cracked the whip at the judiciary, the public service, the police service and the universities, the stage had already been set for this drama. This is the genesis of why all political parties have been able to play fast and loose with the public trust.

Taking heed of increasing public anger
Yet much of the shortsightedness that prevailed earlier has still not changed. The overriding fear is now to prevent a return of the Rajapaksas. But as the 19th Amendment surely teaches us, inept constitutional reform presents a range of thorny problems that may potentially be worse than what existed before.

The 1978 Constitution endured as it was devised by exceedingly clever (though Machiavellian) minds at the time. Its replacement or revision must be carefully thought out. Superficial play-acting in front of television cameras or the choreographed handing over of submissions to a committee which seems to primarily play the role of a post office in delivering ‘public views’ to the (ultimate) political decision makers will not do.

If corrective action is not taken through strategic public pressure to change the worrisome trajectory of this Government, a Rajapaksa-return may occur in any event. This will render the day dreamers among us quite irrelevant in the wider scheme of things. Certainly increasing rumbles of anger that we hear all over Sri Lanka can be ignored only at our peril.