Focus on Rights

Dealing with our rulers
The consensus rapidly being reached among those of us who still retain the ability to think and respond objectively to issues of grave concern affecting this country, is that neither the People's Alliance Presidency nor the United National Front government is actually serious about ruling this country properly.

What exacerbates this enormous failure of governance is that, where checks and balances could have been imposed on these entities by bodies normally entrusted with the watchdog function of monitoring the government and the executive, such as the media, the academic community and the activist and/or civil rights lobbies, (comprising part of the much vaunted civil society concept), these elements too, in general, have become highly politicised and/or severely personalised. Unless accountability is imposed on these elements of civil society, it would be a useless exercise to continue disparaging the politicians who have been foisted upon us, to our detriment, in this day and age.

These are inescapable conclusions, given what has happened in the past nine years. We saw the manner in which the People's Alliance, which initially came in with a tremendous fount of goodwill from all sectors of society in 1994, fritter away this goodwill during the years that followed, with its disastrously ill advised policies of governance across the spectrum, whether in relation to the media or to the judiciary.

Even more dangerously, we saw highly activist and consistently articulate voices of dissent during the pre-1994 years becoming increasingly muted thereafter, with their being co-opted into the government in one way or the other, either directly or indirectly.
In the profound spaces that were created, mis-governance deepened resulting not only in debacles such as the 1999 Wayamba elections but also in a continuing loss of public faith in institutions that were revered through the ages, including at the highest levels of the country's judiciary, the Supreme Court. The role of our intellectuals in this process has been deeply problematic. That they will be called to account for their omissions and commissions during these several years, at some point or another, is without a doubt.

And then, we have the year, 2001. The advent of the United Front government was not accompanied by that same outpouring of thankfullness evident in 1994 but definite expectations existed that the mistakes of the past would be remedied. Instead, what we had was a blinkered pre-occupation with the North and its travails while serious problems in Sri Lanka's basic structures of democratic functioning remained un-addressed.

The common assertion at that time was that the North was a priority and should receive the undivided attention of the government. However, what we have now is a classic illustration of the grievous flaws inherent in this justification, where the politics of the South have eclipsed the negotiations of the North and indeed, stands in grave danger of being responsible for its complete breakdown.

The contrary truth is stubbornly obvious. Not all the problems besetting this country stem from the conflict in the North. We have serious governance issues that ought to be dealt with through a combined effort by the office of the Presidency and the Prime Minister.

These include the sustaining of a peace process that has significant defects in its functioning in so far as the human rights of the people of the North are concerned, pending serious charges of policisation of his office and abuse of his powers against the country's Chief Justice, the proper working of the 17th Amendment and its independent commissions, the rejuvenation of the country's bribery and corruption commission and the formulation of national policies on essentials such as land and water that take heed of the fact that such essentials are held in trust by government for the people and are not the property of politicians to be bartered away.

These are questions that are outstanding and have their own individual or collective links to the criminalisation of law and order, rising religious tensions and a general lack of basic security felt by ordinary citizens in this country. The question of elections next year should be a focal point for expressing not only our indignation but also our outright anger against these two political parties who continue to ruin this country.

That elections are even being contemplated in the absence of an Elections Commission, (due to the intransigence of President Kumaratunga), as well as much needed amendment of the legal structure relating to elections, (including the 17th Amendment as well as the basic elections laws themselves), says much for our own folly.

Now, the possibility of Parliamentary, Presidential and Provincial Council elections being held on the same day next year, is being looked into by another one of those interminable Parliamentary Select Committees. This week, in a predictable display of deja vu, we have one elections monitoring group warning of police transfers ahead of elections.

The stage is being set, it seems, for another wasteful exercise of the franchise which will do little to address core concerns at the heart of the failure of governance on the part of both the office of the Presidency and the Prime Minister.

Compelling these two political forces to take their responsibilities seriously should be the priority of ordinary citizens in this country in the year ahead, regardless of those intellectuals and those activists who will continue, doubtless, to occupy their politicised and compartmentalised little positions of privilege. It is time that those who really suffer from the peccadilloes of our politicians show that enough is, indeed enough.

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