Sunday Times 2
Aragalaya is the voice of the people
View(s):The voice of the people is the voice of God — Vox Populi Vox Dei — is a popular phrase often quoted in support of democratically elected governments of today. The ‘voice of the people’ expressed through the free votes of citizens is used to justify the existence of democratic and even governments with scant democratic credentials.
Cynics ask: If the voice of the people is the voice of God — or gods or deities as in some countries — how come many governments so elected are in severe political and economic crises after being elected by the people with such divine blessings? We, too, wondered about it and made an effort to trace the origin of the Latin phrase ‘vox populi vox dei’ from which the English interpretation has been derived.
Encyclopaedias we referred to attributed the origin of the phrase to Alcuin, a scholar, clergyman and teacher of York, Northumbria, England, born around 785 and invited to be an adviser to Charlemagne, regarded as one of the greatest European rulers who became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He had in a letter to Charlemagne advised something quite contrary to the exalted position accorded to the ‘voice of the people’ that is given even today.
The scholar clergyman had written in Latin to his emperor, the translation of which to English reads: “….. Those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness’.
It appears that Alcuin was quite conservative in his politics and is warning his patron against the ‘riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness’. This warning made more than 1300 years ago strikes a close similarity to conservative thinking in Lanka today where a riotous crowd which threw out a government — considered invincible but was ruining the country — through absolutely non-violent means in conformity with the law is considered to be ‘terrorist’. That force is the Aragalaya, some of whose leaders are behind bars today.
The encyclopedias indicate that this celebrated saying has been twisted by the English clergy and politicians of yore to their advantage in their squabbles with English kings.
As early as 1327, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Walter Reynolds, had brought charges against King Edward II in his sermon ‘Vox Populi Vox Dei’, it is said. English politicians, particularly the Whigs, used this distorted phrase to push through their agendas with their kings.
While democracy today is undoubtedly the most acceptable form of government, it is not an infallible doctrine as infallible as the gods or deities of various faiths are supposed to be.
Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister who from the very beginning of the last World War led the fight against the Nazi regime of Hitler, Japanese militarists, and Italian fascists, had quipped: ‘Democracy is the worst form of government except for all other forms that have been tried’. Indeed there seems to be no other alternative form of government because even dictators committing criminal offences, petty dictators and political strongmen who have usurped power are claiming to be democrats and are governing people at their behest.
The people of Sri Lanka have, it could be said, exercised their sovereign power through their votes quite effectively changing many governments. Since Independence, there have been 15 prime ministers and nine presidents (Some PMs holding the post many times and two presidents holding office for two terms) — all within the post-Independence period of 74 years.
At many elections, they have not been hesitant in throwing out governments along with their leaders with regular frequency and abiding by constitutional procedure, but the flaw appears to be that rejected legislators, who in the main became the opposition in new parliaments, have been successful in recycling themselves back after the next election into government seats of new parliaments, particularly in the last two decades. This has resulted in two sets of rascals being recycled alternatively.
That unfortunate development is attributed by most people to the current state of affairs in Lanka. Even more alarming is that the consensus of most citizens and political leaders appears to be that there is no other option to overcome this present crisis than to hold a general or presidential election and elect a new government to eliminate the current tragi-comic state of affairs.
Before an election is held the current debt crisis has to be resolved. Is President Ranil Wckremesinghe’s primary task to resolve the economic crisis in collaboration with the IMF and other international lending institutions and nations willing to help Lanka out of this predicament or attempt to resolve problems that have defied resolution for over half a century even if he could last for another two years as president as per constitution? Though queues for fuel, food and other essential commodities stretching into the horizon and for days have ceased to be, partly because people do not have money to pay for those commodities whose prices have escalated to record inflationary levels, they are being purchased with loans whose interest rates and cost to national security the people are unware of and have to be paid back.
The Rajapaksas after resigning from the Cabinet posts, hiding in bunkers and ships for weeks, and their president fleeing the country across the seas are now optimistic enough to think that they will come back. ‘Ranil is now with us’ croaked Mahinda Rajapaksa a few weeks ago. Whether Ranil considers he is with the Rajapaksas or that the Rajapaksas with him is not revealed, but reports say a section of the legislators have now teamed up with Ranil.
And what of ‘young’ Premadasa’? He is threatening to win the presidential/parliamentary race without seeking the cooperation of political parties that matter. He does not show that he is a good student even of contemporary history by not learning that contesting an election with the party split into two is a cakewalk for a united party whatever their record may show. True, he may not be able to unite with Ranil, but there are opposition parties like the JVP with which he could at least seek an electoral arrangement instead of both parties committing mutual hara-kiri.
Premadasa’s obvious option is Aragalaya leaders who did what was considered impossible at the beginning of the year, throwing out the Rajapaksa family from office. The Rajapaksas had fooled the people and gained tight control of the nation in two decades. Aragalaya activists within a few weeks through non-violent means threw them out of office and their president out of the country.
The backing they received from all sections of the populace irrespective of race, religion and class was unprecedented. They are the only unsullied political force in the country though without a specific leader languishing behind bars though not charged with specific offences in the courts, such as student leader Vasanttha Mudalige.
Mao Zedong said that ‘power grows from the barrel of a gun’. The two leading parties of Lanka — the UNP and the SLFP with their breakaway groups — had their power growing from the guns of the security forces under Emergency Laws while some legislators had some of their financial powers coming out of Kassipu (Moonshine) barrels.
The Aragalaya leaders now have their power growing within prison cells with an effusion of sympathy from the people who joined them in throwing out an inefficient, corrupt and blundering regime. They are the voice of the people that cannot be strangled with police cum military muscle, riot squads, tear gas and water cannon.
(The writer is a former editor of The Sunday Island, The Island and
consultant editor of the Sunday Leader. He can be contacted at gamma.
weerakoon@gmail.com)