Click Here-Giving Rajapaksa 18-A And Taking Over From Ranil The Sunday Leader
Giving Rajapaksa 18-A And Taking Over From Ranil
The most controversial and dangerous amendment so far to the most centralised and authoritarian of all three constitutions Sri Lanka has seen, will now be law of the land, even if it has to go through the process explained by reputed legal luminary and TNA National List MP Sumanthiran.
Gazetting the 18th Amendment is just a day’s work. Rajapaksa could have the consent to this Amendment from any Provincial Council in this land of the Gauthama Buddha, with just a phone call. Having that power constitutionally passed into their own hands was a “dream” the Rajapaksas did not let go, as day dreaming. They will now have their dream written into the Constitution, in very clear terms with a whopping 161 votes that included those “shameless five” from the now redundant “Left” as well.Reading about ‘dreams’ recently, this canny idea that “dreams are extremely dangerous in sinister minds”, reminded of a few blood stained names, from among many. Hitler, Idi Amin, Saddam, Pol Pot, Pinochet and Prabhakaran, all had dreams that ended in gruesome human tragedies. Bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Karimov, Mugabe and Than Shwe also have dreams, that would add to more bleeding human tragedies, unless miracles do happen.Another creepy feeling bothers in knowing what Ranil Wickremesinghe’s dream is. Or, does it matter what his dream is? Whatever his dreams are, his “Uncle Dicky” certainly had no dreams of him, as a leader. Brought into politics, he was given a decent ministerial job by JRJ, in gratitude to Wickremesinghe’s father Esmond, who is often credited for his role in plotting against Madam Bandaranaike’s government in 1964 December. Once again, thanks to Prabhakaran who created President Rajapaksa, the most mediocre but coyly arrogant of all Sinhala leaders since independence, Wickremesinghe was also catapulted to be the most insecure of all UNP leaders since its inception. He has since then, systematically squeezed out the party of its second level leadership for fear of being challenged, axed its political confidence and its potential to be the government in waiting, that could win an election.Wickremesinghe’s leadership now survives on the strength of the party constitution which allows no democracy within and on what he has genetically gained from his father’s scheming ability. His puerile conduct has only left the likes of Sajith who believes, his father as UNP leader and as President has left him a hereditary right to be UNP’s leader. He would be a bigger misfit than even Wickremesinghe as a leader and that allows the now sharply teethed Rajapaksa to confidently say, he would keep contesting for presidency, till the Opposition finds a competent candidate.Rajapaksa is right in that. Stamped “expired”, Wickremesinghe and the dwarfed UNP rebels have no more “shelf life” to be considered politically valid. They are too stale a baggage to be carried along, for Sri Lanka’s future. There is now certain space for an alternate leadership, a third force. Its about time now to politically focus on issues that could develop an alternative to Rajapaksa.Its the Sinhala middle class that willingly forfeited the right to a decent, modern democratic life, for a war against “Tamil separatism” merely to hold Tamil and other minorities under Sinhala dominance. This egoistic mindset, consistently and aggressively contributed to, by even Gen. Fonseka, is what Rajapaksa still counts on, for his popular strength. It is this heavily bulldozed Sinhala urban society that accepts Rajapaksa and provides him a prop as a “saviour” of the Sinhala nation.This Sri Lanka that bled through ethnically dominated militarised politics for decades, cannot afford to allow Rajapaksa’s brand of family politics on Sinhala popularity, if it seriously contemplates in having socio economic development for all its citizens. It now requires a serious democratic programme that would de-construct the Rajapaksa project, which is an assortment of JVP-JHU Sinhala politics and Wickremesinghe’s neo liberal economic policy. These together accelerated the atomisation of this society, leaving families as selfish “consumerist” competitors amongst each other, in a deformed and stagnant economy.Sri Lanka, starting as Ceylon at the time of independence, has spent its whole independent life with three constitutions. Each, brought with a promise for better governance, democracy and development that was missing before. None had delivered any. One may argue on relative improvements in their drafts though. The ‘72 Republican Constitution for sovereignty and independence from the British and the ‘78 Constitution for more space in fundamental rights. Yet in totality, they have eroded democracy, centralised political power in Colombo and stifled development, pushing this 62 year old country into 30 years of bloody war.A devastating war now declared over has in its wake, left Tamil and Muslim people as decimated observers of a regime that holds them further alienated from political power. It has robbed the very Sinhala people who agreed to wage war, their right to live a democratic life with future development. The rural Sinhala polity living in dismal poverty, have been left outside the Colombo centred regimes without access to power, while national wealth and comforts accrued in urban society. The difference between all previous governments and Rajapaksa is that he is accepted in Sinhala society as having the right to plunder and loot as a family, for the only reason of defeating the LTTE.The 18th Amendment cements that societal power with constitutional legitimacy in the Executive Presidency, and Rajapaksa would rule from Colombo with military powers left in the family, while marketing his rural ancestry for political advantage. A “Burmese type situation”, Delhi or Beijing would not be concerned about, as long as they could weave their influence over the Rajapaksa regime.Access to such regionally insured, unbridled power from distant villages would be ever more remote. Expansion in those areas would thus be Indian or Chinese funded large reconstruction projects, decided in Colombo, implemented from Colombo and commissions also shared largely in Colombo. This would over time lead to cracks and fissures in daily living. Heavily politicised and servile treatment of public life can not always be held together, under repression.This would not demand the 17th Amendment back again in better form, but it would make people take the law unto their hands, dissipating the trust in law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and the State in general. Such possible anarchic eruptions minus an Opposition to provide politically organised direction, will not be taken care of within democratic practise, under this regime.This State thus requires serious reform that could allow people to have their stake in democracy and development in their own areas, denied to them ever since independence, under all three constitutions. Reforms that would create power sharing systems, devoid of interference from Colombo, more effective than existing provincial councils. It would necessarily be a dialogue that would challenge this Rajapaksa regime, as a broad, democratic alternative.It would necessarily accept the need for reconciliation in this war ravaged, ethnically polarised society, need to de-politicise all public services and high positions, a policy framework for education, health, public transport and rural economy which includes agriculture and importantly too, how Sri Lanka could position its economy and development within the emerging Asian economy. This would have to necessarily engage Tamil and Muslim people as well, for it has to be about development in a single, undivided country, what ever the label one gives it.Would not the APRC Final Report, that both its custodian Minister Vitharana and its rightful owner in President Rajapaksa have agreed to forget, be a sound beginning for such dialogue? A new and constructive dialogue of reaching a consensus in this society, on a democratic and a shared future that does not need Wickremesinghe nor his UNP to facilitate.“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person” said Mother Teresa.
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