The General Election of 2020

We must vote to save, secure and advance the institutions of liberal democracy that we have – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

In terms of the issues at stake, the 5 August General Election poses the same challenges as the Presidential Election of November 2019 and more. Not necessarily because of the intervening hiatus of the coronavirus either.

November 2019 was about electing someone who in the widest public perception would get a job done in sharp contrast to the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime that preceded it and also the front person for the Jathika Chinthanaya based ideology of a new constitution and form of governance. It was therefore a vote for clear and decisive leadership; for law and order and stability and for legitimacy rooted in the heart of society. 

This was secured with a majority of over 1.5 million votes in an election, which it must be said, the opposition in effect handed over power to Rajapaksa through its own incompetence as he indeed, won it through his overwhelming charisma and appeal. 

Rajapaksa therefore has the mandate to govern as he sees fit and without the encumbrance of Parliament, in the COVID era, he has effectively given reign to his militaristic impulses and established Task Forces for a disciplined, virtuous and law-abiding society as well as for archaeological heritage in the east. Moreover, the handling of the COVID virus is in the hands of those in the military and those who were in the military – a military mindset. Ironically one of the groups largely affected by the virus is the Navy! No one is asking the question as to how this has happened; the regime is certainly not telling.

This brings us therefore to the importance of Parliament and the General Election. In any functioning democracy or any society with the pretensions of being one, the three basic pillars of government must operate i.e. the executive, legislature and judiciary. One of these pillars should not have the power to lay down the law to the others in a variation of Vattel’s definition of the balance of power. 

Moreover, the basic functions of the three pillars is that the executive would be responsible for the implementation of the laws that the legislature debates and passes – these could be laws that the executive proposes in the first instance. Parliament is essentially a deliberative body and debating chamber; it is not about implementation but it is about the allocation and accountability of resources for the implementation of policies it agrees upon. The judiciary upholds the rule of law and interprets the actions of the executive within the framework of the constitution. 

Since the second of March dissolution of Parliament this system could not operate. Was not allowed to. The Supreme Court held with the executive on this and from the second of June until the next parliament meets, there is really no authority for the raising and expenditure of public finance. The hallowed and if not also hackneyed adage about parliamentary authority over public finance – No taxation without Representation – has been thrown overboard. 

Whilst the management of the COVID virus spread is being seen as a relative success, there is the economic time bomb ticking away and the increasing authoritarian majoritarianism of a regime and chief executive who arrests lawyers but does not bring them to court and pardons ex-army officers for the most horrendous of crimes for which, conviction has been handed down by the highest court in the land.

Economically we have been downgraded by the rating agencies to B- and back to lower middle-income status. It is estimated that over the next five years we will have to pay back in debt repayments approximately $ 4 billion a year. Some estimates are higher. International lenders are presumably waiting for a new Parliament to start negotiations on relief. Some money is being given to small and medium business relief and money from China has been pledged. 

The Japanese have suspended discussions on debt relief. The ridiculous and it appears, deliberately misleading controversy over the Millennium Challenge Account grant of $ 480 million is further damaging. What happens when the toll of unemployment in the garment sector, the hospitality trade, migrant labour, and small and medium businesses begins to bite and bite harder? 

Consolidating the dynasty

The General Election for the regime has always been about securing a two-third majority in Parliament to consolidate the dynasty. For the President, specifically, it is about the people’s mandate constitutionally sanctioned by an election to create a system of government and governance to his liking. He clearly likes the unfettered room for manoeuvre afforded by the 1978 Constitution and it will be no surprise therefore if he moves fast, two thirds granted directly to him or not, to return to it without the restrictions of the Nineteenth Amendment and what he and his supporters see, as the costly irrelevance of the Thirteenth. 

This could happen against a rising tide of discontent on the economic front and the use, yet again, of the constitution for instrumental purposes – defence of national security, stability and law and order – a defence against those both local and international who fall on the wrong side of the patriot/traitor divide. Yet the economic consequences of the virus may outlive the euphoria of populist and authoritarian constitutional reform. It all depends in how badly it is going to hit was has so far been the Rajapaksa constituency in the population. If it is going to be bad and going to evoke a ham-fisted and heavy handed response form the regime, we will be back to fighting for basic human rights, basic civil and political rights.

There is the issue of what the voter should do in this election – that is the voter who does not have a fixed partisan affiliation. It appears too that there is the disaffection with the choice of parties and candidates available and therefore a decision not to vote. In the event, if voting is decided upon, to spoil the ballot. Whilst this might appease individual consciences, this will also enable the mandate to be based on a smaller proportion of the total national vote and in order to secure fundamental rights and duties, institutions and processes of a functioning liberal democracy no one side should be so powerful as to be in a position to lay down the law to others. Checks and balances are the order of the day – both institutional and procedural. We must vote to save, secure and advance the institutions of liberal democracy that we have. 

Either way, inside Parliament and out, no liberal democracy is worth its salt without a strong opposition. What we are presented with is dismal – on the street they say that one faction of the UNP is with the President and the other with the Prime Minister. There is therefore no real choice – no real champion of a Sri Lanka founded upon the idea of Unity in Diversity and committed to protect and expand it at all costs. This leaves the section of civil society who had its heyday in October 2018 to return to the fight of explaining the importance of the constitution and democracy to the everyday life of the peoples and their country.

Were the Democrats to win the US presidency in November, there is the chance of a more human rights and democracy friendly international environment taking hold. 

However, the point is simply that the design and trajectory of political, economic and constitutional developments for Sri Lanka should be the primary responsibility of Sri Lankans – we are the stakeholders and the country is the site of contestation and struggle.