Regaining the Republic

• One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations – Eric Hoffer

With the presidential election less than a fortnight away, there’s no time for lyrical niceties. It is best to grapple with the issues raised by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka in ‘Choosing a Captain’ and ‘Betrayal of Ravana’. A vote for Sirisena is a step forward. Why? It is a progressive advance because it will bring peace to our land. The absence of violence is not peace. Peace is the absence of fear. Peace is the restoration of justice. Peace is when laws that fell silent amidst the clash of arms regain their voice. In supporting the candidacy of Maithripala Sirisena, this writer is not deterred by any future political roles of either Madam Chandrika or Master Ranil. A combative Chandrika would have never advised Chris Nonis to offer the other cheek. When it comes to Ranil, it occurs to the writer that a literate and lucid Prime Minister is not a bad idea after all. The current political discourse is not about choosing a captain to lead our nation state. It is about electing a president for our Republic. On 8 January we should not and must not elect a captain who will rule, lead and command. Instead we should elect a president attuned to the rhythm of the age of information.   The manifestos Maithripala Sirisena, the candidate who receives the unqualified support of this writer, has promised to make the office of the presidency accountable to ‘we the people’ and ‘our elected Legislature on matters of governance in general and the national exchequer in particular’. The President seeking re-election to a third term has now presented us ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Lowa Dinanana Maga’ (Way to Win the World). This new declaration of intent for Constitutional reforms is a lustrous vindication of the fearless crusade of the most venerable Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thero and leader of the Movement for a Just Society. With the discovery of the ‘Way to Win the World,’ we can safely assume that there is now a national consensus and a collective desire for Constitutional reforms. We need not await the total extinction of the Global Tamil Forum or its diaspora to restore the powers of Parliament to supervise the national exchequer or to devise a new electoral system that would prevent elected representatives from bartering the trust reposed on them for personal gain.   Institutional structure Our democracy must rearrange its institutional structure that does not permit our elected leaders to subvert the interests of the State to personal ambitions or the predilections of political leaders cocooned in the high praise of sycophants. In our Parliamentary system this means the recognition of the sovereignty of the people and their elected Parliament. The analogy of the 16th century protestant reformation against the indulgences of medieval papal authority is spot on. Maithripala Sirisena is not John Calvin. He is the equivalent of the Humanist trailblazer Erasmus of Rotterdam – the fearless critic of moral abuses and superstitions of the contemporary church and champion of Catholic reforms.   Democracy Since independence we have had two republican constitutions. Yet we do not seem too concerned with the definition of the term Republic. We use democracy and republic as two interchangeable concepts in governance. The notion that democracy and republic are synonymous has more to do with our current preoccupation with human rights and minority rights. A democracy is no guarantee against tyranny. A democracy is government by the majority. People of a democracy can remain free only if they know what freedom is and are ready to defend their liberty. In a democracy the minority loses and the majority wins and rules. Athenian democracy forced Socrates to drink the cup of poison hemlock by a vote of 280 to 220. In our post-war liberated democracy, a Samurdhi officer in Kelaniya bound himself to a tree and a school teacher in Anamaduwa knelt down in public. In addition, our vibrant democracy allows our Minister of Higher Education to suggest that former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga should be stripped naked, beaten and forced to march in public for the simple offence of supporting the Opposition candidate for the presidency. Those in power in our democracy by their silence and indifference seem to endorse S.B. Dissanayake’s prescription of the equivalent of Hemlock for our one living ex-President.   Republic Now, what is a republic? A republic is a form of government in which an accepted political order directs the elected representatives to govern the nation state in accordance with a charter that limits the responsibilities and powers of the state. The institutional arrangement in a republic offers the best guarantee against encroachment of individual rights of the citizen. Through institutional arrangements, the ancient Roman Republic allowed both patricians and plebeians to participate in governance. It ensured that voice of the masses were not drowned by the cacophony of an elite. The founding fathers who hatched the first foreign conspiracy in distant Pennsylvania by setting up a republic clearly saw the distinction between a democracy and a republic. They therefore reaffirmed the human entitlement for “...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” by adding the immortal words “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” In a republic the consent of the governed takes precedence over the principle of rule by majority. In a republic, no one could deprive or restrict the inalienable individual rights of the citizen.   What does the evidence show? In the hyper-connected world we live in, in the second decade of the 21st century, reason supersedes gratitude and loyalty is eclipsed by logic. Subjectivism is a fatal flaw in political analysis. Do those currently in the Opposition have a better record of outstanding achievement than the man whose job they hope to take in 20 days, if only to abolish it? The answer is YES. In the context of regarding the exercise on 8 January as an attempt to reclaim the Republic in which its just powers including the coercive powers of the state would be subject to the ‘consent of the governed,’ the answer would be an unequivocal ‘YES’. Is the current collective of the Opposition, the Maithri-CBK-Ranil troika, more of a proven success than Mahinda Rajapaksa? Should we not ask ‘what are the successes of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the post-2010 period? There are three watershed events. The repeal of the 17th Amendment, the removal of the term limit of the office of the presidency and the impeachment of a Chief Justice. In light of the ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Lowa Dinanana Maga’ which envisages Constitutional reforms, any discussion on the repeal of the 17th Amendment would be a singularly sterile exertion. However, what does the evidence show? The chosen replacement for the vacant position of General Secretary of the SLFP is Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee that recommended the impeachment of the 43rd Chief Justice. We shall not embark on that vibrant voyage of judicial discovery. However, the demand for evidence by scholar loyalists reminds us of the fact that Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa showed up at the gate of the official residence of the impeached CJ after the debate in Parliament to partake in the hurriedly-arranged repast of ‘kiribath’ and ‘kavun’ to celebrate this great legislative landmark in the annals of our Republic. Therefore the response to the question on the credentials of the current Opposition troika would naturally include a vivisection of the governing coterie of democratic purists. I conclude with the words of my favourite Marxian philosopher Antonio Gramsci: “I feel the pulse of the activity of the future city that those on my side are building is alive in their conscience. And in it, the social chain does not rest on a few; nothing of what happens in it is a matter of luck, nor the product of fate, but the intelligent work of the citizens…”