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naturally found living to be a struggle of its own that required working and earning, and therefore as we could not all afford to be seated under a tree somewhere talking politics all day; we evolved into what is now termed a ‘representative democracy,’ where we pick some chaps (to represent our sovereign right) periodically through some electoral process, pay them a salary (or these days a bit more – what with the continental breakfasts, duty free land cruisers, security entourages who force us also out of their way) and this ‘system’ continues – good? I say not!
Although our Constitution (1978 – 2nd Republican) states at its very top, at Article 3 that we have vested complete, supreme and inalienable power of the Republic to ourselves, we thereafter delegate it (for periods limited by law) to three organs; the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government created under Article 4. I wonder how many of us have realised that in-between this delegation another process takes place automatically, which we have very little (if any) control over.
Are we really the ones doing the electing?
I will deal with the Executive and Judicial powers in brief as my present dialogue is more to do with larger and more wider electoral processes where we claim to be electing our representatives; my questions is – are we really the ones doing the electing?
I am not saying ‘something is wrong’ or ‘another thing is right’; a political-scientist’s mandate is not to cast aspersions, but to state the fact of the status quo as it exists, analyse it and opine an educated thesis of that scenario, this should simply be considered as that.
Firstly our Executive powers, though vested in an elected President [Article 4(b)], governance is thereafter executed through a Cabinet of Ministers [A 43(1)] and we have no control over its selection or its numbers; and this Cabinet is presided over by the Executive President under A 43(2). Similarly to exercise our Sovereign Judicial powers through “...courts, tribunals & institutions created and established, or recognised by the Constitution ...or by law ...” [A 4(c)], appointments are made to the Apex Judiciary by the Executive President at his/her will; once again over which the People have no control or oversight.
In that backdrop let us analyse our Sovereign Legislative Power, which is said to be exercised “...by parliament, of elected representatives of the people...” (devolved further to the provinces following the 13th Amendment); my question is, is that really so? Are we truly the ones doing the selection, without any intervention or interference?
Party System and Proportionate Representation (PR)
I should like to argue that the Party System practiced in Sri Lanka firstly removed our sovereign power to a great extent to elect our preferred representatives and that we have merely become ‘endorsing agents’ of persons already selected; and that the PR system introduced thereafter has completely done away with even the little power we had to reject whom we did not desire, that despite such loss of confidence by masses they end up representing us anyway on the overall party percentage! I will also briefly advocate on how to beat this corrupt ‘system’ in my concluding paragraphs.
Early scientists have argued, quoting pre-independent English commissions that recommended a Westminster-styled system, that Ceylon (as it then was) being already divided along race, religion and even caste lines was not the best suited to introduce ‘party politics’; that it would create further fractions within an already-divided people.
I argue further, that this system of permitting political parties (really a few affluent leaders shrouding behind show-piece ‘nomination boards’) to decide on candidates is a disincentive for both a truly eligible candidate from rising and the people benefitting from electing such a genuine representative; presently the electorate simply gets to pick from a bowl of names already pre-elected by that party hierarchy. There are systems in contrast which still have a ‘party system’ but the voter is also included in selection process of candidates, who ultimately contest an election.
‘Buy-back’ vote for gifts and super star candidates
As we practice the party system here with the PR system requiring a party to obtain as many votes as possible (in order to generate a higher proportion of seats for the party) political parties are compelled to list a candidate with millions to give-away and ‘buy votes’ from an almost 30% of the electorate in poverty, or a candidate who can rake in thousands of votes based on TV/cinema or sports stardom; but is this truly the ‘representative democrat’ expected in the science of politics, to argue policy and legislate on behalf of the electorate? I would argue not.
Then for the very same reasons that render them ineligible, this same candidate is thereafter blamed for election malpractice, thuggery or intimidation and ultimately breaching party discipline, crossing-parties or leaving with a break-away fraction; who is to blame? What is the resultant effect on the electorate or country?
political parties that have split in so many ways (like the UNP) which denies the voter of a cogent opposition;
only coalition governments like the PA being formed with several such fractions, requiring a strong personality in leadership (like the present Executive President) who can only keep them together;
however it is only such ‘being together’ with several compromises like dishing out ministries by the dozen that is possible in such a regime, as there can be no single economic or socio-political policy that all can agree on, divided by such a wide set of political ideals (see – the continuing differences between the JHU in the PA Govt., the regular dissents of the old Leftist fractions with the capitalist UNP breakaways in the PA);
the sublime argument (bordering on the ridiculous in my humble opinion) emanating from some constituent members this ruling co-aligned regime, that as there is ‘no opposition,’ they are (ostensibly) ‘doing the job of the opposition from inside’ – what a load of rubbish, opportunistic hypocrites is all that they are, nothing more;
"The Party System practiced in Sri Lanka firstly removed our sovereign power to a great extent to elect our preferred representatives and that we have merely become ‘endorsing agents’ of persons already selected; and the PR system introduced thereafter has completely done away with even the little power we had to reject whom we did not desire, that despite such loss of confidence by masses they end up representing us anyway on the overall party percentage!"
these statements I believe are aimed at diverting the perception of an opposition in the eyes of the general public, who may not have an understanding of concepts like shadow cabinets, duties of an opposition (vipakshaye kaarya bhaaraya), role of third-forces/pressure groups (thewani balawega/balapem kandaayam), that you cannot perform such duties from ‘inside a government’;
ultimately this denies the Republic of a virile and forceful opposition and ushers a deathbed to democracy, a sweet invitation to dictatorship;
a sharp-eye may have noted several simultaneously orchestrated moves to undermine the Legislative and Judicial processes of the country in the public eye, by portraying them as useless, corrupt or ineffective but at the same time uplifting Executive power as the solution to all problems, delivering all wishes;
this is not how a democracy is meant to function, these three organs must function equally well and must necessarily be perceived so by the public;
in this backdrop of killing representative democracy, it is difficult for more scientifically based parties like the JVP to get their political ideals or economic principles across to the masses, or even people-based parties as the new Democratic Party (DP) appears to be, to arise, since ‘the system’ has already been corrupted by the glitz of million dollar and super star candidates.
Thus this is a vicious cycle that the majority of so-called politicians of the present era will never genuinely desire to change, mostly for selfish reasons as they too have sons and daughters or others queuing in line to exploit the same ‘system’; thus it will fall upon us, the ordinary Sri Lankan citizens, to try and break this cycle – I will suggest one method to beat this corrupt and unhealthy trend in my conclusion.
Soap opera and media spin doctoring
At the same time I am not persuaded by the argument that ‘actors’ cannot contest as a general rule, there’s no such disqualification in our law and it is nonsense; indeed some genuinely public-conscious leaders in history have had their roots as public performers.
However there is a difference when parties pack dream-teams of superstars with no such political conviction to serve, simply to maximise their proportionate votes; such candidates have absolutely no idea of who or what they represent, as seen by the recent example of the TV star who crossed-over immediately after election and when questioned on a political program did not have a clue as to what the 17th Amendment or the Constitutional Council was!
Also it is not only political parties that engage in these vote-swinging tactics. Since of late we have also noted some media groups engaging in similar attempts, completely breaching their ethics of remaining independent and non-partisan; thus placing their credibility in serious peril.
One particular channel is not even so subtle any longer, as on this occasion they publicly promoted three candidates from three different parties; all former (or present) staff and I suppose you can’t go wrong with that bet, with a ‘horse each’ on all sides. It now appears that these media groups gradually mould persons in the public eye through various programs, timing to place them before an election, thus allowing them an unfair advantage amongst other candidates. The public need to be mindful of why an institution would go to such trouble.
They will, having promoted ‘their horse,’ then continue to slip-in a few clips in the guise of ‘news’ to sustain that public attention on their candidate; should they end up being elected, it would be interesting to monitor what agendas these ‘horses’ thereafter follow.
You will note that there is hardly any difference between the media policy (or commercial interests) of that particular institution and the words being uttered by their ‘chosen candidate’ which they will repeatedly air/publish ad nauseam claiming it to be ‘news’! It now appears that the so-called ‘fourth pillar of democracy – media’ is also not that independent after all and for this very statement alone I wonder how many editors will even publish this; not that it would make any difference to me personally, as I will continue to write even for the few friends who enjoy reading these and circulate it via email. To those few editors brave enough to carry this, I salute you and to the others, I will simply quote Orwell and the Mahavamsa, in that particular order:
Orwell – “... in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act …”
Mahavamsa (68.8-13) – “… it does not become persons in our situation to live enjoying our own ease, and unmindful of the interests of the people …”
How do we beat this corrupt ‘system’?
Now for my revelation, the magic potion like that of the Druid Getafix that gives superhuman strength to Asterix and his brave Gaulish warriors to beat the mighty Roman empire time and again (with the exception of Obelix of course); well here it is. It is no great secret really (just like Getafix’s potion turns out to be nothing but tea leaves) and simple common sense that anyone else may also come up with; but certainly it has to be by thinking out-of-the-box. All we need to do to create a sudden ‘jolt’ or shake-up the system a little bit, is to change our pattern of casting votes and I suggest this way.
We counter-attack all instructions issued to us to maintain this system; where they tell us to first cast a vote for the party (which ensures their ‘proportionate number of seats’) and then pick three candidates whom they have placed before us; I say we do it in reverse order, asserting our sovereign right to elect. It is my frank view that the hierarchy of most popular parties are not really bothered as to how (or to whom) the three preferences are cast once they get their proportionate vote for the party, which is a main reason leading to the manaape pora or preference vote battles between candidates of the same party that ultimately end up in Courts; however that is a different issue.
What I suggest we do is that we look at all the candidates put forward by all the parties (or even Independent Groups) in our electoral area, forget party politics and remove the ‘coloured-glass’ momentarily, carefully consider the top-most candidate whom we feel is eminently suited and respectably honest enough to represent our valuable sovereign power, one who will be beyond corruption or undue influence in any manner. Once we make that decision, notwithstanding what ‘party or colour’ he/she may represent to cast a vote against that number and then for the party/group he/she represents.
We will leave it at that if we cannot think of another two numbers from that same party or group upon whom we can repose such confidence. This is the only way my dear fellow citizen that I can think of, at this time and within our constraints, that we can give a hard enough wake-up call to all our politicians that we will not stand for this nonsense any longer; that we will not vote for a list that they have arbitrarily prepared with no reference to us and we end up voting for the ‘best of the worst’ as we have no other choice!
This I believe is the only way we could get them to come out with a new system where we will also take an active part in picking our representatives, and more suitable and honourable persons will come forward as candidates; let us all show that we will not be hoodwinked by media or PR campaigns or stage-managed political rivalry acted out on TV for our benefit, where both candidates return to the electorate in the same vehicle thereafter, laughing at us, the sovereign Sri Lankan citizen!
With that hope and vision, shared with you in sincere love for this home-soil that we together call home on this our 66th Independence Day, for this free-land that has nurtured us to love it above all else and the future that is so easily within our reach for which many heroes of our generation have shed their blood for 30 years; if we could only have the right people acting and representing us, I leave you with these thoughts of Plato, upon which I began this dialogue:
“... the price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men... ”
(The author is a practitioner in Sri Lanka. Having passed out as an Attorney in May 2000, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Laws (Hons) from King’s College, London and completed a pupillage of a Barrister in London. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree (BA) in Pol. Science, Int. Relations & Journalism from the University of Colombo and a Postgraduate Diploma (Hons) in Int. Relations & Pol. Science from the BCIS. He is a life member of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), member of the International Bar Association (IBA) & formerly of the Association of Sri Lankan Lawyers, UK (ASLLUK). He was awarded the ‘Outstanding Young Persons’ (TOYP) for legal accomplishment in 2008. He may be contacted on
[email protected] for any clarification of his writings.)
