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Tuesday, 6 January 2015 01:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By H.K. Seneviratne
That was how Charles Dickens’ opening lines of his novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ pictured the social confusion, disorder and turmoil that encapsulated the life in France and England in the year 1775 that eventually broke out the revolution in France. Dialectics teaches us that internal contradictions set matters in motion in society and compel it forward.
Similarly in Sri Lanka’s perspective, the social brutality, confusion, disorder and turmoil in governance has been systematically forced into it over the years. Though Sri Lanka changed its rulers nine times since it gained Independence in 1948 through the peaceful use of the ballot, the level playing field in the contest in 2015 is different as the incumbent is contesting whilst enjoying the sweeping powers of his office consolidated to himself through the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
Free and fair election
As the presidential election is approaching the final days, the politics of fear is rising and would haul the voters’ right to a free and fair election.
The allegations have already been lodged with authorities complaining massive campaign launched by the Government with misuse of power, public property and resources, the use of State and private media, print and electronic, for propaganda machinery, the misconduct in engage in political activates by public officials beside their code of disciplines that contributed to violations of election laws and depriving other presidential candidates from the opportunity of level playing field in the contest.
One significant feature in propaganda machinery of the Government is they are crude and obvious manipulations to gain power and maintain regime dominance of the incumbent.
International community
This has led to international community to be critical over the electioneering process controlled by the Government, the global vigilante being on the basis that if wrong occurs somewhere it could occur everywhere.
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Sri Lanka Government to “ensure the peaceful and credible conduct” of the presidential elections to enable all Sri Lankan voters, including from minority communities, to participate in the election process “without any fear” and intimidation.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth is expressed to request the Government to ensure the people of Sri Lanka should be able to freely exercise their franchise, in an enabling environment marked by transparency, a level playing field, and adherence to the laws and norms that govern a credible and peaceful election. The irony is the incumbent President who seeks re-election at the forthcoming election is the current chair of the Commonwealth.
The most recent global concern was from the European Union (EU) Heads of Mission in Colombo who issued a statement raising the importance of Sri Lanka’s presidential election process being “peaceful, credible and transparent”. The EU statement added that Sri Lankan citizens “must be free to choose their leaders without violence or fear. All parties have a role in upholding Sri Lanka’s strong democratic tradition.”
18th Amendment
It is a general consensus of constitutional scholars, time immemorial, of the impending fear that the perverse incumbency which governed too long tend to govern forever. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution was planned by the incumbent President to seek re-election for unlimited terms. The inbuilt defect in the Amendment that nullified the purpose was said to have been turned down by the Judiciary.
This recalls the famous saying of Martin Luther King Jr: “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”
Rationale for term limits
Aristotle the ancient Greek philosopher acknowledged that “no man should hold the same office twice”. The rationale for term limits in these early democracies was for the rotation of office. Democracy, in the view of the ancient Greeks, required that citizens have the experience of both ruling and being ruled in turn and this principle was best effectuated with a strict limitation on tenure in public office, so as to maximise the number of citizens that could govern.
In recent times Simon Bolivar, one of the leaders of Latin America’s independence movement, enumerated: “Nothing is more perilous than to permit one citizen to retain power for an extended period. The people become accustomed to obeying him, and he forms the habit of commanding them; herein lie the origins of usurpation and tyranny.”
Bolivar identifies that citizens must with good reason learn to fear lest who governed them long will govern them forever the perverse incumbency can, either intentionally or not, come to seem like the only alternative and are contrary to democratic spirit and rule of law.
It is common knowledge that the misuse of electronic media even from the days before the nomination for presidential election was manipulated deliberately to take advantage of the controlling Government. The rationale of the situation was the reasons mentioned above. The statements and commentaries in favour of incumbency were nauseating and some are a source annoyance and insult to intelligence of the media viewers and listeners.
Charles de Montesquieu proclaimed that “to become truly great one has to stand with the people not above them”.
Agenda of the common candidate
The election manifesto of the common candidate Maithripala Sirisena has pledged to fulfil a historic mission to establish a new regime, the most prominent of which being the abolition of the executive presidential system and followed by the implementation of a program to establish an ideal society with moral values underpinning good governance with transparency and to end social evils haunting the society such as corruption, nepotism and one-family rule, breakdown in law and order, spread of violence among politicians and criminalisation of society, abuse of power and waste of resources , infringement on the Judiciary and restoration of rule of law.
Having the above features as the foundation, the common candidate promises a more principled sustainable economic development where the fruits of which will trickle down to masses to elevate their living standard.
The agenda of the common candidate is strikingly attractive for a superlative degree of transformation for a better social and political order that was longing for some time. Yet, the nature of social confusion, disorder and turmoil encapsulating today’s society is such that transformation of a new era being dawned with the year 2015 by peaceful evolution or by a violent revolution thereafter is unpredictable and only history could tell us when it unfolds Sri Lanka’s destiny.
(The writer is an Attorney-at-Law, LL.B.)
