Saturday Apr 20, 2024
Saturday Apr 20, 2024
Wednesday, 25 September 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Anura K. T. De Silva
We are faced with yet another election, and most people are in a quandary about whether they should vote blindly, vote consciously for someone new, or perhaps not vote in protest.
Our nation has been in a state of political turmoil for some time. Almost everyone but the politicians would agree that our governing systems have not worked for the people since independence, that we have been aggravated since 1978, and that we are currently facing a deplorable state of affairs. Instead of fixing problems and boosting the economy, recent PMs and presidents have been busy trading votes for the highest rates in the parliamentarian stock exchange, using our wealth as their currency, while plunging the nation from one crisis to another.
Meanwhile, the general public has been changing representatives often, based not on either policies or ideals, but to help one group win over another, or to defeat the opposing candidate in return for short-term favours. As a result, the problems faced by the people are real in terms of economic, social, and political consequences, while society is poisoned with crime, fraud, and corruption, sponsored primarily by elected representatives of both governments who seem intent on making things worse every year.
Trust in Government at an historic low
Today, our trust in Government is at an historic low, allowing re-entry into politics for the previously accused rogues, criminals, and murderous representatives who now seek to join the fray, once more, in different clothing. Every political party insists that another party, or another branch of government, is responsible for the downward spiral towards possible national bankruptcy with no one taking 
ownership.
Voters are not only angry at politicians; they have no idea where to turn. Hence, a vacuum has opened, enabling some of the same wine in a new Rajapaksa bottle so the family can scoop out what little they left behind. Sadly, even the most corrupt politicians, once driven from office in shame, still hold a blindly loyal following who praise their masterful con artistry, while others are recruited for only a ‘bath packet’ and a ‘half-bottle of arrack’, by exploiting their poverty. Some politicians rejected from other parties are displaying loyalty to new parties, anticipating a repeat performance to fool the people one more time.
As a result, some people are so disgusted with the prevailing political process that they advocate ‘no politicians’ at all – that we ought to not elect any politicians to do the job. However, as a democratic nation (at least on paper), we cannot destroy the only virtue we have left. Therefore, we need to protect the fact that a democracy is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
We cannot ignore the vote of the people under any circumstance. If we do, we invite into power a dictator like Adolf Rajapaksa, who is trying to exploit the recent insecurity in the country and may try to take over by promising to eradicate extremist terrorists, which he will do by silencing the journalists and minorities to suppress those opposing their views or agenda.
Empty promises
Interestingly, Rajapaksa also promises to revive the economy, as if that ability is stored in some magic wand he carries. Any contender can promise anything, today, against the backdrop of the failed ‘Yahapalanaya’ who were unable to prosecute the former corrupt, fraudulent, and criminal elements and have normalised the laundering of dirty politics.
Today, it is the most lucrative venture for politicians in either party to gain power in Sri Lanka as it’s like winning a lifetime lottery to consume the national wealth with no accountability during or after being in power. In spite of the wonderful phrases in our constitution, the reality is we are almost an autocratic, corrupt system of governance with no accountability, no checks, and no balance of power but a camouflage of a democratic socialist republic billboard to fool not only the world but also our own people.
Our real problems only begin with a series of presidents who repeatedly made false promises to steal votes but had no will or skill for good governance. They lacked interest in reforming the dysfunctions in our governance in spite of 19 amendments to our constitution. Everyone wants a government that can get things done, particularly when the ship is sinking, and people are desperate.
Ineffectiveness to govern is a major predicament, but we cannot undermine the impact caused by crime, fraud, and corruption in all branches of government. Those we elect may not want genuine reforms the country needs, but the general public has not voiced any tangible solutions either. They simply raise placards that they are against corruption, raise hope for some miracle saviour to fall from the sky, or warrant a PM instead of a president.
The most recent six Presidents we elected incrementally validated how easy it was to steal as well as sponsor fraud, crime, and corruption. None of them were held answerable in an environment with no checks and balances in governance and limited power in the hands of the people. In the meantime, as the lives of millions have increasingly become deplorable, the people are wondering if they should totally give up on ineffective presidencies and revert back to having a PM as the country’s Chief Executive. Those people are forgetting what it was like pre-1978 under seven PMs within the Parliament.
It is understandable those who may not have lived as adults prior to 1978 would have such aspirations and believe the grass may be greener on the other side. But what is mind boggling is the fact that many who lived through the seven PMs as Chief Executives are advocating returning to the same mess without demanding changes to the system. They rationalise the need for a PM instead of a president by presenting many of the former British colonised nations as examples. 
Unless we choose to easily forget our miserable past governance when we imitated the British colonial masters for 29 years that ignored the aspirations of the majority of people and gave rise to two insurrections, riots every few years, and even planted the seeds for the 25-year racially divided war; turning back to a PM should be considered insanity. It is a fact that all PMs (perhaps with the exception of the first two) greatly contributed to the two insurrections. They ordered our own citizens killed to hold onto their power by playing party politics instead of serving the people, who too often returned to a deep slumber between each election.
The simple argument is that if Presidents Premadasa, Chandrika, Mahinda, or Sirisena were elected as PMs in a parliament democracy rather than as a president, would they have served the nation any better?
How does it matter if we elected a PM/president?
The nation’s desperation is so deep, some are demanding the executive presidency to be abolished or to convert the presidency to a puppet presidency by transferring the executive powers of the president to the prime minister within the Parliament.
I see that the idea is no different than putting lipstick on a pig and calling it a princess as the same powers to the PM combined with the majority parliamentarians within one party will destroy even the pseudo democracy within the quasi three branches of government we currently have. Therefore, I really don’t understand why some citizens advocate the role of the Chief Executive to be the PM and to appoint a puppet as the president. Puppetry may be entertaining, but I do not think the Government should incur wasteful expenses to maintain a puppet presidency and make all citizens pay. Furthermore, when a PM is elected as the CEO, there can be detrimental effects on governance:
The common thread is that it is we the people granted unconditional power and authority, both pre and post 1978, to our elected representatives. They used that power to oppress the people and play party (mob) politics to hold on to their power rather than serve the people. Another common argument is that the people have been electing ‘bad’ leaders. If we can elect ‘good’ leaders, things might change. But we are forgetting that we are fishing from the same muddy pool for leaders and good people are reluctant to put their neck forward into the same dysfunctional system.
Based on our electioneering system, where each representative needs many thousands of millions to contest, it is no surprise they will have to recover their expenses after each election cycle. It is apparent that we have had inbred dysfunctions in governance ever since our independence due to divisive politics, absence of checks and balances, high concentration of power, and no power in the hands of the citizens to recall those we elect.
As a result, politically active democracy loving people were made to bounce from one party to another while gradually losing faith in governance, when in fact the dysfunction is in the systems and structure of governance we have built. But instead of identifying the root causes of the problems and fixing them, we are still blaming the tools instead of the workmanship (how we govern).
Therefore, let us open our minds and look for an indigenous solution based on a core set of values that is dear and centre to all our citizens rather than attempt to imitate or adopt governance from other nations or swing power like in a pendulum from PM to president and back to PM. We could bring out the best in ourselves and establish an above board government by the people, of the people, and for the people.
There is no nation like ours and there are no citizens like ours anywhere else in the world, so trying to find templates from other nations is as insane as colonial masters trying to introduce their systems on our people. We should definitely learn from the strengths and weaknesses from other governing systems and how they have managed to balance power within a democracy. It will definitely not be a one-time repair forever, but the new system of governance should at least be heading in the right direction, where we should plan stopovers to analyse how we are doing and redefine our way forward at least once every generation.
Some of our deficiencies and how we can overcome them
By having the Judiciary under the leader of the party, it is no surprise that law and the judiciary belong to the political party in power. This not only grants them a license for fraud, corruption, and crime, but it also aids in covering up the friendly proponents and opponents, so they all can share the national wealth through the 225+1. Therefore, if we even elect a prophet into this mess, it is likely the prophet too will end up in the same predicament. It is evident that we need to reform not only our electioneering processes but also how we must be governed within a new set of common laws equally applicable to everyone without any exceptions and function with independent pillars of government with clear oversight of checks and balances.
As all three pillars in the government need to be strengthened, we currently cannot regard the presidency as the single most evil thing in our nation. I wonder, if any former president was elected as the PM in a parliament democracy, would any of them have served the nation any better? Another argument is that do we believe if any other formation of the elected members in the parliament had been the majority party, would they have served the nation better?
Dysfunction in our governance has less to do with the individuals (even though they are still guilty of their frauds, crimes, and corruptions) but more to do with the weaknesses in our institutions, governing processes, and our social culture where we often make decisions with our hearts rather than our minds. The people end up being easily fooled by appearances, perceptions in the loyalty to the political party, or act blindly based on the promises they make without critically questioning their means of delivery or even ulterior motives. Worst of all, we grant excessive powers and are more than willing to blindly follow those we elect.
Today, people are much more aware than ever before, especially the younger generations, than politicians were able to steal the tsunami aid in broad daylight, which was raised with great difficulty and was so essential for the victims. Hence, we need to discover the root causes for our governing dysfunctions and address them.
When we look back, it is apparent we have elected representatives from almost the same two camps into the same structure and expected different results. It is true the JR’s constitution made the structure much weaker by removing even some of the civility that existed as the general public was made isolated from those in power and unable to demand for change much earlier. Some of the core reasons for the dysfunctions in governance that have become reprehensible are as follows:
Therefore, when we dig deep into our systems of governance, the most common reason for our national dysfunction can be identified as the following two reasons:
Due to these circumstances, changing from president to PM (19th Amendment) is not going to make any impact when there are excessive powers that corrupt those we elect. The true dysfunction of our governance is not the post of the executive presidency but the unconditional power and unquestionable authority we grant to the presidency and members of government being exempted from the laws of the country. The unaccountable access to public wealth allowed to be stolen by the mob of politicians with no transparency has developed its own dirty stock market to horse trade representatives weakening even our Judiciary, and the hopes and civility of the citizens.
(The writer can be reached via email at [email protected])
