Might is not always right

Sri Lanka is one of Asia’s oldest democracies. Despite these once august credentials being eroded over time, most Sri Lankans have valued the democratic space that has existed in Sri Lanka for decades, even though its flaws run deep. 

Though democracy in this country has been far from complete, especially where minorities are concerned, there was a collective sense that at a fundamental level, citizens could rely on its elected officials for some measure of balanced power, representation, accountability, transparency and justice. 

However, there is a very real danger that even these vestiges of democracy could be lost to Sri Lanka unless stronger measures are taken immediately to foster intercommunity relations and provide support to honouring core democratic principles. Over most of last year, the cracks began widening, impacted by COVID-19 and exacerbated by successive election platforms that sought to sow discord by following a policy of winning big at any cost. 

The passage of the 20th Amendment, helped by an ineffectual Opposition, in the backdrop of a global pandemic and increasing economic hardship, has found Sri Lanka facing the danger of an even further reduced democracy in 2021. Polarising rhetoric in Sri Lanka’s political landscape is not new but after repeated rounds of feeding the ideology of hate and partisanship, it has now grown ugly, twisted branches that are engulfing a worryingly wide range of spaces. 

The pandemic is a health issue and should be treated as such but the mandatory cremation that the Government has stubbornly stuck to, despite a growing mountain of evidence, is regressive and unscientific. Worse, it is doing unnecessary and easily avoidable damage to the social fabric of Sri Lanka that, ultimately, undermines the democratic freedoms Sri Lankans have valued for ages.  

Then on Friday, a monument at the Jaffna University was forcefully removed, sending more shockwaves across Sri Lanka’s multiple communities. University Grant Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof. Sampath Amaratunga has attempted to explain it away by arguing that it was constructed without the necessary approvals and, as there are both Sinhala and Tamil students at the Jaffna University and elsewhere within the higher education system, removing a memorial that symbolised war is a positive move. Unfortunately, what the UGC Chairman does not pay heed to is that it was built to memorialise civilians who died during the last phase of the conflict. 

The memorial may have been controversial but few fair-minded Sri Lankans would argue that the Tamil people need to be given the space to memorialise their dead so Sri Lanka can finally put its terrible past to rest and move towards genuine reconciliation. 

Memorialisation cannot just be the privilege of the majority, not if true healing is to take place. The State needs to be sensitive to the needs of all its citizens and understand that the tenants of democracy are at the core of reconciliation. 

Ideally the championing of democracy should happen from the highest levels of Government and it should be a democracy that does not fall prey to biased laws and regulations that are ham-handedly implemented but rises to meet the aspirations of all Sri Lankans. For many Sri Lankan citizens, who have held the tenets of democracy dear for nearly a century, the desperate need is for a leadership rooted in compassion, understanding, equity and equality.