By Mario Perera, Kadawata

Much ink has flowed with regard to the flaws of our present political machinery. The more frequent punching bags are those labeled family banditism and dictatorial behaviour of the president sabotaging the constitution. Family relationships and nepotism always played a part in our politics. However that did not necessarily mean that clans self-appropriated the helm of government. What the opposition is harping on could be called family banditism or the exercise of family power through dictatorial means. It also depicts the degeneration of such power through the display of force and procurement of financial kick backs bringing enrichment to their wielders. Such is the thesis of the opposition. When we go down memory lane to the Senanayake and the Bandaranayake eras, family links and nepotism did not degenerate into banditism in its most negative connotations of force and corruption. Those families had it all. What they aspired to was prestige, renown and recognition. Naturally they did their part to hand over the throne to their kith and kin. As regards the Premadasa and Wijetunga periods, they were in any case too short to permit the two presidents unnecessary flights of fancy. There will always be some or others with opposing arguments to adduce. But that was generally how matters stood.

As regards dictatorial trends, they were always there in germ at the beginning, and then took greater roots from which mightier offshoots alarmingly sprouted. The beginnings heralding an enforcement of this trend were when the executive prime minister exercised hegemony through a family oligarchy. This tendency reared up in full public view during the 1970-1977 period. The government at that time was more oligarchic than parliamentary. From that time more specifically began the tendency for parliamentarians to be reduced to the status of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”yesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ men. Their claims to exercise such public office derived from the benevolence and good-will of the leader, their chief. So while the families or the cats held sway the mice or the party men too had a field day of their own with the tacit or overt consent, the leave and license of their leaders. This was a typical case of reaping while the sun shone. Those were the crumbs the lackeys were allowed to gather from under the tables of their masters as compensation. In short corruption came to be institutionalised with this unwritten give and take policy.

It was from this oligarchic platform that the road to the executive presidency or constitutional dictatorship was paved.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Now this tendency, the opposition says is at its zenith, the structure being so high and more akin now to the tower of Babel than that of Dubai. It is also not possible to listen to the voicing of our legal eagles on this subject without being inclined towards that conclusion. It is this actuality which prompts many questions about a more salutary form or new model of governance within the framework of law and order, placingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  checks and balances both the ruler and surely all the more, his political followers.

The form which the opposition to President MR has taken sheds much light about such a model. The degeneration of our politics is inevitably linked to the degradation visible in all fields that support this super structure, be it family life, education, law and order dependant on justice and enforcement, among many others. This degradation has rebounded on the political system through the break-down of trust in every sector of our social, civil and even religious life, which is the breeding ground of politicians. As regards religion, there is no political party that does not have the support of the robed elite, which means that they are as much in the mist as the people they are called to guide. In short our life appears to be a case of the blind leading the blind. The more jovial will probably recall the pied piper of Hamelin; in our case the pied pipers of Sri Lanka.

The positive aspect of this present presidential election is probably that it has provided a glimmering of light in the darkness that surrounds us. I am referring to the common opposition candidate, and the varied mix of parties that drew him into the picture and are supporting his candidacy. The general has not issued from a political background. He has no political affiliations and no party of his own. That means he is not surrounded by ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”yesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ men. His support is on ideological grounds, to which physical strength had been added by the support of the most multifarious parties with diverse aspirations and horizons. The picture is therefore not of ONE domineering Gulliver striding alongside Lilliputians, but the MANY united by an ideological aim. It is this glue that links the components, the one and the many together, and not power, force and money. The parties are not in the image of a domestic staff proclaiming loyalty to the feudal lord or the lord of the manor. The opposition candidate is in the mould of a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”primus inter paresƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ or the first among equals.

In the present system, whatever the man in power or his power block deems as right will be seconded by the raised hands of all rank and file constituting his party, whatever be their categories or sub-categories. The model of governance we perceive in the opposition is a radical deviation from the existing system. It opens the field for eminent personalities, conforming to the needs of our nation to be integrated into political life as leaders and potential heads of State thereby introducing new life into ailing body politic. In such conditions even estranged political parties could still unite because the binding factors are more important than their differences. Also such a formation exists only in so far as its ideology prevails. If it crumbles then the components break up and the combination falls apart for it loses its ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”raison dƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚ªtreƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢.

Many will naturally ask whether it be an experiment worth trying, considering that the present model does not appear to be viable.