Is it Democracy or Hypocrisy and conspiracy?
Posted on January 24th, 2018

Dr Sudath Gunasekara 

Some fundamental flaws of the 2015 and 2017 Delimitation of Local government Councils and electoral system.

Obviously you all might say that it is too late and useless talking about this subject now as it has already become the law and there is no point in trying to close the gate after the horse has already bolted. But even if I had written this before the law was enacted everyone knows how our Parliament responds to public opinion and how they rush in collectively and unanimously to make laws to meet their political ends for personal gain completely ignoring the good of the country or the people. or the traditional national interests of the sons of the soil.

As such I thought it would be useful for readers at least to have an idea about some serious flaws that have got in to the law books so that some patriotic law maker or citizen can take necessary steps to rectify these treacherous blunders inflicted upon this nation by politicians, one day or the other.

The chances of the members in the list, was brought to the notice of a discussion group held in Mahanuwara few days ago by one of its participants. Thereafter having got interested and being inquisitive on this issue I tried to find some more details about this electoral system.

Having gone through the relevant instructions issued by the Election Department I found the following serious flaws that impinge on the fundamental rights of the sons of the soil, I mean the Sinhalese and also the basic principles of the spirit and substance of democracy and the very future of this country as a unitary State. I thought to put them down here as it might be useful for the patriotic citizens to think over them.

1 The Delimitation Commission has taken three factors namely the population, land area and ethnicity in to consideration in identifying the Local Government divisions. Usually only population and land area are considered in traditional electoral demarcations. One can argue that such consideration is needed to do justice to the minority groups, which is a must in the ongoing much hyped so-called reconciliation process. But in my view this consideration overlooks the broad national interests. This is particularly so in a county where extremist, separatist, minority movements have been very active and where deep conspiracies to subdue the native majority to the extent of claiming their own homelands within this country had been active for over a period of 100 years. At the same time the British colonial conspiracies of divide and rule deployed centuries ago with the final objective of destroying the Sinahala Buddhist nation of this country also has to be kept in mind in this regard. Was it by accident or by design and conspiracy that the subject of Local Government was brought under a Muslim who is also a nominated MP of the United People’s Freedom Alliance now under the UNP government is also a moot question to be noted. The composition of the Delimitation Commission K.Thivalingam, Anila Dias Bandaranayaka and Prof Hisbulla appointed by Faiser Musthapa one needs not be surprised as to its minority bias. Furthermore the close relationship between Faiser Musthapa and Balachandran Nagalingam of the Globalal Tamil EELAM Government aptly proves the joint Tamil-Muslim conspiracy behind the delimitation.

Taking ethnicity in to consideration in this exercise I think is definitely counterproductive and goes against reconciliation and national integrationinterests in this country. Historically All immigrants who came to this country over time had been fully integrated to the native society as that was the law of the Government of this country. Even the four Nyakkara Kings of the Kandyan Kingdom had to take Sinhala names that were given to them by the Chief priests and embrace Buddhism before they were consecrated as the King of Sinhale. It was also compulsory for them to take a public oath before the Mahasangha that they will protect the Sinhala Rata and the Buddhasasana. Why can’t the present day rulers learn their lessons from their own past?  Even in recent times this has been attempted when Nehru=Kotalawala  Accord 1954 laid down the condition that all those Indian estate labour who wish to be citizens of this country have to first learn the language of the natives (Sinhala) within 10 years and get integrated or get back to their motherland in South India if they are not prepared to do so.  But unfortunately this Accord was never implemented by successive governments up to date. Instead they dabbled in a continuous vote hunting game and finally in 1987 J.R, Jayawardhana was compelled to give citizenship to all estate Tamils of Indian origin by India under the JR/Rajiv Accord of July 29th of that year at gun point under threat. JR meekly did it for fear of life and political survival.

2 The second issue is the increase in the number of representatives to the Local Councils by 100 % with no rationality at all. This has been increased first, by increasing the number of divisions and secondly, by adding 40% to the present number of sitting members in spite of the fact thereby killing the spirit and substance of democracy and made electoral representation and democracy a big joke. This was also design to make room for increase minority representation in all Local Government councils with a long term conspiracy in mind. For example if you take Kandy MC as a case in point that has 24 Members representing the 24 Wards at present has been awarded additional 40 Members under the present system. Under this situation even the Party or an independent group gets a majority number of seats there is a possibility of not getting the power in the Council if the 16 PR Members mostly representing minority and independent groups get together and form a coalition of 21 seats. This situation may be less conspicuous in the villages but in MCC and other urban areas where there is a sizable minority votes it can be extremely chaotic. MCC like Colombo, Kandy Galle and Matale may face this problem seriously. The net result will badly affects the rights of the majority community both in the key urban areas and the villages indirectly as the cities on the overall control the villages.

Besides this danger the resulting increase in expenditure and other complications due to the increase in the number of politicians also has to be taken in to view in the broader context of the total number of politicians in all political bodies. For example at present we have 225 in Parliament, over 650 in Provincial Councils and some 8346 in Local Government Councils (total 9221). The staff attached to these politicians as drivers, private secretaries and other staff also has to be added to this number of unproductive list of parasitic lotus eaters taxing on the public coffer.

Among these politicians further we have about 157 Ministers at national and provincial level including Governors and their staff. That might most probably make this number even 10,000 or more. Can a poor country like ours shoulder the burden of such a heavy unproductive luxury, eating in to a lion’s share of the national budget? Why not our policy makers reduce this burden on the masses by reducing these numbers to a reasonable level say like 150 MPP in Parliament and 15 to 20 Ministers and leave the 4000 odd local Government members as it was before and scrap the curse that is Provincial Councils that have not served any purpose other than wasting public funds in hundreds of Billions a year to maintain a parasitic outfit messing up governance in the periphery and providing employment for a band of third grade uneducated rogue politicians with no contribution to the National development at all.

3 The idea of Multimember seats is another element promoting ethnic polarization that hinders social integration. Even in Parliamentary elections this has come to stay as the norm and now a day it is getting even worse. Each minority community thinks the multimember constitutions are especially tailored to elect their members only and therefore there is a common tendency among them not to vote with the main parties and not to integrate with the majority community. This situation strengthens and aggravates ethnic polarization and distances the minorities from the core natives and communal groups drift apart with time. This I believe is a continuation of communal representation invented by the British to drive a wedge between the Sinhalese the majority and the minorities to achieve their vicious targets of divide and rule. The local politicians and intellectual must understand this vicious colonial trick and seriously sit down to evolve a homemade solution to reconcile this situation so that all communities begin to think as one nation instead of engaging in throat cutting and subversive politics aspiring to overrun the natives. In this context it is high time that all minority ethnic groups accept the fact that this is the land of the Sinhala Buddhist and resolve to live as brothers and sisters within that nonnegotiable framework.

Beside looking at the flaws I have noted in respect of the Local Government politics, I have been wondering as to why our politicians as individuals don’t look at these problems rationally as we ordinary people who love this country do and try to begin to think at least now that politics is a service to people and the motherland and not a way of luxurious life at the expense of the suffering masses at any cost.

It reminds me here what a great contemporary politician scribed on his sons autograph on Jan 9th 1959.

Minisage parama yutkama minisata sevaya kiriimai!” S.W.R.D. Bandaranayaka

How many present day politicians, at least in their dreams, have ever seriously indulged in such great thoughts?

Before the foreign conquest in 1815 this country was ruled by a monarchy. It had its merits and demerits. But the country was ruled under the Buddhist concept of Bahujana hitaya Bahujana sukhaya (wellbeing of the many and the good of the many).

Democracy is on the other hand a Western concept introduced by the West under conquest. An d even that Democracy when put in to practice is interpreted differently by the west to suit their needs and interests. It is therefore alien to our socio-cultural milieu and age old art of State craft. We had a much deeper socio-political philosophy that was based on the Buddhist concept of State craft which is l26 centuries old. My question is as to why, our scholars and clergy don’t sit down and evolve out a system of our own which is suitable to our culture.

2 Responses to “Is it Democracy or Hypocrisy and conspiracy?”

  1. Susantha Wijesinghe Says:

    IT IS AUTOCRACY

  2. Christie Says:

    Will India kick the ass of Ranil and appoint Chandrika as PM? A proven sucker of India like her father.

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