H. L. D. Mahindapala
When in two successive
silent revolutions the Sinhala-Buddhist voters confirmed, with pencilled
crosses, their commitment to regain their lost hopes and heritage and usher in
a new age, the stunned political scientists and other assorted pundits, mainly
in the media, did not know what hit them. What threw them off balance, in
the first place, was the sheer magnitude and the force of the Sinhala-Buddhist
wave that swept the nation. Second, the two silent revolutions debunked their
fictitious theories about the power of the minorities to sit in the middle and
dictate terms to both major parties. Third, they were aghast at the sudden
collapse of the cardboard edifice they constructed under the Yahapalana regime
with the minorities and NGOs. Fourth, the Right-wingers allied to the
minorities and NGOs were all swept aside and thrown into a black hole from
which no light emerged to guide them out of it.
The fifth also stands out
as a key factor: the violence and the arrogance of the minorities, particularly
the burst of Muslim terrorism combined with Wahabist extremism and
Middle-Eastern money, threw the Christian Sinhalese into the arms of the
Buddhist Sinhalese. Together they formed a formidable monolith for the first
time. Here ethnicity overtook religion. To a great extent the arrogance and the
violence of the aggressive minorities galvanised the majority to form a
defensive coalition against them. The minorities dug their own grave with their
overblown identitarian politics. Sixth, the West-oriented NGOs, undermining the
traditional roots with imported neo-Liberalism, threatened the security of the
majority who reacted decisively by cutting them down to size. Decades of
investments in anti-Sinhala-Buddhist campaigns – billions in rupees —
went down the drain. These unelected interventionists were playing a key
role as self-appointed stake holders and leading the Yahapalanaya away from
the promised Ven. Sobitha-way into betrayals in Geneva. Last but not the least,
the political theorists and pundits have no theory to explain or counter the
new phenomenon empowered by the people to dismantle the anti-national
structures, including the debilitating provisions in the Constitution,
and find constructive ways to a new age
Whacked by these multiple
forces the disoriented political scientists fell off their theoretical perch.
Their paralytic reaction has been two-fold. First is to demean the
historic victory with abuse. For instance, the best that Dayan Jayatilleka, who
never fails to remind that he is a political scientist, could do was to declare
that armed Anagarika Dharmapala” has returned to power. Not many moons ago he
was there with the Armed Dharmapalas” reading their messages that fanned
the Mahinda sulanga” at Nugegoda. He backed the Eliya” to the hilt to bring
the Armed Dharmapalas” to power. In fact, he discarded his favourite
Gramsci, Althusser, Marx and Lenin for the Dharmapalas”. He was one of the
leading hurrah-boys of the Dharmapalas”. But after he sold his soul for
a diplomatic post he did bis usual somersault and turned against
the Dharmapalas” accusing them of being armed” villains organised to destroy
democracy. So, don’t be surprised if he now comes up with his next
cock-and-bull theory that Mao came into power either through Buddhist
meditations or Armed Dharmapala-ism”!
Then there is Pakiasothy
Saravanamuttu who obscenely unzipped his little organ, Ground View,
to attack the elected President in four-letter filth. His
fellow-anti-Sinhala-Buddhist pun(k)dit, Prof. Quadri Ismail, was given the
licence in his little organ to say : F… you, Mr. President!”. Prof.
Quadriped Pismail also labelled the Sinhalese as ar.e holes”. Defeated Paki”
is now offering obscenities as political alternatives for good governance
from his Centre for Policy Alternatives. The new political phenomenon has
sent him and his catchers” reeling not knowing how to respond to it. We are in
a period of adjustment transiting from the decadent and the antiquated to the
new and the promising. And the clueless Quadripeds are struggling to figure out
why all their theories, structures, and strategies have left them in the middle
of nowhere. Unable to come to come to terms with the new realities their
response so far has been to throw abusive filth at it.
The second response is
fear-mongering. The anti-Sinhala-Buddhists are screaming their heads off saying
that there is a dictator waiting in the corner somewhere to take over the state
and destroy democracy. These are the phantasmagorial fears of infantile
nincompoops in NGOs crying about a goni billa” stalking them to
gobble them up in time. Ever since J. R. Jayewardene (JR) changed the
Westminster model into a De Gaullist Presidential system the fear-mongers
in the Left – e.g., Dr. N. M. Perera, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva etc.,
–have been crying from roof tops about a dictator
waiting to come out of JR’s Constitution like a genie locked inside a corked bottle.
But it has been like waiting for Godot – there is a great deal of talk
with no one sighting this ghost.
Nevertheless, it is worth
pausing to consider whether the lurking fears have some grounds to worry about.
Yes, there is on the surface. To understand their fears let’s imagine the
following scenario:
One fine day, (let’s
imagine it’s a day in November 2019), a retired Lt. Colonel sweeps into power
in an island called See Long. Overnight the Lt. Colonel becomes the
Commander-in-Chief. He is in total command. He has no parliament to check his
powers. So, he has no need to restrain himself in any way. It’s open sesame for
him. He has no prime minster to snipe at him and push him around demanding, for
instance, more powers to import from Singapore a foreign banker when there are
absolutely competent and distinguished bankers in See Long to do the job.
He has no Cabinet either to
curtail his power either in framing policies or in implementing
them. In fact, he has no rival political force to oppose him
with any formidable clout. There is no Left. There is no Right. Nor is the
usually aggressive North there to take on the dynamic Centre that is command.
He is the Lord of all he surveys. He even appoints his trusted
lieutenants in the Army to key positions. They have been disciplined and
trained to carry out his orders to last letter and spirit of the law dictated
by him. There are no checks and balances. He is the unwritten constitution
making the laws as goes along to meet the needs of the battles he needs to
fight. He fights the biggest threat to our time, Covid-19, with a
fine-tuned military force behind him. He runs the administration with military
precision. He goes right down to the basement to examine the root causes for
corrective action. And he delivers. He and his military loyalists are marching
into the New Age in civvies.
Without any parliament he
is, indeed, immune from the restraints of the constitution. All key
institutions are at his beck and call. The Executive is way above the
Legislature which, in reality, is non-existent. The wings of the civil society
are clipped and kept out of governing structures. He doesn’t have to
violates the principle of the separation of powers because he combines in
his person all the powers he needs to act. The decision-making powers are
concentrated in his hands with no one having the wherewithal to object or
oppose.
According to principles of
classical political science these are all hall marks of a pure and simple
military junta the likes of which are found in plenty in S. America. But
if we come down from our imaginary See Long to reality the reader would have
concluded, quite correctly, that I was describing no other place but Sri Lanka.
I was portraying the rise and rise of Lt. Col. Gotabaya Rajapakse to be the
Commander-in-Chief and his subsequent consolidation of political power.
But the features I have
highlighted are all surface features. There is no military junta beneath it
running a dictatorship. To this day no one has called it a military
dictatorship, nor an authoritarian regime. Not the American Ambassador.
Not the British High Commissioner. Not the New York Times. Not
the London Times. In fact, ex-Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda another
political scientist with a Ph. D., says that he will not call it a
dictatorship. If he could he would have been the first to damn the Rajapaksa
regime. All what he can say is that if their favoured 19 A is amended it would
lead to an authoritarian regime.
According to all signifiers
we should be living under a military junta with jackboots
throttling our throats. All the classical features of a military junta are
operative and yet it has not turned the state into a dictatorship. I cannot
think of another viable political entity like that of the Rajapaksas
which is functioning successfully within the defined domains of democracy
though it is armed to the teeth with all the powers to turn into a
military junta. Faced with this new phenomenon the baffled political
scientists with Ph. Ds (Phoney Doctorates) have resorted to
fear-mongering. They are crying their heads off about a bogeyman rising
in the shape of 20 A to hijack democracy.
With Mahinda Rajapaksa
winning 145 seats the two brothers have gathered unfettered powers in their
hands. With power concentrated on an unprecedented scale in their hands the
Rajapaksa brothers are situated in a position to make or break the nation. And
yet they have acted so far with great restraint and only within the limits of
the prevailing democratic norms. They are seasoned enough to know that
the power given to them is a responsibility and not a licence to violate
the will of the people. They have witnessed the horrendous follies of our time
to know the disastrous consequences of Ranil Wickremesinghe signing the CFA
with Prabhakaran without the consent of the president, parliament, party
or the people. If this isn’t a dictatorial act what is?
They also know what
happened to Mangala Samaraweera who pushed through 30/1 in Geneva selling the
nation without telling his Prime Minister, the Parliament, the Party or the
people. These are blunt and naked acts of dictators and not those of elected
representatives of the people fulfilling the democratic will. Both are
dictatorial acts under any definition. In abusing the hallowed precedents and
practices of the Westminster system Ranil has demonstrated that it is possible
to use democratic procedures and powers to act dictatorially dismissing all
recognised checks and balances. Ranil’s unpardonable act was to legalise and
reinforce the fascist dictatorship in the North, though it was done in the name
of peace which never happened. His signing the CFA with Prabhakaran was not
only dictatorial but also treacherous. Fortunately, the invisible hand that
guides this nation shot it to pieces.
The cry now is that
democracy is being used to kill democracy. They fear that the Rajapaksas have
the numbers to re-do 19A – one of the failed experiments of the Sirisena-Ranil
regime – and introduce 20A with adequate powers to serve the impending
challenges facing the new age. If the Courts clear the path and dismiss the
objections laid before it will be merely a matter of time for it to
go through. The nation is faced issues far greater than 20A. It is, for
instance, the challenging economic issues in the post-Covid-19 period that
makes 20A a vital necessity. Tough times need tough responses and 20A will be a
necessary aid to clear the way through obstacles until the nation arrives at a
steady state. It is clear that 19A did not raise the nation to new
heights. It brought down the nation to rock bottom. An alternative is necessary
and 20A should be considered as a viable alternative.
What is objectionable,
however, is not so much the exploitation of circumstances for political gain
but the hypocritical role of those who have lined up as the saviours of
constitutional propriety.
Take the case of ex-Prof.
Jayadeva. He is crying that 20A could spell the end of democracy in Sri
Lanka.” He added: There should be a limit to political power. 20A seems to
have followed the model of the colonial state we had in Sri Lanka before 1931.”
Here’s cracker from him:
This is a Government by a single leader or small group who have absolute
power. I don’t know whether people have really understood what this means to
them. Unfortunately, they will realise it after a couple of years, when they
suffer the consequences of such a political change. It would be a very costly
learning process,” he warned. (Daily Mirror – 18/9/2020).
Now let’s get back to the
time when Velupillai Prabhakaran gave him an audience in the Vanni. He went on
this pilgrimage with Bishop Kennneth Fernando and Charlie Abeysekera,
another NGO activist whose sympathies were with the Tamil fascist state. The
three of them returned, glowing with the pride, as if they had been
at the Second Coming of Jesus. They ate a few biscuits and drank
the orange barley given to them by the cruellest and the biggest killer
of Tamils and held a joint press conference in Colombo parading as the
privileged and chosen Three Kings of the Orient at the crib in Bethlehem on the
first day of Christmas. They white-washed the Surya Devan’s” image and painted
him as the living Prince of Peace. Tamil fascism had fascinated them. They took
upon themselves the mission of polishing Prabhakaran’s image and they gave him
a clean certificate as a man committed to serve peace and not war.
This ex-Professori, who is
now so deeply involved in constitutional issues and preaching high morality to
the Sinhala state. He is worried that the Government is run by a single
leader”. How many leaders did Prabhakaran have in his government? He is
also worried that there should be a limit to political power”. He argues that
20A seems to have followed the model of the colonial state we had in Sri Lanka
before 1931.” By any chance, did he advice Prabhakaran that he should limit his
political power as too much power can lead to a colonial state like the
one we had in Sri Lanka before 1931?
And, OMG, did he warn
Prabhakaran that his powers could spell the end of democracy” in North and the
East? Besides, he is sharp enough as a political scientist to ask some relevant
questions. Did he raise one single constitutional issue with Prabhakaran? Or
ask him why he abducts Tamil children to fill his depleted cadres? Or whether
his brutal violence can pave the path to his Evil-lam? No. Not at all.
They were there at the press conference to give a gloss to Tamil fascism. They
were willing to go along with Prabhakaran and back him to the hilt in his
demand for more devolved power without any constitutional guarantees.
Daily Mirror (DM) asked him if
national security concerns had given rise to 20A, Prof. Uyangoda said both
internal and external security was important to a country. It is not that 19A
compromised national security. It is the people who headed the government who
failed when the Easter Sunday attacks occurred,” he opined.” Compare this
to his condemnation of Sinhala-Buddhism and praising S. J. Tambiah’s book
Buddhism Betrayed? Why didn’t he use the same logic and condemn Tambiah
and say that it is not Buddhism that failed but the people who headed it?
He was joined in the DM by Paki”
Saravanamuttu, a vexatious litigant who goes to Court against the Sinhala
state”, posing on the steps of the Hulftsdorp either taking his dark
glasses out or putting them on. But he never once took Prabhakaran
to court for crimes against humanity and war crimes. After all
Prabhakaran had courts and he could have at least fought on behalf
of the Tamil children abducted by the Tamil oppressor in the courts in Vanni.
He wouldn’t do that. Instead he went jumping from Western capital
to another trying his level best to save Prabhakaran from impeding death
in the last days of the war. He was bent on making the world believe that
his intention was to save the Tamils trapped inside the war zone. But
he knew jolly well that his main motive was to save Prabhakaran and make
him live to fight another day. Stopping the advance of the Sri Lankan forces
was the only way to save Prabhakaran. He failed and when the Sinhala state
triumphed” he accused them of triumphalism”. He blamed the Sinhala state” for
saving democracy and peace.
Both examples prove that
our partisan intellectuals are, at best, mediocre pigmies who will not be able
to see the wider horizons even if they are made to stand on
ladders. Their opposition to 20A is predictable. Their prediction that
20A will lead to dictatorship is as remote as Ranil’s chances becoming the next
President. However, it may strengthen the hands of the Rajapaksas to guide the
nation out of the economic tsunamis that are likely to hit the
nation sooner or later. The post-Covid 19 crisis is waiting to happen,
according to informed market sources. If the crisis comes the best of
strategies will need power to steer the nation out of it. The
doom-and-gloom criers predicting the end of the world will exploit 20A for
political gain. That is inevitable. On the brighter side, Sri Lanka has
come out of many crises without deviating from parliamentary democracy.
The chances of democracy crumbling under the weight of 20A is a far-fetched
bogey. If Sri Lankan could come out of Prabhakaran’s Tamil fascism, riding it
like a roller-coaster, then there is all the reason to believe that we can
overcome the next economic crisis waiting to happen. Crises never ceased to
lash the nation. But the power to overcome has always been greater.
