The Downfall of Democracy

All this unwanted fuss about the author or drafter of the 20A has led to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa making it clear he is the leader of the Government and the Pohottuva. Let’s have no doubts about it anymore. Let’s stop asking about any role that the Justice Minister Ali Sabry or Law Pundit and Education Minister G. L. Peiris had in this.  

The five-member Cabinet Committee appointed by PM Mahinda Rajapaksa has also been pushed aside. This clearly shows the declining power-position of Rajavasala Mahinda himself. We are in the reality of a rising authoritarian rule, with a path to what the Pohottuva champions consider to be a “Democratic Dictatorship”.

It has all to do with the two-thirds majority in parliament. We are moving to the total sovereignty of the people-elected President … the stuff  of a monarchy of the past that is being revived more than 70 years after independence from British colonial rule.

The assurance of Democracy in the role of the 20A comes from our acting Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Dayani Mendis, who told the 45th Session of the Human Rights Council that 20A would be discussed and debated in Parliament, following a complete democratic process, where all the stakeholders would have the opportunity to present their views.

What she did not say was that the final decision lay with the ruling majority of the Rajavasala Power Holders. She also said that the UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s comments on the 20A were unwarranted and pre-judgmental, based on presumption. What a wonderful diplomatic analysis of a rising threat to Democracy in this island. 

The democracy that we are telling the world today is about the great Hand Raisers or “Ath Ussanno” in our parliamentary politics. Many of them in today’s parliament raised their hands for the 17A. All of them cheerfully raised their hands for the 18A. All but one of them raised their hands for the 19A, with amendments to it too. And now they are waiting with impatience and restlessness to raise both hands, if necessary, for the 20A. You can’t stop this Ath Usssana promoters of a rising Family Power or Pavul Balaya.

This is a muddled collection of one-time Samasamajists, Communists, UNP players, SLFP  Bandaranaike shakers, MEP – Gunawardena performers, JVP culprits, Central Bank felons, EPF fraudsters, Royal Pavilion destroyers, and current rapists of the ever shrinking forest cover of Sri Lanka.

To think that any of these Hand Raisers have any understanding or belief in democracy is contempt for the entire democratic process. These are political hoodlums and delinquents who have moved far away from the callers and supporters of Democracy, in the fight against colonial rule. 

We are caught in the crooked politics of the Rajavasala Kelikarayas – Royal Family Players – to whom Democracy is the very threat to survival. The 20A is the core and cover of the rising Rajapaksa dictatorship, and nothing else. It is the trampling and burying of everything democratic of the 19A (certainly with its shortcomings) that all of these hoodlums raised their hands for, except one.

A country that obtained its democratic background, moving away from a local and foreign monarchic thinking and attitudes, from the British, we now seem to be moving back to the reality of current British or UK politics. This is the stuff of the Boris Johnson politics that is having its say in the UK today. They are proudly moving to the violation of international agreements and the very substance of the parliamentary process. 

If the UK can violate international agreements, what is wrong in Sri Lanka violating the very substance and reality of democracy, through the play of majority power in Parliament, which was the stuff of those who violated peace and the people through Nazism, and the Idi Amin realities of power?

The opposition to the 20A has to take on a process of public understanding of the crises that lie ahead, as we see the rising power of authoritarian dominance. There is much more than the SJB and Sajith Premadasa’s call for a revived 19A. The need is for the revival of the very substance of democracy. It has to be done throughout the country, moving away from ethnic, religious, caste and other divisions that are the reality of Sri Lankan society and politics. 

Just take a look at the politics of the wholly defeated UNP today. With Ruwan Wijewardene elected as Deputy Leader of the party, it has gone back to the Uncle-Nephew-Party it was known for in its early years in power. This is the stuff in local politics that can give a good playing hand to the Pohottuva activists.  

The Gotabhaya Rajapaksa leadership of the Government and the Pohottuva is the very substance of ruling politics and governance today! The Opposition seems to be playing a Joker with its moves to strengthen Mahinda Rajapaksa power. Mahinda will remain where he is and Gotabaya will be the ruler of the Rajavasala and the Lankadveepa.

Fighting the 20A is the beginning of a new call for a rescued and revived Democracy, whatever we tell the UN Human Rights bodies and the rest of the world about us.

It is the reality of the Downfall of Democracy, and the Rajavasala Rise!