It is seldom that sane voices of experts are heard, much less taken on board, amidst the awful cacophony of politicians’ brays, in this country, where people seem to have turned to a perverse form of entertainment—political prattle, which electronic media beam to their parlors, day in day out, to the point of queasiness. We were lucky to have such a rare moment of sanity recently; it was a seminar held by the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) and the 12 March Movement, in Colombo, last week to mark the 90th anniversary of universal franchise. Among the speakers was former Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe, who proved his mettle as a public official during the yahapalana government; he withstood political pressure and carried out his duties and functions to the satisfaction of the public, especially in respect of the Treasury bond scam probe.
Take-aways from Wijesinghe’s informative, no-holds-barred speech were many, but the focus of this column is on public choice (in a restricted, political sense) in the light of the former Auditor General’s call for remedial measures needed to clean up the unholy mess a corrupt political party system has created. He stressed the need for ensuring that the law was above the three branches of government, viz. the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, and enshrining transparency and accountability in governance.
People usually berate political leaders and rightly so, but never do they blame themselves for electing misfits, and even lawbreakers as their representatives. Electors are swayed by personal considerations, and patronage influences their choice, in most cases. The shameful practice of political parties factoring in even negative and divisive ascribed social statuses such as caste in selecting candidates also continues due to the existence of caste-based block votes. In a country, where even Buddhis monks are divided along caste lines, how could greedy politicians who think of everything in terms of elections, power and privileges, be expected to be different?
Political parties as a divisive force
As for the negative impact political parties have had on society, a recent self-deprecatory remark by the leader of the Indian Congress and former Union Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, is of interest. He said: “Political parties create divisions among people 24×7 on the basis of religion, caste and other things. I’m not forgiving any party, including mine [Congress]. Civil society should stay together. Justice must be given to everyone irrespective of caste, religion.”
Divisions among electors have stood politicians in good stead, in this country, too, because education, competence, integrity, etc., are not the criteria used in electing them. As such, a notorious drug lord known as Kudu Lal succeeded in having himself elected to the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) from an independent group, in 2006. He went on a spending spree and mobilized pockets of support he had cultivated in slum and shanty areas in the city. Thankfully, he fled the country to avoid arrest, but the CMC still has bad eggs among its councilors; a few weeks ago, a female council member carried out an egg attack on a fellow councilor, who happens to be the late President J. R. Jayewardene’s grandson. One may say karmic forces are at work because Jayewardene opened a new low in Sri Lankan politics. It is during his tenure as the President that the houses of Supreme Court judges were stoned for giving a judgement in favour of the Opposition, and political violence got institutionalized. Today, his grandson has become a victim of the rotten political culture.
Exploitation of social disadvantages
Most politicians who contest elections in the Colombo District cultivate the city poor who have become a force to be reckoned with due to their numerical strength. Priorities of poor electors are different from those of the enlightened sections of society, and they readily support the candidates who look after their basic needs. Most candidates with the wherewithal exploit urban poverty to win elections. They distribute lorry loads of dry rations and even give away bottles of arrack in the run-up to elections. Thus, any wealthy crook could get elected, provided he or she lavishes enough funds on the poor. Overall, poverty in urban, rural and estate sectors have become a goldmine for politicians, where votes are concerned, and this may be why they do not make a serious effort to eradicate it.
It is a truism that the people get the governments they deserve. There may be extreme situations where their voice is not heard and their choice does not matter because elections are heavily rigged as we have seen in this country in the 1980s, and in 1999, but overall, it is the people who determine the outcomes of elections, and they are therefore responsible for the governments they elect. The Sri Lankan voting public should share the blame for the commissions and omissions of the representatives they have elected since the introduction of universal franchise. Not that they do not deserve better, but the onus is on them to take stock of what they have done all these decades, mend their ways and vote rationally at least in the future.
Ill-effects of huge majorities
Until 1977, people had brought the UNP and the SLFP to power alternately. The situation changed because the SLFP-led United Front government, which came to power with a two-thirds majority in the parliament, committed political hara-kiri by putting off a general election by two years and disregarding public opinion in formulating and implementing economic policies. A resentful public elected a UNP government with a steamroller majority in 1977; the rot set in, and has progressed under successive governments.
Politicians care to behave themselves only when they struggle to retain power and are mindful of public opinion. Then only do they realize the need to win public support. When they win comfortable majorities, they take leave of their senses, and forget their promises. Mammoth majorities that people give political parties at elections invariably boomerang on them. The one the SLFP-led coalition received at the 1970 general election made the rulers of the day lose their heads and impervious to public opinion. That administration politicized the public service and resorted to some extreme economic measures, as was said earlier, causing untold suffering to the public, who let their blind rage get the better of them when they voted at the 1977 general election, giving the UNP a five-sixths majority, and paving the way for the present Constitution, which is a wellspring of trouble and has taken its toll on democracy.
The UPFA rule, which began in 2010 turned out to be a disaster because of the two-thirds majority the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa mustered in the parliament. He introduced the 18th Amendment to do away with the 17th Amendment, which came into being in 2001, while the Kumaratunga government was struggling in a hung parliament, following a spate of crossovers. The 18th Amendment restored the executive powers of the President, devitalized the Independent Commissions and the Constitutional Council, which had been set up to depoliticize the public service, and abolished the presidential term limit, among other things.
The 2015 regime change led to the introduction of the 19th Amendment, which was mainly due to a power struggle between President Maithripala Sirisena and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who wanted to strengthen his position in the government by having the presidency stripped of some of its executive powers. But the 19th Amendment restored the Independent Commissions and the Constitutional Council, and basically gave democracy a breather. The yahapalana government however ruined things for itself by carrying out the Treasury bond scams and failing to live up to people’s expectations; clashes between the President and the Prime Minister rendered that administration dysfunctional so much so that even national security was compromised as evident from the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks (2019).
The sheer incompetence of the Yahapalana government and clashes between the President and the Prime Minister led to a situation where the people again made the mistake of electing the current SLPP government with a huge majority, enabling it to pass the 20th Amendment, which made the President extremely powerful again. The government has failed to solve the burning issues people are faced with in spite of its majority, and it has even suffered a rift with its constituents, including the SLFP, pulling in a different direction. The people have realized they made a mistake, but it is too late. Public protests against the government are gathering momentum.
Tortoises on fence posts
Politicians in high positions have been likened to tortoises on fence posts. There is no way political tortoises could reach such heights without people’s support. It is therefore no use blaming politicians alone; instead the people must curse themselves for what their representatives are doing and adopt remedial measures. People are known by the representatives they elect.
Suffrage becomes meaningful only when people make rational choices in electing their representatives. The people’s failure to exercise their franchise wisely has turned the national legislature into a gathering of political riff-raff with a smattering of decent souls on either side of the House. The same holds true for the Provincial Councils (which have been without elected representatives for the past couple of years), and the local government institutions. Currently, among these undesirables in the garb of MPs are a convicted murderer, a former provincial councilor who ridiculed a female school principal by making her kneel before him, and various other unsavory elements.
Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. This is true of Sri Lankan who deify politicians and do not care to exercise their franchise responsibly. One can only hope that they will gain political maturity, and act wisely as their counterparts in advanced democracies do. A long way to go!
