Stepping into the seventh decade of freedom and independence today, Sri Lanka faces the important challenge of building national unity with the strengthening of democracy and the Rule of Law. The country currently faces issues certainly bigger than those that confronted the leaders and people at the time of independence in 1948. Today’s situation is to do with the absence of a clear policy on national unity at the time of independence, and the failure to develop a comprehensive policy for such unity in the sixty nine years now completed.
The record of the past 69 years shows nearly 30 years under conditions where national unity was not built, but many moves were made to divide the nation on ethnic and religious lines, mainly for advantage by political parties and the emergence of divisive trends in the country. For 30 years after that the country was facing a bloodbath of major proportions, due to the emergence of the forces of separatism and terrorism.
These forces of terrorism were militarily defeated in 2009, with the opportunity of building true national unity. But, the political leadership that defeated terrorism, showed little interest in building such unity; with more interest in widening the ethnic and religious divisions in the country, combined with the ingraining of corruption both in governance and society. The beginning of this 70th year of freedom, thus gives the country the opportunity to move in a new direction towards progress in unity, while strengthening the forces of democracy.
The major opportunity for this came with the Presidential Election of January 8, 2015, when the people took a decisive step in the defeat of the major force of authoritarianism, moving towards a clear dictatorship; after the President in office at the time, sought re-election for a third term, under an amendment to the Constitution, that gave the incumbent president the opportunity to run for any number of terms in office, not restricted to a two-term presidency.
The current news reports from Africa show how many of its elected national leaders, had carried out similar changes to the law and remained in office for periods from 20 to 30 years, and the crises faced by the countries where such dictatorships prevailed or remain.
The new responsibilities
It is relevant to recall here the words of President Maithripala Sirisena, when he addressed the nation on the 67th anniversary of Independence in 2015. He said: “Although by 2009, after the defeat of LTTE terrorism, and bringing peace to our land, although we had the opportunity to take the physical resources of the land forward towards development, we were unable to do so; and to bring together the minds of the people of the North and South.
“To end the war against terror, our heroic troops were able with their guns to silence the guns of terrorism. However, the biggest challenge we face today, is that of bringing together the minds of the people of the North and South, and through a process of reconciliation, bring about co-existence and national understanding, and thus take our great Motherland forward as a land rich in human affection and understanding.
“In so moving forward, there are many responsibilities before us. We need to ask ourselves whether we can truly and honestly be satisfied with what we have achieved, as we celebrate this 67th anniversary of Independence. I think it is the great responsibility and duty before us today is to ask where we have gone wrong, and how we could correct those errors. As much as we look at the path we have trod in the 67 years of freedom, and especially since 2009, can we be satisfied at what has been achieved after the restoration of peace”.
Issues that remain
As the country celebrates the 69th anniversary of Freedom and Independence, it is necessary to ask again where we have gone wrong in the tasks of building national unity, and how these errors could be corrected. Moving into the 70th year of freedom, the government remains bound by the pledges given in January 2015 to bring about a new transformation in politics, the economy, society and culture. Yet, much of the past two years have been wasted in a search for unity within the SLFP, where the clash of contending rivals, remain dominant, moving away from the larger tasks of governance that is the stuff of the government of “National Unity”, that brought together the UNP and SLFP, after January 8 and August 17, 2015.
Recent developments in politics have shown that this clash on Blue leadership is moving into open confrontation outside the SLFP structure, and will be seen in the expected Local Government Elections (whenever they are held), and the expected elections to three Provincial Councils. This is made clear by the announcement by Mahinda Rajapaksa, that he has taken over leadership of the Joint Opposition, and his statement this week that the JO would contest the Local Government polls separately. This clearly shows the way to open confrontation; moving away from the behind the scenes attempts at reaching understandings on the leadership issue in the SLFP.
The path ahead in this journey of freedom lies in Constitutional Reform that will take away all aspects of the Executive Presidency and lay down the guidelines for national unity through power sharing among people, which will give the much needed support to the tasks of economic progress, while underlining the equality of all citizens irrespective of ethnicity, faith and sex.
It is, therefore, no surprise that Constitutional Reform is at the very core of the new wave of opposition to the government, as seen in the rise of the Mahinda Rajapaksa rhetoric that has emerged from that recent Nugegoda rally of the JO – under the name of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) – with the expectation to give a better political blossom to the lotus bud symbol of that party.
Nugegoda take-off
The recent Nugegoda rally is seen as the take off point of the new politics of the Rajapaksa leadership, and was best observed in that rally being named as the “Aragalayaka Aarambaya” – the launch of struggle. It is the struggle to win over the SLFP and UPFA voters who turned away from the Rajapaksa leadership on January 8 and August 17 2015, and take the country back to the era of corruption that prevailed till then. Interestingly, the new theme of the Rajapaksa leadership against the current government, and the leadership of President Sirisena, is to announce a fight against the corruption of the present government, and the promise to return to the people the public funds that have been lost in this new phase of corruption.
President Sirisena made a good response when confronted in what was a well calculated ‘religious’ manoeuvre at the pro-Rajapaksa Abhayaramaya temple, when a senior monk raised questions about the recent Treasury bond scams. He was quick to respond with a declaration of determination to fight all the corruption of the Treasury bond scam with his decision to appoint a Special Presidential Commission to probe into the matter. In a quick follow up, the Gazelle notification on appointing the Special Commission has now been made. As the heat of Rajapaksa-led JO politics increases, the Government will certainly have to be on the watchout and take speedy action to prevent the spread of corruption within its ranks, and give more meaning to the wider fight against corruption during the Rajapaksa regime, which was a key pledge given to the people.
The bigger substance of the “Aragalaya” or Struggle that has been launched is against the moves to bring about constitutional change in the country. The campaign against it is based on driving the fear of separatism and the misuse of the idea of federalism, as well as, the building of increased ethnic and religious rivalry and hatred in the country.
The Nugegoda rally was certainly large. However, it was hardly different to the similar rally held in 2015 in the launch of the “Rise with Mahinda” campaign. Such rallies did not help the UPFA or Rajapaksas to win in the August 2015 General Election. In fact the votes of the UPFA were reduced in August 2015 from what it gained in January of that year. We do recall many columnists write with great enthusiasm on what a huge rally that first “Rise with Mahinda” event was, and how their related political projections went awry. Some see the recent Nugegoda event as the rise of a new revolution. One will have to wait and see.
What is clear is that the continuing months of this 70th year of Independence will certainly require a stronger commitment and fight by Government on Constitutional Reform, with a clear push for the abolition of the Executive Presidency. This will require campaigning for constitutional changes approved by a referendum, leaving no room for constitutional amendments that will not deliver the pledges made to the people. This must remain the battle that will mark this 70th year of Independence.
Add new comment