Democracy is a form of Government in which the people have the authority to choose their governing legislation. Who people are and how authority is shared among them are core issues for democratic theory, development and Constitution. Some cornerstones of these issues are freedom of assembly and speech, inclusiveness and equality, membership, consent, voting, right to life and minority rights
Did democracy exist in Sri Lanka from 2015 to 2019? Sri Lanka, which was a democratic nation before 2015, has again established democracy from November 16 last year. Anyone can simply check whether democracy existed in Sri Lanka from 2015 to 2019 by finding out what democracy is according to the global definition. Then everyone can see the real faces of those who are shouting from the rooftops pretending that they fight to protect democracy.
Democracy is Government by the people; a form of Government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. India provides an example to a democratic Government. In order to call itself democratic, a society must provide equality in voting, effective participation, enlightened understanding, citizen control of the agenda and be inclusive to all citizens.
When it comes to democracy in Sri Lanka, the Parliament which existed after February 10, 2018 was not represented by the agents of people. It was represented by agents of foreign countries, NGOs etc. Equality in voting was not there; due elections were not held at all for people to vote. People were eagerly waiting to cast their vote but due elections were not held. Effective participation was also blocked by then Yahapalana Government.
There is no point of talking about ‘Enlightened understanding’ because it was only Goebbels Theory that was implemented from 2015 in order to mislead people. People saw and heard only the words such as corruption, malpractices and crimes that are related to fabricated acts done by the politicians of the previous (2014) Government. Fabricated evidence was provided for fabricated offences. All these issues were revealed together with the corruption and malpractices of the former Head of the Crimes Investigation Department (CID) along with a large number of telephone conversations took place between certain MPs and law-enforcing officers and officials connected to the judiciary.
Democracy is a form of Government in which the people have the authority to choose their governing legislation. Who people are and how authority is shared among them are core issues for democratic theory, development and Constitution. Some cornerstones of these issues are freedom of assembly and speech, inclusiveness and equality, membership, consent, voting, right to life and minority rights.
During the period between 2015 and 2019, only the rights of the minorities were tightly protected while totally ignoring the rights of the majority. It went beyond the limit, and harassing and torturing the majority in the name of protecting the rights of the minorities took place without any problem and protests. Even Buddhist Bhikkus were not left alone. They were harassed in broad daylight.
The words, ‘elections and voting’ were forbidden to use. Various tactics were used not to hold due elections. People were not given the opportunity to choose their governing legislation in order to prevent the dissolving of Parliament before four and a half years. Sri Lankans were forced to have a Parliament that did not have their mandate to govern them. The document which came out as a result of a conspiracy, the 19th Amendment, was used to do all those things. The agents of a minority ruled Sri Lanka from February 11, 2018 to March 2, this year during which democratic rights of the majority were not permitted.
Generally, there are two types of democracy: direct and representative. In direct democracy, people directly deliberate and decide on legislation. In representative democracy, people elect representatives to deliberate and decide on legislation, such as in Parliamentary or Presidential democracy. Liquid democracy combines elements of these two basic types. However, the noun ‘democracy’ has, over time, been modified by more than 3,500 adjectives which suggests that it may have types that can elude and elide this duality.
The most common day-to-day decision-making approach of democracies has been the majority rule, though other decision-making approaches like supermajority and consensus have been equally integral to democracies. They serve the crucial purpose of inclusiveness and broader legitimacy on sensitive issues and therefore mostly take precedence on a constitutional level.
In another words, democracy is a system of Government in which laws, policies, leadership, and major undertakings of a state or other polity are directly or indirectly decided by the ‘people’ - all adult citizens of a country.
During the past five years from 2015 to 2019, the people of Sri Lanka heard the word ‘democracy’ over and over again. Almost all Yahapalana politicians were talking about democracy which they brought to Sri Lanka and offered to people. They could not open their mouths without using this word ‘democracy’. This is the word the United National Party (UNP) Leader used every time no matter where he was, what he did or about what he was talking about. He worshipped the word. Later, the citizens of Sri Lanka understood the real intentions of Yahapalana goons who preached democracy 24x7. What people saw and experienced by themselves were far different from what they expected as democracy.
Therefore, the people started telling their agents that they need real democracy and they wanted to change their rulers and the Parliament. But the Yahapalana regime was deaf and ignored the people’s demand. The 2015 Parliament was maintained without being dissolved, ignoring the people’s right to select their agents. The people expressed their will as soon as they were allowed to express their will on November 16 last year. Sri Lankans won real democracy on that day and re-confirmed what they won on August 5 this year.
At the moment, we Sri Lankans are enjoying real democracy under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Government. The best example was given on August 5 by holding the General Elections in the middle of all possible barricades brought forward in order to not to hold the General Election.
