Interim Or Military Government; Time To Free Us From Despotism

By W. Vishnu Gupta –

It is time to pick what type of government will take us through the most difficult and arduous period of our history precipitated by a single family aided by equally corrupt members of the parliament. Yet, the cool heads, those who practice one of the noble Buddhist precepts; upekkha (equanimity) must prevail, anger and frustration combined with naiveté will only pave the way for the detractors of Sri Lanka to destroy unitary status of the country or to become a satellite state of another alien country vying for the supremacy on our “Laccadive Sea” and the surrounding Indian ocean. The enemies of our nation are eagerly waiting under different guises, one pretending to be a friendly neighbor bearing goodies camouflaged under various labels such as “Humanitarian Aid”. They are nothing but shrewd and corrupt despicable trade deals worth billions of US dollars entered with Mr. Ten Percent who visited our northern neighbor many times. It is strange that so-called economic, financial and energy experts of the government and the local intelligentsia failed to recognise and question why Mr. Ten Percent sought financial assistance of India only, and why India which is a “net-importer” of oil and not known to be a “net exporter” was willing or bend over backwards to support and come to the aid of an unrefined, illiterate, corrupt government minister. The other alien countries vying for supremacy in the Indian Ocean are no different, they are fully aware of the corruption and mismanagement of all SL governments since 1950 has precipitated the current political instability and economic crisis. What a mockery it would be, if these alien nations consumed by Geostrategy prefer Sri Lanka to be governed by their favorite henchmen and the country remains a despotic state.

74 Years of Despotism

Since independence we have struggled to free us from despotism lead by SWRDB, Sirima, JRJ, Premadasa, Chandrika, Mahinda, Maithri /Ranil and Gotabaya. These leaders knew fully well constitutionalism is superior to despotism but none of them truly embraced principles of constitutionalism and hence they developed and adopted statutory rules favoring a selected few (cronies, family members and friends), effectively camouflaged despotism with a fraudulent democratic institution known as parliament and with an executive office. The devious methods used to camouflage fraudulent democracy is equally contemptible, for examples; establishment of Sinhala Maha Sabah by SWRDB, Sinhala Only Act, formation of Pancha Maha Balavegaya, Hartal-1953 engineered by JRJ, constitution of 1972, constitution of 1978, and the subsequent amendments were meant to fortify and sustain despotism in the country. The masses were duped and desensitized from the pain of poverty and hopelessness for 74 years with the help of two main political doctrines introduced by SWRDB and JRJ. Finally, it appears that the people of Sri Lanka, irrespective of demographic boundaries have awaken when the country is fully bankrupt and saw no future for their children.

One of the Japanese seminal thinkers, Nakae Chomin once said that “only when a nation progresses beyond despotism enters constitutionalism can human beings realize their individuality”. What does this mean? The right to participate in government, to own personal property and to choose one’s livelihood, the rights to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly- these are kinds of rights which all human beings should possess, and only when they do possess these rights, they are worthy of being called HUMANS. If a person does not have one or many of these rights, he is by necessity spiritually handicapped. The message carried by non-violent protesters tell the world, majority of Sri Lankans are not treated as HUMANS yet. What a tragedy, their rights have been trampled, and so they demand that the government must first restore the economic security of every citizen, beyond that they insist that a proper constitutional system sans political trickery imbedded in the present constitution of Sri Lanka is needed to free them from 74 years of despotism.

Time to free us from despotism

It is hard to believe those who benefitted from despotism, including (225 +1) will be able to breed, feed and nurture constitutionalism in Sri Lanka. There is not a single person in the current legislature to believe or uphold the values of constitutionalism, neither Aura Kumara, Sajith, Maithri, Hakeem, Sambanthan, Bathiudeen, Thondaman, Ranil, Sumanthiran, Rajapaksas or Rathana understand the true meaning of the word “constitutionalism”, of course they have used many legal mumbo jumbo, especially Ranil and Sumanthiran to coverup despotism for various political reasons. However, all of them are the direct beneficiaries of the perverted constitution of 1978 and therefore all (225 +1) are insincere charlatans, the demand for them to leave politics by the “Gota Go Gama”, “Myna Go Gama” and “Horu Go Gama” protesters are justifiable. All parliamentarians of last 74 years have turned Sri Lanka into a banana republic because the country possesses all key characteristics attributed to a banana republic, sometime back even Bangladesh was classified as a banana republic, yet Bangladeshis and their politicians had the courage to overcome economic and mismanagement issues that plagued the country and turn Bangladesh into a developing market economy and the world’s seventh fastest-growing economy.

However, given the political impasse created by the constitution of 1978 and subsequent amendments, Sri Lankans are not as lucky as Bangladeshis to get rid of (225+1) overnight. Because 10.3 million voters participated and endorsed the current parliamentarians (225) not knowing that the electoral system was rigged in favor of moneyed men and women, shady characters, criminals and cronies of highly corrupt political party leaders, and essentially it denied the right of every citizen to participate in the government. In contrast, Bangladeshi parliamentary election system is not rigged, and the country maintains Westminster-style parliamentary system where the parliament enjoys substantial constitutional powers and parliamentarians are elected by the ‘first past the post’ (FPTP) electoral system compared to highly perverted Sri Lankan proportional representation system, a brainchild of JRJ and it is the ROOT of ALL EVILS in our motherland.

Taking into account of these mistakes in electing Sri Lankan parliamentarians for five years, it is logical and prudent to compel (225+1) to agree on formation of an interim government for a limited period, ideally for about 15 months to rescue the nation from bankruptcy and avoid anarchy. The protesters expecting the resignation of 225 parliamentarians needs to hold their noses and demand the formation of an interim government without Rajapaksas as requested by the Chief Prelates of the three Buddhist Chapters. Also, it is important that the protesters are mindful of the other only option, that is the formation of a military government, it will be the worst option and perhaps the country will not be recognized by the international community and will remain as a Banana Republic until a democratically elected government is established. Similar protest rallies have led to creation of military regimes in Egypt, Thailand, and Burma. Finally, SJB and JVP have understood their precarious and untenable position of fighting for the pound of flesh for themselves. They too have agreed to participate in an interim government if it is not led by Rajapaksas including Gotabaya. The protesters with no-party affiliations know that Sajith and AKD are not lilywhites either, hence any tactic used to prolong the formation of an interim government will be highly counter productive, especially for Sajith.

The interim government’s role is limited to manage the transition from Rajapaksa regime which represents the final phase of despotism in Sri Lanka and to a truly democratic government that will respect and adopt constitutionalism. During the proposed transition, it is imperative that protesters struggling to evict 225+1 understand, legality helps to ensure the continuity of the state’s normal administrative activities such as keeping peace and order, collecting taxes, managing public transportation, running hospitals, courts and so forth. Likewise, the political party leaders must understand that regime change has been precipitated as a response to a crisis of legitimacy, economic insecurity, and 74 years of despotism. Therefore, the legality of the (Interim) transition government will ensure continuity until the day when the representative of a new government can take over the reins. Furthermore, SJB and JVP are yet to understand that advantage of legality for an interim government will ensure the conformity of those services currently functioning under the directives of the outgoing Rajapaksa regime – primarily Sri Lanka Police force, Sri Lankan Armed Forces, and the Judiciary. Only a “Legal take over” would be able to expedite a peaceful and orderly transfer of power.

The Best Option

Finally, it is apparent there are many interpretations given to the meaning of “Interim government” at this crucial junction our of political history. Of the four types of interim governments namely a) Provisional; exclusively managed by the opposition parties, unfortunately they are equally repugnant bunch of charlatans not acceptable to the protesters. b) International; exclusively managed by the UN. (225 +1) should not drive Sri Lankans away to seek assistance from international agencies. c) Caretaker; Exclusively managed by a different set of SLPP charlatans for a limited period. This option is a non-starter given the extent of incompetency, arrogance and cancerous corruption attributed to SLPP leadership. d) Power-Sharing; Exclusively managed by the representatives of the opposition and the governing party SLPP. This is the only viable option, of course without the involvement of Rajapaksa clan members. It will reinforce the legality of the INTERIM GOVERNMENT and, it will certainly raise the confidence level of those who are willing to support us to overcome the present crisis in the country. Those partners include International Agencies (UN, EU, ASEAN, ADB, World Bank), Friendly donor countries without hidden agendas, Sri Lankan expatriate community and the International Investor community.

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