K.H.J Wijayadasa And Lloyd Fernando: Governance Is The Foundation Of Sustainable Prosperity
By W.A. Wijewardena –November 27, 2012
Dr W.A. Wijewardena
Wijayadasa’s thesis
The veteran Civil Servant and Secretary to two former Presidents, K.H.J Wijayadasa has delivered a very strong message to contemporary Sri Lankans in his publication “Governance, Heritage and Sustainability” launched last week in Colombo before an audience of likeminded veterans belonging to his era. He has said that the “legitimacy of government is measured by degree of democratisation, accountability of official and political elements of government, transparency, respect of human rights as well as the ability to uphold the sanctity of the rule of law”. Explaining what he means by this, he has said that at political levels, the rulers should be held accountable to the people whom they rule by giving the people a chance to contest the political power. Today’s trend has been, he says, moving toward a less authoritarian mode of power exercised by politicians and supported by a participatory approach in which everyone at all levels has a say about the doings of the governments. This view of Wijayadasa is consistent with how democracy has been defined by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen in his 2009 book “The Idea of Justice”: Democracy is government by consultation.
Wijayadasa: Sri Lanka should strengthen its Supreme Court
In Chapter I of the book, presenting his observations of the American Presidential election of 1996, Wijayadasa has praised the checks and balances established in the American system of governance to limit the authoritarian powers of its Executive Presidency through an effective separation of powers among the three major branches of the state: The Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. Based on the virtues of the American system, he has recommended to Sri Lanka that the country’s Supreme Court should be armed with more powers to determine the constitutionality of both legislative and executive actions. In my view, Wijayadasa’s prescription is timely and opportune in view of the current embroilment between the Supreme Court and the other two branches of the state in Sri Lanka. It is the opinion of the constitutional experts that the Supreme Court exercises its powers on behalf of the people in whom the sovereignty has been vested just like the other two branches do the same on behalf of people.
Dandamis: Instill fear but don’t expect love and respect from others
But such a separation alone cannot guarantee the elimination of authoritarian rule in a society. The three branches should respect each other and should have cultivated a practice of morality of not using the powers vested in them for a different cause to instill fear in others. This was eloquently communicated to Alexander the Great by Dandamis, a Sage in the ancient Indian University of Taxila, when Alexander asked him the question: “How can one make oneself loved and respected by others?” The answer of Dandamis was swift and clear: “If you have enormous powers, but still you do not instill fear in others, then, you are loved and respected” So, good governance requires each of the branches of the state to use its powers responsibly and with due accountability without instilling fear in other branches. Wijayadasa has in his book provided a blueprint of how a government should accomplish this wish of a nation.
Rulers are simply servants and not masters Read More
