Whither democracy in Sri Lanka?

Sunday 04 November 2012
Democracy in Sri Lanka is facing one of its defining moments in the post independent history as the government, perhaps at the behest of the executive is planning to impeach the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.
On Thursday, a group of ruling party MPs handed over a resolution signed by 117 members of Parliament to the Speaker, Chamal Rajapaksa calling on him to bring an impeachment motion against the chief justice under Section 2 of the paragraph 107 of the Constitution. The speakers should now move an impeachment motion within a period of one month, provided that he is satisfied that there is prima facie evidence against the chief justice.
The government, it appears, is being overwhelmed by the recent conflict with the judiciary. The government’s position, as we understand, is that the judiciary should not act beyond its purview and that the judiciary, an unelected body, should not challenge an elected government.
The basic idea of the separation of power doctrine, the key tenant of constitutionalism is that each of the three pillars of the government, namely the Executive, Legislature (Parliament) and the Judiciary has its own job and each keeps a tab on the other, in order to prevent the other acting beyond its authority.
The resolution which is calling for an impeachment motion against the chief justice levels a series of charges of personal misconduct and abuse of power.
The underlying causes for a very public conflict between the government and the judiciary are not fully known, though what appeared to be a long simmering dispute came to the surface after the secretary of the Judiciary Service Commission, Manjula Thilakaratne issued a public statement condemning the interference of the independence of the judiciary. That was after the chief justice and two senior Supreme Court judges were ‘invited’ to the President’s House for a discussion with the president. Manjula Thilakaratna was later attacked; his assailants have not yet been apprehended and the judiciary went on a strike in a rare show of dissent.
It is interesting to note that it was only three weeks back that the government refuted claims that it was planning to impeach the chief justice. For a regime which is suffering from a serious deficit of integrity and consistency in its policies, this is a yet another pointer.
Independent democratic institutions in the country are taking yet another beating within the short span of a couple of years. Needless to say that the impeachment motion against the chief justice is viewed by many as part of a series of recent attempts to tame the independent institutions in the country.
It is disturbing, yet ironic, that the judiciary, which granted constitutional approval for consolidation of the executive powers at the expense of the independent commissions has now become the victim of the regime.
The bitter but stubborn truth in the post colonial history of most Third World nations is that the rulers who have come to power through democratic means have gradually dismantled those very democratic institutions.
The failure of democracy in South Asia, with the exception of India, boils down to this inherent hypocrisy on the part of the post independent rulers of former British colonies.
Elections do not necessarily lead to liberal democracy. Sri Lankans who have voted in elections since 1932 should have learnt it the hard way. Their leaders have successively tampered with the Constitution – the supreme law of the land; drafted Constitutions to suit to their whims and fancies; gerrymandered with electorates; and dismantled independent institutions.
Electoral democracy is only one part of the multifaceted concept of democracy. If democracy is to be sustained, a country is required to have the rule of law and independent institutions that safeguards the fundamental rights of the people, and maintain checks and balances on each pillars of government.
Sri Lanka has turned its back to those basic norms; the 18th Amendment to the Constitution provided the constitutional basis for the consolidation of the executive power.
One of the oldest democracies in Asia, Sri Lanka, is now on a fast track to becoming an autocracy built around the authoritarian South East Asian model.
Despite the sporadic resistance from some sections of civil society, the majority of the Sri Lankan at the grassroots appear to be oblivious to this impending danger. That is a sad indictment of the contemporary Sri Lankan psyche, but an old saying sums up our situation: People get leaders they deserve.