People’s Sovereignty Betrayed; People Should Rise Up Against Corrupt Rule
Nagananda Kodituwakku
One may agree that only on paper Sri Lanka is a representative democracy, which recognizes the constitutional supremacy and the sovereignty in the people. The sovereignty of the people is the foundation of democracy as expressed in the Constitution. The supreme law, the Constitution, protects people’s sovereignty and states that the sovereignty in the people cannot be denied or taken away unless people themselves give a mandate relinquishing their own democratic rights.
The truth of this claim depends on the plausibility of attributing sovereignty to “the people” in the first place, and I am skeptic about this possibility.
‘Sovereignty in the people’, what does it mean?
It means the powers of government; Legislative power, Executive power, Judicial power and it also includes the franchise that people themselves exercise, and the people’s fundamental rights cherished in the Constitution. It is the people’s sovereign power that all organs of the government exercise on a social contract entered into purely on trust. Once that trust is violated representative democracy fails.
When a government fails to respect people’s protected rights it invites the world community to interfere
If governments abuse the trust placed in them by the people, citizens become helpless with no hope for remedial action. This sometimes leaves room for outside interference as in the case of several countries including Sri Lanka. The international community can then penetrate Nation-State’s borders to protect the rights and freedom of deceived and betrayed citizens by the very organs that exercise their sovereign power. The UN Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 01st Oct 2015 on Sri Lanka is one such instance, where the International Community rightly considered that the sovereignty in the people of Sri Lanka has been betrayed. It should be remembered that the government of Sri Lanka itself co-sponsored the said resolution proposed by the USA.
What if the people rise up against corruption committed by the Government?
In most functioning democracies, particularly in the developed nations, the citizens have a better understanding of their democratic rights and there is a system in place for checks and balances within the organs of governance. In such a setting people can effectively ensure that no corrupt politician who abuses his authority is spared and dealt with strictly according to the rule of law by the justice system that makes sense. This makes those holding public office accountable to people and prevents them from abusing their office to favor themselves or others.
