Challenges before Yahapalana leadership

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Though in general the pro-democracy mass movement believed it was the Mahinda group and the Executive Presidency that led to mega corruption, with an authoritative rule and ousting Mahinda regime would solve all problems, their hopes began to fade off soon after their victory. They were forced to accept that Yahapalanaya too included men of corruption and racism.

It is true that mass agitation and satyagraha was able to remove Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and others, but the reluctance of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe social liberal Government to break off from the chauvinist Mahinda politics that drag this country into a further mess needs to be corrected. It is not possible to defeat Rajapaksa by running a marathon with him, simply because the man is off on a Sinhala Buddhist track.

Main crises the country is facing, is based on Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism. Latter has nothing to do with patriotism or Buddhist ethics. The unethical and insane public participation of Buddhist monks on the streets collecting money for penalties imposed by a Court of Law is a manifestation of fascistic politics of Mahinda group.

The Yahapalana leadership, either the President or the Prime Minister, must take this issue seriously enough to challenge that and tell the people, this is no issue for Buddhist monks to play politics with and it insults all true Buddhists. In spite of such friction, in Lanka, a radical overhaul is underway - of the political, economic, and social system. In another way, an unrecognized revolution is taking place. That means the upsurge of masses that took place two years back is still surging forward.

New Constitution

A new Constitution is being discussed, at the same time, a series of radical reforms are being rushed through. The fact that many of these reforms are being challenged as unconstitutional obviously indicates that the coming new Constitution is aimed at making what is un-Constitutional today, Constitutional tomorrow; making legal what is illegal by changing the fundamental laws of the country. Yes, this is a revolution without bloodshed, at least so far. It is the fundamental and inalienable right of the people to determine the economic, social, and political system in which they choose to live. This choice is their choice because it is freely made, not with a gun pointed at their heads. This is true for all nationalities living in Lanka.

Today, the world is maintained by G 2O agreement and Sri Lanka finds itself practically under a collective global power strategic objective and its global hegemony. This emerged after the international economic crisis after 2008. In spite of political changes taking place in the whole world including America, the international political balance of G 20 is still working.

It is indeed in this world reality that the US Ambassador chose to announce Washington’s decision to assist Sri Lanka draft its Constitution and implement the Human Rights Council resolution. We must remember the power of working masses of the frontline global powers expressed by leaders such as Bernie Sunders and Jeremy Corbyn. We are living in a world where the US depend on money and support given by China in difficult days. Gone are the days of US support ground forces on enemy territory and patrols provocatively close to China. It is also with Indian friendship that from Temple Trees the Acting US Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells declared, last week, that “the United States is – and will continue to be – an Indo-Pacific power.” Anyone can see that rewriting the Constitution under such conditions can only advance the cause of all nationalities in Lanka and nothing else.

Of course there are guns pointed at Lanka due to the heinous crimes committed by fascistic Mahinda regime: the 2015 Human Rights resolution and the strict IMF/World Bank conditions including the populist political condition popularly known as ‘Good Governance,' a grudging recognition by the global capital the power of masses for unity with the national interest. Yes, ‘Good Governance'– or “Yahapalana” as people know it here – was not invented by simpletons or potta Tamils following Mahinda.

The IMF, World Bank and the US Treasury coined the term in the late 1980s as to identify the project to deviate the revolutions and uprisings in the Third World to liberal ends; a political conditionality for keeping indebted Third World countries such as ours within the system of global capitalism.

'Good Governance' takes politics out of government and manages a shift from government to governance. By doing so, it has undermined the conflict between liberals and the left. For a limited period where national reconciliation and power sharing has been implemented, it neutralised identity conflicts, especially in multi-ethnic societies. One can find the same words in the Human Rights Council resolution and in the ‘good governance’ conditionality: 'rule of law,' 'democracy,' devolution,' 'participation,' etc. These are the same positive words used eagerly by the Yahapalana regime.

Oppressed masses

In January 2016 last year, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament that the purpose of the new Constitution was, in addition to national unification, to establish “a political culture that respects the rule of law and strengthens democracy.” The other aim of ‘Good Governance’ is to convert the absolutist chauvinist State into effective and strong state agencies that guarantee the interests of the oppressed masses.

Populist and racist leaders in countries like ours misused elections to create racial and nationality conflicts. Such politics become a threat to democracy as minorities and displaced people shifted to use terrorism to challenge discrimination and differential treatment. Then anti-terror actions will be used by the state with the connivance of world powers, mainly US. This not only means that the State will no longer serve the public interest; it will actually be turned into a repressive State against the very people it must serve. This is exactly what happened in Lanka under fascistic Mahinda regime. Clearly, good governance should arrest such developments.

Even in America, Donald Trump came to power by using democratic elections; But American people today rising against the policies of Donald Trump using massive street campaigns. Even the World Bank admits that good governance could be anti-democratic, that it demands measures directed against the expectations of the majority of the people. In a 2002 report, the World Bank was explicit: “Good governance requires the power to carry out policies and to develop institutions that may be unpopular among some - or even a majority - of the population.”

In the previous presidential elections, Mahinda won and he started with dragging Marshal Fonseka to prison with torture. Almost everything done by that regime of Mahinda and Gotabhaya was wrong. Obviously, the majority doesn’t mean good governance. Behind both these threats – the Human Rights Council resolution and the IMF/World Bank conditionality - is the same face: fascistic Mahinda. Let’s be clear. The demands contained in the Human Rights Council resolution are not because Lanka was good, but Lanka happened to be cruel and racist under Mahinda.