The Battle for 19 is struggle for Democracy
February 22, 2019, 9:23 pm
Nineteen is the last of the teen years, and many think that moving to 19 was still being a teenager and not an adult.One had to hit 20/21 for that.
We are caught in a different number issue. Today, 19 is the stuff of crooked political debate. Those who were most active in supporting the move to 19 from 18, in the Constitution, are showing they wish to take a huge step back.
Yes…back to 18. The fight is led by movers of the two amendments to the Constitution, Mahinda Rajapaksa who removed 17 and brought 18, and Maithripala Sirisena, who brought 19 as a pledge given to the people.
Those who worry about being 19, a gap year in life before hitting the responsibilities of adulthood, also know there is no turning back. But it is different with our fight against 19.
What is being promoted, without being said, is to move from the progressive milestone of 19 to the millstone of 18. Take a huge stride back in democracy from the 19th Amendment to the 18th Amendment; a move to restore the autocracy of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Regime.
To the leaders ageing in their sixties and seventies from Polonnaruwa and Hambantota, and their supporters, it is good to give a reminder of what Maithripala Sirisena said when he presented the first copy of his manifesto at the Viharamahadevi Park on December 19 2014. With elections just three weeks away he pledged to scrap the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, and hold parliamentary elections under the terms of the amended Constitution, within three months of being elected.
We do recall how the power supply to the Viharamahadevi Park was interrupted while Sirisena was giving this speech; how he spoke without a microphone, and also that he presented his manifesto to the Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, who then led the National Movement for Social Justice.
Recalling such history is of value, because one must know why he pledged to rescind the Rajapaksa Special 18 A – which MR brought in by rescinding the 17th Amendment that had many democratic features; not the stuff for the Rajapaksa Autocracy.
The 18A removed the two-term limit for the Executive Presidency, which was a democratic thinking of JRJ. The result of such removal is seen today in many African countries, where presidents remain in power for two or three decades. It was the constitutional line of support for family dominance and the continuance of the crooked in power, with little chance for the voice of the people.
It also provided for the appointment of special commissions for the Police, Public Service and key administrative institutions that did not even have an image of independence, but total control by the President. That was the ‘democracy’ the people of Sri Lanka was trapped in, and paved the way for the campaign for renewed democracy and lively social justice, which saw the election of Maithripala Sirisena.
Today’s fight against 19A – with all its wider democratic actions, although with many shortcomings too because of political reality – is the battle to restore the autocracy of the Rajapaksas.
We have heard MR say the removal of the two term presidency was to ensure stability in government, because with the dawn of the second term the thinking was about a successor and not wider national issues. He is silent about not having a three-term limit. The world has seen such changes rapidly move to the enthronement of crooked families.
The attack on the 19A, also targets the Constitutional Council with unstated concerns about the failure to manipulate the judiciary of the country. The seven-judge verdict of the Supreme Court against the dissolution of parliament by President Sirisena, and the necessity for the ‘coup Rajapaksa’ Cabinet to move out, are the key causes of this attack on the CC. There have been many vague and even direct criticisms of the present independent judiciary by the Rajapaksas and Sirisena too.
Let us not forget that Sirisena was a silent supporter of the Rajapaksa move to remove Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, with all others in the SLFP and UPFA, too. The magnetism of such non-democracy keeps emerging among those who are loudly verbal about democracy, but are actually supportive of autocracy and political dominance.
The fight against 19A is the key political battle in the coming months. It will see the advance of corrupt politics against the values and institutions of democracy. The limited democracy we have retained through the past 71 years is no joy to the promoters of autocracy and dictatorship, especially with the continuance of family dominance over the country and the people.
The forces of democracy lined up in our society, in trade unions, civil society, social organizations, even genuine religious movements, will have to line up in the coming months in the fight to preserve the 19A, and also move to the 20A - a wider democracy with the complete abolition of the Executive Presidency,
The people must recall and revive the promises by Maithripala Sirisena at the Viharamahadevi Park five years ago, and rekindle the hopes given by the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera.
The Battle for 19 is the struggle for Democracy.
