Presidential Poll And The Danger Of Being A Gentleman
By S. Sivathasan -
S. Sivathasan
People’s Power, Good Governance and the Opposition’s Target in Proper Balance
If the announcement of Presidential election ignited the fire for regime change, the next one month will fan the flame. In the first fortnight it will reach a crescendo and never diminish in the next. In the fever heat of the baptism of fire, a new political order wished for and prayed about can emerge. It is anticipated that the resounding will of the people and the decisive force of the international community will help bring it about. The forces that labored for the protection of the good, the destruction of evil and for the establishment of righteousness are coalescing into a single entity. With this hope, the vote that tilts will be for the opposition’s common candidate Maithripala Sirisena.
Social Contract
If Rousseau in his mature years of wisdom were to live in Sri Lanka now, what will he say? Citizens born free and wanting to be free, are found everywhere in chains. Even to the convinced and the converted he will belabor his theory that only with the consent of the people can a ruler rule. Implicit in the thesis is the exhortation to overthrow the regime when consent is lost. At this precise point of time duty and responsibility command the people of Sri Lanka to perform a sacred task – to engage their sovereign right to reinstate democratic governance. Responding to the call, they are poised to overwhelm the might of the state with the power of the ballot.
“Emerging Alternative President of Sri Lanka”
The above sub heading,the caption of an article of July 26, 2014 has evolved into reality by December 8.
“Rarely in history do we see leaders of various hues seeking to fuse together for a singular purpose. Rarer still is for a very wide political spectrum to secure a Presidency through a consensus candidate only to terminate it”, the writer had said. Why this determined bid? Because the body politic has become terminally cancerous under a malevolent dictatorship of the incumbent President. So passionate is the peoples’ urge to abolish thePresidency and to transit to civilised times. Unity, politically and ethnically is today a rare first, to effect a regime change, to cleanse the body politic and to institute a new order.Read More
