CHANGE OF CONSTITUTION OPPOSED BY LORDS THIS TIME
By Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne-2017-10-26
One pundit explains to us: 'When a pot of water heats up, small bubbles form; then bigger bubbles form, and convection currents begin to cause much agitation, increase of entropy and turbulence; the water is ready to undergo a 'phase transition'. Water becomes steam. Social systems too, when highly stressed show increasing social turmoil, disruption and corruption.The normal course of justice is thwarted and those who control the purse begin to loot it." Vaguely he is explaining the social change as explained by Karl Marx. Sri Lanka has passed a revolution in the Presidential Election and the struggle against negative forces is not yet over. If one goes by the news reports, Sri Lanka is in a state close to conclude the transition that started with the victory of President Maithripala Sirisena. He has enough executive powers to take action and to arrest the negative forces with the support of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. But, instead, an additional factor of conflict has been introduced by the attempt to stop change the rule book enabling devolution of power and the purse, to satisfy the democrats inside and outside the country.
Surely, given this cyber age where even a colony on the moon can be run from Cape Canaveral, devolution is a must for controlling the power of ruling elites.
The nationality problem
Yet, fake histories are put forward to justify the arrest of such transfer of power and the purse, to the people who have traditionally lived in their so-called 'traditional homelands.' They misquote the Ramayana, Arabian Nights and both the Bible and the Koran to counter historical truth and reality.
On the other hand, some who have forgotten the gravity of the nationality problem have pointed out that priority should be given to resolving civil discontent that is threatening not only the Government, but every citizen's well being! According to their 'Marxist' analysis, apparently, a proletarian uprising is on the way. No joke, they are serious. Hence they have questioned the need for re-writing the Constitution at this hour. The first concern of a man falling into a fire cannot be a re-writing of the regulations for the fire brigade! The external pressure for the change of the Constitution put in by the 'US, UK and others working with a powerful diaspora', has been sharply questioned, apparently this time not by Malwatte- Asgiriya, but by some Lords in the British House of Lords, affirming what these pundits had already asserted. So, if the Government wishes to abandon these 'divisive projects', it only has to capture the golden moment to suppress proletarians with the help of foreign friends. And yet, unfortunately the rewriting of the Constitution seems to be so important to the Government that the Prime Minister attacked newspaper editors in public for reporting the opposition of the Mahanayake to the attempt to change the Constitution! The Pundit asks, is there a hidden meaning behind all this?
Both the President and the Prime Minister have come along different routes with different experiences. One is a village leader with a communist leaning to start with; the other is a Colombo Seven Royalist, but with a father, who was one time theoretician of the Trotskyite Sama Samajist movement, grinning at him all the time! However, they have made a political combination in the category of social liberalism. So far they have faced criticism from all sides and moved forward. Still a massive people's movement is active in the hope of achieving under this political leadership. The attacks made by the fascistic opposition citing the so-called unprecedented financial scandals are still treated as of no consequence by these liberal leaders. On the other hand, while many investigations are made, and many arrests are made, no one is really caught and punished. This has become a negative aspect of social liberalism. The inability to sharply break from chauvinism and the eagerness of the liberal duo to make compromises with certain leaders responsible for establishing fascism has created suspicion and anger among the active leaders of the mass democratic movement. It is a defect identified by Trotsky, that liberal leaders are unable to stand firmly against chauvinism and to overthrow corrupt backward regimes to establish democracy. In Sri Lanka, can the liberal leaders go ahead attacking chauvinist elements, finally to carry out the democratic duty of the promulgation of a Constitution with satisfactory power sharing?
