Make significant impact on the political culture and good governance, and to make this island nation of ours a paradise..!!!

Of plumbers and politicians

We often hear politicians saying how they want government to empower the people, so that people can do things.

But that's not the way it is. 'Thomas Jefferson wrote that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The Constitution was not written to tell us what to do. The Constitution establishes the relationship among the three branches of government- the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. It tells the government what it may do, and it also tells the government what it may not do. The government may not restrict our speech. The government may not tell one how to pray. The government may not do a lot of things. Government is a lot better at taking things away than it is at giving, but most of all, the government does not empower the people. The people empower the government. Ours is a government of the people. We are not people who belong to the government.

In the coming months, we will not be electing masters, we will be choosing employees, servants of our will, guardians of our rights. The politician does not tell us what to do. We tell them what to do.

It is not the politician’s job to take our money and give it back. It is his job to take what money we must have to protect and serve us - and to do that job as efficiently as possible. Government service may be an important duty, and a great responsibility, but it is not supposed to be a blessing for those who serve. It is our government servants who are supposed to sacrifice for us, not we to sacrifice for them.

If we do not elect the right person, it’s our fault. If we do not demand the best, we will not get the best. If we do not give the right measure of power to the right kind of people, then the wrong people will take more power than they need and they will use it the way they want, not the way we want.

That is why our duty to elect the right people to serve us is so important. Many operate their own businesses and hire people to work for them. Most of us own homes, and sometimes we hire plumbers, electricians, carpenters to do work for us. We try to hire the right people for the work because we pay for that work, and we want it done right. When our child is sick, we try to pick the best physician - and we pay attention to what that doctor does and how well he or she does it. Why? Because there is nothing more important to us than the life of our child.

This nation is also our child. Sri Lanka is a country forever young. Sri Lanka needs the right people to look after her, which is our job to pick the right people, regardless of party, or race, or gender, or anything other than talent and integrity. I can't and I won't tell you which candidate merits your vote. God gave us a free will. The Constitution is there to protect our right to exercise that will. If we fail to exercise our will intelligently, then we have betrayed ourselves, and no one else can fix that for us.

Tomorrow is our day. Let’s use it to hire the right people.

S. P. Sriskantha
Colombo

www island.lk
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Making servants out of politicians
by Dr.M.A.Mohamed Saleem


Opinion expressed by S. P. Sriskantha in The Island of December 24, 2009, under the caption, Of plumbers and politicians, if followed to the letter by the voters at all elections, should have significant impact on the political culture and good governance, and to make this island nation of ours a paradise.

For this to happen, the people of this country should be willing to assert that "… sovereignty is in the people and is inalienable…." and by this authority vested in them by the constitution use it to their advantage. Only "the people empower the government" and not the other way round as the politicians have made us believe for the past several decades that it is only governments that empower the people. Implication is that as explained by Sriskantha those elected by the people are not masters but peopleemployees, trusted to carry out some tasks. Therefore, "the politician does not tell us (the people) what to do". Instead, "we (the people) tell them (the politicians) what to do" and hold them accountable for all their actions and recall them when they fail to deliver on what was accepted as tasks from us the people for a specified period.

For over 60 years, the politician in this country assumed that people elect him/her to be the ruler(s). To rule, he/she creates an aura that life support systems of the commoner are controlled by him or her. Perversion of this self-assumed aura of the politician is manifested today in gigantic cut-outs and portraits at every public places, as a way of reminder that ‘life is a mercy’ accorded to people by the politician. Very soon, there will be another bout of cut-out and poster assaults on the public as the parliamentary election date is announced.

During the 60 years after independence from British rule, the indigenous politician, to be in power, changed the constitution many times, divided people into factions, made ethnicity and linguistic differences instruments of hatred, placated one set of the citizens against the other, denied reasonable remedy to people’s grievances, underplayed genuine desires of the masses to cry out that the country belongs to all. Above all, the politician(s) failed to create a level field for human values, such as equity, justice and fair play, to prosper. I could not find better words to describe the present state of this country than "The two main parties, the SLFP and the UNP, have taken turns –so to speak- in plunging the country into this unholy mess" from The Island editorial of January 19, 2010.

No doubt, people are relieved from the secessionist savage war that plagued this country for almost 30 years and without the political will and courage and sacrifice of the armed forces, this could not have happened. People of this country will be grateful forever to all those who sacrificed with life and limb to keep this country intact. Genuine patriots of this country and even cynics, however, may argue that the war and the destruction of life and property need not have taken place had the politician(s) been more accommodative and magnanimous to act in the long term interest of the country without pursuing short term personal glories and partisan interests.

Party politics touted as democracy have been the bane of this country. Public funds are lavished on projecting party lines to cling on to governing power. Deceit, unruliness, intimidation, illicit trade, forgery, double talk, blackmail and revenge are added qualifications for party membership and those who demonstrate proficiency in the use these skills to party’s advantage are made frontline party candidates to contest elections. Some, even when rejected by the people, are imposed on the people by the party as nominated members to the Parliament. The secessionist-terrorism may have been brought under control but the common man in this country is still terrified of the money and muscle power of the ‘politician clan’, particularly when country is gripped in election fever and he suffers in silence with inability to cry his mind out that he is sick and tired of the politician and needs a change. It appears that political terrorism in this country has come to stay and it is taking a very dangerous course as even the law enforcement agencies are threatened and pressured to compromise their neutrality. It is the political terrorism that needs to be eliminated and the mood for a change is unparalleled in the post-independence history of this country.

Unfortunately, people of this country are expecting change to happen by doing the same thing over and over and, once again, the people will do it at the next parliamentary elections by aligning with candidates put out by the same two main political parties that caused all the mess in this land. This is understandable, given the people’s mindset of ‘backing the winning horse’ and resisting new ideas. Mahatma Gandhi’s words remind us that change cannot happen unless we (the people by ourselves) become the change that we wish to see in the world and that is why we -the people- need to regain the authority that the politician has snatched from us if we – the people- are really serious to see a new Sri Lanka.

At the recent presidential election a group calling itself Apey Swarajya Movement (ASM) placed a programme for public scrutiny (through its representative U.B.Wijekoon) that may help the people to regain their lost authority for instituting good governance in this country. Given the aggressive and abusive nature of the two major political party candidates, using resources amassed from the public, the ASM-message, and the messenger had no chance in the competition. Nonetheless, the message from the ASM deserves an objective evaluation and adopted as appropriate by all those who aspire to move this country out of poverty by embracing principles of self reliance and take it to a realistic level of development based on equity and justice for all.

The Swarajya Movement has proposed an electoral process without political parties and devoid of any room for vote rigging, violence, intimidation and with negligible cost. The most important election will be at the village level (for electing members volunteering to function as people’s representatives in the village administration or Gramarajya), which will be the foundation for the country’s development. The Gramarajya will also constitute the basic unit for building other structures of governance. All development plans and project implementation are to be with direct participation of the people and nothing will be done in a village without the consent of the villagers through the Gramarajya. The Pradeshiya Sabha, the District Sabha, the Deshiya Rajya Sabha (Parliament), the Rajya Buddhi Sabha (Senate) will be constituted by a process of screening-elections from the pool of Gramarajya representatives across the country and those elected to the different bodies are to serve the people in the respective areas of interest, namely, senior citizens, women, youth, food producers and service providers.

This system ensures separation of powers and the Buddhi Sabha will be the think tank composed of professionals who will make plans for nation building. All major decisions affecting the country are made by a three member supreme council composed of the President (elected jointly by the Deshiya Rajya Sabha and Rajya Buddhi Sabha), the Prime Minister of the Parliament and Leader of the Senate. For more details of the Apey Swarajya proposal refer www.apeyswaraja@gmail.com., and this needs to be studied in the light of growing pressure in this country for abolishing the Executive presidency, establishing a realistic power sharing mechanism, eliminating corruption and nepotism, greater accountability and transparency and regaining national pride through self reliance.

Repeated insurgencies and the recent war in Sri Lanka that lasted three decades are only expressions of discontent that: people of this country are unable to pursue, in the present political environment, their life-goals in the spirit of equity, peace and justice without fear of discrimination on basis of religion, race, language, place of birth, family connections etc,. Although there was a ray of hope for a new environment to emerge in this country when the President announced in May 2009 that there are no minorities and all are Sri Lankans, actions that followed continue to give the impression that divisiveness, political patronage and victimisation have not changed and, people continue to live in fear for their lives and property.

Unfortunately, post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction have been equated with building highways and skyscrapers and we have lost sight of building bridges across hearts and minds of the people so that we can all say in unison that the Country Belongs to All. The recent presidential election results suggest that people living in the Northern and Eastern Provinces can still be sidelined or made irrelevant for decisions affecting this country, and this polarisation will go counter to all hopes of nation- building.

When every village takes care of its own locality and makes the government officers posted to that village perform under the watchful eyes of the people; when people of a village realise that their welfare depends on the good neighbourliness and amity of the adjoining village(s) regardless of religious and other differences; when people’s representatives realise that they mandatorily are to meet the voters once every three months to give account of their actions; when funds from the national treasury are allocated on an equitable basis for parallel development of every village; when the villagers have no need to travel long distances to be in contact with the rest of world; when the youth can pursue life goals from wherever they are; when women realise that they have enough time for the family while contributing in their own way to nation building; when the elderly are respected and valued for their enriched wisdom; when the professionals realise that country’s development depends on their skills and commitment; when people realise that law and order enforcement agencies are trustworthy safeguards for protecting life and property and when no single person will have the right (even as the President of the country) to control the nation’s destiny but regulated through collective decisions of a committee then this country would have attained the change it desires. This is the Swarajya Movement’s message, which in essence is the mobilisation of peoples’ minds to become the change.

In this country today what people look for are trusted ‘servants’ to represent them and not bullying ‘masters’ and it should be a choice for future politician(s) whether he/she wants to be part of the change people now desire. Mr.Sriskantha’s plea is appropriate for all time– "If we do not elect the right person, it is our fault. If we do not demand the best we will not get the best. If we do not give the right measure of power to the right kind of people, then the wrong people will take more power than they need and they will use it the way they want, not the way we-the people- want". For long, this country has accused the politicians of having usurped more powers which actually belong to the people, implying, we the people, have not given the right measure of power to the right kind of people. For a change, let us -the people- not blame the politician. After all, the politician will be a willing servant only if we – people- can demonstrate that we are the masters.


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