“Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb
voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of
certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.” ~Marvin Simkin
The Western World, particularly the United States of America (USA) and Western Europe, can well afford to boast about human rights
and their vehement protection on international platforms and fora.
Especially in the United States, the first ten amendments (also known as
the Bill of Rights) to their Constitution talk volumes for the
safeguard of the rights of an individual. What is most significant about
the US Constitution is, it has been crafted to safeguard the individual
from the government and its potential threats to the individual. Freedom of Expression
and of the Press is no more the luxury of a privileged class or creed.
With their tumultuous history of agitation for civil rights, their
intricate complex of immigrant-oriented social coherence and their firm
and solid constitutional safeguards for separation of powers, American
constitution has indeed stood the test of time. No country, whether in
Europe, Africa or Asia other than the US would have elected a
representative of a minority (African American) to its highest office.
The only exception would be India, yet she would be electing a leader of
a minority caste or religion, but not a non-Indian.
Would Sri Lanka elect a Tamil or Muslim
President? In the current background, it is more than inconceivable,
given the collective mindset of the majority voter-bloc, would Sri Lanka
elect any person other than a Sinhalese.
She may elect a Sinhalese non-Buddhist, even which is not likely in the
context of the brainwashing our majority has been subjected to
especially during the last few decades, firstly by the myths and fairy
tales of Mahawamsa,
secondly by the arrogant and thoughtless assertions made by the
so-called modern-day protectors of the teachings of the Great One,
Gautama Buddha. Our collective consciousness is too deep-seated in
self-aggrandizement. The ultimate test for Sri Lankans as one nation,
not as disparate ethnic groups but as one cohesive nation, will be if
and when a representative of a minority ethnic group stands for election
from one of two leading political entities, the United National Party
(UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
It is beyond all imagination, wild or not, for the SLFP even to
nominate a Tamil or a Muslim, how much ever he or she may be qualified,
from their ranks for the highest office in the country. Its base is so
steeped in ‘Sinhalese-Buddhistness’,
it is not in the realm of anticipation of an SLFP-sponsored
non-majority candidate for President. The not-so-recent past has a
glaring example, when President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s
wish to nominate Lakshman Kadirgamar,
a Rhodes Scholar and the then Minister of External Affairs for the post
of Prime Minister when she was President met an unfortunate abortion
and result was the country got Mahinda Rajapaksa who, by virtue of the
fact that he was the Prime Minister at the time, got the SLFP nomination
for President. The rest, as they is, history, and a very forgettable
one.
Would the United National Party have the guts and courage to nominate
an eminent Tamil or a Muslim for President? My guess is: it would,
provided they could find an exceptionally qualified and suitable choice.
The UNP, on the contrary to the SLFP, since the beginning of the Party,
has had a liberal mindset at leadership level and its non-myopic,
non-doctrinaire approach to social disputes has had their effects on
their grassroots too. Its non-socialist approach to socio-economic
issues where the individual is not sacrificed at the altar of an
abstract society, has been diametrically opposed to the approach adopted
by Marxian theorists who propagate that society’s good should always
take precedence over that of the individual. The UNP’s thinking has its
personal appeal to millions of individuals who at the same time consider
that ‘social justice’ is an essential constituent of the overall social
fabric. If and when social justice is at the core of one’s fundamental
premise, safeguarding individual rights at whatever the costs becomes
more palatable and amenable to the general public whose majority is
always, in the writers mind, reasonable and not extreme and treacherous.
Many lives, whether of loyalists of the revolution or innocent
bystanders, have been sacrificed in the so-called proletariat
revolutions that have been embarked upon with some degree of success.
The romanticist shade that is often associated with these revolutions
has attracted a multitude of followers and sympathizers towards their
cause. While some erudite pundits have gone out of their way to defend
individual rights, many on the left of the political spectrum who
believe in a Marxist dreamland still cling on to fantasies like
state-owned economic factors as well as control over the proliferation
of ideas could ultimately deliver the ‘goods’. Any ‘means’ to a good
‘end’ theory has fallen flat on the road to democratic capitalism.
Both Capitalism and socialism, if practiced with the sole aim of
achieving a noble end and at the same time being devoid of any speck of
social justice and catering only for a select few of cronies and
henchmen, they are bound to fail. Crony-capitalism as well as
crony-socialism has its intrinsic flaws and idiosyncrasies which
ultimately direct and determine the path along which each dogma is
taking their uninformed pilgrims.
Foreclosure of arguments for individual rights is the greatest danger
that humanity faces today. Whether one comes from the Far West or Far
East, or from Europe or South Asia, one would understand and acknowledge
beyond any shadow of doubt that suppression of individual rights is a
cardinal sin, in fact the greatest sin that any person, organization or
government could commit against humankind. In Sri Lanka, the
fundamentals are same; they hardly change, even an iota, to submerge
individual rights and spread state-controlled propaganda. And the most
ironical political reality that has emerged, particularly during the
last regime of the Rajapaksas,
is state-controlled programs wrapped in sugary coating were advanced as
leading to achievement of greater good for greater numbers while they
in fact were programs and projects that, for all practical purposes,
that helped fatten their own financial purses.
Individual rights matter most in the context of a pluralistic,
multicultural society such as Sri Lanka. But the collective
consciousness of the people whose rights are violated on a constant
basis, tends to become blurred in the face of other mundane demands on
an average family in the context of increasing living costs and
declining living standards. This greater and more pressing demand on the
economic and financial aspects of human life invariably results in mass
apathy which is the breeding ground for a corrupt and crafty politician
to exploit to the maximum and create a domain of comfort zone wherein
the average citizen is apathetic to the suppression of human rights and
as a result, the corrupt politician is fine-tuned to the weaknesses and
susceptibilities of the system. The crucial effect of this brutal
process keeps producing a corrupt politician after another, for the
system is too busy feeding on itself.
Against such an unkind backdrop, the governing parties of today in
Sri Lanka are trying to grapple with an uncommon dynamic in that, having
assumed power after a brutal campaign against an insensitive and cruel
ruler-clan, the very forces that propelled them to power take to the
streets demanding even freer and more liberal expression for better
living standards and cleaner governance. The Government cannot afford to
be seen to be faltering on this account at all- most of us will
remember what happened in 1971 and the revolt of the betrayed children
of the 1970 Sirimao Bandaranaike doctrine. The guns of power politics
may have silenced the socio-political worriers of a different era, but
in a modern enlightened social reality, the use of guns by the State
against an unarmed troops for a socio-economic change may prove
redundant sometimes and unproductive most of the time.
Tamils from the North, Muslims from the East and Sinhalese Buddhists
from all over are powerful stakeholders of this polity. No government
can summarily dismiss the crying needs of any of these communities. The
Constitution has some safeguards against the rise of any dictator, but
the civil leadership in the country needs to ensure that no community,
big or small in numbers, can be discriminated against; human rights is
no monopoly of the majority and any country that does not look after the
interests, hopes and legitimate ambitions of the minorities is as
guilty as those who fire bullets against the unarmored breasts of all
civilians.
Bigoted fools may keep barking and unfriendly foes may shriek from
the top of their lungs, yet the innocent whose only sin is being born
poor and helpless in an abject squalid circumstance might lend an
unhesitant ear to these fringe men and women for they know not what else
to hear or listen to.
The task at hand is enormous and those who mean well will ultimately
succeed for their mite too is not too weak nor inconsequential. It is
apt to pose the same question Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru whose writings and
orations have continued to echo in the chambers of learning: ‘How
amazing this spirit of man? (By:
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