“As far back as 1959, the popularly elected Prime Minister Bandaranaike was assassinated; so was President Premadasa in 1991; a whole bunch of leading politicians were killed in one fell swoop in 1994; and our current President escaped death narrowly in 1999. In between, a whole lot of brilliant young men and women including the widely popular Vijaya Kumaratunge and enormously talented Lalith Atulathmudali fell victim to foul murder.”____________________________
by G. Usvattearatchi
(April 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Karl Popper taught political philosophy for a long time at the London School of Economics and died a few years ago. He taught empiricism and Ediriweera Saratchandra speaks enthusiastically about his teaching in Pin Ati Sarasavi Varamak Denne. Popper wrote about political philosophy (The open society and its enemies) as well as the scientific method (The logic of scientific discovery). [In the 1960s at the LSE Popper was referred to as the ‘open society and its enemy’, as Popper was not the most sociable of persons!).
In one of the last pieces he wrote to The Economist, Popper went on to lay down criteria for determining whether a society was democratic. One of them was whether there was a mechanism for the peaceful transfer of power from one set of persons to another. Manifestly we do not have one. Power is maintained by one set of persons or wrestled from another set, by murdering people, by breaking virtually every clause of the penal code, by abusing public property and behaving in generally beastly and uncivilised manner. As far back as 1959, the popularly elected Prime Minister Bandaranaike was assassinated; so was President Premadasa in 1991; a whole bunch of leading politicians were killed in one fell swoop in 1994; and our current President escaped death narrowly in 1999. In between, a whole lot of brilliant young men and women including the widely popular Vijaya Kumaratunge and enormously talented Lalith Atulathmudali fell victim to foul murder.
In this country, elections to public office, whether the Presidency, the central legislature, Provincial Councils or local government bodies are occasions for murder, destruction of property and the common breach of laws. Contrast that with the experience in the Philippines where both Marcos and Estrada were removed from office entirely peacefully, although after much public agitation. Contrast that with the experience in the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China) and Japan, where in the first two, even change over from dictatorship to democracy was NOT marked by violence. Even when General Musharaf arrested power undemocratically from a duly elected legislature, there was hardly any violence.
Then in what manner is a change of government in this country now different from the way it was done in medieval Lanka, England or Scotland?
Foul murder (recall the Henrys in England and Mayadunne’s sons in Lanka) was the common method of succession then. So it is now in this land. Surely, sri, consort of Vishnu, incomparable in beauty (rusiren vasiyakaranev urusiviya ), divine source of wealth and bounty and arbiter of good taste cannot exist side by side with Lanka. She must have forsaken that land many moons ago back to the lap of Vishnu (urvashi). I am making inquiries and shall let you know when I have the information.
However, I have some information: there is no democracy in Lanka.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Post a Comment