A response to DBS Jeyaraj’s ‘The magic behind the Mahinda Rajapaksha victory’...............................................................................
By Citizen Somapala
(January 31, Colombo,Sri Lanka Guardian) There have been some attempts to explain what is beginning to be called ‘Mahinda’s victory.’ However, these explanations make the situation out to be more complex than it actually is, since the issue at hand is in fact, quite simple to understand. The architect of the 1978 Constitution under JR Jayawardene, stated that the only powers that this Constitution does not give the president is the power to make a man a woman. The historical experience from the time that the Constitution was used proves that he was telling the truth. If you can raise one man in a society above all others by placing him above the law, then he can do anything. This is the technique of the 1978 Constitution; it can make two-and-two into five or two-and-two into three. When you are above the law, you can make whatever you want to make without much difficulty.
Those who say that the victory cannot be explained by way of fraud contend that the majority received is so big that it cannot possibly be fraudulent; the fraud is seen to be so big that it just cannot be true. This is exactly what the 1978 Constitution was intended for: to do things that were so disproportionate that people will not believe it is true. For example, in order to suppress the so-called JVP Rebellion of 1986, 1988 – 1991, about 30,000 people were made to disappear. This is a statement that most people do not want to believe. It is too much, and therefore, it must not be true. But commissions for forced disappearances were appointed, the parents of disappeared people came before these commissions and when put together, the figures come to 30,000 or more, and that is only of those who cared to come before the commissions. Since it appears ludicrous to kill so many people in order to suppress such a limited rebellion, this figure had made no impression on the Sri Lankan public and has not been taken seriously by the so-called international community at all.
The president today has completely taken over the powers of all public institutions to the extent that they cannot function in a professional capacity any longer. Every citizen who goes to get anything done experiences this all the time. The fate of the 17th Amendment is well known; that the president didn’t want the 17th Amendment to operate and therefore stopped it is the simplest explanation as to why the 17th Amendment was abandoned. However, this simple conclusion has not found any expression through an official statement or mark of recognition by the public in any significant way. People continue on as if public institutions are not necessary, or with the assumption that ‘well, one day, the president may appoint the institutions under the 17th Amendment.’ The dysfunctionality of these institutions is far too enormous to be taken for calculation and therefore, the facts are ignored.
Take the case of separation of powers. JR Jayawardene’s trick was to end the operation of this principle altogether. The impact of this on the Parliament as well as on the judiciary was enormous; they are unable to carry out the functions that such institutions are expected to carry out in a democracy. However, to come to that conclusion is far too difficult, so we keep on believing that separation of powers exists, that our Parliament is like any other Parliament in a democracy, and that our judiciary has the independence it requires to be effective. Since the facts are too shocking and the dysfunctionalism of these institutions too big, the attitude is ‘let us not bother with this, and let us keep believing that everything happens as it is expected to happen.’ The evil impact of dysfunctionalism is too big for our imaginations to deal with.
This is exactly the phantom limb complex. An amputee who has lost an arm or leg will find it too difficult to believe that the limb is gone. In his imagination, he still wants to believe that those lost body parts are still present and will go so far as to believe that there is pain in that same arm. Psychiatrists will have to find various make-believe methods to treat the pain in an arm that does not exist. It is the same with elections or any other matter of principle within the constitutional order in Sri Lanka: we cannot cope with the idea that a free and fair election is no longer a possibility in Sri Lanka. We cannot deal with the idea that massive financial fraud has now become a normal part of dealings in Sri Lanka. We still want to believe that the auditor general controls everything, and that everything happens as it should. Of course, there may be some minor errors, but these should not and do not add up to massive frauds. We can make believe that there are effective remedies that can be obtained through courts, though we know that the executive presidential system has undermined the independence of the judiciary to the extent that in all vital matters of a constitutional nature, the courts do not have the power to act as they should in a democracy.
Thus we need to believe that an electoral fraud of that magnitude could not have happened; we need to believe that we have had a reasonably good election and therefore, that we have a legitimate government. The 1978 Constitution was designed to create that kind of constitutional order, and that is the explanation that simply explains Mahinda’s victory.
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