“The most unpopular bureaucrat in Sri Lanka, the Commissioner is a man whose credibility is being challenged all over the country, as he is seen to have greatly compromised the electoral process. Under constitutional provisions, he has no business being in his position of power in the first place.”>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
By Our Political Editor
(April 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It has become a cliché to say that Sri Lankan voters have shown their maturity in the past through their large turnouts to elections. In 2010, voters showed their maturity further with almost half of the voting population not turning out for the elections.The voter absenteeism at the recent elections clearly indicates a deliberate decision on the part of a large section of the Sri Lankan voting population to refrain from participating in a process which they find meaningless. Since there was an election for the country’s president just two months ago where the turnout was relatively much larger, it is clear that the absenteeism from this election was a deliberate choice on the part of the citizens of Sri Lanka.
Voter absenteeism at this election was above all else, a condemnation of the Commissioner of the election. The most unpopular bureaucrat in Sri Lanka, the Commissioner is a man whose credibility is being challenged all over the country, as he is seen to have greatly compromised the electoral process. Under constitutional provisions, he has no business being in his position of power in the first place. According to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, (which is the supreme law of the country,) the election should be run by a commission elected by a constitutional council. However, the very concept of supreme law has lost its meaning, as the arbitrary nature of these laws has become increasingly apparent. Even the Commissioner himself, in no uncertain terms, promised that the previous election - the presidential election - would be the last in which he would participate; a promise that he has obviously not upheld.
The last presidential election created enormous doubt in the minds of the people and the Commissioner did very little to convince the public that their doubts were baseless. He did hold a press conference under pressure from the government, but this has not restored any public confidence in him. Like several higher officers today holding office, such as the Inspector General of Police, these high-ranking officers no longer enjoy the confidence of the people. Instead, they are seen to be working directly under the manipulation of an executive presidential system which operates above the law. Lawlessness has spread into every aspect of public life, including the electoral processes and has resulted in the absence of public confidence in the electoral process.
In 1931, when adult franchise was introduced to Sri Lanka, British commissioners spoke about it as an experiment for the rest of the world. Now, nearly seventy nine years after the introduction of the adult franchise, the experiment has proved to be a failure. Instead of enhancing a process of democracy, the people feel betrayed that their votes are being manipulated by processes which do not lend to the development of consent, but instead create results which are manipulated and artificial. The manipulated process concentrates on developing means to disallow a real contest taking place during the elections. The attempt to destroy the contesting process defeats the idea of an election itself, which is the attempt of parties to gain the consent of the people by convincing them of the effectiveness of their system. When the systems die, the very constitutional principles on which these systems are based are betrayed. The result is that people find themselves alienated from this process, and manipulators can get their way.
What the election predicts is a period of further instability for Sri Lanka, politically as well as in all areas of social life. On the ethnic front, communities are more divided than ever. In the Tamil minority areas, the voting was at its lowest, as low as 10% in some places, according to some observers, and a little higher than that in some others. This is a clear indication that the election does not bring about consensual politics between the ruling party and the minorities; and as the minority issue is one of the questions that bedevilled the Sri Lankan political system for a long period of time, this is now bound to continue.
Above all, what this means is that Parliament will cease to be a place that expresses the real concerns of local people. Instead, it will be a place where a group of people who have manipulated power are able to manipulate finances and other matters to give an artificial idea of legitimacy, while using the state as a resource for whatever they wish. This will make for a time of lawlessness as the Constitution continues to be ignored, and the public institutions are condemned to powerlessness. Under these circumstances, corruption is inevitable. There is nothing to counteract absolute power from being corrupt. Any existing checks and balances will be removed from the political process. This will mean that the basic problems of the people will not be the problems that will concern the Parliament.
Parliamentarians are unlikely to win over any kind of public confidence in the time to come. Then the question will be: what kind of governance will exist in Sri Lanka? It will certainly not be governance according to democracy or rule of law. The question is, what kind of dictatorship will the country have? With the façade of democracy, the kind of authoritarianism that has developed since 1978 will continue to be the curse of the country and the basic rights of people, as particularly the right of expression and the right of media will be severely repressed.
It will be a time of repression of the trade unions of the right of people to participate in expressing their views on matters of their concern, and very likely, a continuing period of repression in the name of national security laws. The election has brought no benefits to the people but has placed numerous burdens and hardships on the lives of Sri Lankan citizens and is contributing ultimately to a deterioration of the conditions of democracy in the country.
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