Any attempt to try a dictatorship will lead to a bloodbath in Sri Lanka
by Thrishantha Nanayakkara
( November 15, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Due to some reason, a lot of my friends who support former President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa also say things like "Sri Lanka needs a dictatorship", "rural poor don't need democracy", etc. In a recent such discussion, this was my take on it with some edits to make it general:
It is not so black and white. Let me try to explain. Different cultures value different things. Dictatorships work in the Far East.
Their culture is built upon a command hierarchy. In the Indian sub-continent, dictatorships work in Pakistan or Bangladesh, because their culture likes commands from the top. But India and Sri Lanka are much more philosophical and explorative though chaotic. Many diverse religions could be nurtured in this region. Diverse original classical music forms could be born; original contributions were made to science and math, etc.
Any attempt to try a dictatorship will lead to a bloodbath in such cultures. In Sri Lanka, there is a mix of feudal and free thinking. The middle class is largely inclined to value justice, democracy, and rule of law, and they would value it above their hunger. The rural poor are largely in the old feudal mentality, where they expect a king to rule them, than being led by a visionary colleague of their own.
Though there is an intersection between the two, there is a friction between these two streams of people, and almost all politics in Sri Lanka are based on this friction. Unfortunately, when there are parties that serve the rural poor, they destroy democratic institutes creating unrest in the middle class, and when there are parties who nurture democratic institutes, they ignore the rural poor, creating unrest there. The challenge for the future is to use democratic institutes to honestly serve the poor, which will unify both streams in Sri Lanka.
Dr Thrishantha Nanayakkara, Senior Lecturer, King’s College London
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