It is very much clear that since we gained independence in 1948, successive governments have failed to protect the natural rights of people in Sri Lanka. The government of Mahinda Rajapaksa not only failed to protect the natural rights of the people but also started to endanger the sovereignty of this country.
by a Patriotic Lankan in the UK
The primary objective of this short article is to evaluate and measure the political behaviours of the Sri Lankan politicians and people in light of the political thoughts of 17th century two English Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. More importantly, to compare the political slogans and demands of the Sri Lankan people in Galle Face with the political ideas of these two English philosophers. What happened on the 9th of May in the Sri Lankan capital reminds us of the political struggle of the English people and their civil war in the 17th century.We must formulate a formidable system of government to avoid the recurrence of a political crisis of this nature once again. It is not perfectly appropriate to compare the English civil war of the 17th century with the political upheaval in Sri Lanka and yet, the mission and objective of all these political struggles are the same. It is done to free people from political subjugation, autocracy, dictatorship, nepotism, and anarchies. People in Galle Face are highly educated. They know well about their political rights, and they know well how politics work in this modern world. They know well politics controls every aspect of human life. So, they want to teach our politicians that people cannot be fooled by our politicians any longer.
The political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke revolutionised the politics of western Europe. Modern western political ideas and traditions were devised on the philosophical thought of these 17th-century English political philosophers. They advocated the social contract theory in their writing. Their social contract theory deals with some fundamental questions in politics. How should be people ruled and what should be the nature of government? how did the idea of government come about?What are the duties and responsibilities of the sovereign? What are the duty and responsibilities of people toward the sovereign? How much power and authority a ruler should have over his people?In his book Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes advocated the idea of political absolution. His political ideas were crystalised after the civil war in England. Heexperienced the civil war and came up with some political ideas to reconcile political conflicts and disagreements. His ideas are reconciliatory political ideas to avoid civil war over authority. He argues that manis by nature greedy for power, position, and posts. Hobbes tells us to ponder what would be life look like in a state of nature without any organised system of government. He argues that such a state of nature would be like a “state of war” even worse, a war of “ all against all.” He says, “ war of every man against every man”. Now consider what happened on the night of 9th May in Sri Lanka. It looked like a mini civil war in Sri Lanka. Some political thugs attacked the innocent public in Galle Face and in return, the protestors became furious and burned down houses and some buses belonging to some members of Parliaments. It was a chaotic situation. This is what exactly Hobbes predicted with his political philosophy.
Hobbes argued that without peace people will have to live in a state of continuous fear and uncertainty even in a state of danger of violent death. Without a system of government and law and order, life will be chaotic “ solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Although Hobbes was arguingin support of monarchy in his life, he called for an effective system of government with absolute authority. Such absolute power is imperative to maintain law and order. He believed that people do not have the right to rebel against the government. For this reason, he argues that people should not protest the government. They should not make any political revolution to change the government rather they should always obey the government. People have the right to protest or disobey the government only when the government starts to oppress people or kill people.I do not think such 17th-century political thought is appropriate to our condition today. Contrary to what Hobbes argued, our political crisis started with the misuse of executive power. We failed to develop an effective government in Sri Lanka. The executive president and his family exploited the power vested in them.Our political leaders made people starve to death. They let them die out of hunger and starvation. The people of Sri Lanka suffer today due to the failed political behaviours and policies of the Mahinda government. The treasure was emptied due to mismanagement, corruption, and wrong economic policies.
Consider for instance all those unsustainable megaprojects that the former President Mahinda initiated. From Hambantota port to Colombo city port, all his projects are utter failures, and the entire 22 million people are suffering from this economic crisis because of his mismanagement. No ship comes to his Hambantota port and yet, Sri Lanka must pay back all the money borrowed for the construction of that port, no flight lands in Mattala airport and Sri Lanka must pay back all the money borrowed for the construction of that airport, now investment comes to Colombo city port and yet, Sri Lanka must pay back all the money borrowed to build that city port. Likewise, most of his projects were unsustainable. It is alleged that all these projects were done to get 20% commissions from these Chinese companies. Likewise, it is alleged that many of his cohorts have looted public money through various projects. Mahinda and his cohort behaved arrogantly without any transparency, accountability, or responsibility. We all know how his cohort behaved in the Sri Lankan parliament a few years ago. We all know how they came in groups to attack peaceful protesters in Galle Face. Mahinda started to behave like a patrimonial ruler and actedas he wanted with his elite groups of oligarchy. He was regarded as a king by some people. They all collectively brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy and economic downfall.
In old days, some European believed in the theory of “ divine right.” They believed that God awarded kings the power to rule over people. As a result of this divine right, people did not have the right to question the kings. People did not dare to fight for their rights. Mahinda and his brothers behaved like kings and People did not dare to question them at all. They feared the white vans and they feared for their lives. Yet, all these protests nationwide tell us that people have had enough of this executive presidential system, and they no longer want to have this old fashion politics. Now they demand a system change in politics. Because they completely lost their faith and confidence in Sri Lankan politics. Contrary to Hobbes, John Locke believed that people have every right to defend their life, health, liberty, and possessions. For this reason, people have the right to protest and make a political revolution to win their basic political and democratic rights. It is argued that the philosophies of John Locke laid the foundation for the political ideals of the USA and its constitution. He argued that rulers should be removed from the power when they failed to deliver and protect the basic political right of the people. The political demands and aspirations of the people in Galle Face are very much identical to the political ideals and ideas of Jhon Locke of the 17th century. When the rulers do not deliver their public service people must have the right to protest and remove them from the power. After all, they have been appointed by the public and they are accountable and responsible to the public. According to him, “man is a political animal.” Both Hobbes and John Locke believed that the government should be based on the social contract. The government are needed to create social order and system in the communities and John Locke believed that people have the right to protest the government when the rulers do not protect people and their properties and freedom.
It is very much clear that since we gained independence in 1948, successive governments have failed to protect the natural rights of people in Sri Lanka. The government of Mahinda Rajapaksa not only failed to protect the natural rights of the people but also started to endanger the sovereignty of this country. With all their wrong economic policies they started to lease out some parts of this country. Mahinda and his cohort started to loot the public fund shamelessly. They started to violate the fundamental rights of people. They started to oppress and suppress the will of the people and they started to deny the natural rights of people. People started to find it very much difficult to make their end meets in Sri Lanka. Many of them do not have food to eat. All this has validated the actions and activities of the people in Galle Face. According to the philosophical thought of Jhon Locke, people in Galle Face, have every right to demonstrate and demand their natural rights from their government. They have every right to overthrow their government which does not protect their natural rights. It is part and parcel of natural rights for people to have basic needs and necessities of life. Food, shelter, cloth, drinking water, clean air, education, and jobs to feed children and families are part and parcel of the natural right of people. The government is politically, legally, constitutionally, and morally obliged to provide all these basic natural rights. Ranil may have read the political philosophy of John Locke. That is why he says that it is his number one priority to provide for all these basic needs and necessities of people. Without these basic needs and necessities, people will die one by one, and the government will be responsible for manslaughters if people started to die out of hunger and poverty. Any good lawyers can file a good legal case against the rulers for their negligence and can prosecute them for manslaughters. However, Hobbes believed that protesting the government could create a chaotic situation and even violence as we have seen on 9th May 2022 in Colombo. Some clerics and politicians in some Arab countries allude to the political philosophy of Hobbes to argue that people should not protest the government, and they strongly believe that this could create a chaotic situation in their country as in the case of Syria and Iraq. They argue that avoiding violence and the chaotic situation is better than trying to remove tyrant rulers. Yet, this political philosophy is not suitable for our country. Because people in Sri Lanka have inherited some democratic traditions that are unpreceded in Arab countries.
How they differ in their political thought
Politics of Ranil in the shadow of these two political philosophies
It is argued that Ranil has been promoting the neo-liberalism of western politics in Sri Lanka. There is no doubt among all other Sri Lankan politicians, Ranil is a smarter and cleverer politician. He is politically educated, wise and intelligent. Now, he has been appointed for the six-time as PM and takes the premiership to fix the economic mess of the county. It is not an easy task as he repeatedly reiterated many times. Because the previous government has already emptied the treasury. As a result of that, it would be a daunting task to fixthe economy and yet he has promised that he will do his best. He understands the economic crisis and its depth very well. I think that it will do better than other Sri Lankan politicians in the economy.
Ranil is a shrewd politician. He knows well that the political culture, tradition, customs, and attitudes in Sri Lanka are different from western political traditions, culture, and methods. He knows well that the concepts of freedom, liberty, human rights, and democratic rights in Sri Lanka are different from those concepts in western countries. He knows well how the judiciary works freely in western countries and how it works in Sri Lanka. He knows well how the rights and responsibilities of politicians in western counties differ from our country. He knows well how to control and how manipulate our politicians in Sri Lanka. It is already alleged that he is trying to buy some politicians to support him in the parliament. He looks like he is very much an accountable, transparent, and responsible politician. Yet, his history tells us that he is not an honest politician. Sri Lanka lost billions in the central bank scam when he was a PM last time. people have not forgotten it yet.
Mahinda and his brother came to power by fooling people that they will prosecute Ranil for the central bank scam and yet, they did do it. Likewise, Ranil did notprosecute Mahinda and his cohort when he was a PM last time. People know all the crafty politics of Mahinda and Ranil. That is why people in Galle Face do not want to support Ranil. They know that he will do any deals with anyone to fulfil his political dream. He would not promote all those liberal ideas as people want and yet, he would not behave as Mahinda behaved in politics. Mahinda and his cohort looted public money openly and yet Ranil would not do that. He does not need to accumulate wealth and money for some obvious reasons. He would be authoritarian in the Sri Lankan style. People want to punish Mahinda and his cohort for stealing public money. Will Ranil support the judiciary to question Mahinda and his cohort impartially? Ranil says he is not going to protect them and yet, people do not trust what he says. Yet, he did save Mahinda last time and people know that has got some deals with the Mahinda family. If Ranil is an honest politician, he would have punished Mahinda for all his wrongdoing as Mahathir Mohammad did in Malaysia with the Malaysian former PM.
The people who are staging a protest in Galle Face want to see some real changes in Sri Lankan politics. 1) They want to see a total change in our political system. 2) They want to punish all those who looted public money, 3) They want to punish all those who attacked protestors in Galle Face and 4) they want to have an interim government for some time and call for a general election. yet,I do not think Ranil will comply with all those demands. He argues that his priority is to save the country from economic collapse and bankruptcy. As Hobbes argued people will go to the “state of nature” and create a chaotic situation if there is no good system of government in place. People without food to eat will create trouble in the country and people have suffered enough and they cannot suffer any longer. The country must maintain law and order. This economic condition would be an excuse for Ranil to do what he wants to do in poetics in Sri Lanka.
I think that Ranil has more experience, skills, and talent to run the country through this difficult time than many others. You must choose the best among the best in this difficult time, or you must choose the lesser evil among the evils. What the country needs the most are economic recovery and political stability. We cannot secure any political stability without economic recovery. Ranil knows geopolitics and its trends more than any other politician in Sri Lanka. He knows how to talk to western countries, how to talk to India, how to talk to China, and how to talk to Arabs and How to talk to far east countries. We cannot read the geopolitical ambitions of all these countries from one perspective. We should have profound skills, talents, and knowledge to benefit from these countries. No state person is shrewd enough to understand this geopolitical trend than Ranil at this difficult time. It is through his personal and political interactions he has earned some good rapport with the international community and regional powers. Unlike Mahinda and his cohort, Ranil is highly educated, and he will choose the most qualified, experienced, and skilled people when he appoints some MPs, civil servants, and diplomatists and yet, I do not know whether opposition parties would support him in this task. He will try to give people some freedom and liberty as John Locke advocated and yet, it would be in the Sri Lankan context with some limits and limitations. When things go out of control, he would not dare to use the force to control the crowd as his uncle did during the JVP insurgency.
What Sri Lanka badly needs today is not absolutism of any kind but rather constitutionalism. Our constitution defines the rule of law in this country, and it defines the duties and responsibilities of rulers and the subjects. Our constitution is the reference point for all our political disputes and differences and yet, our politicians do not abide by our constitution. They do not respect and appreciate the words and sentences of our constitutions. We all wish that Sri Lanka should become another Singapore in Asia.The country is blessed with all-natural and human resources to complete Singapore in development and progress and yet, our politicians have messed it up. Now, people are awakening politically in Sri Lanka. Will our politicians honestly live up to their political assurance and promise? Will they have the willpower and sincerity to listen to people and make some real change in Sri Lankan politics? Sadly, Sri Lankan is caught up in the personal interest of our politicians and the national interest of the country. Politicians should know how to give preference to the national interest of the country over their personal interests at this difficult time.
References:
1) Noel Malcolm, Thomas Hobbes Leviathan, Oxford University Press 2014,
2) The selected political writings of John Locke. ( Norton Critical Editions) Sigmund, John. Sigmund, Paul.E
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