Mechanisms for healthy democracy urgent

The Archbishop of Colombo, Rev. Dr. Nicholas Marcus Fernando, in his Independence Day message has stressed the need for an independent Police Commission and an independent Elections Commission. Political parties, he says, have proved themselves to be wreckers of freedom of the masses. We can’t agree with him more.

He has rightly asked the people to demand an independent Elections Commission and an independent Police Commission with steel-bound safeguards for their independence. The prelate’s message is a pointer to the sordid depths that Sri Lanka has plummeted politically. A large number of Buddhist monks and community leaders too have expressed a similar concern over the squalid state of the country’s politics and called upon the people to campaign for their democratic rights.

This clarion call of religious leaders will have to be answered by the people if they are not to be accused of contributing to the despicable political situation the country is in today. It is said that the blame for the chaos that politicians have created has to be equally apportioned to the people as well because of their so-called predilection for returning rogues at elections to political bodies. People, they say, get the governments they deserve.

But can they really be held responsible for electing these unsavoury elements? Hasn’t their suffrage been usurped by the hirelings of political parties? And how can they be blamed for the votes they never cast for anyone but are stuffed into ballot boxes by thugs?

The mass-scale rigging that political parties in power indulge in is such that the country has come to a pass where the verdict of the people at an election is said to be not reflected in its outcome.

Other than making a hue and cry at a protest following an election marred by violence and malpractices, they have yet to embark on a meaningful course of action to protect their democratic rights. Ad hoc measures such as occasional protests lose momentum with the passage of time, and elections are rigged again and again.

It looks as if people have taken political violence and election malpractices for granted. Their indifference only helps politicians to plunder their votes with much ease as was manifest in Wayamba the other day.

In an electorate where violence is institutionalised and politicians are too dominant and considered demi-gods, reversing this trend looks an uphill task. But it is never impossible. It is here that the religious and community leaders have a role to play.

The Archbishop’s message is loud and clear. First, campaign for an Independent Police Commission and an Independent Elections Commission, he says. Unless these two institutions come into being, all other measures are sure to fall short of target. For today the police are only a government department bound to take orders from the ruling party. And the Elections Commissioner’s Department, though independent of the government to some extent, does not possess adequate powers to ensure a clean election in an electorate plagued with malpractices.

The Elections Commissioner has to be given more teeth and the police have to be weaned away from political parties, be it the PA or the UNP. Once these institutions have safeguards for their own independence as the Archbishop says, they will be in a position to safeguard the democratic rights of the people.

In addition to this, the people must pressurise both the government and the opposition to promptly implement the proposed Constitutional Council to ensure independence of key state officials whose political impartiality is essential for evolving a healthy political culture in the country. Political appointments in the public sector have proven to be inimical to democracy.

It is the duty of the public, the religious and community leaders to join forces and campaign for these three institutions. It is also their responsibility to ensure that their movement will not end up being a tool in the hands of politicians the way certain movements did in the 1993/94 period.