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| All the fun stuff that's meaningful never happens inside this building.... will we be able to celebrate a little something, one wonders... |
Three years ago, ‘The Nation’ observed the following
editorially: ‘Common and commonality are an integral part of who we are. Tolerance and accommodation are integral to
our world view. This is true of all
communities living in this island.
Whatever hardships we face, we find time for one another, find ways of
giving and sharing. That is what the Aluth
Avurudda is about. We rejoice
together and mourn together. We
understand ‘times of need’. We know how
to put aside the petty and objectionable.
We know how to embrace, how to reconcile.’
‘If a key is missing in the larger processes of getting over
and past the conflict, then the Aluth Avurudda is a moment, an event, a
celebration, an idea and symbolic of a way of being in which that missing
element can be found,’ it was also observed.
Today, three years later there is a palpable need to
rediscover and privilege ‘common and commonality’. We are speaking here strictly of the worthies
we’ve elected to represent us in Parliament. We are speaking of common ground
with respect to correcting flaws authored by JR Jayewardena almost 40 years
ago, endorsed by the United National Party, made use of by the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party and which have wrecked democracy in spirit and practice to the
point that we should be surprised that we can still vote people out of
power. That’s the rub. Politicians come and go, parties are brought
to power and ousted, but the people have to make do with just the crumbs of
democracy.
This year the people celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil New
Year as they always have. They will put
the past behind, do their forgive-and-forget, care-and-share, rejoice and hope
that things will be better. Parliament will not be in session. But Parliamentarians as they privilege their
non-Parliamentarian personas and affirm the avurudu
sirith can reflect on the true worth of these things and how important it
is to affirm the same in their public lives, especially in Parliament.
We are talking about the 19th Amendment. The JRJ Constitution is a robust document and
one which resists amendment. Until 1989
when the UNP lost the two-thirds majority secured in 1977 and pick-pocketed via
the 1982 Referendum, the Constitution was amended 16 times. The party interest dominated in 14 of
these. The 6th was a
gut-reaction to the rise of the LTTE.
The 13th was a toilet-wash that Rajiv Gandhi forced down JR’s
throat. Since then there were two
amendments. The 18th was an
SLFP or rather a Mahinda Rajapaksa version of all those ‘By the UNP, with the
UNP, for the UNP’ amendments of the 1980s.
The 17th was in this context an anomaly and flawed though it
was stands as the one pro-people amendment to the JRJ Constitution.
And now we have the 19th. Its passage has been marked by a lot of
bickering across the floor. If it was
all one-upmanship it would be understandable.
The problem with the arguments from both sides is that what is being sought
is not ‘more democracy’ but more ‘piece-of-pie’. Ranil Wickremesinghe has clearly sought an
amendment that would replicate that of the United National Party. It’s an all-about-me amendment that he came
up with, with hardly any qualms about making and breaking promises to coalition
partners. The SLFP, for its part, has
pointed to their number-edge in Parliament, less to infuse good sense to the
amendment than to stop Ranil. They
obviously have the advantage of logic at this point.
The JHU and others went to court. The Supreme Court made its determination and
Ranil has been forced to back off somewhat.
What is important is that dictatorial powers have been shaved. Balance has been restored.
No, we are getting ahead of ourselves here. They are yet to be shaved. Balance is yet to be obtained. The Amendment has to be passed. If passed those who aspire to rule like
royalty will be disappointed. The people
will benefit.
If avurudu is
about ‘ganu-denu’ (give and take, essentially) may our
politicians do a bit of ‘give’ for all they’ve taken from us for almost four
decades. May that swallow pride, lose
ignorance and see the 19th through.
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