X or Y or System Change? The Role of Legislators and Professionals
19 July 2022 12:00 am
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The protesters, who are stationed at Galle Face and demanded the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, now want to see the back of acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe
- Have we taken these turning points or opportunities to achieve our main goal? The answer is no
- Is the ongoing political uprising by a group of youth supported by some other elements in the society?
- It is an obvious fact that there is no proper governance and control of prices by the existing authorities
- Especially, there is no systemic way to search and find such corruption, misuse, and mismanagement
Sri Lanka encountered several turning points in the last four decades that could have produced sustainable development as an island nation. The first instance was the 1977 political change which gave a 5/6 majority. The second instance was the end of a political uprising in 1999, which was led by the JVPers. The third instance was the tsunami impact in 2004. The fourth instance was the end of ethnic terrorism in 2009 which was 30 years of escalated guerrilla war in North, East, and economically, culturally, and administratively important locations in other provinces. Almost all people in the country had more expectations that the country would go on the correct path aiming for development. Thus, have we taken these turning points or opportunities to achieve our main goal? The answer is no. In the meantime, these people had much trust in the politicians, and they could make these changes in society. However, the political structure was politicised since 1974, and it was aggravated in 1977 by introducing a job card system and a special designation which came in the form of Cultivation Officer.
Therefore, there should be a process to investigate these corrupted public administrative officers and their roles. They never ever say no to the politicians; their common use is ‘Yes Sir’. Simultaneously, the loopholes should be eliminated by amending the law and regulations. Thus, all these corruptions, bribery, misuse, mismanagement and malfunctions cannot be prevented from the system
The causes behind the struggle
When compared with previous development opportunities, again, the country is encountering a similar opportunity to bring development. That is an ongoing political uprising by a group of youth supported by some other elements in the society. The reason for extending the support is not very clear. However, it seems that they have some political affiliations with existing political parties. Some of them are opinion leaders, professional organisations, traders, businessmen, and social activists. In the meantime, it is an essential factor to search for any foreign element behind the protesters to motivate and supply money and materials for this lengthy struggle or protest. When looking at the professional organisations, they are intoxicated with existing hardships prevailing in the country due to lack of fuel, gas, electricity supply, and price hike in day-to-day commodities as well as non-essential goods and products in the market. It is an obvious fact that there is no proper governance and control of price by the existing authorities on essential and non-essential commodities. The traders fix prices as they wish, and the general public has to follow. However, there are some traders who are doing reasonable trading by adapting to the real condition in the market system. Thus, the majority of the general public could not bear the price increase on their need structure. Especially the majority middle class in the society has faced significant hardship, and they have extended their consent and participation in every event of the protest. Finally, the government had to stop and malfunction several key elements of the governance such as government services, education, development projects, repair and maintenance, etc. In the end, all these elements have had a boomerang effect on the government, which was poorly governed by then President Gotabaya. After the political mess up, the former President appointed as the new Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, to be a sustainable solution for the crisis; finally, he too failed in every aspect. Thus, Sri Lanka has become a failed state in the world.
Interests in ruling and ruled clusters
Finding solutions to the existing crisis in Sri Lanka is not a simple act. Power and authority are scarce resources that everyone in any organisation and segment is trying to grab it. Especially there are two elements that are ruling (current government) and ruled (protesters). The ruling cluster of roles has an interest in preserving the status quo, and the ruled cluster has an interest in redistributing power and authority. However, with the influence of protesters, the ruling cluster has neutralised, but still attempted to preserve the power and authority as per the key legislative element, which is the constitution. The proposed interim government is an active and practical concept to solve constitutional issues. However, there is no space for the protesters to represent the interim government. Thus, does it work or make a platform to represent the ruled cluster? The other main issue is the manner in which each political party behaves in this interim government. If they struggle for a higher share of their political party and party agendas, the interim government concept will collapse? But there is no guarantee that all parties will give priority to the country’s main issue, which is amending the constitution. The present government has already tabled a 22nd constitutional amendment which promises no drastic change. Then, what type of things should be included and excluded in the proposed constitutional amendment? It is a decisive factor that we need to focus on at this critical juncture. Thus, the legislators and professionals have a prime role to play in this juncture; otherwise, the country will be in jeopardy.
Background of protesters
The protesters demanded the resignation of former President Gotabaya. He is from Rajapaksa family, and all key members and their sons’ have developed well-established regime during the last 15 years period of political involvement in the country. By 2015, a majority of people decided not to elect Rajapaksa-led government. However, the failure of the Yahapalana government, which is corrupted, has made a clear avenue for the Rajapaksa regime again. The regime gave a new favour to the election campaign by introducing a clean and talented member, which is Gotabaya. All these elements represent the political elites, and they appeared with a sound political manifesto ensuring the country is on the development path. However, they failed due to mismanagement and the wrong direction of the Imperatively Coordinated Association (ICAs). However, Rajapaksa the regime had been manipulating the critical events and maintained its own ruling ideology while former President Gotabaya’s consensus. The cluster that was against the Rajapaksa regime has been reactivated after the 2020 government change, and their campaign has intensified several protests using social media. The opposition political parties, including JVP, also launched their campaign against the Rajapaksa regime and former President Gotabaya, but the general public has not listened to them thoroughly since all of them are in a corrupted and inactive position to protest against the Rajapaksa regime. In the meantime, Peratugami has been involved in the campaign against the Rajapaksa regime with the support of the Inter-University Students Federation (Anthar Vishva Vidyala Bala Mandalaya). It was a major blow for JVP. However, the connection between Peratugami and JVP is not very clear yet. The leading figures of Peratugami are deserters from JVP. The claim made by motivation Appachchi shows that there are JVPers who are trying to hijack the struggle. It seems that the majority who join the protest represents several clusters, as underscored above. Especially, opinion leaders, several professional organisations, traders, businessmen, and middle class independent thinkers and activists made a significant representation in this struggle with Peratugami. In addition, there are JVP, 43rd Brigade, SLFP, UNP, and members who supported Podujana Peramuna at the last elections. When carefully looking at the Face Book uploads, there is all kind of these members in the struggle. Usually, the middle class members have got used to the commodification inculcated as a result of open economic policy. The never-ending ultra satisfaction and luxurious life pattern promote through the open economic policy are one of the main causes of the economic crisis. Though they are protesting as one group, their life ambitions and ends are different. Many of them struggling in universities are from highly suppressed social clusters. Their thinking and behaviour are difficult to match with other social classes. It will be a great mistake. Thus, the ruling class and ruled class in the struggle have different interests and providing the power and authority to a suppressed class may not happen. The protest against Gotabaya and his government is a common interest, but forming a new government and introducing structural changes are different interests between these clusters.
Actual reason for the current crisis
The protesters have mainly focused on former President Gotabaya and his government. However, there were some claims that all political parties are corrupted and all parliament members should go. As highlighted above, the Peratugamis’ are not in a position to claim it more sharply and rigorously. It is a covert result of this struggle. Because if they stand by this standard, they will isolate easily. In contrast to the class consciousness of the struggle, the real crux of the socioeconomic crisis and political crisis is a completely different scenario. although President Gotabaya resigned these crises are not going to be solved. The real crux is the existing public administration process and related legislation and regulations. Whoever comes to power they can engage in corruption, bribery, mismanagement, misuse of government or common resources and properties, etc., since there are many loopholes to escape from the law and punishment. The best example is COPE. How can they engage in this form of administration? Because of poor legislation and regulations. There are several ordinances and acts that are not matching with the current need of the structure of the society. They are not providing a sufficient weightage on focused tasks and needs of the society. Some of them are not efficient and effective enough to meet the need and tasks. This situation is making three aspects. First, the general public does not get efficient and effective service from the public administration. Second, the politicians can misuse and do what they want to meet their personal and political goals, especially corruption is taking place in this scenario. Third, the public administrators are getting avenues to support the politicians to corruption, bribery, and misuse of resources and properties while they themselves engage in corruption, bribery, and misuse of resources and properties, enabling unjustifiable wealth throughout their career. The story of a corrupted politician is the same, and all these matters are handled with an integration between the public administrator and the politician. The public administrator is giving awareness and showing avenues to politicians on how to misuse the public resources and properties. Thus, both are getting chances to earn more and more. Especially, there is no systemic way to search and find such corruption, misuse, and mismanagement.
Therefore, there should be a process to investigate these corrupted public administrative officers and their roles. They never ever say no to the politicians; their common use is ‘Yes Sir’. Simultaneously, the loopholes should be eliminated by amending the law and regulations. Thus, all these corruptions, bribery, misuse, mismanagement and malfunctions cannot be prevented from the system. If these officers are not corrupted, the politicians cannot do anything. However, it is essential to say that there is a good number of genuine public administrators who have rejected such vice acts and keep silent in front of the corrupted administrators and politicians. As theorised by Dharendorf, these public administrators are the key element making the ICAs associated with the politicians. Thus, if there is a real will to change the system, the poor legislation and regulations should be amended by a genuine expert team.
Who will find a solution to the crisis?
The legislators and professionals are also representing the upper middle class and lower upper class. When the system is waiting for a comprehensive structural change in the system, there should be multi factorial and multi-clustered expert team. However, the protesters should carefully select a knowledgeable and experienced team who can integrate with the expert team. It is evident that professionals like university teachers have been politically fragmented, and they do not have the integrity to lead society. They are going behind the politicians. For example, Basil Rajapaksa was a key figure in their regime, and a couple of professors (retired and in-service) spent full time in party politics by issuing statements to justify political decisions. Similarly, each political party has such so-called intellectuals. They are going behind the politicians due to the poverty of their philosophy, or they do not have a philosophy at all. Thus, these members should not represent any effort of structural changes to uplift the social system in Sri Lanka. The best option is to form independent committees to serve the country with a clear mandate. If they fail to meet the goals and targets, their role should be terminated.
Even if former President Gotabaya resigns these crises are not going to be solved. The real crux is the existing public administration process and related legislation and regulations. Whoever comes to power they can engage in corruption, bribery, mismanagement, misuse of government or common resources and properties, etc., since there are many loopholes to escape from the law and punishment
A governing committee should be deciding on what independent committees are needed in the country for structural changes. Theoretically, there are two ways of happening structural changes in society. They are;
- Excesses or surplus of information, resources, and energy in the system units and behavioural patterns of the society.
- Insufficient supply of information, resources, and energy in the system units and behavioural patterns of the society cause external and internal readjustments.
When looking carefully, our country is suffering from the second factor since our social system is suffering from insufficiencies. The first factor is viable in a developed social system.
What are the key issues to be addressed for structural changes in our society?
As evidently proved, the Sri Lankan society (Social system) needs structural changes. But, society is not in a requirement of complete system change or revolutionary change. We have well-established subsystems (family, education, economy, polity, religion, law and customs) to function in the system or society. The issue is remaining among the responsible and accountable members, as explained above. Therefore, structural changes are sufficient to address the existing crisis in the system. In the meantime, the following suggestions are brought forward to the attention of an expert team who are willing to introduce structural changes. They are;
- The current parliament should be transformed into a constitutional assembly to amend the constitution. The constitutional assembly must represent all key political parties. As far as I assumed, the protesters must have an opportunity to express their views. It will help the country to find a sustainable solution to the crisis.
- The constitution must have minimum requirements to become a member of parliament and a minister. Also, it should be defined the maximum age a politician can represent the parliament.
- The youth should be allocated a quota in the parliament. Thus, they should represent at least 35 to 40 %.
- All politicians should declare their assets base publicly, not for the commissioner general of election and the speaker of the parliament.
- The pension scheme of politicians should be abolished.
- The executive President should not give unlimited facilities after retirement.
- Independent commissions introduced by the 19th amendment of the constitution should be reactivated.
- A permanent commission for development planning should be established. It should be equipped with a panel of experts representing all sectors. All these integrated and comprehensive development plans (short-term, mid-term, and long-term).
- A mixed model of election system should be placed for selecting responsible politicians on the basis of the proportionate method and electoral method.
- All political parties that failed to get a minimum of 3% of total votes should be dissolved. Too much party politics is unnecessary to the social system, and it is an unnecessary burden to the system.
- An independent legal system should be established; all avenues (loopholes) for abuse and misuse of the law should be blocked. The eminent legal experts in Sri Lanka should involve in this requirement.
- All ordinances, acts, and regulations should be amended as a primary requirement of the structural change in the system. Thus, a priority list should be prepared by a team of experts. The amendments should be focused on how to get efficient and effective service for good governance.
- The existing policies should be revised within an acceptable period, while new policies should be introduced as an urgent requirement. A prioritised list would be prepared by a team of experts.
- All government officers should be given a mandate for their duties and responsibilities for the target groups and persons. Especially, SLAS officers should refrain from all political engagements and bearing such views. They should adhere to their profession than go behind the politicians for more benefits.
- A comprehensive formation of social values, attitudes, and norms should be established with the support of schools and university teachers, religious leaders, and other gatekeepers of the culture and society.
- All religious personnel should be kept behind the political system. They should safeguard the culture and society. Especially, they must focus on their own religious goals and target. This will help a secular society.
- A meaningful measurement should be taken to realign the Buddhist doctrines.
- All private ownership of religious assets and properties should be surrendered to a common system governed by a board of monks.
- All income generated through Buddhist assets and properties should be put into a common budget that helps ordinary temples and monks regularly. Especially young monks who are in the process of learning.
- The university teachers should undertake a responsible duty to uplift the skills of students by covering intended learning objectives and covering the entire curriculum with a globally accepted set of knowledge and practice. The teaching method should be student-centered.
- All professionals should be focused on the main role in avoiding political interventions. It will help to minimise the politicisation of citizens.
- All politicians at all levels should be limited to their role in legislation and making policy decisions. They should not involve in the implementation of policy decisions, laws and regulations.
- All land and properties should be utilised up to a maximum level unless such properties should be surrendered to the government system.
- The mafia active in a key element in the government services such as health, electricity, education, ports, etc. should be eliminated for better service and smooth function.
- The country needs educational reform matching modern socioeconomic and technological advancement. Thus, the state and private sector education process should be changed, enabling the students to develop their innovative thinking, analytical skills, self-esteem and confidence values. Similarly, university education needs to be adjusted to match the global university educational performance. Technical education also essentially needs to be restructured
- Particularly, school education administration should be reformed as per the education policy and needs structure. The children should not be suppressed as a result of good education; they should be given free education, enabling them to have value and motivation-oriented education. The competition between students and schools should be eliminated.
- Free education, free health and other free social services should be given to poor segments of society. All upper middle class and upper classes should be charged in the state school system.
- All university students to professional staff members should be given a thorough English education aiming professionalism and global standards.
- Foreign direct investments should be encouraged and facilitate investors to continue their economic and industrial inputs. It will help to increase the foreign reserve in the country.
These remedial measures are the prioritised suggestions. Some suggestions are critical, and such changes will bring clear structural changes to the social system. Once all these structural changes are introduced, the best option is to go for a fresh election after the constitutional amendments done by the proposed constitutional assembly.
(The writer serves the
Department of Sociology
University of Kelaniya)