The Rajapaksa ‘Sangamaya’: Creating employees and customers of citizens
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Image from Lanka Standard
The following video features the last couple of a minutes of a longer speech delivered by Dr. Nihal Jayawickrama at the launch of The Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on Constitutional History, Theory and Practice, a collection of scholarly essays edited by Asanga Welikala, a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives (the institutional home of Groundviews) on 21st December 2012.
In this excerpt, Dr. Jayawickrama offers a devastating critique of the Rajapaksa administration and its mode of governance. He notes that Sri Lanka today has moved beyond an Executive Presidency based model to a corporate governance mode for the entire country – the Rajapaksa ‘sangamaya‘ (or company) – as noted by the President’s brother, Basil Rajapaksa. After flagging in brief some of the serious challenges that arise from this mindset and mode of governance, Dr. Jayawickrama ends with a pertinent question: “What if the [Rajapaksa] ‘samagama‘ goes bust?
The speech in full can be viewed here.
The following biography of Dr. Jayawickrama is taken from The Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on Constitutional History, Theory and Practice.
Nihal Jayawickrama, LLB (Ceylon), PhD (London), was the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice from 1970-1977, having been admitted to the Bar as an Advocate of the Supreme Court in 1962. Moving into academic life, he was Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong, where he taught public law, and the Ariel F. Sallows Professor of Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He is the author of The Judicial Application of Human Rights Law: National, Regional and International Jurisprudence (Cambridge University Press, 2002). As Chairman of the Hong Kong Section of the International Commission of Jurists, he was a principal commentator on constitutional issues in that territory in the period between the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Transfer of Sovereignty. He was Executive Director of Transparency International in Berlin (1997-2000). More recently, he was the Chair of the Trustees of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, London. Since 2000, he has been a UN consultant on judicial reform, human rights and anti-corruption strategies, and has worked with governments and judiciaries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern and Central Europe. He is currently the Coordinator of the UN Judicial Integrity Group.
This is a common disease of many leaders of many countries in the world , which has been diagnosed and named it as despotism .but some are lucky enough to survive for many years , and some aren’t, Some time when the immunity is dropped by ,die from the disease . These type of tyrants we have seen enough very past around the world , the unfortunate of it is , some time when they go they go with ruined the whole country ,which is a chaos .
So , honestly , I don’t know the level of this man , as I haven lived in the country for long time .according to the reports and rumours only I can judge.
Some says without this family support even of thinking of defeating the invincible LTTE not possible,I think it is quite true , but I hope he should consult a specialist before it goes far too. Probably , he may have thought that I’m with Chinese and no one can close to me .
I hope he is not that unwise , if the soviet union was broken into the pieces,and if they can be kept Cuba in this level with north Korea ,if they can conduct the Arab spring , if they can attack Iran soon and destroy all nuclear facilities ,if they can control every thing in this world , if they can strengthen the crumbling EuRopean Union in this level , that you for them is a RAT .
Therefore, learns from the history and respect to the humanity . Let’s the history to judge you kindly ,not another petty autocrat who failed to deliver the right thing .
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