I couldn’t agree with you more with regard to all the points you make. All I am saying is that we need to use all possible space to advance a progressive agenda. In effect, to address exactly the points you raise. Societal change needs to be leveraged from all sides; the Wiki idea is just one way of generating some concrete text for an alternative Constitution. This does not prevent nor takes away energy from action on other fronts.

While the Wiki idea will have difficulty in reaching out to all constituencies it certainly can harness a large intellectual pool of knowledge both within and outside the country. Instead of us wasting our time picking fights with Dayan Jayatilaka, we could actually be doing some constructive drafting.

You’re right that this idea is not gaining traction here… although I have to admit there wasn’t much comment prior to my addition either….

Cheers

Concrete step 1. will be for civil society to engage in the process of educating the masses/villages in understanding their rights. I’m suggesting that the Dr.S’s and the likes put their collective budgets together and activate public discussion/fora and bring in the ‘common man’ to sit and talk and tell…what does equality mean to him, the daily-wage earner? Where is justice to be found when he cannot afford legal services? Does the Tamil community really feel safe and sound? Does anyone of us feel safe and sound in our own homes under emergency laws? Where is there access to ‘free and fair’ information for the average man? Does our system of education allow for critical thinking? Who is accountable to whom these days? Only those with political connections? Are Ministers accountable for taking bribes? Isn’t it time for education reform? Isn’t it the duty of the government to explain why they hire even more graduates to the public service for yet another ill-fated project? Who is answerable for the loss of the GSP? WHERE IS THE ECONOMIC POLICY AND ROADMAP FOR DEVELOPMENT for Sri Lanka? Is it the Mahinda Chintanaya? Is it?
I’m suggesting that these questions are asked openly, and that civil society organizations feel duty bound, even with the help of the international community, to provide the platform for such open debate.

If you look at the 2nd hurdle that I mention, it is about facilitating the views of those that do not have access to internet and are illiterate.

As for far fetched ideas…. well, it remains far only because we don’t want to bring it close. I could propose a whole lot of concerted and collective steps, but what I was writing about was how we may use this or other web-based spaces more usefully. If you had actually articulated one concrete idea of what YOU would like to see included in the Sri Lankan Constitution, you would have made a worthwhile contribution rather than engaging in ” endless talk” .

Think about it…

Your call for action comes at a crucial moment. I believe many Sri Lankans understand that we are at a crossroads: one path taking us to the Promised Land; and the other to internecine hell. We have an opportunity for the first time in the post-colonial period to fundamentally realign the relationship between the State and its people – from one that perpetuates a colonial relationship between “ruler” and “ruled”, to one that adopts a progressive relationship that has the state serve the interests of its people and is subordinate to the will of the people.

Your proposal to use the space provided by Groundviews to advance an alternative vision of Sri Lanka is a good one. I read Mr. Suren Raghavan’s article of 12 October 2009, titled “Imagining the immediate (im)possibilities”. Under the subheading “Imagining (im)possibilities?” he begins to explore alternatives looking at examples of Lebanon etc. His efforts are directed at thinking “outside the box” because he believes that tinkering with something fundamentally flawed (or this is what I think he’s getting at) is not going to get us to the place we want to be. I fully subscribe to this view (if this is his view) and believe that there is a lot we can learn from what other countries have already gone through. I do believe however that a Constitution alone will never make a country great but at least we need to get the vision and ideals of the people reflected in it as a starting point.

O.K. so how do we reach this mythical Promised Land? Here’s a proposal to consider; there are many details that will need to be sorted out but as a start, here goes….

As a nation, we are going to come up with the first Wiki constitution in the world – a true Citizen’s Constitution, built block by block and the process supervised by the citizens themselves. This exercise will seek to solicit views from all constituencies of Sri Lanka so that the final outcome reflects the views of all Sri Lankans. This alternative Constitution will act as the vehicle for coalescing people to demand the much needed reform of our current Constitution. Just imagine it if we had a set of sound alternatives forged through a broad process of citizen consultation to place in front of all politicians running for office?

For those who may wonder what is a Wiki, here’s a brief definition: “a type of website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring (for more info on Wiki go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki)”.

The proposed approach is the following; everyone is open to contribute text on what they would like to see their country look like without violating the following principles (these principles have been selected as they represent what a “progressive nation state” should adhere to – this is not an exhaustive list and discussion will be needed to finalise this list):
* equality – all citizens are equal
* pluralism – an environment in which numerous distinct ethnic, religious, or cultural groups are present and tolerated
* secularism – no reference to religion other than a simple statement that all religions are equal under the Sri Lankan Constitution and individuals are free to choose what religion they want to follow
* justice – the state, action, or principle of treating all persons equally in accordance with the law
* transparency – information should be open and freely available with regard to any activity governed by the constitution
* accountability – the obligation to bear the consequences of ones actions

The 1st hurdle to overcome would be to see whether Groundviews could provide the platform for establishing such a Wiki.

The 2nd hurdle to overcome will be to feed the views of those that have no access to the internet and who may not be fully literate into this process. The solution will necessarily have to adopt a consultation process that covers all villages across the country. I’m not sure how exactly this could be done but maybe civil society organisations could facilitate this process (ideas on how to do this is crucial for the success of this approach).

One way of facilitating the process of coming up with text for the new Constitution would be to take from other countries constitutions those elements that people think are useful for Sri Lanka. This is made a little easier with this website which has collated constitutions from around the world: http://confinder.richmond.edu/confinder.html

Where there are gaps, and most certainly one can expect gaps in this sort of exercise, they can be explicitly identified with the intent that further research will be undertaken to fill them.

These are some very preliminary thoughts but I do believe there is great potential in a tool such as a Wiki to advance the discussion on an alternative Constitution for Sri Lanka. To get the ball rolling here’s my contribution with sincere thanks to South Africa.

“Preamble:
We, the people of Sri Lanka,
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that Sri Lanka belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.

We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka so as to:
• Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
• Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
• Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
• Build a united and democratic Sri Lanka able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.”

So what do you say? Maybe this will sharpen people’s focus on writing something that will contribute in a tangible way to carving out our collective destiny.

Think about it….

Cheers

As a short-cut, returning to the 1972 constitution alone would be a huge improvement, although the Westminster one would be even better.