Comments on: Interview with Dr. A. C. Visvalingam, President, CIMOGG

By: Sarath Fernando

Sarath Fernando — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:27:55 +0000

Dear Dr. Visvalingam, I applaud you for your efforts and your sincere dedication in your initiatives to induce better governance — improved governance via mass education and wider participation of the populace is indeed the cornerstone for achieving the cherished democracy. However, one will need to consider the reality in Sri Lanka at present to assess the likely effectiveness of such promotion of mass-education and mass-participation.

As I see it, there are two premises underlying your argument. First, is that the current governance is notably below par for a decent democracy. Second, such poor governance results from a combination of poorly informed masses (that you hope to correct) and consequently, inadequate participation. While it is difficult to challenge the first premise, the second needs a little thought. Is it truly the lack of education that contributed to the population’s apathy for civic duties proper governance that your initiative will try to correct?

While participation has declined, that did not result from lack of information or interest — the proof being the voting record since the 50’s. Voter participation has consistently declined in each of the decades â€“ would you say that the masses have somehow become less, rather than more, informed over time? I will argue the opposite â€“ there has been an increasing intentional, though covert, move to curtail effective participation. And that is because the rulers recognized that effective mass participation in determining the process of governance would have been disadvantageous to the ruling elite.

Getting to the point, let’s look at the true cost-benefit of mass participation and improved democratic governance to the ruling elite. The rulers will end up with less authority and power, they will lose the opportunities to hoard wealth, they will be accountable for lapses and failures, and their future beyond the democratically ruling period will be subject to uncertainty â€“none of them truly appealing to the rulers. Right? Given that, is it surprising that the SL rulers have steadily moved towards containing rather than promoting mass-participation. This, they have done by effectively red-herringing the Tamils in Toto from the 50’s to the 70’s, LTTE from the 80’s to the current decade, and have now begun demonizing the international democracies and Diaspora as plans for the upcoming decades â€“ a proven diversionary tactics as history has shown in many other failed nations such as Cuba, Burma, N. Korea etc.

This is what was typified as the J curve phenomenon; with the long stem describing the propensity for stable prosperity via democracy and the short stem for the economic potential and stability under dictatorship. The higher one is up on a stem, the higher is the stability and economic standing, and the curvature at the bottom represents instability and chaos the nation will need to go through going from a stable situation in one stem to a stable situation in the other stem. The proof that we are presently on the short-stem is the fact that the rulers have very clearly exhibited the need to contain power and authority within fewer and fewer hands (from J.R. adoption Executive Presidency, even more vile power grabbing and term-extension attempts during CB’s term and now, for all practical purposes, unapologetic (GR’s recent Hard Talk) single-family rule under the present admin. The trend in control over free-press needs is also obvious. The greater the control the greater the stability, albeit on the short-stem of the J curve! On the long-stem (democratic path) greater prosperity and stability is obtained via relinquishing power for wider admin control rather than consolidating within few.

So, my point is that, while your efforts are sincere and worthy, I believe that we have been deaf and blind in allowing the system to deteriorate and move to the short stem of the J curve. Consequently, at this stage, the ruling elite will resist any move towards effective mass participation, because it is not in the interest of the ruling elite. They will continue to push towards greater control, and strengthen stability within the autocratic system. There is no way (at least history has so far not evidenced) we could move to the better stem of the J curve without going through a period of chaos â€“ once again. So, unfortunately, my belief is that, at best your efforts will have just marginal and peripheral impact in improving governance, and at worst, will push the country towards another cycle of chaos. I will agree it is a necessary chaos â€“ but are we prepared for it?

By: justitia

justitia — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:44:57 +0000

The peoples’ sovereignty is supreme as Visvalingam says. The people are supposed to exercise this at every election. But every election until now has been flawed. Every election is conducted in an atmosphere of fear,intimidation,thuggery,bribery and treating of voters and prevention of voters from voting by various means – such as hijacking of transport arranged for them,blocking of vehicles and threats.Murder anassaults & arson are common. Many voters are not registered and find it difficult to do so.
In December 2001, the Elections Commissioner along with the Army Commander prevented thousands from voting, and were punished by the supreme court.
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=8600
This same Commissioner functions to this day. In any other country, he would have been sent home. In the recent election, he was “hijacked” from his office for more than 24 hours in the immediate aftermath of the election.
If there are absolutely FREE and FAIR elections, most voters will vote and choose whom they prefer without coercion and a government representative of the people’s wishes and aspirations, will come to power.
But, this has NOT happened since independence.
In other developed countries, elections are conducted without and incidents and counting of ballots are by established machinery.
Until we achieve FREE andFAIR elections, there WILL NOT be good governance.

By: Diffpersepective

Diffpersepective — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:52:31 +0000

Sie. Karthieravealu

“But then nowadays it is presumed that only â€˜Sinhala Buddhists’ are patriots of the country. That presumption might have induced him o say that his wife is a Sinhala Buddhist.” –

I don’t think him mentioning that his wife is Sinhala has anything to do with what you presume…. If you listen carefully he is stating an opinion about the Sinhalese people and he is just trying to justify it by giving a fact about himself and how he formed it… !! That is all..

I think both the comments above are reading too much into that particular statement , when his message is much more important to the well being of the country…

By: Sie.Kathieravealu

Sie.Kathieravealu — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:38:20 +0000

Every citizen of this country has a responsibility to make the inmates of the country happy. Each has his/her own way. We can differ but we cannot say that he/she has no right. But then nowadays it is presumed that only ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ are patriots of the country. That presumption might have induced him o say that his wife is a Sinhala Buddhist.

Well I am a Tamil Hindu. I have my own views about how to make the inmates of this country happy but also responsible.

One of the root causes for the emergence of “terrorism” is the non-consideration of the genuine grievances of sections of society by the “democratically” elected governments.. In my humble opinion “true democracy” is practiced by the direct participation of a large number of persons in the “governance” of the country by giving due recognition to the sovereignty of the people and their aspirations to develop and safeguard their life and their area of living.

One non-violent way to curb or eradicate “terrorism” in each and every part of the world is to change the system of governance that is now prevailing and termed as “democracy”. “Terrorism” is due to the frustration experienced by sections of the common people who are denied participation in the governance of the country and this “frustration” is manipulated by shrewd persons with hidden agendas to their own advantage. So one non-violent way of tackling the problem is given below:

“In a civilized society, the people must be empowered to directly participate in the governance of the country and the best way for the people to empower themselves is, a system of governance that would address the problems faced by various sections of the society – particularly the poor, the politically weak and the various categories of “minorities” who do not carry any “political weight” – would be to DILUTE the powers of all elected representatives of the people by separating the various powers of the Parliament and by horizontally empowering different sets of people’s representatives elected on different area basis to administer the different sets of the separated powers at different locations and thus throughout the country (a small fraction of the Parliament with defined powers and duties functions in each and every village, division, district and region)”.

For further details please contact
[email protected]

Everyone has the right to correct me I my views are wrong wrong but then they should say why it is wrong.

By: MG

MG — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:54:28 +0000

Firstly, a citizens’ movement for good governance won’t have much impact if the leaders themselves see “good governance” as something idealistic, as being above bread and butter issues, as being airy-fairy. Obviously, CIMOGG needs to proceed by re-interpreting good governance as a ‘bread and butter’ issue for starters. And isn’t it a bread and butter issue? If I had children, I’d be very interested in how bad governance was going to make life tough for them in the future. People generally would want to know how good governance could give them a better life, how lack of government transparency threatens their security or their health, how active citizenship could put food on their table or get them a nicer place to live, what good governance would mean for women. I see articles on the CIMOGG website about politicians’ corruption but do people really care about this? They probably see it as a necessary feeding of the (state) monster so as to allow them to get on with life. Perhaps they need to be told why they should care. What about morality? Isn’t that relevant too?

The comment about his wife being Sinhalese Buddhist was quite strange. He brought it up when he was asked about pursuing war crimes issue and answering questions about missing relatives in the north. Did he feel that he had to say that in order to legitimise his role in a Sri Lankan citizens’ movement for good governance, that being Tamil was not quite appropriate for this (because, you know, Tamils are just troublemakers wherever they go, and besides they’re not ‘really’ Sri Lankan)? Was he trying to say, ‘hey guys, I’m one of you”? Not that I blame him if so but it’s sad to see Tamils having to be apologetic for being Tamils.