Comments on: Understanding Sri Lankan Version of Elections: A New Dimension

By: Sie.Kathieravealu

Sie.Kathieravealu — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 01:40:01 +0000

mohmed jemaldeen nowfer,You seem to be proud in saying that you have NOT voted in the past few elections.

There are various ways of “participating” in an “election” and one of the ways is NOT providing an opportunity to ANOTHER person to ‘vote’ on your behalf and ‘against’ your wish.’

That is, you will have to “spoil” your vote by directly participating in the voting.

By: Sie.Kathieravealu

Sie.Kathieravealu — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 01:22:46 +0000

“As I started this essay, I emphasized that the elections were initially held to elect people for oligarchic institutions. Elections were only limited then to people distinguished by royalty, family ties, military control and wealth. I pose the question now to you – have we passed the history or is history repeating itself? We are faced with a national challenge to reestablish values in all processes including integrity of elections. Probably the masses, clergy or the so-called political parties may not have realized the seriousness of the situation. Should we be silent? Let me wind up with often quoted words of Mahatma Gandhi: “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

Please see below some suggestions that would help to create a UNIQUE SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE that would ultimately bring in GOOD GOVERNANCE by showing the way out for injustice, discrimination, oppression and corruption born due to and bred by the present system of governance that is mistakenly or mischievously termed as democratic by persons who call themselves political scientists.

It is high-time we start to RETHINK in terms of a solution that would address the ASPIRATIONS ALL THE PEOPLE in the country, in a just and meaningful way

The best political solution or system of governance to address the problems faced by various sections of the Sri Lankan 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.

It has to be “sharing-power” HORIZONTALLY where each and every set of representatives would be in the SAME LEVEL as equals and in par and NOT VERTICALLY, where one set of representatives would be above (more powerful than) the other.

Since all political and other powers flow from the sovereignty of the people, it is proposed herein that these powers be not given to any ONE set of representatives but distributed among different sets of people’s representatives (groups) elected on different area basis (village and villages grouped) to perform the different, defined and distinct functions of one and the same institution – the Parliament – like the organs of our body – heart, lungs, kidneys, eyes, nose, ear etc. – performing different and distinct functions to enable us to sustain normal life.

The above suggestions are for the powers of Parliament to be separated and distributed among different sets of people’s representatives in different areas so as to dilute the powers of an individual representative or that of a set of representatives in any area. (Dilution is better than Devolution).

By: PR

PR — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:01:08 +0000

JCW cannot hoodwink the readers on the agenda of the “International community” anymore. Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) junta,had the full blessings of the “International Community” in its coup in dissolving the Islamist dominated parliament before the last presidential election.Has JCW,a leading member of “the Platform for democracy” at the last elections objected to “The partisan use of military was evident in the last Presidential Elections where the serving military officials directly campaigned against a particular candidate Mahinda Rajapakse” ?

Rajapakse regime openly flouting the elections laws to win ‘elections’ is taking that campaign on the attack on the right to vote in Sri Lanka to another level.That attack cannot be fought back by relying on the JCW’s false prophecy.

By: Joseph N

Joseph N — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:18:15 +0000

The worst form of election –though it was actually a referendum was conducted in Sri Lanka under the UNP government in 1982. Ballot boxes were openly rigged and of course people did not have to go to the election booths as their votes were already castes. JR released notorious criminal Gonawala Sunil who was punished for life for rape just after 7 days of imprisonment to support his party–This criminal operated freely under patronage of now opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe. So, in a way now the situation is much better , thanks to media . Those days there was no free media at all .

But Indeed we a re yet to see the perfect democracy that we all dream off .As an ordinary citizen I feel that the improvements will come in time to come if we manage to retain current stability. Just like our human rights industry is yet too see genuine activities who really care about human rights we are yet to see true politicians who really care for the nation

By: ordinary lankan

ordinary lankan — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:09:28 +0000

Gandhi must be lived – many local intellectuals/activists are fond of decorating their speech with a piece of Gandhi —

the real challenge is to pick up on this –

• To own up one’s defects
is the first step towards reform

Gandhiji 1929

tell us yours! ok I am kind of pulling your leg – but can you work within the universe of your SELF and expand this to your immediate society? Can you start with all the small things that gandhi started – cutting his own hair and washing his own clothes to put into practice self reliance …. it requires a particular mindset and mood to get into Gandhi

and the funny thing is there is a Gandhi within some of us — we keep ignoring this aspect….

By: Luxmy

Luxmy — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:13:21 +0000

Voters, pl remember:

”All of you are aware about the challenges that men and women in my country face while working for peace, and for the protection and promotion of human rights. Many have lost their lives for this work. Several others have had to leave the country” – Nimalka Fernando on receiving Citizens Peace Award 2011 from National Peace Council, 26 June 2012

By: mohmed jemaldeen nowfer

mohmed jemaldeen nowfer — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 05:34:56 +0000

Some unforgettable incidents which led to disaster’s point we have achieved through our universal franchise in Sri Lanka today.
1970 by election at Dadigama between former Prime minister Dudley Senanayake and SLFP candidate, Opposition leader JR was assaulted and was robed.
UNP was organizing tit for tat next seven years and not only they introduce open economy but open thuggish too for the country.
SLFP and its allies waiting for the opportunity and they got it after 17 years and decided “ we will not give it back any more”. Wayamba election was a small example.
JR had only one Gonawela Sunil (or few more), SLFP rulers has all over country, village to village , town to town Joolampitiya Amare’s.
You need only put your name on ballot paper with help of top party hierarchy, rest with those Amare’s . They will accomplish the job. Only few prominent places will be monitored , but if anybody go beyond the rules and regulation of these thugs, everybody know what happened to Udathalavinna youths who opposed changing ballot boxes while it was transporting to counting centers, nothing happened to offenders even some of the offenders in the parliament today. As a Sri Lankan I have not voted last many election(but I know that it may casted by our friends) not interested any more in near future too. I strongly things that we have to wait till our time of “Thahreer” come. But no idea when it will come. But better to keep in mind for every Sri Lankan, our way of Thahreer are unique, example-1971, and specialy 1988.