Photo courtesy of BBC
Once again, the country is in a state of emergency. This time, the President has proclaimed emergency ostensibly to ensure the public security and well-being and maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community in view of the prevailing emergency situation in Sri Lanka in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic now steadily on the rise throughout Sri Lanka. The real objective, however, may be to bolster the power of the executive branch of the government, given that emergencies empower the President to promulgate regulations dealing with any subject at any given time.
What is the problem here? His decision does not violate the law of the country, as he has simply implemented an instrument available under the current Constitution. Democracies across the world, from the most vibrant to the least so, usually declare a state of exception at times of crisis when the state is under threat of external and/or internal forces or in the event of natural disasters, financial or economic crisis, or civil unrest, among other things. Under the current COVID-19 pandemic conditions, almost all states have implemented harsh quarantine regulations that undermine civil liberties for the sake of the security and well-being of their citizens. Additionally, Sri Lanka is teetering on the edge of a dangerous financial cliff, exacerbated by the disruptions induced by the pandemic. If the situation is so serious, why this hue and cry about the President declaring a state of emergency for the maintenance of supplies and services essential for the life of the community?
Underpinnings of a democratic society
Acts of the ruler need to be assessed within the frame of the particular rule. For countries that call themselves democracies, therefore, this assessment needs to be made in terms of democratic values and commitments, after weighting the potential impact of the decision and its bearing on the democratic polity.
Since 1931, 17 years before the country became a constitutional democracy, Sri Lankans have been exercising their franchise. Despite uninterrupted democratic governance spanning seven decades since then, Sri Lankans still find themselves at the beginning of the journey of actually embracing a democratic ethos in their imagination and everyday life. Therefore, many understand elections not as the minimum criterion but the sole criterion of a democratic state.
Put simply, democracy is the rule of the people. This means people within the political unit are equal, their destiny is in their hands and not in the hands of a supreme (or even superior) authority, and power flows from the people to the ruler. Under modern democracy, people give powers to a ruler by way of an election for a limited period of time. This happens on the condition that the people continue to wield the capacity to curtail the powers of the ruler/s if not to unseat them. In a democracy, these arrangements are stipulated in a Constitution, and rulers and the ruled alike are expected to abide by it; the powers of the rulers are subject to checks-balances, and they have to function within a given institutional structure that aims to deter elected members from abusing their authority. Democratic societies emphasise the Rule of Law as it enables citizens to enjoy various freedoms while being safeguarded from oppressive tendencies of the rulers. Therefore, unlike subjects in old feudal societies, democracy has produced free citizens who decide what is good for themselves. Many struggles some quite bloody have been waged through the course of history to ensure the securing of this one right; the right of self-rule. So, any attempt of concentrating powers in the hands of one person or a few individuals, whatever the justification, means democracy is in danger. Therefore, the declaration of an emergency is always and invariably undermines democracy in any society.
Exception as the norm
The Sri Lankan Republic has lived most of its life in states of exception. Therefore, exception has become the norm not only for rulers but also the people. Check points, barricades, arbitrary arrests and the military getting involved in civilian affairs are not exceptional circumstances for Sri Lankans. In fact, on the eve of the 2019 Presidential election, Gotabaya Rajapaksa publicly acknowledged that people (referring to his Sinhala-Buddhist support base) like the tough guy persona that he exhibited as the Secretary of Defence during his brothers Presidency.
In every democracy, it is common to find a tension between order and justice. Order constrains public life, while justice emphasizes the rights and freedoms of citizens. Having lived under an orchestrated state of permanent emergency, especially the majoritarian majority community of Sri Lanka, comprehends its everyday issues and potential solutions for them within the realm of order and discipline. Therefore, Sri Lankan democracy, having existed in almost a continuous state of emergency for decades, has produced a solid support base for oppressors: in this world view, demanding rights is akin to terrorism, and cherishing freedom is heresy. In such a political culture, people live as slaves rather than citizens, regardless of whether there are elections or not. This voluntary servitude taking root in the majority psyche garners much needed public legitimacy for anti-democratic advances on the part of rulers.
The introduction of emergency regulations, irrespective of its justification, will also augment the current leaderships aspiration of militarizing the state transferring the civilian state institution to the control of the military. There has been much talk about the Presidents fetish for military control despite the absence of a markedly better delivery of duties and responsibilities by the military as compared to the bureaucracy that is often labelled as corrupt and lethargic.
Space for democratic contestation
In a democracy, people not only elect their leaders at elections, but they also continue to be active to in between elections to win their rights to live a dignified life. A democratic polity is of paramount importance to realize a democratic society where people are free and equal. A democratic polity provides space within which people engage in perpetual struggles against all forms of oppression be it ethnic, religious, gender and sexuality-based discrimination or oppression of the capitalist economic order and hold rulers accountable for their actions and inactions. Therefore, the space for struggle and tolerance towards contestation and dissent is fundamental for a meaningful democracy. The irony of the political classes, though admittedly not unique to Sri Lanka, is that those who champion such a democratic space while in the opposition become ruthless oppressors when in power. Therefore this is not an accusation that can be hurled only at the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime.
However, in his two years in power, the President has proven time and again, that he does not expect active citizenship where people question the government and protest against injustice. Over a year has passed since Hejaaz Hizbullah and Ahnaf Jazeem were arrested and they remain imprisoned to date; teachers who protested demanding the settlement of their salary dispute were suppressed using quarantine rule; and police was deployed to disrupt the protests against the re-opening of wine stores during lockdown. The irony of the matter is that the government only saw a fault in the protestors who adhered to all the health protocols and not with the wine stores that breach quarantine laws in every possible way, not to mention their own political rallies, public funerals, birthday parties, and so on. Finally, despite a supposed countrywide lockdown, the government not only abstained from making an attempt to maintain the lockdown, but in fact tacitly encouraged people to break the law. Therefore, it is clear that for the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime the Rule of Law is not what is in the books, but what he says.
In addition, past two years have witnessed government exploiting the pandemic situation to forward its political and economic agendas. Passing the Port City Bill in Parliament and signing an agreement with a US company to handover a 40% share of the Kerawalapitiya Power Plant are but two examples. In parallel, severe breach of health regulations and labour regulations in the free trade zones where poor village women are exploited continued to be ignored, not to mention many other cases where extreme exploitation worked to the benefit of expanding state coffers. In Gotabaya Rajapaksas vision, as revealed in the garlic scam, it seems that the whistle blower is guiltier than the culprit. What can we expect in conditions of emergency is that oppressors would be let loose with no checks and balances, further constraining our space not only to resist but may be even to talk.
Conclusion
Therefore, the current state of emergency for the maintenance of supplies and essential services may seem justified to the uncritical mind, I believe the government is getting ready for a much more serious eventuality. As I have already argued, a state of emergency is nothing but the antithesis of democracy. Not only does it shrink space to engage in the struggle to realise a just and fair society but it may lead to people getting used to being subjects due to prolonged living in a seemingly perpetual state of emergency.
The President does not seem to make his decision on the basis of rational calculations. Therefore, he is fixated on militarising the state like a gambler who bets more and more as he loses. Under a state of emergency, freeing thus from checks and balances the Executive embodied by a person with no history of democratic politics nor formal orientation to such, is very dangerous. As a political community, we seem to be gambling democracy away for stability, with prospects for neither. The danger here is that if the President loses this bet, the country will collapse into utter chaos; but if not, it may well be the end of democracy in Sri Lanka. It is a lose-lose either way.
Rulers rule their populations either through consensus or through coercion. Rulers who enjoy political legitimacy hardly resort to coercion or violence as their authority is unchallenged. This phenomenon can be seen in the global order as well. The US and its allies rushing their war ships to South China and the Pacific is not at all a sign of their strength, but rather otherwise. In the same way, Gotabaya Rajapaksa seeking more powers to regulate the groups that maintain the supplies and essential services, who happen to be his own cronies, clearly signs that he has begun to see the waning of his powers much faster than he expected. However, not only do I believe that emergency undermines the countrys democratic fabric but I also do not think that it could rescue the President if that is what he expects from this Gazette.
Follow this link:
Democracy Under the Rule of No Law - Groundviews
- Government Oppression Of Climate Protesters Is Rampant. Are You Next? - CleanTechnica - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Invasion Day protests oppose oppression of indigenous Australians, genocide in Gaza - WSWS - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Florida's 'hostile' laws? Five laws NAACP listed in travel advisory. - St. Augustine Record - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Iran Faces A Huge Budget Deficit It Tries To Conceal - - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Satyendar Jain taken to Safdarjung Hospital after losing 35 kgs - The Statesman - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Opinion: Reassessing the approach to Israel | DW | 22.05.2023 - DW - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Durham Report Is Latest Choose-Your-Own-Reality Adventure - TIME - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- In Conversation with Stan Grant - Honi Soit - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Rep. Bare: Assembly Republicans' local government funding plan is ... - WisPolitics.com - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Never Again Is Right Now in Palestine - Jacobin magazine - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- UF community condemns bill defunding DEI initiatives - The Independent Florida Alligator - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Prices of basic commodities and foods have gone insane in Sierra ... - Sierra Leone Telegraph - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Don't cancel Gladstone. He was a true friend of freedom at home ... - The Telegraph - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley: DeSantis bans diversity, equity and inclusion in Florida colleges - The Mercury News - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- TikTok: The new frontier for political info-wars - DAWN.com - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Israeli Apartheid - The Legacy of the Ongoing Nakba at 75 [EN/AR ... - ReliefWeb - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- PPP's CEC condemns attacks on army installations, calls for ... - Pakistan Today - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Tim Scott says Im running for president of the United States in announcement speech live - The Guardian US - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Opinion | America's Poverty Is Built by Design - POLITICO - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- 'Pity these oppressed random attackers': Inside the thoughts of Canada's bail system - National Post - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- How Can We Resist Book Bans? This Banned Author Has Ideas. - Truthout - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Owners of Nigeria and their multiple worlds - Guardian Nigeria - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- When People Decide They Want Change, They Will Bring in Change - The Wire - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- 5 Interesting Facts about Simon Bolivar - The Collector - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- China Built Over A Million Uyghurs "Re-Education Camps" In 6 Years: Report - NDTV - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Queer folk, the hour to save ourselves has come - Daily Maverick - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Preposterous! Book ban adds bureaucracy and removes parents ... - IndyStar - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- End Jew Hatred: Fight for social justice must be above political fray - The Jerusalem Post - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Political strife, not protest anymore - The Korea JoongAng Daily - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 'A Man Without a Gun Is Not a Citizen' - The Texas Observer - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- State Department Report Says China Oppressed Tibetan Buddhist ... - Central Tibetan Administration - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Facing Reality on South Africa - Council on Foreign Relations - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Federal Charges of Political Activists Show the Racist and ... - Left Voice - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Age of Disorder || Pakistan on the Brink: Down with Capitalist PDM ... - International Socialist - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Tim Stevenson | Living with the Long Emergency: Rising Fascism ... - Brattleboro Reformer - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Members of new City Council weigh in on water bills - CBS Chicago - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- DIIR Statement on 28th Anniversary of Enforced Disappearance of ... - Central Tibetan Administration - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- KAN-WIN shares timeline of gender-based violence toward Asian ... - Daily Northwestern - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Alleged leaker fixated on guns and envisioned 'race war' - The Washington Post - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Employment and Labour pays tribute to Dr Dennis George - South African Government - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Opinion | Trump Cannot Be Unseen - The New York Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Toronto to rally against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia ... - NOW Toronto - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Election 2023: Te Pti Mori accuses Prime Minister Chris Hipkins of 'oppression' for telling parties to 'be careful' with demands - Newshub - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- What's the current state of LGBTQ rights in Europe? - Euronews - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Baptist Health Foundation Receives $3 Million Gift from the Jos ... - South Florida Hospital News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Politics and Moral Economics of Seun Kutis Police Assault - Tekedia - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Is a temporary coalition of anger against the old regime a basis for ... - Sierra Leone Telegraph - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Mexico: against 'neoliberalism' or capitalism? The final year of ... - In Defence of Marxism - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- White Christian Nationalism and the 2023 Montana Legislature ... - Daily Montanan - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Left-wing lawmakers press for federal reparations for Black Americans: 'We're here to demand it' - Fox News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Underground cyphers are helping young Kashmiris reclaim their ... - Huck Magazine - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Tory MP uses controversial term connected to antisemitic conspiracies - The Jerusalem Post - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Fijis 1987 coup: Why did Prime Minister Rabuka apologise to the Indo-Fijian community? - The Indian Express - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Declaration on the Migrant Crisis: Socialists From the U.S., Mexico ... - Left Voice - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- WNBA star Brittney Griner standing and listening to national anthem - Gainesville Sun - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Imran Khan to unveil next plan of action at a rally on Thursday - ANI News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Delta Youths Threaten Showdown Over Exclusion In Multi-Billion ... - SaharaReporters.com - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Remarks by Homeland Security Advisor Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall ... - The White House - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Are some human rights more important than others? Religious ... - Jacksonville Journal-Courier - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Postcolonial Plague: The Legacy of Apartheid South Africa in ... - Brown Political Review - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- UN expert urges Japan to step up pressure on Myanmar junta - OHCHR - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- CSIS confirms to MP that he and family were targeted by China - The Globe and Mail - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Opposition leader says govt sent a bureaucrat to talk with calan - Duvar English - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- The Badger Herald Editorial Board: The bounds of free speech The ... - The Badger Herald - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- AIbom NLC to Set up Monitoring Team on Petroleum Products - THISDAY Newspapers - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Amplifying Iranian Voices: The Call for Freedom and Democracy ... - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- As inequality deepens, who will rewrite the rules? - Al Jazeera English - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Discover the Brilliance of George Orwell: Books That Will Inspire You - Economic Times - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Nature has way of settling scores, says UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Atiq Ahmad's turf - Times of India - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Tens of thousands hold Labor Day rallies nationwide - The Korea Herald - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Incoming Nigerian Government Must Improve Poverty Wage ... - SaharaReporters.com - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Can the European Union Tackle Afghanistan's Crises? - The Diplomat - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Iran sees nationwide protests, night rallies marking Int'l Labor Day | - The Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- G20: Responsibilities of the people of PoK - ANI News - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- From IWD to May Day: Connecting working women's struggles - Spring Magazine - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- 1 May 2023 || The Working Class is Back! ISA - International Socialist - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Are the Marxists on to something? Catholic World Report - Catholic World Report - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Manoj Kumar Jha and Ghazala Jamil write: Why Pratap Bhanu Mehta is wrong about social justice politics and caste census - The Indian Express - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Generational crimes are being committed thick and fast. No wonder Australian kids dont vote conservative - The Guardian - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- A Proclamation on Jewish American Heritage Month, 2023 - U.S. ... - US Embassy and Consulate in Poland - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]