The modern definition of democracy is “Form of government, where a constitution guarantees basic personal and political rights, fair and free elections, and independent courts of law.”
Therefore the key elements of a Democracy are:
Guarantee of basic Human Rights to every individual person vis-à-vis the state and its authorities as well as vis-à-vis any social groups (especially religious institutions) and vis-à-vis other persons.
Separation of Powers between the institutions of the state:
Government [Executive Power],
Parliament [Legislative Power] and
Courts of Law [Judicial Power]
Freedom of opinion, speech, press and mass media
Religious liberty
General and equal right to vote (one person, one vote)
Good Governance (focus on public interest and absence of corruption)
The U.S. president Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) defined democracy as: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
The Sri Lankan style democracy can be defined as “Form of government appointed by the people, where a constitution is just a piece of paper, governing body decides the rule of the country as the ignorant people are duped to accept all that is dished out to them by the anointed governing body”.
Unfortunately for Sri Lanka even the governing body is ignorant of the meaning of a democracy…the country is somewhat a monarchical oligarchy…!
Labour member of Parliament in London, Jeremy Corbyn was the moderator of the “Forum” show broadcast by Press TV of Iran. The show discussed the situation of Sri Lanka and the current war. The panel involved conservative member of Parliament and member of the House of Lords, Lord Naseby, nominee to the Sri Lanka Embassy London, Mr Douglas Wikramaratne, Labour member of the European Parliament for London, Mr Robert Evans and spokesman of the British Tamil Forum, Suren Surendran. A live audience contributed with questions and it was a gut wrenching 47 minutes and 55 seconds. Several excerpts of this show appeared in several newspapers over the last couple of days as well.
“To sum up then: On the part of the Tamils, the choice is whether they opt for a moderate leadership which the Sinhalese will be willing to share power with, on a basis that the Sinhalese are willing to accept, or whether they wish to live in permamnt confrontation by choosing a leadership whose immoderate demands will be unacceptable to the Sinhala majority.”
If Dayan is referring to the current leadership in Sri Lanka to be the “moderate”leadership to govern this country in a post-war scenario, I wonder if we will have the backing of a majority of Tamils let alone the “moderate” Sri Lankans (Note In the use of “Sri Lankans” here I refer to the rest of the population in Sri Lanka eg Sinhala, Muslim etc). Although we do agree that the initiative to stop this war instead of milking it is one of the greatest deeds of this government simultaneously we need to observe the rest of its character record as well. The government propaganda spells out nationalism without doubt. The killing of prominent media personnel, mysterious disappearances and abductions of numerous other journalists and the iron hand over the rights of not of just those trapped in IDP camps but also of the general population who are frankly in my humble opinion brainwashed by the government propaganda. This is why people end up dumping media reports like the recent SBS report “Hunting the Tigers” as pro-LTTE. Frankly the reaction of the Defence Secretary in this clip is very disturbing. It leaves us to the conclusion that he is taking the business of securing the country to a personal level!
Then there is the question of whether the Tamil people who are being harassed daily on the streets as well as in the IDP camps and war stricken areas would be able to work or live freely under this sort of government attitude, where imho all Tamils are seen as LTTE? Of course there needs to be a compromise between the Sinhalese and the Tamils but for it to happen we need to first give reassurance to the Tamil people that the Sinhalese are willing to go one step further and drop the nationalist agenda as should the Tamils who need to stop feeding terrorist leadership like that of Prabhakaran and realise that there is a possibility of finding a solution without killing lives of innocent Tamils and Sinhalese. It all comes down to an issue of trust and good leadership.
This is where we get disappointed by the likes of Dayan and Rajiva who are two great intellectuals with the capability of opening avenues to enlighten and inform the Sri Lankan expatriates, specifically the Tamil diaspora that are being misled by LTTE propaganda. We need good leaders to close the gap between the Tamil-Sinhala divide not those who further separate it.
Posted by principalamzy 
