MORAL POWER IS A CORRECTIVE TO BAD GOVERNMENT--Jehan Perera
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- Friday, 19 July 2013
The continued leaching of the opposition’s support base can be seen in two of the three provinces in which provincial council elections are scheduled to be held. In both the Central and North Central provinces local level members of the opposition parties are lining up to obtain membership in the ruling power. They are presumably not anticipating an opposition victory, and are hoping by their cross over to play a role in the new provincial administrations. They have seen their seniors in their political parties defect to the government and benefit tremendously, and wish to do the same.
Government by patronage is not Democracy . by R.M.B Senanayake
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- Friday, 19 July 2013
Mr. S.L Gunasekera writing to the Daily Mirror has pointed out that devolution of power does not help to give power to the people and that what happens is that the power is exercised by local instead of national level politicians. So devolution only means devolution of power to local politicians and it does not enable the participation of the people. Yes indeed it is so. But why is it so? It is because we no longer have the institutions required for a liberal democracy. Democracy means nothing if it doesn’t ensure freedom for the people and equal participation of all the people in governance and not merely the majority of the people. This type of democracy which is the only democracy worth having requires a set of modern institutions. Liberal democracy is a modern evolution. Athenian democracy excluded women and slaves. American democracy excluded blacks until recent years.
Media Release - 2013-07-17
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- Thursday, 18 July 2013
SOUTH AFRICAN EXAMPLE CAN HELP TO BREAK DEADLOCK ON PSC
The government has proposed the mechanism of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to make a fresh start in finding a political solution to the ethnic problem in the aftermath of the three decade long war. The mandate of this PSC is to recommend and report on “political and constitutional measures to empower the people of Sri Lanka as one nation.”
However, the opposition has so far refused to appoint any of its members to this PSC. Their concerns are perhaps that the exercise lacks any specific objective or substance and is not genuine, and only an attempt to buy time and prevent the creation of a negative international impression of the government in the run-up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be hosted by Sri Lanka in November.
A Referendum to repeal the 13th Amendment? By R.M.B Senanayake
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- Tuesday, 16 July 2013
The Government seems to be toying with the idea of holding a national referendum on the abolition of or changes in the 13th amendment. But can an ethno-religious majority decide against the rights of a minority by a majority vote? A certain institutional structure has been fashioned to resolve the grievances of the Tamil minority and to protect their rights with regard to their language, religion, culture, land and personal security of the minority. They have for long protested at what they called discrimination against them by the Sinhala dominated State. There is a UN Declaration called the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
