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by Tisaranee Gunasekara
on 10/19/2015
The need to be free of autocracy did play a role in ushering the Arab Spring.
But it was just one contributory factor. For the vast masses, economics was
more important than politics. They wanted their political rights. But for
people who were mired in economic want, the right to life also meant the
right to a liveable life, characterised primarily by bearable living costs and
decent jobs.
For this majority, democracy was a means to an end. If democracy did not
bring about an immediate, real and lasting improvement in their living
conditions, their faith in democracy eroded. Extremism, ethnic, religious or
tribal, is the main winner, when the democratic experiment fails. This is as
true in Colombo as it was in Cairo.
A plethora of reasons contributed to the defeat of the seemingly invincible
Rajapaksa juggernaut. Among these, economics played a pivotal role. The
minorities turned against the Rajapaksas for obvious political reasons. But
this loss in and of itself would have been insufficient to defeat the
Rajapaksas electorally. If the Siblings managed to retain their 2010 supportlevel amongst Sinhala-Buddhists, Mahinda Rajapaksa would have scraped
through on January 8th. That was what he was counting on.
As the CPA survey of 2014 revealed, 58.1% of the Sinhalese wanted the
regime to focus on reducing living costs [ii]. The Rajapaksas did anything
but. They believed that a combination of patriotic rhetoric, toxic attacks on
the minorities and shrill warnings about international conspiracies could
make a sufficient number of Sinhala-Buddhists forget their very real
economic problems.
In 2011, 70% of Sinhalese thought the general economic situation will
improve in the next two years. In 2013 only 38.5% of Sinhalese thought the
general economic situation will improve in the coming two years [iii].
Official figures confirmed the trend. According to the Department of Census
and Statistics, 53% of the urban population, 73% of the rural population
and 81% of the estate population did not receive the minimum income
necessary to pay for food and other basic needs [iv].
In the end, everyday experiences trumped grand slogans; real facts
trounced imagined fears.
It is not absolute poverty which gives birth to political dissent, but relative
poverty. The ruling family atop a bloated political caste enjoyed the good
life at public expense even as ordinary people struggled to make ends
meet. The regimes refusal to acknowledge the economic sufferings of the
people added insult to injury.
The vote against the Rajapaksas was a vote in the main for a more
responsive and caring economic regimen. If the new administration forgets
this fundamental fact, the advances made on the political front will be at
risk.
Imitating the Rajapaksas?
Last Monday, the police baton-charged a group of protesting villagers in
Bandagiriya. The protest was peaceful, the police attack indefensible and
the government silence about the anti-democratic response baffling.
The protestors were demanding clean drinking water. Bandagiriya is in the
Hambantota district, the bastion of the Rajapaksa clan. The fact that the
people of Bandagiriya are without access to something as fundamental as
clean water, after almost a decade of Rajapaksa rule, is a damning
indictment of Rajapaksa economics.
It is also a warning to the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration.
During the Rajapaksa decade, no expense was spared to turn Hambantota
into a megapolis. A port, an airport, an artificial island, an international
rulers. With every mistake the administration makes, with every act of
insensitivity, with every broken promise, the gap between it and the
Rajapaksas erode.
A more dangerous situation for Sri Lankas restored democracy cannot be
imagined.
Sustaining Reconciliation and Democracy
Vasanthy Ragupathy Sharma is Tamil, a mother of three and a prisoner.
Recently the Colombo High Court acquitted her of the charges against her.
By that time she had spent 15 years in jail under the PTA, for a crime she
did not commit [vi] .
The plight of many PTA detainees is even worse, because they have never
being charged. The war ended more than six years ago. Yet these men and
women languish in detention, while the likes of Kumaran Pathmanathan
(KP) are free. The least the Attorney Generals Department can do is to
press charges where possible and release the rest.
That was the demand of the PTA prisoners who commenced a death-fast
last week: press charges or release.
The governments rapid response to the fast highlights a key positive
difference between the past and the present. The Rajapaksas would have
sent in the commandos. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration
initiated talks and promised a resolution.
The Geneva consensus is far from perfect. Still it is indubitably a step in the
right direction. Not just accountability and justice but even common-orgarden acknowledgement that civilian lives were lost was rendered
impossible thanks to the Rajapaksa insistence on the myth of Humanitarian
i http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bassem-awadallah/the-economics-of-thearab_b_1196473.html
ii http://groundviews.org/2014/09/19/infographic-views-from-uva/
iii http://www.scribd.com/doc/182597529/Top-line-survey-resultsDemocracy-in-post-war-Sri-Lanka
iv Question Time reveals colossal waster of public funds while masses
struggle Chandani Kirinde The Sunday Times 27.7.2014
v http://srilankabrief.org/2015/07/hambantota-white-projects-eat-upeconomy/
vi http://groundviews.org/2015/10/05/court-acquits-tamil-mother-after-15years-of-detention-under-pta/
vii Daily Mirror 17.10.2015
viii http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/09/day-earth-stopped
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