“It is during the darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”

The constitutional crisis is not a unique moment in the span of Sri Lankan history.  Our history since independence has been shrouded in ‘brief’ periods of disquiet and disarray, of darkness.  But the flicker of light always seeped through to keep the country moving out of such difficult ‘blotches’.  To recall some of such events since independence one has to refer to the case of the indentured labour brought to work on the plantations and how some of them were disenfranchised (1948) by the then government until it’s later resolution; then came the introduction of the Sinhala Only legislation in 1956 that estranged the Sinhala majority from the minorities in the country, making divisive ethnic biased politics the bane of the times then and to date.  This was followed by the 1983 communal riots that saw organized violence against the person and property of the Tamils. In 1971, prior to the riots in ’83 , sections of the Sinhala youth took arms to challenge the authority of the State. Poverty was cited as the prime cause while English, referred to as the kaduwa, was cited as the main reason for people to divide into elite and non –elite groups, polarized and antagonistic. The uprising was put down by the state countering violence with state violence.

However in between these dark patches life continued with the advent of flashes of light that released people to live a life of relative normalcy. In between there were murmurs of discontent but nothing surfaced until the ethnic revolt in 1983 which stretched over three decades up to 2019 when the Tamil terrorist movement was successfully put down by the Rajapakse Government. Overlapping this period of racial upheaval, in the year 1987, the selfsame ideology that inspired the youth movement that took arms against the then government in 1971 became galvanized once again, and the youth of this period rose once again, much more virulent and fierce, well- armed and well organized to challenge the might of the State. By 1989 after a prolonged offensive and total destabilization of society, this movement that grew to the proportion of a civil war was put down ruthlessly by state power.  There has been since then relative peace, a shimmer of light within the country to promote development. 

Any progress made in the country was gradually spirited away by the rise in authoritarianism in governance, lack of law and order and an unacceptable rise in corruption; in greed to amass ill – gotten wealth, mostly by politicians and their acolytes.  The morale within the country is down and ethical values have dropped to its lowest. Politicians coming into the fray shifted their focus from service to people to self service.  People’s needs have become a superfluous negligible concern while personal and family needs and personal and clique advancement have become the unashamed call on the politicians’ time.

The above is a walk down memory lane to demonstrate to the people that we have always overcome the darkest hour by shedding light to work out resolutions to our problems.  In the same way there is no cause for despair over the incidents that originated on the 26^th of October and continued until the Judiciary shed light on the country with the unanimous verdict by a 7 judge panel. We have faced such crisis and overcome many of them.

 At this juncture we, the people, vested with inalienable sovereign rights need celebrate the victory of constitutionalism. Recalling events of the past few weeks without despondency, we, the people, must rise to cheer ourselves over our victory over unlawful action by the Executive; we, the people must honour the Judiciary that had the country stand up in ovation for their independent stand and for executing honourably the power entrusted to them to exercise “jurisdiction in respect of constitutional matters”.

The country and the institutions that govern the country have gone full circle and come round to the starting point once again. The parameters within which the Executive and the Legislature should function is clearly stated in the constitution.  There are still the wounds of the reprimand of the Executive’s ill conceived moves since October the 26th by the Judiciary in its verdict. The wounds no doubt will remain raw and the consequent outbursts of anger over this   matter is natural. What is important is that the supremacy of the Constitution, its letter and spirit, has been stridently established and the need for those in positions of authority to keep to the boundaries as given in the constitution has been recognized to be there is a further disturbing fallout of the constitutional crisis of the last few weeks.  One is debate on the need to continue having an Executive President and two, over the attempt to reenact ethnic hostility, by highlighting its threat to national security and the unity status of the country, to garner votes for those proponents that supported the perpetrators of the constitutional crisis.  This is a short term approach because when ethnic hostilities are let loose it is possible that it will be hard to reign in the hostile momentum. It can end in another harsh and devastating war that will affect all the people in the country, not just a section of the people. Only hope is the minorities that have been thrown in to the deep end of the well of the tribulations of the war might not easily succumb to declare hostilities and take to violence yet again. Anyone that stokes the fire of disunity among the people must realize that they can be consumed in the same fire as well. 

As I write this piece we are told that there is a resolution moved by the JVP to scrap the Executive Presidency. After the ordeals faced by this country and the people there are many among the legislators who are prepared to support such a move. The process is long and needs a referendum to make it final.  Many compromises are possible except that the chaos created by misreading of the constitution by the by the overreach of the Executive whose action created a situation where we were a country without a PM and cabinet of ministers for a while, then we ended with two Prime Ministers and two cabinet of Ministers.  A situation where people’s sovereignty is questioned must not be allowed under any circumstance. It was a moment with destiny when the Executive refused to accept the decision as sent by the speaker to him, a clear endorsement of support for the former PM was given while the former President and the Executive’s choice for premier did not have support of the House. The situation is comical if it was not deadly serious to the nation.  If the Executive that can act so irresponsibly need to be abandoned for ever so be it.

It is ridiculous to reduce the inability to work together by the two chief repository of people’s sovereign power to the attire one wears, the national costume and the ‘coat and tie outfit’.  Surely we are big enough to overcome such prejudice, and give in to personal preferences.  Democracy is all about choices available to one and all. Let’s begin with the simple ones.

The judiciary with great dignity has cleared the air for the nation. It is now left to us to move on. We cannot trifle with the nation, development must go on permitting the stock exchange to function and see that we revive the economy, stabilize the rupee and revive the confidence of the investors.

Above all the practice of tolerance and compassion extolled by all religions especially by the Buddha has to be highlighted as a way of life. Elementary Mr.Watson, is it not?

Image courtesy of www.ft.lk