Recent Sri Lankan history has been characterized by a serious crisis in governance which has prevented the country from realizing its true potential and eroded our freedoms without which there is no democracy. Democracy is not the doing the will of the majority for that would justify even harming and acting against the interests of the minority who disagrees. The National Peace Council holds that democracy and freedom go together and without freedoms, such as freedom of the media and freedom of expression implemented by the Rule of Law, there is no democracy. At present the country is embroiled in a contentious presidential election called prematurely that is dividing and confusing the people. The legitimacy of governing and winning elections for the sake of power is the foremost issue.
The time has come for the people to decide whether they want governance according to a moral code or not. The great political philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Kant never divorced politics from ethics. But there are others such as Machiavelli and Kautilya who advocated governance as the mere exercise of power untrammeled by any moral and ethical values in the conduct of the affairs of the State. We have inherited the traditions of the doctrine of the Buddha as well as the real politik of Kautilya who lived in the time of the Emperor Chandragupta who unified most of the Indian subcontinent. The Buddha did not advocate the doctrine of Kautilya and the Emperor Asoka finally turned away from Kautilyan politics to Buddhist ethics in governing his empire.
The ongoing presidential election campaign has also brought up issues of centralized power to the fore. The main opposition challenger for the post of presidency retired General Sarath Fonseka is conducting his campaign on a platform of seeking the abolishing of the institution of the executive presidency within six months of election. The incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself promised to abolish the institution of the Executive Presidency during his successful election campaign of 2005. Two other important issues being canvassed at these Presidential elections are the devolution of powers to the provinces along the lines of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the de-politicisation of key state institutions through the 17th Amendment which takes away the President's arbitrary power of high level appointments to offices of state.
The violence that has plagued Sri Lanka for the past three decades can be traced to the excessive concentration of power and the deterioration of moral values. In this context, the three pledges that have been made in the presidential election campaign sum up the evolution of political thinking in Sri Lanka for future good governance. The National Peace Council believes that although the presidential election process has started, it is not too late for the Government to ask for the Opposition's support to abolish the Presidency without holding the election scheduled for January 26, 2010. By also combining the abolition of the presidency with the necessary reforms of the 13th and 17th Amendments to the Constitution, NPC also believes that the elements of good and ethical governance for the future will be solidly set in place.
NPC is also disappointed and concerned that the election campaign is leading to acrimonious, unethical and damaging exchanges that are further dividing public opinion in the country and eroding its international reputation. There are examples that the main contestants can draw upon to redeem themselves and the country. On May 29, 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, became the first people to reach the peak of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Since Tenzing did not know how to use the camera, Edmund Hillary took a photo of Tenzing Norgay as evidence that they did reach the top. Later, journalists repeatedly asked who had reached the summit first. The expedition leader, John Hunt, replied, “They reached it together, as a team.” They were united by a common goal, and neither was concerned who should get the greater credit. Let this be a lesson to the two main contenders and not build their popularity on military victory that was achieved at immense human and moral costs.
Governing Council
The National Peace Council is an independent and non partisan organisation that works towards a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. It has a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka in which the freedom, human rights and democratic rights of all the communities are respected. The policy of the National Peace Council is determined by its Governing Council of 20 members who are drawn from diverse walks of life and belong to all the main ethnic and religious communities in the country.
