It was Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US President who is credited for the words I have used in the title of this article. At Gettysburg in November 1863, he was honouring the soldiers who had died in the US civil war when he noted their sacrifice meant, “That the Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”. Since then, these words have been used countless times and often out of context of the original historical moment to refer to the aspirations and hopes of democracy across the world.
Today, 161 years after Lincoln had presented his now famous words, the US is in a very different place politically with Donald Trump as its new President, perhaps the most unprincipled and unethical image of an individual any country could ever aspire to have as its leader in its worst collective nightmare.
But the people in the US have voted decisively and we are not in a position to educate them on their failing political literacy and appalling commonsense. That is because teaching democracy to the world is supposed to be the US’s and other politically powerful countries’ job while listening to such pandering is supposed to be ours – languishing in the periphery of the current dominant world system rendered peripheral by the global politics these same countries have controlled for centuries. But Lincoln’s words make exceptional sense to us today in Sri Lanka today when there is a possibility of creating on the ground exactly what his words meant: a government of the people, for the people, by the people.
Political landscape
But how is this possible in a political landscape such as ours which has been mauled by unethical, unprincipled and violent politics and politicians almost since the advent of Independence, but very clearly since the late 1970s? In that situation, our democratic institutions have been either dismantled or dangerously tampered with and unmitigated political violence and seething avarice accompanied by vulgar corruption have been promoted as political and economic rights of the powerful. In other words, we have been rendered a banana republic, but with the blessings of the people themselves who have relentlessly voted in the culprits at both national and regional levels to (mis)govern them. This situation culminated in the country’s economic meltdown that initially began in 2019 and had its most spectacular upsurge in the form of the popular uprising known as the Aragalaya 2022.
But the result of the Presidential election and the political and electoral culture it ushered in and remains in place so far, gives some hope in a situation which only a few months ago was an utterly hopeless and unbearable. The Presidential election was the most peaceful in the history of the country and the run-up to the parliamentary election slated for November 14 hardly makes a noise to the extent one cannot even gauge where things are going.
Some of the worst culprits who dominated the field of corrupt politics for decades have voluntarily decided not to contest elections for fear of losing while others have decided to do so as members of what one can only call a ‘conglomerate of the corrupt and the wicked.’ But they too hardly hold election rallies or large meetings that we were once used to. There is a very real fear among many of these individuals that they may be electorally wiped out. This changed atmosphere is not only emanating from the victory of the National People’s Power candidate in the Presidential election, but also due to the criticality and collective self-respect that people themselves acquired as a result of the Aragalaya.
Basic issues
Equally as importantly, the new Government with a Cabinet of three that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake installed has not attempted to do path breaking changes that cannot be done without parliamentary support. Instead, it has done some crucial things such as recalling many of the political appointees masquerading as diplomats in our Embassies around the world, appointing competent people to give new life to state sector enterprises – most serving voluntarily without a salary, trying to regulate the rice prices, initiating investigations into crucial corruption cases that had been politically stalled in the recent past, allowing the police do its job without interference, making clear that all dubious deals signed with foreign companies will be revisited to ensure due process has been followed, and so on. If these activities and what is generally outlined in the National People’s Power (PNP’s) public documents as policy priorities are continued, then, a government of the people, for the people, and by the people is theoretically possible. But, how is it possible on the ground and in reality is the question.
I would like to answer this by summarising some of the very basic issues I had flagged in the press conference convened in Colombo on November 6, 2024 by the People’s Movement for Renaissance in support of an NPP parliamentary election victory. Many people addressed this gathering. I addressed the meeting without being a member of the JVP, the NPP or any of its 21 constituent groups or even the People’s Movement for Renaissance which organised the press conference. I was and I am a complete outsider to the party politics in this country which has allowed me to retain my Independence in thinking. My basic contention was, there is no question that the NPP must be given the chance to form the next Government simply because there is no other choice. All other contenders in terms of political formations and as individuals (in most cases) are either irrelevant or tainted by the corrupt and violent politics of the recent past. They are the reason why we are in the present predicament in the first place. Also, the victory of the NPP at the Presidential election marked the first moment in our post-Independence history where a clear change occurred in our electoral politics particularly in the way people think. Here, the victory of Mr. Dissanayake marked a very clear public urge for radical social and political change. It is that change that must be delivered after the parliamentary election, and it can only be done by acquiring a controlling power in Parliament.
But no Government of the future can be given a free hand to do anything it wants. This is the mistake our country has consistently made ever since Independence. We elected people to Parliament and local bodies and allowed them to do whatever they wanted including corruption for personal benefit and protected them from the law. We as a nation simply did not care. We would be fools as we have been on many occasions in the past, if we do not learn from the past and our unforgivable mistakes.
In this situation, the core role of voters, independent citizens such as myself and many other concerned citizens is not to simply ensure that the NPP forms the next Government as it constitutes the only serious group that is delinked from the worst practices of recent politics. More crucially, it should be our business to help the Government with ideas and critical reflection that will help in good governance and in finding experts to fill specific vacancies, which it has done reasonably well so far.
Uncritical mouthpieces
On the other hand, we also must self-consciously be the conscience of the Government and that of the nation. We simply cannot help the NPP to come to power and then remain silent or be their uncritical mouthpieces as has happened many times in the past with earlier Governments. As the Government’s and the nation’s conscience, it should be our duty to show the Government if it is taking the wrong path, if it is not implementing its policies which we have supported, if it is making wrongful appointments and so on. But this must be a reflective and engaged criticism buttressed with practical alternatives. If the Government of the future does not listen, then agitation in whatever form necessary should also be our duty and right.
If the future Government is mindful of these conditions and if we are serious about our own collective role as the Government’s and the nation’s conscience, then, the theoretical possibility of forming a Government of the people, for the people, and by the people can become a reality on the ground. On that day, we can also teach the US and the democracy-preaching regimes of the world with dubious track records how democracy can actually be imagined and established on the ground in real terms. That is why we need hope now. As Sarah Maas has noted, “We need hope, or else we cannot endure.” But hope alone is not enough. To endure, we also need to act on our hopes and convictions, and be vigilant that our hopes are not taken for granted or destroyed.
