Who needs a Sri Lanka National Congress today

by Edmund RANASINGHE

The Ceylon National Congress originated at the second Conference of Constitutional Reform held in December 1918 where the following resolution was passed:

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike

R. Pramadasa

Chandrika Kumaratunga

"That a permanent organisation be formed for the purpose of coordinating public opinion and political thought..."

Article 1 of the Constitution of the Congress set out its aim:

"To secure for the people of Ceylon a responsible government and the status of a self governing nation."

Resolution 1 of the Executive Committee Meeting of the 9th of December 1919 reads:

"This congress declares that for the better government of the Island and the happiness and contentment of the people ....and as a step towards the realization of responsible government in Ceylon .....the Constitution and Administration should be immediately reformed."

The Ceylon National Congress is the forerunner of political parties in Sri Lanka. What its founders dreamed of is what the founders of all nations, great and small have dreamed of.

Nearly a century and a half before that the Declaration of Independence of what subsequently became the United States of America recites:

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

That about sums up as succinctly as possible why governments are needed, why governments are formed, from where they derive their powers and finally the limits on these powers.

That is a timeless truth and its application universal.

If we were to look for key words we have 'responsible government', happiness, contentment, equality, unalienable rights, life, liberty, just powers, consent of the governed.

We received our independence over sixty years ago. Enough time one would think to achieve these goal, or some of them, so elegantly set out in that Declaration - or at least set us firmly on that glorious path.

How much of have we achieved in these last sixty years or so. Let us look at our record.

Islandwide riots in 1953 and then in 1958. One Prime Minister and one President assassinated. An attempted assassination of another President. Twenty five sitting members of Parliament gunned down in cold blo od. Two youth revolts, one in 1971 and another from 1987 to 1992, with countless numbers killed. A bloody separatist fought over thirty years with an estimated seventy five thousand killed.

Then again we have been free for approximately seven hundred and forty months. Of this three hundred and ten (and still counting) have been spent under Emergency Regulations with the normal law of the land suspended.

Can we honestly say that these several governments have been responsible administrations? Have they contributed to the happiness and contentment of the populace at large? Have we been treated equally? Have our so-called unalienable rights to life and liberty been protected or are they being violated with impunity? Is setting aside of the normal laws of the land just? Is that what is meant by ruling with the consent of the governed?

Have we gone wrong somewhere down the line?

To answer the question, all one needs to do is look at the original line up of the membership of the Ceylon National Congress.

Camaraderie

The President was a Tamil respectively proposed and seconded by two Sinhalese. The first Executive Committee consisted of the so-called Indian Tamils, Moors and Burghers, then there were the Buddhists and Hindus, Christians and Muslims. There were Communists, Trotskyites, Socialists and Sama Samajists. You name them, they were all there. We were, at that time all Ceylonese (Sri Lankans). All joined together with but one goal in mind, freedom and the well-being of the population. That is happiness. The happiness that the founding fathers, the founding members of the Ceylon National Congress dreamed of. A person's caste and creed were no concern.

It is not necessary to name names here but somewhere down the line all this camaraderie between the different communities and the different philosophies was lost to communal parties with narrow parochial agendas and then to religious parties with narrower agendas. Communal politics was as expected accompanied and ably assisted by its twin-divisive politics and we divided ourselves according to philosophies, all strange imports. Strange to our respective tongues and stranger still to our respective minds. We split up and crept into our own little crannies. We were divided and separated on every conceivable demarcation. We were segregated and isolated. Concrete boundaries built around us.

The common national good was no longer our good. Each one of us had our own good to look after, come what may and to hell with the rest.

Of course yes, all but the very chauvinistic of these have taken representation from the other communities - most likely poached. The 'Uncle Toms' to prove our broadmindedness. The classic words of the Soulbury Commission Report dismissing the call for communal representation comes to mind - "Communal representation is as it were a canker in the body politic eating deeper and deeper into the vital energies of the nation." This prediction (should I call it a promise) certainly seems to have come true.

We are long past the direct democracy of the Greek city states. And the ubiquitous Swiss referendum is not the fashion in these humid climes. Ours is representative government. We elect the representatives and they govern on our behalf. That has been the style commencing with the seminal steps in 1911 to full independence in 1948.

Thattu maru

In 1948, we had a United National Party Government. In 1956 we became sick of that and elected a Sri Lanka Freedom Party Government. From then onward it has been a thattu maru system of coalition of various hues and colours and shapes and forms.

The coalitions came in various permutations and combinations. There were green, and blue and yellow. There was blue and red. There was green and red. There were communal parties getting into bed with chauvinistic parties. There were capitalistic parties aligned with socialist parties. There were capitalist parties with socialist parties and capitalist parties with communist parties. The mishmash went on ad infinitum and perhaps ad nauseam. Some parties large. Some small. So small, that the entire membership could go about comfortably in a trishaw as they say.

All that these coalitions that proved and proved beyond any doubt at that, was that in politics there are no permanent friends nor permanent enemies but only permanent (and selfish) interests.

Genuine

With all this what have we reaped? Communal animosity, Class acrimony, Social disharmony and Youth hostility. Many more come to mind. Everyone with such dismal and negative connotations. Nothing, nothing at all with anything positive.

Is it not time then when some of us with a genuine interest in the well-being of the nation get together to pull us out of the morass and quagmire that we have so willingly fallen into. Again 'In politics nothing happens by accident. If it happens you can bet it was planned that way.'

It is therefore refreshing to note that one person, one at least, even at this late stage, has taken it upon himself and thought it fit to give the lead in that direction.

I refer to the announcement in some quarters of the formation of a new political party called the Sri Lanka National Congress.

We have yet to see any public pronouncements from the Sri Lanka National Congress. The party's principles, what they stand for. Their aims, their goals have yet to be announced publicly. The party's manifesto is yet to be made public. If they had been this writer is not yet privy to them. They have not as yet had any public meetings announcing themselves.

More often than not an organisation is moulded by its leader. He sets its character, the pace and its direction. Strong leaders make strong organisations. Weak leaders make weak organisations. Honest leaders make honest organisations and corrupt leaders make corrupt organisations. That has been the lesson of history throughout the ages.

Why we need a Sri Lanka National Congress. Truly Sri Lanka, truly of all the citizens and truly democratic. Moragoda has had two stints as Minister. One in the short-lived UNP Government under Ranil Wickremesinghe and at present in the UPFA Government under Mahinda Rajapaksa. That in both instances he portrayed these traits and rose above the parochial and narrow-minded outlook of the common or garden is a fact. There is no reason to doubt that he will continue in the same vein and be equal to the task.

A party to restate the lofty ideals of its precursor the Ceylon National Congress and to relive those dreams of our founding fathers is the need of the hour.

Its success or failure cannot be judged beforehand. Only a prognosis can be made. The Sri Lanka National Congress appears to be equal to the task and the one capable of delivering. It has the right makings.

Only time will tell how far and how well they will succeed in the journey they have undertaken.