Victuals and democracy

February 28, 2016, A senior political scientist has taken a former minister cum Opposition firebrand to task for what the former calls an attempt to trivialize the on-going constitution making process.

MP Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has rhetorically asked whether the people can eat the Constitution much to the consternation of Prof. Laksiri Fernando, who is in the forefront of a campaign for constitutional reforms. He has apparently sought to stress the fact that the government ought to remain more focussed on bringing down food prices. Prof. Fernando has observed that such derisive remarks are being made at a time Sri Lanka is striving to put behind it a long spell of authoritarianism and anti-constitutionalism. He maintains that though a Constitution cannot be eaten it can guarantee the people’s right to eat (food).

Prof. Fernando asks the Joint Opposition to campaign for the incorporation of economic and social rights of the people into the new Constitution to be framed instead of trying to devalue the on-going constitution making efforts. The need for cast-iron constitutional guarantees to ensure that the rulers do not shirk their responsibilities cannot be overemphasized. But, such mechanisms will be of little use unless the national food production is stepped up to cater to the ever growing demand for comestibles. It is a mistake for the country to depend on imports to meet the huge shortfalls in food production. A top politician argued a few moons ago that it was much cheaper to import rice than to grow it locally! It is hoped that he won’t, in his wisdom, reduce local food production and increase imports.

The discontinuation of the subsidized fertilizer scheme is bound to have an adverse impact on the food and commercial crop production. Farmers are already up in arms in some parts of the country demanding fertilizer at affordable prices. The government does not seem to have realized the gravity of the situation.

Humans are no better than animals when they are left without food and water. One is reminded of Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush, a fine mix of pathos and humour, where two fortune hunters trapped in a cabin and starved, during a howling blizzard, cook a boot and succumb to hallucinations. There have been instances where victims of shipwrecks and plane crashes resorted to cannibalism to keep themselves alive.

The world history is replete with numerous food riots which snowballed into or fuelled mass uprisings that dislodged repressive regimes. That bread and salt played a pivotal role in the French Revolution is only too well known to merit elaboration. Writers like Linda Civitello have pointed out that in France bakers were once considered public servants in that bread was thought to be a public service necessary to keep the masses from agitating. The French apparently followed the Romans.

Interestingly, creature comforts, however necessary they may be to keep people happy, do not help prevent mass uprisings. In Libya, the Gaddafi government saw to it that the people wanted for nothing where their basic needs were concerned. But, the public rebelled against that government demanding democracy and toppled it. Today, they are left with neither democracy nor social welfare!

Populist as Minister Abeyewardena’s slogan at issue may be it is highly marketable. One may recall that in this country, too, unbearable food prices and scarcities have brought down governments. The SLFP-led administration fell in 1977 not so much because of its anti-constitutional acts but because of the suffering the people had to go undergo owing to chronic scarcities and restrictions placed on the consumption and transport of rice etc. Its fall marked the beginning of an era when food was freely available albeit at high prices but the people were burdened with a very bad Constitution.

The present government, before the last two elections, promised food at affordable prices besides a good Constitution and went so far as to offer a basket of selected food items at subsidized rates. The problem with people’s expectations is that they are always unreasonably and irrationally high. Therefore, the daunting task before the new administration is to ensure that the people have creature comforts plus a brand new Constitution guaranteeing their democratic rights if it is to avert trouble.