Good Governance guarantees interests of oppressed masses

DR.Vickramabahu Karunaratne-2017-09-28

In Sri Lanka, a radical overhaul is underway – of the political, economic, and social system. In other words, an unrecognized revolution is taking place. That means, the upsurge of the masses that took place two years back is still surging forward. A new Constitution is being discussed; at the same time, a series of radical reforms are being rushed through. The fact that many of these reforms are being challenged as unconstitutional obviously indicates that the coming new Constitution is aimed at making what is unconstitutional today, constitutional tomorrow, making legal what is illegal by changing the fundamental laws of the country.

Yes, this is a revolution without bloodshed, at least so far. It is the fundamental and inalienable right of the people to determine the economic, social, and political system in which they choose to live. This choice is their choice because it is freely made, not with a gun pointed at their heads. This is true for all nationalities living in Sri Lanka.

Today, the world is maintained by the G2O agreement and Sri Lanka finds itself practically under a collective global power strategic objective and its global hegemony. This emerged after the international economic crisis after 2008. In spite of political changes taking place in the whole world including America, the international political balance of
G20 is still working. It is indeed in this world reality that the US Ambassador chose to announce Washington's decision to assist Sri Lanka draft its Constitution and implement the Human Rights Council resolution. We must remember the power of the working masses of the frontline global powers expressed by leaders such as Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn.

We are living in a world where the US depends on money and support given by China in difficult days. Gone are the days of the US supporting ground forces on enemy territory and patrolling provocatively close to China. It is also with Indian friendship that from Temple Trees the Acting US Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells declared, recently, that "the United States is – and will continue to be – an Indo-Pacific power."

Anyone can see that rewriting the Constitution under such conditions can only advance the cause of all nationalities in Sri Lanka and nothing else.

Of course there are guns pointed at Sri Lanka due to the heinous crimes committed by the fascistic Mahinda regime: the 2015 Human Rights resolution and the strict IMF/World Bank conditions including the populist political condition popularly known as Good Governance, a grudging recognition by the global capital the power of the masses for unity with the national interest. Yes, 'Good Governance' – or Yahapalana as people know it here – was not invented by simpletons or potta Tamils following Mahinda.

The IMF, World Bank and the US Treasury coined the term in the late 1980s so as to deviate the revolutions and uprisings in the third world to liberal ends; a political conditionality for keeping indebted Third World countries such as ours within the system of global capitalism.

Good Governance takes politics out of government and manages a shift from government to governance. Bydoing so, it has undermined the conflict between liberals and the left. For a limited period where national reconciliation and power sharing has been implemented, it neutralized identity conflicts especially in multi-ethnic societies. One can find the same words in the Human Rights Council resolution and in the Good Governance conditionality: rule of law, democracy, devolution, participation, etc. These are the same positive words used eagerly by the Yahapalana regime. In January 2016 last year, the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, told Parliament that the purpose of the new Constitution was, in addition to national unification, to establish "a political culture that respects the rule of law and strengthens democracy." The aim of Good Governance is to convert the absolutist chauvinist State into effective and strong State agencies that guarantee the interests of the oppressed masses.