{"id":104081,"date":"2013-09-07T02:03:48","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T20:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=104081"},"modified":"2013-09-10T03:13:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T21:43:02","slug":"democracy-or-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy Or Dictatorship?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By R.M.B Senanayake<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

R.M.B. Senanayake<\/p><\/div>\n

The Presiden<\/a><\/span>t has said he is no dictator since he is holding so many\u00a0elections. But elections alone even if they are free and fair (which\u00a0they are not when State resources are used to garner votes and there\u00a0is no level playing field for the Opposition) do not mean the system\u00a0is a liberal democracy.Elections have also ceased to be meaningful\u00a0since those elected from the Opposition are inveigled to join the\u00a0ranks of the ruling party. Do these MPs have a mandate from their\u00a0voters to cross over to the ruling party.Whom do they represent after\u00a0they cross over?<\/p>\n

Democracy originally meant direct decision making by the people\u00a0assembled together as in Athens City State. But even there the people\u00a0did not include women and slaves. The modern version of democracy is\u00a0what prevails in the USA, UK and Western Europe. In the Soviet Union\u00a0and the former Communist countries there were regular elections but\u00a0nobody considered them democracies except the Communist parties of\u00a0those countries? But Adolf Hitler<\/a><\/span> became the Chancellor of Germany via\u00a0a free election. So democracy can be manipulated to a dictatorship as\u00a0Hitler did. Mugabe holds elections but governs autocratically. So are\u00a0the other dictators in the world. They hold rigged elections to claim\u00a0legitimacy for their rule.<\/p>\n

Pope Pius XII lived during the 1930s when the Nazis held power in\u00a0Germany and waged the Second World War. He wrote \u201cWith the Corruption\u00a0of Democracy, Liberty Becomes Tyranny and Equality Degenerates into\u00a0Mechanical Leveling. \u201cAgainst this picture of the democratic ideal of\u00a0liberty and equality in a people\u2019s government by honest and far-seeing\u00a0men, what a spectacle is that of a democratic state left to the whims\u00a0of the masses! This is a degenerate form of democracy where liberty\u00a0has no place and there is only rule in their name by their elected\u00a0representatives of the people who are pursuing their selfish interests\u00a0rather than the interests of the people. They seek to perpetuate\u00a0themselves in power and brook no opposition from the people or any\u00a0other group in society. Authoritarian and\u00a0 sectarian policies are\u00a0pursued ruthlessly ousting or outmaneuvering rivals and using\u00a0underhand methods to impose the rulers will over all segments of\u00a0society\u201d.<\/p>\n

So the people are defined as those belonging to one religion or\u00a0community and brother is set against brother while the government\u00a0becomes increasingly sectarian as in Syria or Iraq today.\u00a0 The only\u00a0way to make the people obey the State is to acknowledge that it is a\u00a0just and fair body. This is done through the Rule of Law implemented\u00a0through an independent Judiciary. Remove these and the state is no\u00a0longer a democracy.<\/p>\n

Many people even among the educated think that democracy means\u00a0majority rule.\u00a0 Democracy is valued in the West not because decisions\u00a0are taken by majority vote but because it ensures freedoms such as the\u00a0freedom of expression, of association etc and also the practice of the\u00a0rule of law. This bundle of freedoms has nothing intrinsically to do\u00a0with democracy and the two have not always gone together. Hitler was\u00a0elected by a majority of Germans but he went on to suppress freedoms.<\/p>\n

Navi Pillay<\/a><\/span> warned that we are heading for authoritarianism where a\u00a0dictator acts arbitrarily.\u00a0Just as Democracy cannot be equated to elections nor can it be equate\u00a0to the will of the ruler- be he a President or a King. The arbitrary\u00a0rule of those who exercise power must be subject to checks and\u00a0balances and the Rule of Law if an elected government is to be\u00a0considered a democracy. We were considered as a flawed democracy in\u00a0the Economist Index of democracy. I think it now considers that we are\u00a0not a democracy at all. It was flawed because the checks and balances\u00a0were removed by the 18th Amendment.\u00a0 It is not even a democracy now\u00a0for there is no Rule of Law but instead the arbitrary exercise of\u00a0power by the President. There is no better example of such arbitrary\u00a0exercise of power than the impeachment of the former Chief Justice\u00a0Shirani Bandaranayke<\/a><\/span>. The Queen in Alice in Wonderland used to say\u201d\u00a0off with his head\u201d when somebody displeased her.<\/p>\n

Democracy in its rudimentary form began in England when King John was\u00a0forced by the barons to give up the exercise of arbitrary power and\u00a0rule according to the law. We have seen a reverse from the Rule of Law\u00a0to the rule of an all powerful person or persons. Those who displeased\u00a0the ruler in a dictatorship disappeared as under Stalin or Hitler. So\u00a0has Ekneligoda<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 Some like Lasantha Wickrematunge<\/a><\/span> have paid with their\u00a0lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":72222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nDemocracy Or Dictatorship? - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democracy Or Dictatorship? - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-06T20:33:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-09T21:43:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/R.M.B-Senanayake.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"155\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"165\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/\",\"name\":\"Democracy Or Dictatorship? - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/R.M.B-Senanayake.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-06T20:33:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-09T21:43:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/democracy-or-dictatorship\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/R.M.B-Senanayake.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/R.M.B-Senanayake.jpg\",\"width\":\"155\",\"height\":\"165\",\"caption\":\"R.M.B. 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