{"id":204362,"date":"2019-08-25T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T18:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=204362"},"modified":"2019-08-28T00:17:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T18:47:11","slug":"no-bourgeoisies-no-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-bourgeoisies-no-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"No Bourgeoisies, No Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarath de Alwis<\/a>\u00a0–<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarath de Alwis<\/p><\/div>\n

“It was not Marx\u2019s aim to discover the \u201ceternal laws\u201d of economy. He denied the existence of such laws. The history of the development of human society is the history of the succession of various systems of economy, each operating in accordance with its own laws. The transition from one system to another was always determined by the growth of the productive forces, i.e., of technique and the organization of labour. Up to a certain point, social changes are quantitative in character and do not alter the foundations of society, i.e., the prevalent forms of property.” ~\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Leon Trotsky in \u2018Living thoughts of Karl Marx\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

In the dark, forbiddingly bleak topography of our dysfunctional democracy, the emergence of the\u00a0 <\/span>National People Power coalition, is a refreshingly propitious development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The center left intelligentsia could not resist comparing it to the mass rally of the United Left Front that bought a similar multitude enthused by the possibility of a solid socialist solidarity in a coalition led by NM, Dr. Wicks and Philip.<\/p>\n

The first speaker, old Samasamajist Lal Wijenayake recalled that Galle face was the launching pad for the great \u2018Hartal \u2018of 1952, organized by the left movement against the UNP\u2019s comprador bourgeoisie regime. \"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What struck me, was that none recalled the incident on Galle face where our pioneering left stalwarts produced Mark Anthony Bracegirdle after filing a habeas corpus petition preventing his deportation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as I know, no Supreme Court judge recused himself from hearing the writ application on the ground that he played bridge with Governor Stubbs who ordered the deportation. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This event in 1937, eleven years before our independence was an epochal reiteration of a citizen\u2019s right to free speech and liberty. With that skirmish with the \u2018Raj\u2019, our island nation was \u00a0 <\/span>catapulted in to\u00a0 <\/span>modernity and the age of universal human rights.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was our first brush with the true spirit of universal civic citizenship \u2013 a principle which one of the main contenders for the presidency wishes to erase from the books. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Colonialism despite its wickedness introduced some fundamental principles that evolved during the age of enlightenment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Forgetting Bracegirdle is natural. We have no historical memory of struggle in the evolution of democracy, its processes and institutions. The British gave us universal franchise and a parliamentary democracy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our C.W.W. Kannangara is forgotten just as Ambedkar is forgotten\u00a0 <\/span>India! We don\u2019t care for equality or champions of social justice. Democracy is horizontal. Our intrinsic cultural ethos is vertical and so is the mechanism of state. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reason, tolerance, autonomy, conception of the rights of man, the imperative of applying scientific methods in our social and political thinking, instead of priestly witchcraft are distinctive values that we have adopted and practice with reluctance. We blabber about Lichchvi rulers engaging in democratic debate purely to hide the truth that democracy is a colonial legacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Karl Marx said it for all time. \u201cColonial transformation brought about \u201cthe <\/b>only social revolution ever heard of in Asia.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

No wonder, we do not remember how we ended up with the right of Habeas Corpus! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The message of the people power movement is very simple. Everybody has a vote. But yet a large swathe of our populace remains beyond the pale held hostage by clientelist politics, constantly negotiating allegiance in exchange for state patronage.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is refreshing about the new movement is that it dramatically differs from mainstream political actors who during times of electioneering adopt short term target centric methods of conscience arousal of the common people \u2013 the hoi polloi by herd hysteria (invisible enemies) or mass mesmerizing (Cornucopia round the corner).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a pathbreaking attempt by the Janatha Vimukthi Permuna to broaden its political base beyond the ideological territory of Marxist Leninism that they claim to profess.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The germinal idea for this brief essay occurred to me on seeing a huge red flag with the hammer and sickle \u2013 the communist insignia which in the public psyche is more associated with Stalin\u2019s dictatorship than with a promised dictatorship of the proletariat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the stage was, vivacious Samanalee Fonseka of the \u2018Aluth Parapura\u2019 movement, one of the constituent groups of the movement. It is decidedly an alliance that includes the bourgeoisie or the town\u2019s people living in urban high-rises with trendy pantries with empty refrigerators<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Catechism of \u2018people\u2019s power\u2019 was explained by Professor Liyanage Amarakeerthi\u00a0 <\/span>of the Department of Sinhala,\u00a0 <\/span>Peradeniya university and accomplished academic in western\u00a0 <\/span>literary theory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He explained the reasons for the founding of the movement labeled \u2018power of people\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The raison d\u2019etre\u00a0<\/i>of the coalition of 28 activists groups was to educate the indifferent, mobilize the marginalized and to effectuate a mass consciousness to find way forward for a nation in drift. Restoration of a parliamentary democracy was its imperative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What does this proposition suggest?\u00a0<\/span>The JVP has unhesitatingly arrived at the realization that the task ahead is to bring about changes within the existing parliamentary democracy.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The people power movement intends to challenge the holders of power and motivate the entire society to redress deep-rooted social grievances. It is a protest against inequality and injustice. It seeks to restore critical civil society values and social norms.<\/p>\n

By directly appealing to the mass consciousness of a society it attempts to overpower tribal, parochial prejudices. It fosters the idea of a meaningful democracy \u2013 system of governance by and for the people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In his classic work \u201cCapitalism, Socialism, and Democracy\u201d Joseph Schumpeter describes democracy as \u201cthat institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people’s vote”.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

A more precise or succinct definition of democracy in the context of competitive party politics would be nearly impossible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now here comes the acid test for the Presidential Candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his party the JVP.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the renowned political theorist Seymour Martin Lipset points out, we cannot ignore the umbilical link between a market economy and democracy. It is a simple, absolute actuality conceded by Marxist encomiasts as well as Capitalist economists. Modern democracy is a product of the capitalist process. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here comes the rub. No Bourgeoisie, no democracy!\u00a0<\/span>The famous adage is by Barrington Moore in his seminal work \u2018Social Origins of Democracy and Dictatorship\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I should contextualize these theoretical excursions in to the current and contemporary political circus.\u00a0 <\/span>Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has told the US ambassador that General Shavendra de Silva is our Ulysses Grant- the Civil War hero of the Americans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The irony is inescapable. The founding fathers treated slaves as property. The US civil war made true democracy possible. In our land civil war made us a family fiefdom. I won thirty-year war in three and half years. He! He! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tracing the link between democracy and the urban middle-class, sociologist Moore demonstrates how the \u2018southern landed aristocracy opposed the northern bourgeoisie\u2019s democratizing efforts, sparking the civil war.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Post-civil war commercial farmers and urban town dwellers fostered capitalism and democracy in that order.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now this may sound a bit impudent. Comrade Anura and the JVP must rediscover Marx in the context of the 21st<\/sup> century.\u00a0 <\/span>Capitalism has its intrinsic contradictions. Socialism has had its successes and setbacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As South African socialists have painfully discovered \u2026 perennial questions about how and when humanity may advance to \u2018a unique equilibrium without social antagonisms\u2019 requires\u2019 an ongoing transparent interrogation. In that there should be no doctrinaire holy cows.\u00a0<\/span>The Hammer and sickle emblem were out of place. Stalin made it the equivalent of the Swastika.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think Samanalee Fonseka on the stage was sporting designer sunglasses. Atta girl go for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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