Defending democracy

Democracy is a term in vogue these days. All say they want democracy or they want to save democracy.

This love for democracy is good. In fact, it has been ever present among the people. The question arises when different people mean different things by democracy. Then what some do to save democracy may, in fact, work against democracy or destroy democracy. Democracy is such a nice word close to the people’s heart that even its destroyers would hide behind a facade of democracy.

History shows us many examples - Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Augusto Pinochet, General Suharto etc. All of them took power in the name of democracy, to save the people from the horrors of Communism. They all were bloody fascists.

Today the UNP and the JVP have taken upon themselves the task of saving democracy. From whom? From dictatorship of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, they say. A strange dictator he should be for the whole of Year 2009 was spent on elections and he won the Presidential election with 58 percent of the vote.

What are the democratic credentials of the UNP and the JVP? In the not too distant past, in the reign of terror during the past years the 1980s they competed with each other in abducting, torturing and summarily executing hundreds of youth. The vigilantes of the UNP Government under various names such as Black Cats, Green Tigers etc. and the “deshapremee” death squads of Keerthi Wijebahu of the JVP had a field day then. Neither of these two parties has accepted their guilt so far. Self-criticism was something they never indulged in.

Now these two parties are spearheading a campaign on behalf of former Army Commander and Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka. The latter was convincingly defeated at a poll which is considered the most free and fair in recent history and acknowledged as clean by local and foreign monitors as well as the Elections Commissioner.

Karu Jayasuriya, Deputy Leader of the UNP is quite active these days, summoning press conferences, giving media interviews and meeting the Maha Nayakas and the diplomatic corp in an attempt to discredit the Government and the country. He alleges that the Government is carrying out a witch hunt of Opposition loyalists and attacking and torturing them whereas there is absolute calm and peace throughout the land.

Having failed to enlist the masses in a campaign denouncing the election verdict as foul they are now attempting to misinterpret the arrest of General Fonseka by the Army as an act of personal vendetta as well as a blow on democracy.

For democracy to thrive law and order have to be preserved. General Fonseka was arrested under the Military Act. Hence, the due process of law should be allowed to function. To sabotage it would mean undermining democracy and enshrining mob rule. Further, they have taken the demonstrations to the premises of the Supreme Court violating the sanctity of the Court.

Next, they are planning Satyagrahas opposite the Dalada Maligawa, the most sacred place of Buddhist worship. It is a shame for them to take a campaign of hatred and anger opposite the most sacred shrine of the Buddha, the preacher of Maha Karuna or Great Compassion.

It is not difficult to get a few hundred party cadres to assemble and demonstrate against the State. The party cadres, however, are not the people. Nor are party leaders the real leaders of the people.

The support they had among the people was shown at the elections. If the JVP believes they could aim at another short cut to power it is sadly mistaken. It has always misread the pulse of the people. In 1971 they rose against a popular government and sacrificed the lives of many idealist patriotic youth who sincerely believed in what they were told by their leaders.

Then again in 1989 they took up arms again and got decimated. By these acts they only strengthened the conservative elite. Now, they are at it again - seeking a short cut to power with the help of a former Army Commander and a few disgruntled ex-soldiers.

The JVP, in spite of its professed adherence to Marxism-Leninism has apparently forgotten or is unaware of the Leninist dictum that behind every slogan lurks the interests of a particular class in society.

It is the class interests of the pro-imperialist conservative bourgeoisie and their NGO fellow-travelers that lie behind the slogan of defending democracy and restoring good governance. The ordinary masses though not aware of doctrinaire Marxism have the common sense or class instinct to understand each and every slogan in its correct perspective.