Making democracy meaningful to the people

As we pen this commentary, we are profoundly saddened by the continuing political violence in neighbouring Afghanistan, which claimed some 78 lives on Wednesday. The conflict in Afghanistan is a highly complex one and is not amenable to quick, simplistic analyses but the continuing bloodshed in that unrelentingly violence-hit country underscores the thought-provoking point that terror is very much alive and kicking in the South Asian region, despite some remarkable strides in this part of the world in the direction of democratic development.

The most distressing feature about the political violence in our region is the number of innocent persons who are dying daily in it. In countries such as Afghanistan, these numbers could reach mind-numbing proportions. We in Sri Lanka were put through the same trauma when the LTTE was up and about and this period of gruesome blood-letting spanned 30 years. Accordingly, the worst is over for us, in terms of the bloodiest political violence, and the challenge before this country is to usher in development in the truest sense of the word. In fact, President Mahinda Rajapaksa placed his finger on one of the most specific tasks facing post-conflict societies, such as ours, by stating in his address to ‘Democracy Forum 4’ in Bali, Indonesia, that to be fully meaningful, democracy must touch the lives of the people in the most positive fashion.

Establishing democracy, in the most enlightened sense of the term, is the principal challenge facing Afghanistan, but this would require extraordinary as well as unrelenting efforts on the part of the Afghan polity as well as all other relevant stakeholders, including those outside powers who have been over the decades craving for a stable foothold in that country, out of strategic considerations. In fact, such outside interference is a crucial factor in Afghanistan’s continuing agony. We call on the international community to get its act together on Afghanistan and in the name of humanity to ensure that some progress is made in the direction in bringing normalcy to this hapless state, which has for decades now, only known violence and bloodshed of the worst kind.

The Sri Lankan experience proves that no headway in the direction of development and personal and collective empowerment could be made unless and until the perpetrators of terror are neutralized. Thus, it was not possible to put Sri Lanka on a fast track to development until the LTTE was got out of the way. Accordingly, the democratic and progressive forces within Afghanistan would need to be brought together, painstaking though this task may be, in an effort to alienate those forces which are opposed to a process of political normalization based on a strengthening of democratic institutions.

This is by no means a simple challenge, but there is no alternative to the democratic process as a means to a degree of normalcy. However, this does not mean that a mere formal installation of democratic institutions, such as, elections and multi-party competitive elections, would prove a panacea for Afghanistan’s ills as well as those of other such violence-hit countries in this region.

As pointed out by President Rajapaksa, the democratic process, to be meaningful, should touch the lives of the people in the most positive way, if the system is to live up to its truest promise. In the absence of this we would be having only a superficial formal structure which would be of no use to the people, in terms of personal and collective empowerment.

To put it in simple terms, the formal institutions of democracy should enable the people to realize their just aspirations and help them in achieving a degree of material fulfillment. In the absence of such capacities, these institutions would prove ineffective.

The challenge confronting Sri Lanka, in these post-conflict times, is to achieve these aims through the democratic process. We do not see how we could claim that we have won in this endeavour, unless and until every citizen of this country is empowered on an equal basis. It will be some time before Afghanistan could even think in these terms, because, right now, it is faced with a huge law and order problem. But it should be the obligation of the world, including, of course, that of the UN, to ensure that the foundation is laid, at least gradually, for the implanting of political institutions that could ensure a degree of equitable growth.