Defining moment of democracy

The ongoing Eastern Provincial Council election campaign could very well be one of the most crucial such exercises in this country in recent times. In fact, it could be construed as constituting a defining moment in local democratic practice. This is mainly on account of the fact that the campaign helps focus on issues which have a close and central bearing on what democracy should mean to those who are claiming to practise it in this country.

Yesterday, the country was given an insight into some of the sensitive issues which are playing out in the Eastern political arena by Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. He said, among other things, that the UPFA is committed to an issue-based or policy-focused political campaign in the East. This is in contrast to some of those political forces in the East which are apparently exploiting ethnic and religious differences for the purpose of capturing votes. It goes without saying that the parasitic and opportunistic use of ethnic and other sensitive issues could only lead to inter-group animosities and, consequently, an aggravation of divisions within the Lankan polity.

Although somewhat late in the day, one could be glad that the Lankan polity is coming to grips with these very vital issues which have a decisive bearing on the functioning of local democracy. Today, the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration is comparatively forthright in its opposition to communalism and religious bigotry, but this was not always the case.

From the time of independence, to a greater or lesser degree, perceived racial animosities were exploited by opportunistic politicians from all regions of the country, but there was no open and unambiguous denunciation of racism and religious extremism from any responsible quarter, except for some of the Left political parties. They were considered issues which were 'too hot to handle', maybe, and as a result the evils of communalism and religious bigotry flourished.

Many of those holding high office in this country gave the impression of ignoring these troubling questions probably out of an anxiety that they would be falling foul of their support bases, which they thought were essentially racist and religiously bigoted, although the opposite is true of very many people.

But it was not clearly perceived in the social mainstream that communalism and religious fanaticism, for instance, damaged the democratic ethos of this country incalculably. Democracy and secularism are considered inseparable because one cannot have democratic governance along with racism and other socially harmful and disintegrative tendencies.

This is because in a truly democratic dispensation, citizens are considered equal in every conceivable respect. If the local polity is frank about its lapses, it would admit that it did not probe to the extent desirable, over the decades, the total meaning of democracy and what it implies for the larger society. It is doing so now, and it is better late than never, as the saying goes.

In a political culture which is truly democratic, the dignity of every citizen, irrespective of man-made differences, will be recognized and upheld and the systems would be in place to further these noble aims. As we have time and again said, evils such as racism should be completely outlawed in this country and it is gratifying to note that a provincial poll is bringing these issues to the fore. Democracy, in its true essence, is equality and to the extent to which the Eastern poll highlights this, to that extent could we say that the election is a defining moment of democracy.

It could not be emphasized enough that a government stands or falls by the extent to which it brings into being and practices policies that further the national good. Ethnicity and other such anomalies are shunned in such dispensations because these predilections stand opposed to the general good. The Eastern poll could prove exemplary by shunning the cancer of communalism and other such distortions of the mind that keep people divided.