Democracy: How it inflicts retarding Forces
on economic growth
Kanthar Balanathan Australia
Democracy has become a retarding economic force in the
21st century mostly in the third, developing world and in some of
the developed countries. It’s purely because of the knowledge droopiness in the
minds of the politicians and the citizens. What is democracy?
Excerpt from the writer’s book: Ref: Sri Lanka Sovereignty Democracy, & Terrorism
by Kanthar Balanathan 2015
The US department of state’s definition of
“Principles of Democracy” is Majority
Rule, Minority Rights. US INFO Publications outlines the following as elements
of the Principles of Democracy:
1. Majority Rule, Minority Rights
2. Civil–Military Relations
3. Political Parties
4. Citizen Responsibilities
5. A Free Press
6. Federalism
7. Rule of Law
8. Human Rights
9. Executive Power
10. Legislative Power
11. An Independent Judiciary
12. Constitutionalism
13. Freedom of Speech
14. Government Accountability
15. Free and Fair elections
16. Freedom of Religion
17. The rights of Women and Girls
18. Governing by Coalitions and Compromise
19. The role of non-governmental
Organizations
20. Education and Democracy
Principles of Democracy
Dr. Jerry Dean Epps in his Democracy,
Teachers Manual outlines 18 key principles of democracy. These 18 principles
are outlined below. Ref: http://www.teachdemocracy.org/pdf/Teachers_Manual_Democracy_Book.pdf
Principle 1. Life is better in a liberty-valuing
constitutional democracy. “People like to
live in a democracy”
Principle 2. All people
are equal. “All people are equal”
Principle 3. Every
person is important. “Every person is important”
Principle 4. If you
don’t hurt others, you can live as you please.
“If you don’t hurt others, you can
do what you want”
Principle 5. Decisions
are made by vote. “We decide things by vote”
Principle 6. All adults
get one vote. “One vote for EACH person”
Principle 7. The
majority vote rules. “The majority rules.”
Principle 8. Even those
who do not like a law passed by a majority have to obey it. “EVERYONE has to obey laws passed by
majority vote.”
Principle 9. All people
get to vote for the lawmakers and managers in the elections. “Lawmakers and managers are ELECTED by ALL
of the people.”
Principle 10. Lawmakers
and managers are supposed to represent the people, not themselves. “Good lawmakers and managers care about the
people. They want to hear from the people.”
Principle 11. There are
some basic rights guaranteed to every person. No majority vote can ever take
away these rights from the people, even if the majority is very large and the
minority is very small. “Basic rights cannot be taken away.”
Principle 12. Religions
cannot say what is law—only the people can say what the law is.
Principle 13. The right
to choose the religion one wants to practice is guaranteed by the Supreme Law
of the land. Lawmakers cannot tell
people what religion to practice. “No one can tell you what religion to
practice.”
Principle 14. The
military is under the direction of elected lawmakers and managers. “The people are in charge, not the
military.”
Principle 15. No person
or group can make laws unless the people elect lawmakers. “Lawmakers serve at the pleasure of the people.”
Principle 16. Private
groups can have special practices if they are not against the Supreme Law of
the land or the new laws. “Private groups
can have special practices if they are not against the law.”
Principle 17. Managers
are elected to make decisions and run the operations of the country. They must
do it by the Supreme Law of the land and any new laws made after the Supreme
Law was made. Judges make sure managers go by the laws. “Judges make sure managers go by the laws.”
Principle 18. Various political parties express differing political
points of view. People support the party of their choice. “People play an active role in the party they like best.”
What happens in Sri Lanka? The
vote has become a commercial commodity. Politicians buy votes which refract the
principles of democracy. The root cause of this lapse is the absence of
knowledge and competency in both parties: i.e., politicians and voters.
Politicians’ assumption is that
Power is everything. How do they get their funds for disposal to voters? This
is where bribery and corruption infiltrate into the administration and governance.
The writer gives a reference for
perusal: Ref: Could the answer be: Power, Greed, Avidity, Wealth, Sex Drive,
Eroticism, and Lust OR Paranoid Mind?
Most of the Sri Lankan
politicians have no background competent education and they have no lateral
thinking but live in a narrow space like that of the frog in a well.
The writer’s understanding
is that democracy in a preponderance illiterate country drives politicians and
people to bribery and corruption. Why and how? Need money to win the
election, via bribery and corruption. A typical example is the “Rajapaksa
family”.
Secondly, an example is Mervin de
Silva who is a labourer, who was apparently cleaning toilets and cooking for
the Bandaranaike’s became a minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa cabinet. This was
an illustration of the foolish mind of the Sri Lankan majority and a shared
cause of economic downfall.
Quote Ref: What is the literacy rate of
Sri Lanka in 2022?
Literacy of population: According
to our estimates 15,085,783 persons or 92.64% of the adult
population (aged 15 years and above) in Sri Lanka can read and write.
Over the
age of 15 people can read and write does not mean the literacy rate is achieved
to practice democracy.
What is
more required? ---Perception,
Knowledge, Belief, Intelligence, Competency, Reality, and simulation.
The understanding
of 50.1% to 49.9% of “Belief”
contradicts reality, since “Democracy”
embraces several dimensional elements of human life in a free country.
To know a political party’s
popularity among the people if a government wants to hold Local Government
elections is a waste based on the country’s economic position.
Further Federalism can be allowed
if the country can afford to maintain its income and expenditure.
The economic position of SL
is very poor and cannot expect to waste money on a multitude of governing and
administering structures, like Federalism, Provincial Councils etc. Why is
that? Knowing the bribery and corruption level in the world state, Sri Lanka shall
not dig itself to drive down to be under fancy structures and go bankrupt. A well-known
reader wrote in Tribune in 2011 that ten provincial councils may drive the
country to bankruptcy.
Hence the theory and
implementation of the PCs shall be put on hold or deferred for the moment.
As of now the Provincial Council
election or major discussion on the PCs is a waste. This is based on the economic
drowsiness of Sri Lanka. What is required is to improve the economic status and
find ways and means to improve the FOREX inflow.
Even, the Local Govt.
elections should be put on hold if the Councils are functioning well to date
effectively and efficiently. Some politicians are eager to determine
their popularity level at the expense of the people's suffering.
The priority shall be to make the
economic state of the country stable.
The total population in SL is 23,044,123 as per July 2022
census.
Sinhalese is 84.9%, SL Tamils 11.2 %, Moors 9.2%, Indian
Tamils 4.2%, Others 0.5%
From the 84.9% of the Sinhalese,
do we know
·
how many mothers are giving poison to their
children to die? This because of the absence of money to feed them.
·
How many mothers have left the country (legally
& illegally) to work in various jobs, for example, domestic work,
prostitution, slavery etc?
·
How many children (girls) have engaged in
prostitution locally to earn an income? It’s collateral.
·
How many children and women are starving and
having maybe half a meal only per day?
·
How many people are looking for work?
·
Has the govt. got any knowledge of people and
young ones’ weight.
·
Transport network has failed the people.
From the perspective of
justice: Do we think that 84.9% of the Sinhala community should be neglected
and ignored while giving priority to others for Provincial Councils and Local
Government governance? We should not bring the “Rule of Law” into this as the Rule
of Law is designed and referred to Justice only.
Tamils, if they have brains and
knowledge should be magnanimous to defer the discussion and maybe even the
local govt. elections, based on the non-availability of funds to pay salaries
and inflation. Why not, even the GOSL should be cleaver to plan on this. They
shall consult the advisory council.
Visit the site to see the Demography profile: https://www.indexmundi.com/sri_lanka/demographics_profile.html
The railway is under difficulty,
Bus transport – is under difficulty, and Fuel and imports are
stopped/restricted due to FOREX. However, GOSL cannot decide to maintain the
11.2 % of Tamils happy and contended through their pinchpenny selfishness. The
economy should improve for everyone to be happy to discuss about elections,
PCs, and local government elections.
Let the CB improve on the
inflation rate(reduce), reduce the interest rate, and FOREX. First, everyone
shall understand what inflation means. What is “Supply and Demand”?
How the imports and exports are
managed. Improve on exports.
People shall train
themselves on: Creativity, Innovation, motivation, flexibility, reliability,
expertise, Asset Performance & Operations, Auditing Techniques,
Investigation, Communication, Teamwork, Budgetary Control, Cost-Benefit
Analysis, Methodical in their work, Initiative, Leadership, Decisive,
Analytical skills, Eagerness to learn, self-discipline, and knowledge in the strategic
initiative framework.
This is not the time to
have elections, discuss PCs, Federalism, etc when SL has no money to pay
salaries.
People shall not turn out to
be megalomaniacs. Specially Tamils and the Rajapaksas.
God save Sri
Lanka
