Thursday, April 28, 2016

The Constitution is the Governing Contract between the State and the People


The main grievances of the Sri Lankan people in 2016 are:

1                   Abuse of power by Politicians

2                   The disgust of the Political Culture

3                   Failure to protect the people from the abuse of power

4                   The failure of the Administrative Machinery to reach the people

5                   The Destruction of the Environment

In order to simplify this process and make it clear to those who we MUST reach, but hitherto left out, I am attempting to reach those who have the least input into both Constitution Making, and having a voice in the decision making process that is currently taking place, that will affect their lives, but whose decisions affecting them directly are NOT made by them.

In my opinion, the immediate FULL STOP to the destruction of the Environment and concrete steps to reverse this process, SHOULD be the paramount goal of the New Constitution, as that is the ONLY certainty for the survival of Sri Lanka as we know it now.

Therefore the one paragraph that defines our Constitution to ensure the protection of the Environment and the reversal of destruction is the Constitutional guarantee, for the right of each citizen to drink clean water, breathe pure air, and eat food safe from that which can cause illness.

While the normal constitutional safeguards of Independence of the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature along with Right to Information, and the requisite checks and balances to ensure the above are practiced, the principle rights as defined above for water, air and food will give it priority in all decision making/legislating from all three Arms!

Further the Rule of Law and its enforcement along with the reliance of the Fourth Estate to be truly independent, clears the decks for a perfect balance, without the need for legislating for ANY MINORITY, as ALL RIGHTS ARE the same, with NO ONE treated as a special case, desirous of specific mention!
My personal opinion on how one solves the problems of 1through to 4 above, is simply by the irrelevance of Political Groupings, which when matched with ONLY one term political office at ANY stage, will only produce, true patriots who are committed to and willing to give 5 years of their lives for public service in elected office, coming from all walks of life, and hopefully a track record in some field, even a street cleaner who will be more able to opine on how to manage a successful recycling operation, than any politician we currently have in Parliament today.

Those elected to Parliament will be citizens who have a valid brand in their respective constituencies and would NOT be elected from a Party but purely on their own merits as people, who are able to garner the largest vote base in that election, and who will NOT be able to seek re-election in future.

Then there will be NO ABUSE of power, which means that there will be NO political culture to be disgusted about, and with no abuse of power, as the people will not be victims of abuse,

One term politicians will automatically ensure, that the Administrative Arms of government will operate on a professional platform, of performance, productivity, and accountability as there will be NO political appointees to positions within the public service.

It is ONLY a complete overhaul of the system, that older generations cannot comprehend, and the younger generation wants, but are unable to succinctly publicize with the force of numbers, at present, is the only way forward.

In order to implement this, as opposed to an old fashioned and out of date constitution, that people drafting would be dead within 5 years, and cannot actually relate to, that we have a duty to use social media, to arouse the youth and engage them in their duty, to be part of the political process, that WILL affect their future, and build a juggernaut of public pressure, that the present Government HAS TO listen to, include in the constitution making process, and include their important and game changing ideas onto this Constitution, that must stand the strength of time of a minimum of 50 years.

It is therefore those born after January 1st 1990 are the ones who will be turning 75 in 50 years, who must form part of this movement, a hitherto completely ignored segment.


The challenge will be to engage a group that has NOT been empowered in anything to date, due to the fault of an archaic education system, and begin a process of empowerment prior to any understanding of needed processes!  

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