MAYDAY! REPUBLIC BECOMES A REGIME?

Wijith DeChickera – like a few citizens in a land sans a constitution – is torn between concern over a coronavirus and the rule of (and by) law

I never thought so many critics of three-cornered democracy would miss the agency of a legislature. But in a crisis of the proportions that the COVID-19 pandemic created, you tend to miss the small things: a drink with a friend, that daily run, parliamentary democracy.

Since the courts have not been in session either, the executive – backed admirably by a militarised bureaucracy, to say nothing of stalwarts in our sterling public health services – has put up a one-man show.

TO THE ‘DEVIL’ ITS DUES Not even the sternest critics of the incumbent administration could withhold their measured praise at yeoman service perceived to be rendered by the president and cabinet.

But a cloud of concern hovered over the handling of the emergency short of declaring one – because the rich mix of majoritarian democracy we presently enjoy (I use the term with caution) means that a man and his movement are the state. And the pre-election playbook adopted by government took a nasty turn with ‘arresting developments.’

WHERE ‘ANGELS’ FEAR TO TREAD If we invested half as much time analysing the government’s strategy as we did on Maithri and Ranil bashing, perhaps we’d have a better bigger picture of the intersection between hype and reality. Not to ruffle feathers or stick one in some Machiavelli’s hat.

But no one discerning enough to read the lines and then between them could deny that there was a systematic dismantling of republican systems to give way to dominance by the regime. And whether it is a man or a band of brothers is a moot point.

‘GODS’ AND MORTALS I There’s much to be said – and some of it has received due credit, as well as sycophantic adulation by drumbeaters – for a president to be perceived as dynamic, efficient and clean of dirty politics.

To be fair by his detractors, the jury is still out – in more senses than one – whether there is as clear and sharp a dividing line between president and cabinet, or president and prime minister, as defenders of the hyper-presidential faith make out. Gods often have feet of clay, and it is truly a good thing for leaders to be mere men.

Just dispensations and draconian laws such as our Prevention of Terrorism Act cannot readily cohabit. Where is the justice in minorities being made scapegoats in the name of state security?


However heinous their alleged crimes, suspects must be treated to the largest extent the law affords – habeas corpus etc. – if the regime is not to be accused of loading the dice for the polls game. Therefore, more is the pity that some governors’ election playbook runs to scratching the deadly itch, which only the collective scratching of chauvinism can cure.

‘GODS’ AND MORTALS II Today’s heroes can readily fall in the eyes of the public to become tomorrow’s villains at worst or antiheroes at best. A few genuine politicians (an oxymoron, perhaps?) such as a former speaker show signs of statesmanship in their appeal to an integrated national (rather than an inflamed nationalistic) approach to the crisis at hand.

Others like the election commissioner have been like reeds blown in the wind: laying down the law one day; ostensibly turning a blind eye or taking the easy way out another.

Is the question being asked whether after spending an estimated Rs. 6 billion on an election that only the would-be winners and an elite coterie of constitutional aficionados want, sick – literally and spiritually – MPs would pack the house again to do less than government is doing now?

Or is approving public spending while padding their own pockets the larger as well as hidden agenda? Also, in the debate over whether to rescind the gazette dissolving parliament, where did your sympathy lie? Are we a nation of constitution ignorers?

‘SPIRITS’ OF THE TIMES Democracy – yes, the worst form of government but for all those other horrors – dies and fades away under such emotions. I too am torn. You may not like what it portends (especially since the conventional wisdom that the people know best is being challenged by ultranationalism and autocratic regimes in the wake of COVID-19).

However, if you recall the aborted coup of 2018, you’d do well to use the constitution as more than a bookend.

Be that as it may, the world as we know it is on the cusp of a sea change into something not quite rich but still as strange. As a champion of civil liberties has essayed, “the pandemic is a portal” for the people of an entire planet.

The worst among our governors are hoping that at least the media, civil society and the courts haven’t noticed; and will allow the strongest and most strategic to survive, in a militarised bureaucratic milieu, which demands only the fittest thrive.

Lest we forget: the republic wasn’t built in a day but could be lost in one to a regime.