Moving Beyond Representation: Participatory Democracy and Communal & PROVINCIAL COUNCILS in Sri Lanka

Moving Beyond Representation: Participatory Democracy and Communal & PROVINCIAL COUNCILS in Sri Lanka

I believe that it is time that we must explore the possible opportunities and new approach to Participatory democracy in Sri Lanka. Its main concern is the division of competences - Who does what? - And the control of resources. No amount of ceremony can disguise these realities. Therefore we needs to Move beyond Representation: Participatory Democracy and Communal Councils will be a one model. The community needs to learn to organize at the grassroots level. At both Presidential and the national levels something more is therefore needed: namely, democracy must become more inter-active with citizen participation in the current debates, seeking other ways of influencing our elected parliaments and governments. Simply going out to vote every few years is not sufficient. In this respect the role of the civil society is vital. Only organised citizens' groups can afford to acquire the expertise needed if they are to influence national governments or the GOSL in each specialised field. Many National radical libertarian groups are highly skilled at this job, particularly those representing business interests. As a step towards greater and more effective participation the His Excellency has promised greater openness. Ministers, must agreed to meet in public session when legislating within the cooperation procedure; SL still conducts most of its business behind closed doors. The Swiss approach to ensuring participation is to allow every citizen to vote in a referendum on issues that specifically affect them. This can work well where the issue is specific and easily understood, though it did lead to Switzerland becoming the very last country in EU  to give women the right to vote.  A different example demonstrates how this method might have unexpected consequences.  it is not sufficient that the Parliament should promise to produce MP’s who speaks  in more popular language, which in any case can only be achieved by using native speakers. The question involves far more than language. To be truly democratic, and to help people identify with the Sri Lanka project, not only interest groups but also the citizens themselves should be encouraged to participate in genuine debates before final decisions are taken, although this is primarily a task for civil society organisations and political parties rather than officialdom. If a Deliberative Polling exercise could be held simultaneously in every SL Provinces the impact on public opinion could be considerable. Techniques of this kind not only help to shape public attitudes. The arguments put forward within the group can also help SL government institutions towards a better understanding of the public's concerns. Such an exercise would be a useful tool to supplement both the proposed Parliamentary Forums and important stage in the growth of participatory democracy in SL.  Yet, valuable as such projects may be, so long as the SL is structured in its present form it seems unlikely that citizens will ever become as thoroughly engaged in the debates at the SL level as they are in the political issues in their own countries. With national Tamil speaking political leaders still treating the SL as an alliance rather than as a one unite Sri Lanka, it is not surprising that citizens do not feel fully engaged with the SL Political process. It is the SL's intergovernmental character which hinders the development of a fully active citizenship.  Not until we have an elected federal government financed by some form of direct taxation will citizens feel that they have an absolute need to participate at the SL as well as national levels and to exert a genuine influence over the policies which affect them in their daily lives.  Our next message will be a call to the community. The elections were there and time for an amendment to the constitution. We need to analyze democracy, taking it apart, reflect on the differences between an active, participatory democracy and a representative one. We need to be arguing and urging people to vote, still new for people in the villages, but then saying voting wasn't enough. It was a call to the community to take action, not just to wear red shirts and spit socialist propaganda, but to take an active role in building the community, building a new society based on the collective, based on justice. This is essentially what communal councils do, what democracy should be.