Stanley Gunaratne

From 1948-72, the island of Ceylon (the English phonetic transliteration of our native name of Sinhale/Sinhaledeepa) was a FULLY SOVEREIGN realm/kingdom.

A realm was a sovereign state which had Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. Each realm functioned (and still function today) as an independent co-equal kingdom from the other realms. Thus we had:

– full sovereignty

– a Queen of Ceylon, above politics

– a democratically elected government of the People (extremely lean and efficient) with a Parliament of honest gentlemen

– a ceremonial Governor General, above politics and non partisan, nominated by the democratically elected Prime Minister, as the de facto head of state

– a lean Senate composed of eminent and honourable members of society acting as a revising chamber/checks and balances

– a fully independent judiciary with the Privy Council (used by Singapore until the 1990s) acting strictly according to the Ceylon Constitution and laws enacted by Ceylon’s Parliament

– a fully independent and lean Civil Service, based on a meritocracy and an Independent Commission for public appointments and promotions, totally apolitical, resulting in what was perhaps the best Civil Service in all of Asia.

– a country whose system Singapore later emulated (and perfected and overtook us)

– the rule of law applying to all citizens of Ceylon with ONE law prevailing over all

In addition, Ceylon had a beneficial Anglo Ceylon Defence Agreement with Great Britain providing a guarantee of defence from foreign attack and training/equipment for our armed forces. This protected us from the India. To prove our independent foreign policy and sovereignty, our leaders subsequently also entered the Rubber Rice Pact with China.

We must regain the spirit, integrity, efficiency and charm that we had in that early period. History must not be politicised, nor should revisionist history be propagated by politicians and India.

What happened at various points in history, aside from economic stupidity, from 1972 in particular was disastrous. We lost our sovereignty to politicians. We lost the actual name of the country. We lost a clean system and an apolitical Civil Service. We lost our defence guarantees in 1957. No government armed the country, or introduced national service to compensate. The 1972 and 1978 constitutions were not constitutions for the people, by the people and of the people, but instead for the politicians, by the politicians and of the politicians! They were both done ostensibly to give full weight to the nation’s culture, but a few symbolic clauses that could have been added were instead used as a ruse to dupe the people and engage in a wholesale corruption of the system at large. Marxism that would make the Soviets balk, was even argued by some to be part of our national culture!

The major flaws of both systems that exist to this day are listed below:

1. Making a particular ideology a constitutional principle, and thereby depriving the people of the right to determine economic policies from time to time at periodic elections (first socialism, and later democratic socialism!)

2. Including a truncated list of fundamental rights and almost nullifying their effect by making them subject to excessive restrictions and numerous principles of so-called state policy

3. Departing from the practice of all existing republics of directly or indirectly electing the Head of State, and providing instead for nomination by a political migratory figure

4. Introducing control by the Cabinet of Ministers over the subordinate judiciary,

5. Depriving the judiciary of the power to determine the constitutional propriety of laws, and

6. Abandoning the principle of the neutrality of the public service.

7. Renamed the country after the name of a political party and solidified an artificial flag instead of the unifying national Lion flag used since ancient times re-raised in 1948.

8. Changed the systems of this country WITHOUT a national referendum. The party that won power to enact the 1972 constitution did not even win over 50% of the national vote at the General Election of 1970.

9. In 1987, India – which had already created, trained and financed a terrorist group in the early 1970s to destroy our country and all her people, now inserted artificial and illegal clauses to effectively give us an even more corrupt third constitution that bares no relevance to our culture, society, common sense and only encourages artificial, highly parochial and deeply damaging governance, promoting only corruption and making us a virtual vassal state of India. Our sovereignty and independence has been further stripped away by the ILLEGAL Indo Lanka Accord (which is to this day illegal under international law and makes the MCC agreement look like a tea party with cake).

10. Uses inappropriate, confusing and contradictory Indian jargon (like “link language” and “except in xyz Province” etc) making a pig’s breakfast of the official language laws, administration and educational systems of this country and promotes multiple ethnic laws and jurisdictions

11. Encourages no rule of law, no accountability and no cohesion as a nation

12. Made us a nation of slaves ruled by local slavemasters – politicians (meant to be servants of the people) presiding over us with total ineptitude and incompetence.

The country has been made such a mess by the corrupt, the Indians and Indian bootlickers, that a nation that should be more akin to Singapore, South Korea, and Japan – and which started out far ahead of these economies – is instead languishing in this sorry, sad and frankly pathetic state today.

Look at a picture of 1950s Ceylon’s streets, transport, people, business and look at a picture of us today. The once clean and magnificent countryside and towns have been flooded with Indian junk and lorry buses. Trincomalee, which Nelson referred to as “the finest party in all the world” sits idle and barren. Our people are sent as menial labour to other countries. Corruption is everywhere. The Rupee has been printed to such an extent to finance auctions of non existent resources that it is beyond worthless. Compare us to the East Asian nations.

If we get the BASICS of this country right – the RULE OF LAW, ZERO TOLERANCE for corruption, and a MERITOCRACY, then the whole nation may be developed to have the same world class infrastructure, opportunities and stature of the upcoming Port City in Colombo (which aspires to be a first world hub benchmarked against the world). In short, we can become much more like Singapore and South Korea virtually overnight.

We need a new constitution and total system reset. The starting point should be the 1948 Constitution. From there we can decide upon whether we wish to have an executive Prime Minister, President, Chancellor, or even a High Priestess. But this current mess of a constitution has got to go! The symbols of Buddhist philosophy, and codifying the official languages are simple things that can be added (this would have been only two, or three amendments to the original Soulsbury Constitution of 1948). A great example would be to virtually copy and paste (adjusting for our situation) Articles 153 and 154 of the Singapore Constitution. If the PEOPLE wish to be a Republic, that is again one simple amendment. Such changes should be conducted via a National Referendum so the People decide upon how they wish to be governed as a nation. We must be a nation of laws, not of politicians.

We must rediscover that golden era of policies, leadership integrity and honesty (with gentleman like Dudley) and robust and clean system that will be the ultimate fortress for a sovereign, free and successful Ceylon/Sinhaledeepa. There must be a TOTAL cleanup of the Augean stables.

Let us expel Indian nonsense, Indian bootlicking, corruption, inefficiency, endless mediocrity, and the squandering of opportunity from our country once and for all.

If this GETS DONE, then this nation will blossom and boom overnight. It is my firm belief that the kind, intelligent and noble people of this island nation have extraordinary potential. We have survived through difficult times, survived the abhorrent creation of our neighbour, we have endured hardship and even after all that, there is nothing like the warmth, smiles and hospitality of our people.

May we once again become a resplendent island nation in which no one is left out, where there is honour to all and favour to none. And where we the People live in one nation, with one law, as one people, with one indomitable destiny, where we win several World Cups, where opportunity is high and where potential is reached and where brand Ceylon stands proudly up with head held high in the world.

Long live our beautiful island nation. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee oh resplendent Ceylonese!