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Democracy at risk   

12 Jan 2021

Sri Lanka Students for Liberty (SLF), a nonpartisan student group without party affiliation, bias, or designation, whose aim is to create a dialogue and to provide a platform for individuals to discuss and practice the ideals of liberty, will be hosting an online event titled “Democracy at Risk”. The event will discuss the current situation in the country in terms of the human rights violations like the forced cremations, and the recent removal of the Memoriam in Jaffna as an infringement of human rights. A spokesperson for the SLF told us that the main theme was initially supposed to be about how Covid brought upon the violation of human rights, but there's a lot more content to talk about now, so the topics are kept open. “We want to break down if these happenings are justifiable or not, and explain to the youths how they can take action against their rights being infringed.”  Speaking at the event will Hashtag Generation Head of Programmes and Attorney-at-Law Nethmini Medawela and LIRNEasia Founding Chair Prof. Rohan Samarajiva.  Medawela will be looking at democracy from a youth perspective; she will talk about how youths can relate to democracy and what they can do. She aims to give them an idea of what democracy means and what they can do at the individual level. “We want to get people thinking about what issues are in the system,” she stated, speaking to The Morning Brunch.  “The idea of democracy in the eastern and western ideological sense is very different. We see that thinking gets infiltrated to the young idea of democracy because people have the idea where if you have elections, or see a surface level-functioning democracy, that is the whole meaning of democracy.” She explained that it's a lot more complicated than that when you take it from an ideological perspective as well as a practical perspective. “Democracy is much more than that. The current trends about extremism, hate speech, or ultra-nationalism is going to affect democracy as a whole.” Furthermore, she stated: “Just because we have elections, that doesn't mean the country is democratic because there are other elements that support our democracy like media freedom and the freedom of the citizens.” She added that if one wants to realise the rights we already have, questioning if the current mechanisms in place like the Government laws are actually sufficient for people to realise their rights is essential. She concluded that if the youths don't understand, fail to see the bigger picture, and can’t connect the dots to realise that this is not a democracy, then it will fall through the cracks, and then, it will be too late.  Prof. Samarajiva will be enlightening the youths on the wider aspects of democracy and what it means. “It will be an intensive discussion on the constitution and the 20th Amendment.” At the event, he seeks to explain the basic concepts behind how a democracy functions. He went on to say that many people consider the Constitution to be exclusively about politics, and added that that is not the case: “It is also about economic matters. Whether there is economic growth, whether people who have committed their resources and dreams to various start-ups will be able to carry on with them.” He further expressed that this is usually decided by the nature of the democracy, which is the reason why we should be paying attention to constitutional matters, not economical and political.  Prof. Samarajiva noted that unfortunately, there is a tendency among young people to think that constitutional matters should be left to specialists. “In retrospect, in a democratic society, these are the basic rules of the games; how elections are conducted, how ministers are selected, basic rights, how to be treated fairly or get employment, are all decided through what's in the Constitution.” He stated that constitutions are too important to be left to lawyers and that they should be a common topic of discussion amongst society.  Join this webinar to know more about what your rights are and how it has been challenging during this global pandemic, with a central focus on improving youth participation in politics.     The webinar will be via Zoom on 12 January at 7.00 p.m.  You can find the registration link on their FB page: @SriLankaSFL


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