Democracy is best defined as a government of the people, by the people for the people. A state should basically reflect this in a viable democracy but it does not. The state today is corrupt, predatory, full of nepotism, anti-people, and fully controlled by an international mafia run by the bankers, corporates and their slave politicians. All unaccountable, geared to the enslavement of the people and society and future generations by debt and devaluation of currency by printing.

The safeguarding of the rights of the people enshrined in the constitution is either blatantly ignored or manipulated to serve the interests of the system at the expense of the masses. The rich have grown richer, the poor have grown poorer, in this system and pauperizing of the majority has ensured a process of enslavement of the people. This was a part and parcel of colonialism, which has been surreptitiously reintroduced as liberal democracy with an open market.

The middle classes that are the guardians of the institutions of a democracy have been bribed by the illusion of wealth with rising house prices and entrapping them in a web of greed with a well oiled system of bribes and commissions and a banking system that allows ill-gotten wealth to be legalized and expropriated abroad. The middle classes are living in a dream world, not realizing that the state has in fact pauperized some of them by borrowing in their name and in the name of their future generations. The balance is difficult to ascertain as it depends entirely on how much wealth has been acquired illegally.

Constitutional authorities

The constitution is the document that enshrines the rights of the people, safeguarded by a legislature elected by free and fair elections. To change the constitution you need a referendum or in most cases, a two-third legislative majority. The appointed nominees must safeguard the rights of the people. Unfortunately we find, especially in south Asia, this legislature is filled up by thugs and criminal elements. It is said that in the Indian Parliament 25% are criminals or are accused of criminality. In the USA, the congressional approving rate is only 4%. In Sri Lanka, in a debate of the audits of state institutions, a Member alleged that he was ashamed to be in an institution that was a den of thieves.  

Can we entrust a legislature of this calibre, not trusted by the people, to safeguard the rights of the people as enshrined in the constitution? An ordinary citizen when recently questioned about his opinion of the government very rightly pointed out that the politicians from the time of independence did nothing but sell the rights of the people. He epitomizes the majority.

The constitution is at the whims and fancies of a class of illiterates who have infiltrated the legislature. The rights of the people have been sold by the legislature to the executive, ably sponsored by the corporates. The constitution which is the bedrock of the rights of the people is completely denied to the people until such time there is a revolution. It is interesting that arrogant JR Jayewardene, creator of the 1978 constitution of Sri Lanka, architect of all evil in Sri Lanka, claimed that the only thing he could not do was to make a man a woman. He had the wisdom however to move out when the youth revolted against his government, thus absolving himself from the wrath of the people.

At the top of this hypocrisy lies the executive that manipulates the legislature to enhance his rights at the expense of the people, using bribery and corruption. In certain countries the opposition members of parliament have been induced to join the government; the incentive is a ministerial position void of accountability. The nation’s assets and that of the people are blatantly misused. People have got so accustomed to this blatant violation of their rights that they tolerate it and suffer in silence.

Having enslaved the legislature they continue to make political appointments to positions in public service thus encouraging sycophancy. The rules in public services have now become rules of politicians or the rule of bribery and corruption. The ordinary citizen has lost the right of a public service that has forgotten that they were the servants of the people not the servants of politicians. Inefficiency and corruption now rules the public service that has been converted into self-service for politicians. For the public it has become no-service and a hindrance to a peaceful life that the constitution falsely guarantees. Recently the Supreme Court of India advised public servants not to carry out verbal instructions given by politicians.

It makes a mockery of the state when the establishment of the Bribery Commission in Sri Lanka is accused of bribery, as written in the newspapers.

In Egypt, Mubarak for 30 years crushed the rights of the people, hijacked the legislature, mismanaged the economy to the benefit of a few, pawned future generations whilst stocking ill-gotten wealth in a banking system that surreptitiously supported his regime. The powers behind the throne that used the executive continue to manipulate the country, making it ungovernable. Today the country is in a shambles, pauperized at the behest of the bankers of Mubarak, Saudi Arabia and the West that is holding the country to ransom and the powerful Army it bribed and supported. If this is what democracy achieves, then democracy has no meaning.

Judiciary

Judiciary is the other arm of a viable democracy; appointments are in the hands of the executive. Thus the manipulation of the constitution and the laws is easily achieved. Many judgments are dictated by political considerations at the expense of civil society. In the good old days, the religious leaders insisted on the dasa raja dharmaya or ten commandments of good governance; today the judiciary that is supposed to safeguard those rights of the people is led by political appointees who do the bidding of politicians. In the USA, George Bush was declared President as against Al Gore by a panel of Supreme Court judges dominated by his father’s appointees, under questionable circumstances.

Rule of Law or the Rule of Lawyers

The rule of law has now become the rule of the lawyers. In the subcontinent, a civil case could take a lifetime for a decision, making litigation fearful. The dictum that justice delayed is justice denied is not something the judiciary believes in. This process is ably supported by lawyers who give false hope, postpone cases at whim to extract as much money as possible from the litigant. A rampant problem in Sri Lanka is the use of illegal documents to sell property without the knowledge of the real owners. Ironically, the rule of law, one of the main pillars of a democracy, is used to subjugate and harass the ordinary citizen and deny him the rights enshrined in the constitution. No wonder ordinary citizens now call them “nithiggna Horu” or rogue lawyers. These lawyers are over-represented in the legislature from the USA down to south Asia.

Civil society or uncivil society

The civil society and social institutions are themselves politicized and corrupted. The cricket boards are a standing example in Asia. The political elements backed up by executive power have virtually grounded international cricket. Boards are bankrupted and the state that controls the public purse has had to come to its aid in certain countries. Politically supported predation has now infiltrated every aspect of society where stealing is the name of the game. Institutions with no accountability make a mockery of democracy.

Commoditization of politics

Creating a market for politics is the name of the game. Politics has become a means to steal rather than a means to serve. Party funding is never transparent. Obligations are bought through parties and individuals. Individual politicians have organized corporate families of politicians that use thuggery and bribery to be elected with the ultimate aim of enriching themselves and setting up political dynasties. Party funding can be used to entrench and enhance the influence and interests of external powers. The executive that brooks no nonsense from its own people, unleashes the army and police on the public when they legitimately protest, goes with tail between the legs when powerful countries exert pressure on them to hand over public land and mining rights to corporates of their choice. All this is done whilst propagating the myth that they are the elected representatives of the people.

Predation is the policy of the present world system. Stealing has been legitimized and comes in different formats, from power to monetary benefit. The rights of the majority and the future generations have been pawned for the benefit of the elite, corporates, bankers and politicians. This incestuous relationship has resulted in a web of deceit with the poor and the future generations pushed to the bottom of the pile. The driving force is the printing of money, which is essentially a form of devaluation and stealing of wealth from the savers and workers, thus creating spiraling cost of living, rising house prices and lands, with stagnant remuneration for the majority and the poor, which has caused a wealth gap unknown in history.

The other element is borrowing of monopoly money from international currencies like the Dollar and indebting the poor and future generations. The predatory rulers of the state are offered safe custody of their ill-gotten wealth in a banking system that needs this immoral system to continue.

Development is geared to predation. It is estimated that only 60% of the said investment really goes into a project; the rest is paid as commissions. The main investment as advised by the World Bank goes into so-called infrastructure development to attract foreign investment of monopoly money at the expense of the environment and society at large. The foreign investment exploits labor with slave wages. Pauperization of the majority and enslavement of the people seem to be the objective of the predatory state.

The rest of the work force is sent to the Middle East from most south Asian countries. The human rights abuse of these poor people is appalling. Last year, 600 corpses of young able-bodied men and women returned to Sri Lanka from the Middle East. The media and the State did not have much to say about it. Incidentally the foreign exchange earned by these poor people is one of the biggest foreign exchange earners for the country.

Fukishima in Japan exemplifies the pseudo development of the present system. The corporates decided to set up a nuclear power station for profit; the people were not consulted. Today the people are left with a nuclear disaster; many have been killed, their land desertified, jobs and society decimated. The world at large has not escaped. The Pacific has been polluted and the world’s air polluted. The media and governments are muted in their protests and the peoples’ sufferings are ignored by a humanity that has lost its voice.

Another IMF-World Bank gimmick is privatization. In the recent privatization of the post office in Britain, an institution worth 10 billion was sold for 4 billion. The wealth of the nation is been blatantly stolen whilst the legislature geared to the benefit of the corporate approves the deal.

Suppression of dissent

The executive works hand in glove with the corporate media to manipulate society to lighten the effects of the corruption and the scandals, and sometimes justify and nullify the strong feelings against government. This is best exemplified by the media in the west in the run up to one of the most despised wars in this century - the Iraq war. Today, not only are the people in Iraq suffering, but so are thousands of US veterans who suffer from disability, increased suicides and mental problems ignored by the media. The ultimate beneficiaries are the corporates, not the citizens in whose name this war was fought.

The secret agencies that create mayhem in most countries, encouraging rebellious movements in other countries for their geopolitical interests, actually only protect the corporate interests. After such rebellious movements, only three armies are left – an army of disabled, army of mourners and an army of thieves – a perfect situation for vulture corporates to invade.

The constitutional rights of the people are violated by illegal monitoring of their private lives in the name of security, as shown in the recent Snowden scandals in the USA. It is said that the surveillance was a part of industrial espionage as well. This creates fear amongst the populace, suppressing dissent and allowing the state to continue its predation until there is a mass rebellion.

Harvard on Elizabeth Warren, in her study, The Bankruptcy Of The Middle Classes, notes that for the same standard of living only one parent needed to work, but in 2005 both parents had to work due to an encroaching enslavement of society. Motherhood has suffered and so has family stability, with all the social consequences of emotional deprivation. The media has hijacked this into women’s rights, ignoring a child’s right to a mother.

Popular Anarchism

This immoral system has created new protests movements which are justifiable but anti-State. But the movements have been hijacked by the predatory state. Thus, protest movements like the Arab Spring only create further destabilization. The money makers of the world exploit the situation for regime change, but there has been no benefits to the people, though corporates benefit as in Libya. In Greece and Spain, protests are rampant, but the predatory state survives.

The world needs moral authority and religious authorities must come forward to care for the downtrodden exploited masses and save the world from this catastrophe of a damaged environment and the enslavement of humanity. But again, most religious institutions have also been hijacked by the executive and there is not much hope unless there is a revolution within the religious bodies. In the past, this happened in smaller civilizations. This time round, it is globalised.