Body blow to democracy

Wednesday 24th January, 2024

Parliament yesterday resolved to take up for debate the controversial Online Safety Bill (OSB), with a majority of 33 votes. Eighty-three MPs voted for commencing the debate with 50 MPs opposing the move. The government, which has mustered a parliamentary majority with crossovers, will steamroller the Bill through the House, and Sri Lankans’ rights and freedoms in the digital realm will be in jeopardy. There have been fervent appeals from the media, the public, international media rights groups and civil society outfits that the OSB be put on hold and rid of its draconian features, but the government has ignored them.

In a Parliament, where the ruling party members blindly vote for anything that their government seeks to ratify, it does not make sense to take a vote to decide whether a Bill should be taken up for debate. Parliament might as well have proceeded with the debate without taking yesterday’s vote.

What the SLPP, the UNP, the Rajapaksas and President Ranil Wickremesinghe ought to bear in mind is that by misusing their parliamentary majority to pass Bills, they are only testing the patience of all those who cherish democracy, which the OSB is bound to endanger.

Parliamentary majorities are not synonymous with legitimacy, justice and fair play, and therefore not everything becomes morally right, legitimate and acceptable to the public upon being ratified by the legislature. Instances abound where Parliament has had to undo what it has done.

It may be recalled that Parliament passed the 18 Amendment to the Constitution with a two-thirds majority, in 2010, to restore some presidential powers that the 17th Amendment had done away with, and to enable the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa to seek a third term. Its constitutionality may not have been in question, but it was one of the worst laws the Sri Lankan legislature has passed. Ironically, the same Parliament abolished the 18th Amendment, following the 2015 regime change, and introduced the 19th Amendment; almost all UPFA MPs who had voted for the 18th Amendment backed the 19th Amendment as well! The 20th Amendment to the Constitution introduced by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government, in 2020, restoring the executive powers of the President, was replaced with the 21st Amendment in 2022; the SLPP MPs who had passed the 20th Amendment enabled the passage of the 21st Amendment with a two-thirds majority! Constitutional amendments and other laws introduced by governments arbitrarily to safeguard their own political interests have debilitated democracy and caused a severe erosion of public faith in Parliament. Hence the need for a consensual approach to be adopted when vital laws are made.

Nobody should be allowed to enjoy the freedom of the wild ass in cyberspace or elsewhere for that matter, and there is a pressing need for regulating the digital space, where people’s reputations are dragged through the mud. Rights of men, women and children are blatantly abused on the Internet with impunity. The victims are often left without recourse and suffer in silence. Online loan sharks drive their customers to suicide in case of default. But the government has chosen to further its own interests through the OSB, which is aimed at suppressing democratic dissent on the pretext of safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the vulnerable sections of society vis-a-via the Internet abusers.

It is only wishful thinking that the government will be able to win elections by suppressing the rights and freedoms of the people with the help of the OSB, which will only lead to public resentment and clashes at a time when the country’s focus should be on making a collective effort to achieve economic recovery, which will not be attainable without political stability, and vice versa. Let the government be told that it has made another huge blunder by delivering a body blow to democracy.