Improving public discourse – Rohan Samarajiva

There was a time when public discourse was dominated by those in government and in political parties. It may be because of childhood memories of such times that our society is pervaded by paranoia about entities other than government and political parties participating in public discourse. This NGO phobia may also be driven by plain and simple envy. How is it that they have the money to organize events and live decent lives while working on public matters?

Just after the first lockdown in June 2020, we began to organize against the implementation of President Gotabaya’s promise to rescind the 19th Amendment that so many of us had worked for. When we publicized the first meeting at the New Town Hall, none of the questions that were posed on Facebook were about the merits or demerits of the 19th Amendment. Their interest was about where we got the money (I told them it cost little or nothing to rent that space).

After the successful demonization of NGOs starting in the late 1980s, this has been a perennial problem. From 2007, there have been a a series of attempts to bring independent civic organizations under the control of the government in power. They have not succeeded, yet.

Joining a debate on foreign funding for Indian think tanks in the last year of the Manmohan Singh government, the Indian philanthropist Rohini Nilekani stated:

Yet, I feel the questions should not stop at the sources or levels of foreign support to thinktanks. The more critical issues are those around the status of policy formulation in India and what goes into it—the rigour of intellectual debate, the quality of evidence, the voice of experts and practitioners, the focus on beneficial outcomes for current and future generations, the accountability of decision-makers and implementers, etcetera. Put simply, how is policy in India made, and to what practice does it lead?

The efforts made by the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) to address these questions short of becoming a think tank are described below.

The National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) has a unique position among organizations that seek to influence policy and law-making in Sri Lanka. Led by its charismatic founder the Ven. Maduluwave Sobhitha Thero, it left an indelible mark in Sri Lanka’s politics by creating the platform for coalescing around a common candidate and thus defeating a family dynasty that appeared invincible. Under its current leader, former speaker Karu Jayasuriya, NMSJ kept alive the opposition to the 20th Amendment which negated the hard won improvements in governance. This led to the demand for the abolition of the 20th Amendment to become part of the argalaya and resulted in its repeal just two years later by the very legislators who voted for it in 2020.

In addition to its principled positions on constitutional reforms, the NMSJ developed a Common Minimum Program (CMP) for Economic Recovery with broad participation that was shared with all major political parties in June 2022. Elements of the CMP made its way into various political position papers (for example, the recommendation of a minimum alternative tax on multinationals); some of the recommendation have already been implemented (e.g., targeted cash transfers as the base of the social safety net).

The Chairman of the NMSJ, by virtue of the respect accorded to him as a respected elder statesman, was able to open channels for direct conversations with decision makers such as the Minister of Justice, enabling advocacy against the worst provisions of the Anti-terrorism Bill, for example. In addition, his statements on topical issues were carried in the media.

Starting in November 2022, the NMSJ initiated a series of regular webinars or
“kathikawa” to elicit the views of persons with expertise and experience on the topics that it was considering taking a stance on. Over 200 of these two-hour programs have been conducted across Zoom and have been live-streamed on multiple platforms. Content of recent programs has been used as the bases for reportage on print and video channels.

Kathikawa is a novel and low-cost mechanism to enhance the quality of public discourse on policy issues. Now in its fourth year, there are indications that other civil society groups are beginning to emulate the practice.

The use of the webinar modality allows for participation by resource persons and audience members irrespective of location, though some may be inconvenienced by time differences. For example, persons speaking at the kathikawa which is conducted from 5 PM to 7 PM Sri Lanka time on Sundays, have to wake up rather early if they are located in the US. But they have agreed to bear the inconvenience. Regular participants from Australia keep late hours on Sunday.

Within Sri Lanka, where most of the participants are located, there is no downside. The Colombo bias of most public events has been overcome. The technology which allows for simultaneous interpretation has been so used on several occasions. It was discontinued because of lack of adequate participation by those who were not conversant in Sinhala.

Absolute fairness in terms of representation of different views cannot be achieved. But it may be safely claimed that the kathikawa modality has allowed for a greater representation of differing views than the alternatives. The resulting exchanges have in some cases led to extended debates elsewhere and hopefully to changes in the positions of those advocating particular solutions.

Debates on new mechanisms to replace representative democracy that were initiated at a kathikawa are examples. The imposition of an overnight ban on chemical fertilizers, weedicides, etc. was another example. Because of long-term priming of the populace against modern agricultural practices, there were differing views even within NMSJ at the outset. Hearing the views of informed experts and practitioners allowed for the development of an evidence-based position by the organization, and hopefully by others as well.

Now, more than ever, Sri Lanka needs evidence-based, high-quality public discourse. The kathikawa exemplifies an innovative approach to the problem. More such interventions are needed.    

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