On the Rule of Law
Killing a Straw Man

Chess
All games have rules. Like chess. Without rules, the two players wouldn’t know what to do. If one player thought a bishop moved like a rook, and the other thought like a knight, the game wouldn’t last long.
Rules make it possible to program computers to play chess. Not only can we program computers to play chess, but we can also program them to play chess with themselves. And as a result, simulate billions of new games. This type of “Artificial Intelligence” has led to chess computers that can beat grandmasters.
The strategy has even worked for more complicated games. Like Go.
But there are even more complicated games. Like life itself. The “Rule of Law” applies to individuals who live in collectives like societies. To live in society, you have to obey the rules.
Life
In all games, there is some incentive to obey the rules. If you cheat at chess, no one will play with you again. You might even acquire a “reputation”, and even people who have not played you in the past will avoid playing you. You might earn the monicker #CrookedNuwan.
Similarly, in life, the rule of law can only work if there are incentives to obey the law. If there are no incentives, there will be no laws.
Sometimes laws are unfair. France was a very unfair place in the 18th century. A small minority lived in idle luxury, at the expense of a majority that worked and starved. The laws made sure that the taxes from the majority supported the minority. Disobeying laws led to horrible punishments. But the starving majority didn’t really care, because these horrible punishments weren’t very different from the lives they already led. And so, they revolted.
While the situation in Sri Lanka is not as bad as revolutionary France, the incentive to obey the rule of law varies widely from citizen to citizen. The “British” (as I analogize in How to write a manifesto), have a much stronger incentive to the insecure “Armenians” or the impoverished “Kenyans”. Just as the majority believed in revolutionary France, many “Armenians” and “Kenyans” believe that the “Rule of Law” in Sri Lanka is solely for the benefit of Rich Brits.
There are also other ways in which the Rule of Law breaks down. In Ancien Régime France, while murder was punishable by death in theory, it only applied to “common people” in practice. Hence, a prince could easily get away with murdering his man-servant. This was because a small group of people had so much power that the law could not be applied to them in practice.
There are many examples of this power-play in Sri Lanka. Many influential politicians intimidate the police who attempt to prosecute them for various misdeeds. This is not a problem with the politicians or the police. It is a problem with a power-ecosystem that supports extreme power. This is also why there is no such thing as a “benevolent dictator”. Absolute power will, eventually, corrupt absolutely.
If you want the Rule of Law
Too many people who promote or yearn for the Rule of Law, don’t completely understand it. If they did, they would not ask for it.
If you want the Rule of Law, don’t ask for the Rule of Law. Instead, ask for conditions out of which the Rule of Law will emerge. Naturally, slowly perhaps, but with certainty. Ask for conditions like less poverty. And less extreme power.
If you want the Rule of Law, but continue asking for it, you won’t get it. All you’ll get is gibberings and tauntings. And the rotting smell of a putrifying straw man.

