Synopsis

CHALLENGING INCOMPLETE DEMOCRACY

The autobiography of Jude Perera, first Sri Lankan-born and -educated MP in any lower house of parliament in Australia
My autobiography is about a person born into a middle-income family, according to Sri Lankan standards at the time, and the challenges encountered by a migrant moving to Australia with his wife and two young children to start a new life. I was the first Sri Lankan migrant elected to any lower house of Parliament in Australia – as well as the first Sri Lankan to win four consecutive parliamentary terms in a jurisdiction anywhere outside Sri Lanka.

However, the book is not just about events and personalities encountered in my life journey. It is also about the political and economic philosophies I developed over time, including a rational approach to religious beliefs and social practices.
It also covers activities of the Marxist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, which inspired the humble beginnings of my political journey, as well as the factionally driven, centre-left Australian Labor Party, the ‘broad church’ I joined to continue that journey in Australia, which is pretty much a rule-based society.

I was brought up in an environment where it was believed that a state’s monopoly over production of goods and services – such as was practised in the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, also termed state capitalism – was the panacea to many problems in a society.

However, after a few years in the Victorian Parliament, when I was beginning to think that a fairer society with enhanced social justice measures was possible in a private investor economy, I had the opportunity to learn about worker cooperatives and witness a much fairer way of organising production.

In the book, readers will be exposed to the worker cooperative model, which has become the centrepiece of my political and economic philosophy. My view is that this model creates true economic democracy and will be widely used in many nations before the middle of this century. The book covers my encounters with people involved in cooperative movements in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic and Sri Lanka. There is also information about worker cooperatives in Australia, and a detailed account of the world-famous worker cooperative model of Mondragon Cooperative Corporation in the Basque region of northern Spain.
My involvement with worker cooperatives has led me to believe that political democracy alone without economic democracy cannot create a true democratic society. I challenge the incomplete democratic model presented to us.
I’m sure some readers will disagree with my assertions. We can agree to disagree. I have tried my best to present readers with an informative and interesting book.

August 2022