{"id":43447,"date":"2015-04-27T22:41:19","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T04:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=43447"},"modified":"2015-04-27T15:04:39","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T22:04:39","slug":"maithripala-the-new-queen-of-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/04\/27\/maithripala-the-new-queen-of-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Maithripala \u2013 The New \u2018Queen\u2019 of Sri Lanka!"},"content":{"rendered":"

-Metteyya Brahmana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Many astute observers said before the January 8th election, including Mahinda Rajapaksa, that Maithripala Sirisena is simply a puppet of Ranil\u201d \u2013 the front guy who enables Ranil Wickramasinge and the UNP to run Sri Lanka through the backdoor.\u00a0 In fact, Rajapaksa, after his defeat, did not even include Maithripala in the organized transfer of power, and instead dealt only with Ranil.<\/p>\n

Now, after 100 days, these observations appear to be spot-on, and even suggest that Maithripala is \u00a0taking on a new role as \u2018ceremonial president\u2019 \u2013 a president with no substantive power but who occupies the position for historical reasons and to create the appearance that constitutional duties are being carried out as prescribed.\u00a0 Certainly, no real president who is \u2018head of the cabinet\u2019 as indicated in the Sri Lankan constitution would dare outsource the appointment of nearly all of the important cabinet positions to his Prime Minister unless he were simply a figurehead.<\/p>\n

The problem with the ceremonial president is that Maithripala never indicated to the voters in the January election that this was the role he wished to undertake.\u00a0 He never said that by appointing Ranil as his Prime Minister he was going to give him de facto control of the Sri Lankan government.\u00a0 Had he said this, there is a good chance that he would have lost the election given the super-slim 51% victory.\u00a0 In other words, unilaterally changing the role of the president to a mere ceremonial role defrauds the Sri Lankan voter.\u00a0 Granted, many of these voters did not want the president to be a \u2018dictator\u2019, but going to the opposite extreme by creating a ceremonial president is not something the voter endorsed.<\/p>\n

There are also serious constitutional problems with outsourcing the duties, functions, and power of the president.\u00a0 Article 43(2) requires the president to be the \u2018head of the cabinet\u2019, 43(3) requires the president to appoint the person as Prime Minister who \u2018most likely is able to command the confidence of Parliament\u2019, and 37(1) restricts the president from outsourcing his duties and power unless he is ill or incapacitated in some way.\u00a0 It is clear that Maithripala is violating both the spirit and letter of all of these constitutional provisions, as Ranil is the de facto head of the cabinet.\u00a0 In fact, in one case, Maithripala simply told a complaining state minister \u2013 Rajiva Wijesinha – who sought a cabinet position in the new government to talk to Chandrika and to Ranil as it is they who decide on the cabinet\u201d.\u00a0 Ranil would also lose an up-or-down vote on the confidence issue, which is why he is bribing SLFP members with minor minister positions under the guise of a \u2018unity government\u2019. Maithripala is not ill or incapacitated in some way, so the de facto transfer of presidential power to Ranil is plainly unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

One can\u2019t help but reflect on Maithripala\u2019s recent visit with the Queen of England, and how impressed he was with her, as we look at his new role as the ceremonial president.\u00a0 Under the Westminister model in the UK, the Queen does appoint the prime minister who contested as a national candidate from the party who garnered the most votes in the general election, and gives him and his party the first crack at forming a coalition government if they got less than a majority of votes.\u00a0 Except for times of crises in which the \u2018Royal Prerogative\u2019 can be exercised, the Queen does not disturb the running of the government by the Prime Minister and his cabinet of ministers.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Maithripala, the Westminister model was never adopted in Sri Lanka, and such a major change in how Sri Lanka is governed must be put to the voters in a referendum, not forced upon them through backroom deals with Ranil.\u00a0 Moreover, even if we were to apply the Westminister model, Ranil never faced the voter as a national candidate of his party, and had he done so, he certainly would have lost again, and this is why he chose Maithripala as the common candidate rather than contest from his own party as president.<\/p>\n

It is still too early to tell how this will turn out in the upcoming general election, but if I were Ranil Wickramasinghe, I would face the voters directly this time and accept the result.\u00a0 And if Maithripala admires the Queen of England as much as he says he does, and Mahinda contests as Prime Minister in the upcoming election and wins with the most seats in parliament, he must act like the Queen and acknowledge that the people have decided that they want Mahinda to be the Prime Minister, and that he is therefore most likely to command the confidence of Parliament. \u00a0 And like the Queen, Maithripala has to put personal differences aside, and let Mahinda and his cabinet run Sri Lanka just like he is doing now with Ranil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Metteyya Brahmana Many astute observers said before the January 8th election, including Mahinda Rajapaksa, that Maithripala Sirisena is simply a puppet of Ranil\u201d \u2013 the front guy who enables Ranil Wickramasinge and the UNP to run Sri Lanka through the backdoor.\u00a0 In fact, Rajapaksa, after his defeat, did not even include Maithripala in the organized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}