{"id":61631,"date":"2016-12-19T10:58:03","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T16:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=61631"},"modified":"2016-12-19T03:34:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T10:34:54","slug":"do-we-need-a-new-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/12\/19\/do-we-need-a-new-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Do we need a new constitution?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Fr. J.C. Pieris<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

December 18, 2016, 9:17 pm<\/span>
\nWhat are the needs of the country? Isn\u2019t finding out what the country urgently needs is where we should start off from, to put things right in the country? Let us begin. In my opinion the top priority need is elimination of poverty. Do we need a new constitution to eliminate poverty in the country? Will the new constitution (NC) eliminate poverty in the country? As long as the over 200 thieves and crooks in the Diyawannawa are in charge of the country along with their crony civil servants, officers, judges and shady business concerns, you can bring a NC made in heaven by angels but poverty will not be eliminated. Corruption is the cause of poverty. And elimination of corruption is the elimination of poverty too. Only if we have men and women of integrity and honesty, governing this country, can we eliminate poverty not a constitution new or old. The same goes for all the other needs of the country. There is no national problem that cannot be solved with the present constitution. We can always amend it when there is a need as we have already done nineteen times.<\/p>\n

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What the country needs is not a NC but a new set of legislators, ladies and gentlemen of integrity, devoted to the people and the country. The present set like the previous set are not ladies and gentlemen. The dictionary has some naughty words to describe them but I refrain from putting them down here out of respect for the ladies and gentlemen who are reading this and the editor of The Island.<\/p>\n

Et tu Brute?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

On the 8th of January the president came forward and won the elections as a party-less common candidate. Sixty two lakhs of people voted for a party-less common candidate. If he knew the meaning of the word ethics he should have remained so. He should have remained the party-less president of each and every citizen in this country. But he freely chose to be the chairman of a particular political party, the SLFP. Sixty two lakhs of people did not vote for the SLFP. He was their last hope for good governance. They were betrayed and taken for a jolly good ride. The present presidential situation clearly shows a conflict of interest. Now sixty two lakhs of people can only ask him like dying bloody Julius Caesar; et tu Brute?<\/p>\n

Forget the meeting with Mahinda Amaraweera after taking oaths as the president of the country when he gave his word to protect the R family as narrated by Malith Jayatilake in his book, \u2018The 8th of January I saw\u2019. Forget bringing in to the cabinet from the back door called the national list crooked politicians rejected by the people. Forget the sabotaging of the judicial investigations when the net was closing in on the corrupt politicians. Forget his brother, forget his son. It is disgusting and a waste of ink writing about these things. All these go to show what we need is not a NC. With the same people at the helm the NC will be as useless as the present one.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time the prime minister was known as Mr Clean, not any more. The Central Bank bond scam has tarnished him unrecognisably. The more he tries to protect and safeguard the governor and the son-in-law and their shady, conflict of interest deals the more unrecognizable he becomes. He reminds me of the rabbit and the \u2018koholla baba\u2019. Forget his trying to keep the parliamentarians within the flock by becoming their unethical Santa Clause. Forget his protecting people with multiple illegal passports. What truly makes him unsuitable for the position is his behaviour in the parliament. For him it is not a place of serious discussion of the country\u2019s problems and their solutions. His interventions look more like after dinner jokes sessions. Will a NC give us a better premier? If not what is the use of a NC?<\/p>\n

The monkeys<\/h3>\n

Take most of the rest of the parliamentarians well paid, well protected, well fed, well looked after post retirement, hardly working, happy lot; each and every one of them is guilty of all the corruption that went on previously and going on now either as partners in crime or as they remain silent, blind and deaf like the shameless three monkeys, allowing the nefarious activities to go on. If these people are going to continue at Diyawannawa, of what use is a NC?<\/p>\n

The previous constitutions<\/h3>\n

Look back and we can see that in this country a NC came in to force when there were strong governments like in 1972 and in 1978 with 2\/3 and 5\/6 majorities. The then governments were unshakable and rock steady. The support of the majority of the people was guaranteed and a referendum would not have created a problem. Can we say that with the present so called \u2018unity\u2019 government? Is it not built on sand? There is not much of a chance for a NC to come in to force given the present situation. The whole thing seems to be an exercise in futility. It seems to be a need of somebody else not of the people of this country. Doesn\u2019t the NC look largely like a red herring?<\/p>\n

The real need<\/h3>\n

The real need of sixty two lakhs of people was Good Governance (GG). That was their demand on the 8th of January, nothing else. That was the change people wanted. After two years, in that regard, there is nothing to show. No change has taken place. Rather not only are the thieves of the previous regime protected by the current regime but the present ones are also stealing with impunity. People primarily asked for GG not a NC. Anyway without GG a NC is worthless.<\/p>\n

What next?<\/h3>\n

The betrayed and frustrated citizens of this country are looking for and waiting for another rainbow coalition of peoples\u2019 forces to bring in to Diyawannawa a new set of legislators, honest, clean and with the welfare of the people and the country in their hearts. None of the present legislators of the government or of the joint opposition, not a single one of them should be allowed to come back to Diyawannawa.<\/p>\n

Almost all the civil societies and organizations, peoples\u2019 movements and other groups who actively brought victory to the present government are still intact. Some political parties who haven\u2019t sullied their hands either with the previous government or with the present one are waiting for an invitation. The sixty two lakhs can be mobilized again if respected ladies and gentlemen of good character come forward to lead the nation. Though we do not have the charismatic leadership of Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, I\u2019m sure he will bless us if we do not give up but go ahead again with his plan to clean up the administration of this country.<\/p>\n

All right thinking, concerned citizens must keep their eyes and ears open, discuss, exchange ideas and bring about another rainbow coalition of a broad spectrum of people whose main concern is not ideological differences but GG, elimination of poverty and the welfare of the country.<\/p>\n

Do we need a NC now? The answer is an emphatic NO. Under these rotten politicians the NC too will be a rotten constitution. When you read the reports of the parliamentary sub-committees on various topics of the draft of the NC you can see how rotten it is going to be. The urgent need of the hour is GG, punishment of the crooks and recovery of the loot. After that give GG time to mature and become a national tradition. Then we can have either a NC or the present one or even go ahead without a written constitution like in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fr. J.C. Pieris December 18, 2016, 9:17 pm What are the needs of the country? Isn\u2019t finding out what the country urgently needs is where we should start off from, to put things right in the country? Let us begin. In my opinion the top priority need is elimination of poverty. Do we need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61631","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=61631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}