{"id":65552,"date":"2017-04-25T23:34:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T05:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=65552"},"modified":"2017-04-25T16:31:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T23:31:15","slug":"why-executive-presidency-must-go-to-save-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/04\/25\/why-executive-presidency-must-go-to-save-the-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Executive Presidency Must Go to Save the Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Those who supported SLFP candidates in 1994 (Chandrika), 2005 (Mahinda) and 2015 (Sirisena) have no moral right to oppose the abolition of executive presidency. Abolishing was a key promise of all three presidents since 1994. However, morality is absent not just among politicians but also their voters. Deception and lying is accepted as right. Having tasted limitless powers, Sirisena too has fallen in the same honeypot his predecessors were in. It is not just the president, his\/her entire family and relatives depend on executive powers. This is why it is always forgotten after winning power.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lame Excuses to Keep It<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are lame excuses to keep it. One is to retain the ability to dissolve a provincial council. There was only one instance of dissolving a provincial council by the president when it came close to violating the Constitution. Alternatively, the Supreme Court could have done it. However, dissolution of a provincial council trying to forge into an independent nation achieves nothing in post-war time. If an errant Northern Provincial Council is dissolved, elections will have to be called. The same party wins the election. It is the same story for the Eastern Provincial Council. Other provincial councils don\u2019t plan to create separate nations. Therefore, this lame excuse doesn\u2019t stack up any longer.<\/p>\n

Political stability is another na\u00efve excuse to retain executive presidency post-war. However, the executive president is the main source of political instability. If there was no executive president, the parliament will be unchallenged. Suppressing people\u2019s will just for the sake of political stability makes no sense. It worsens the situation. Sri Lanka had very stable governments before the introduction of executive presidency.<\/p>\n

Foreign investment is another daft excuse given by those who support executive presidency. There is no co-relationship. Countries without executive presidency get more FDIs than Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Therefore, these lame excuses fail the sanity check.<\/p>\n

Executive Presidency is the Reason for Lawlessness<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

All executive presidents misused their power to save hardcore criminals. Any criminal can save himself if he can align himself with the political needs of the executive president. The president can use legal, illegal, moral and immoral means and manipulation of any ministry or law (with impunity) to save a criminal of political worth. From Gonawala Sunil to Central Bank bond fraudsters, all presidents have saved top crooks of all criminal dispensations. Even terrorists have been baptized into saints by executive presidents.<\/p>\n

A certain popular political commentator supports retaining executive presidency on dubious grounds was given an executive presidential pardon in 1987 under the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord. He, along with a few others, was in self-exile in India. Therefore his personal circumstances supporting executive presidency are understandable.<\/p>\n

Manipulating the Supreme Court has been a favourite pastime of executive presidents. All of them did it. How can the country have law and order if a person is above the law and he\/she can manipulate the law and the legal system to save anyone and turn a crime to a non-crime?<\/p>\n

Executive Presidency is the Reason for Tribal Kingmakers<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Tribal political parties cannot form a government in Sri Lanka as they have only 6% of the vote, nationally. However, they become kingmakers at presidential election. Their voters are block voters. Driven by ultra-racism, they vote enbloc to a candidate specified by the leaders of their ultra-racist mono-ethnic parties. Presidential candidates of both major parties go after this 6% as it can determine winning or losing the presidential election.<\/p>\n

This is not the case with parliamentary elections. A party can win the required 113 seats or form a stable government with a lesser number of seats disregarding these parties. Some of them join any government (friend or foe) thereafter. However, they make sure they are available for bidding and auctioning at the next election!<\/p>\n

Executive Presidency is the Reason for Indian Manipulation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Surrendering national interests is a crime by the Constitution. However, the executive president is above the law and he\/she can surrender national interests at will. The remedy is a joke. The president, if violate the Constitution, can be impeached. A two thirds of parliament is needed along with Supreme Court approval. However, the president allocates ministries. By offering ministries to his supportive MPs, the president can easily get the numbers needed to defeat the impeachment!<\/p>\n

The president \u00a0also appoints Supreme Court judges. Getting supportive judges ensures they will not help the impeachment.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the remedy is not effective at all. As a result all executive presidents have surrendered national interests. If not for executive presidency, any and all MPs can be impeached for the violation of the Constitution by a simple case filed at the Supreme Court. This is another reason why a popular pro-Indian political commentator strongly supports executive presidency. If not for executive presidency, 13A would never have been passed. The President herded MPs and their families into a few hotels, obtained undated resignation letters from them and compelled them to vote for 13A or else face retribution.<\/p>\n

Policy Inconsistency<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

There were two instances of a SLFP president and a UNP Prime Minister. In both cases, the nation, its defences and the economy suffered as these two parties have different views. The parliament is common to all democratic countries hence the parliament is not at fault. It is the fault of the executive president there is policy inconsistency. According to the Constitution, governance policy is the business of the parliament (where people\u2019s right of self determination and sovereignty is exercised). The president has no right to exercise people\u2019s right of self determination and sovereignty. There cannot be any power above parliament that is the custodian of people\u2019s right of self determination and sovereignty.<\/p>\n

However, party politics has made this invisible to most Lankans. UNPers want the president gone and SLFPers want the prime minister replaced. No one cares about the nation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Most pressing problems of Sri Lanka today can be traced to executive presidency. However, petty party politics has turned people against facts. Greedy politicians thrive in this atmosphere. The ultimate prize for their greed is executive president post they all dream about. However, this does not mean executive presidency must be abolished along with good parts of the constitution. Throw the dirty bath water (executive presidency) but leave the baby (useful parts of the Constitution). Sirisena and Ranil are trying to throw the baby with the bath water. They have no such mandate. Their only mandate is to abolish executive presidency. Voters have been asking this since 1994 and all presidents have promised it since then. Can we have some honesty please.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Those who supported SLFP candidates in 1994 (Chandrika), 2005 (Mahinda) and 2015 (Sirisena) have no moral right to oppose the abolition of executive presidency. Abolishing was a key promise of all three presidents since 1994. However, morality is absent not just among politicians but also their voters. Deception and lying is accepted as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65552","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=65552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}