{"id":84052,"date":"2018-12-10T11:37:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T17:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=84052"},"modified":"2018-12-10T04:34:24","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T11:34:24","slug":"a-judgement-that-ensures-a-way-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/12\/10\/a-judgement-that-ensures-a-way-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"A Judgement that Ensures\u00a0 a \u2018Way Forward\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Palitha Senanayake <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

As responsible citizens of this country, I am sure all of us are waiting with bated breath to hear the judgment that is due on the constitutional crisis the country currently faces. The issue before the judiciary is how best to pronounce the way forward for the country when its Executive and the Legislator have locked horns, or in other words when they are not compatible to each other. The purpose of this analysis is not to judge whether the executive is right or the Legislature is right but to envisage the way forward for the country.<\/p>\n

The people of this country had been wise enough to understand this anomalist position of governance and hence they have been consistently voting at elections since 1978 to bring either the legislator that suited the executive that came to power or to bring the executive that suited the legislator that won power. The issue this time is that the UNP brought in a candidate, who had practically been the second in command of the other political camp(SLFP) as the nominee for Executive. This was a politically strategic move by the UNP on the one hand as they had little chance of coming to power with a candidate of their own and of the second in command of the SLFP on the other, as he too, had no \u2018hope in hell\u2019 of becoming the President of this country. Thus, it appeared a brilliant move of soring a positive in capturing political power out of two political negatives. Yes, it proved to be a brilliant move to capture political power, but the question is, how brilliant a move it is in governing this country? Thus, the \u2018brilliant\u2019 strategist who once claimed credit for Yahapalanaya\u2019 should take the blame for the perilous and unstable situation the country is in today.<\/p>\n

That apart, let us analyze the issue before the Supreme court today. On the face of it ( Prima facie) it appears as if the issue is between the Legislator and Executive and therefore warrants analysis only on those clauses of the constitution that details the duties and powers of those two. However, if the Supreme Court, buried in legal technicalities, adopts this prima facie positions, it would be a case of \u2018missing the jungle for its trees\u2019. \u00a0This is because there is a third party in this case, though not represented, that is omnipresent in this case. That is \u2018People\u2019 and whoever who interprets the clauses of the constitution cannot do so without taking the interest of the people, whom the constitution says are the owners of the country, into account.<\/p>\n

Therefore, leaving out all the legal technicalities aside, let us take a simple situation of an estate who has an owner but runs it by appointing managers with power to manage the estate. In that situation the owner appoints the managers with clear powers in their appointment letters that may constitute a constitution in the context of a country. This arrangement is arrived at because the owner cannot be bothered with the details of management but only in seeing that the estate prospers and bring profits. However if the management starts fighting with each other and the land is being threatened in every way with regard to its wellbeing, security and day to day running, could the managers fall back on their letters appointment and say that I am the manager for 5 years as per this letter of appointment and therefore you cannot seek the views of the owner on this situation until my period expires.<\/p>\n

It is not a question of sacking one manager of the other but a question of seeking the views of the owner and giving him a chance to decide on the way out of this crisis. If that is not done the inevitable will be doom and gloom and no democracy will survive under such situations.<\/p>\n

When Roman\u2019s invented democracy the idea was to get the people\u2019s consent on each and every issue of governance. Yet, later they found that it is too difficult in practice and therefore settled for a representative democracy in compromise. Thus, the representatives are obliged to act in accordance with the peoples wishes and to act otherwise would to kill the very spirit of democracy and an act of default.\u00a0 The period of representation is for practical reasons and it is not to take advantage of.<\/p>\n

Therefore, a decision by the Supreme Court that says that the \u2018Dissolution of the Parliament by the President is legal\u2019 has a way forward. It does not mean that the present legislators are sacked but only that they have been asked to seek a mandate of the people (the owners of the country). On the other hand, if the Supreme Court maintains that the \u2018Dissolution is illegal\u2019 that verdict may push the country into anarchy inviting a revolutionary type of situation. The people of a country cannon act like an owner of an estate and that is why we have a constitution to avoid chores. \u00a0Therefore, the purpose of the Constitution is to prevent chores and not to create chores. It is not a question of restoring the fundamental rights of few who stand to gain by the continuation of the Parliament in its present form but in restoring law and order in a country and saving the fundamental rights of a population.<\/p>\n

To be impartial, the writer does not claim to know whether it is the executive or the Legislator that is right on this matter. But what is before the Supreme Court is the dissolution of the Parliament and not the impeachment of the President. Therefore, if the impeachment of the President also comes before the Supreme Court eventually the Courts have the right to pass judgment considering the way forward and the purpose for which a constitution is enacted by a country. The basic law is that the rulers are elected by the people for a temporary period and they could come and go, but the country and its people should go on forever!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Palitha Senanayake As responsible citizens of this country, I am sure all of us are waiting with bated breath to hear the judgment that is due on the constitutional crisis the country currently faces. The issue before the judiciary is how best to pronounce the way forward for the country when its Executive and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84052","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=84052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}