{"id":88768,"date":"2019-05-14T15:58:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T22:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=88768"},"modified":"2019-05-15T15:07:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T22:07:18","slug":"abolish-the-presidential-system-of-government-friday-forum-why-is-it-the-mother-of-all-evils-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/14\/abolish-the-presidential-system-of-government-friday-forum-why-is-it-the-mother-of-all-evils-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Abolish the presidential system of government: Friday Forum. Why? Is it the mother of all evils? – I"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Introduction<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question in the title is relevant to the\ncurrent crisis in Sri Lanka. The sudden (actually, it was not sudden, it was\nyears in the making, as it shockingly transpires now) incursion of ISIS terror\nis the only significant \u2018foreign direct investment\u2019 that the Yahapalana\ngovernment has attracted, that too, at the tail end of its tenure. It could be\ngood for its own unwelcome survival, but it is going to be unimaginably deadly\nand disastrous for one of the most peaceful and cultured nations of the world, if\nit is not immediately contained with might and main. To any concerned observer,\nit is clear that the real or sham tug of war between the two erstwhile foreign\nbacked champions of good governance, the president and the prime minister, is\nundermining their joint ability to provide the proper unambiguous commanding\nand coordinating leadership that is indispensable for the national security\nagencies to deal with the volatile situation with efficiency. My layman\u2019s\nopinion is that, had the powers of the executive president not been weakened as\ndone by the 19th<\/sup> amendment, this kind of unnecessary rivalry between\nthe executive and the legislative branches of the government would not have\narisen. There may be certain shortcomings in the executive presidential system,\nbut it has so far helped the country to overcome a number of crises\nsuccessfully. Under the 1978 constitution, the president and the parliament\nwere mutually dependent. But the 19th<\/sup> amendment enacted by the\nYahapalana government has made it impossible for the president to dissolve a\ncorrupt, malfunctioning parliament and allow the people to elect a new one.\nSeemingly, the principle that the people are sovereign (sovereignty lies in the\npeople) and that the president exercises that sovereignty on behalf of all is\nbeing violated. This, I think, is the worst time for us to be talking about\nabolishing the presidential system of government or about making a new\nconstitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeble attempts to deflect attention from the real\nperpetrators of the terrorist bombings<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Sri Lankans and other nations across the\nworld who are sympathetic to them out of a sense of common humanity were\nshocked and distressed by the April 21st<\/sup> Easter Sunday terrorist\nbombings in Sri Lanka, which left more than 250 dead and double that number\ninjured. It didn\u2019t take long for the perpetrators to be identified as some Sri\nLankan Islamists with connections to the ISIS. However, initially, it appeared\nthat the knee jerk reaction to the news of the attacks on the part of most ill\ninformed foreign observers, certain NGOs, foreign and some mainstream local\nmedia, and others similarly grown antipathetic to the majority community due to\nfalse propaganda was to speculate that these attacks could not have been\ncarried out by anyone other than the so-called \n\u2018Sinhala Buddhist extremists\u2019. Some newspapers continued, for a few\ndays, to illustrate their news stories with photos exclusively  of weeping women with conspicuous dark red\n\u2018pottus\u2019 or bindis on their foreheads, creating the false impression that the\nvictims were Tamil, with the contextual implication that the attackers were\nSinhalese Buddhist extremists.  NGOs and\nmedia looked askance at Buddhist monks. The BBC Colombo Sinhala language\ncorrespondent Azzam Ameen (who probably knew the truth about the identity of\nthe attackers at first hand) initially connected the attacks to alleged\nBuddhist extremists. In a Twitter message, Eric Solheim, former Norwegian\nminister, and once long time peace-maker in Sri Lanka, arbitrarily attributed\nthe bombings to \u2018Sinhala extremists\u2019. \nJude Lal Fernando, at a service held in Dublin, Ireland, said that it\nwas an underhand operation carried out by Sinhala Buddhists. The revelation\nthat the attacks were actually the work of a local extremist Jihadist group\nknown as the National Thawheed Jamath (NTJ) sponsored by the ISIS came to those\nwho were looking forward to a confirmation of imagined Sinhalese Buddhist\nculpability for the mayhem as a secondary shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the members of the majority community responded <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they were being thus misrepresented to\nthe world by separatist sympathizers and irresponsible sensation-mongers in the\nmedia, Buddhists accounted for the largest number of volunteer blood donors who\nqueued up near hospitals to give blood for the injured in need of it; monks\ninvited the victimized Christians to hold their services in the Buddhist\ntemples; a few monks were shown in a news video voluntarily participating in\ncleaning up work in a damaged church. Senior monks joined the Cardinal in\nconsoling the grief and terror stricken Christians. To us Sri Lankans, this\nsort of compassionate behavior among Sinhalese Buddhists  towards fellow citizens of whatever race or\nreligion is a familiar thing.  But it is\nin stark contrast to the image of the majority community that is prevalent\nabroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday Forum\u2019s exclusive politics<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Friday Forum was formed, apparently, after\nthe defeat of separatist terrorism in 2009. As they claim, it is \u2018\u2026 an informal\nand self-financed group dedicated to democracy, good governance, human rights\nand the rule of law\u2019 that works on a non-partisan basis. The composition of the\nmembership shows that it is an elitist group that excludes representatives of\nthe major Sinhala Buddhist culture of Sri Lanka. Their non-partisan claims are\nhollow; they are obliged to be partial to the parties that are closer to their\nclass. Though the above stated ideals are laudable, their culturally alienated\nand isolated situation in the Sri Lankan body politic prevents them from doing\nanything constructive to influence the politicians that the hapless ordinary\ncitizens have thrust on them by circumstances beyond their control. The\nnegatively distorted image of the majority community outlined above is the one\nthat the members of the FF, wittingly or unwittingly, project to the outside\nworld through their occasional statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In a\npre-poll media release dated January 2, 2015, they stated<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This election gives us the opportunity to\ndecide whether it is possible that we, our children and future generations will\nlive in a country founded on the norms of participatory democracy, the rule of\nlaw and good governance, reinforced by an independent judiciary and public\nservice. We must reflect on which of the choices before us best promises us a\ngovernment which implements a model of sustainable and people-centred\ndevelopment, ensuring equitable allocation of resources and meeting the needs\nof all our people, particularly the most disadvantaged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They called upon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026..our fellow voters to consider which\ncandidate gives us the best opportunity to achieve democracy, rule of law,\npeace and harmony in Sri Lanka, for ourselves and future generations\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether the voters heard their call or not, the\nchange of government the FF expected came about. Now the country is where it\nis. What the people are experiencing today in reality are the exact opposite of\nthose objectives. We may guess how wretched the FF members should feel now as\nthe leaders they implicitly trusted and championed in 2015 have proved\nthemselves to be rogues who are inimical to the realization of the high ideals\nthey hoped they\u2019d achieve after the Yahapalanaya was set up in January 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government whose ouster was engineered with\nforeign assistance (probably these old well meaning armchair bound idealists\nwere innocent of any knowledge of this) realized all those democratic goals to\nthe maximum extent  possible in the short\nfive years that followed a devastating thirty-year civil conflict. The\nYahapalanaya has undone every one of those achievements.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making an importunate demand for a new constitution that no\none wants<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than nine months after the January 9, 2015 \u2018revolution\u2019, the voters were fed up with the ill performing Yahapalanaya, and they wanted earlier president back in the saddle as prime minister. Pollsters predicted a decisive victory for the UPFA of which the SLFP headed by the current president is the principal partner and\u00a0 which offered the former president as the prime ministerial candidate. The incumbent president Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s strategic pre-poll eleventh hour disavowal of Mahinda Rajapaksa (\u2018I will not make Rajapaksa prime minister even if the UPFA wins the majority of seats\u2019) demoralized the Mahinda loyalists among the voters and they didn\u2019t go for casting their vote, which cost them 31 out of the 117 predicted (the UPFA got 95 to UNP\u2019s 96 seats). Wasn\u2019t this a good start for restoring democracy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither the UNF nor the UPFA promised a new\nconstitution in their manifestos for the presidential or the parliamentary\nelections. At the latter, neither alliance won the absolute majority of 113\nseats needed to form a government by itself. But the UNF for Good Governance\ncomprising the UNP and some minority parties led by UNP\u2019s Ranil Wickremasinghe\nand the SLFP faction loyal to Maithripala Sirisena cobbled a so-called national\ngovernmnet. The survival of the government depends on the support given by the\nracist minority parties, who now have begun to call the shots. It is a\nminoritarianism at its worst. It is a vengeful inversion of the non-existent\nmajoritarianism  that minority\npoliticians attribute to the normal Sri Lankan political power structure, a\ncharge that buttresses the call for federalism. A statement issued by the FF\n(\u2018New Constitution A Must\u2019) on August 17, 2017 asserts that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npeoples\u2019 verdict at the Presidential election of January 2015 reflected the\nmandate of the people for a new constitution to remedy democratic deficits in\nSri Lanka\u2019s governance arrangements, nearly 40 years after the enactment of the\ncurrent constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the basis of\nthis dubious \u2018reflected \u2026..mandate\u2019 the Yahapalanites began a process for\neventually introducing a \u2018new constitution\u2019 that no one asked for and no one\npromised at the elections. The FF repeated this call for a new constitution in\na statement they issued two or three days after the recent Easter Sunday bombings\ncarried by alleged NTJ terrorists. The following was composed in response to\nthat statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Untimely call for the\nabolition of the presidential system of government<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Carlo Fonseka\u2019s short Opinion piece \u2018Abolish the Presidential\nSystem of Governance\u2019 (The Island\/April 27, 2019) prompted me to take a look at\na Friday Forum feature published earlier in the same paper that I had\ndeliberately skipped as something I couldn\u2019t be doing with: \u2018Easter Sunday\u2019s\nsuffering: Seeking and Finding Answers\u2019 (The Island\/April 26, 2019). This is a\nresponse to the latter, made without prejudice to Professor Fonseka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18th<\/sup>\nAmendment<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, at the outset, a word must be said to reassure the well meaning\nProfessor Fonseka. He  regrets having\nsupported the 18th<\/sup> amendment (later replaced under Yahapalanaya)\n\u2018against (his) better judgement\u2019, but in accordance with the policy of  his party the LSSP. I am sure that,\npersonally, he has a rational explanation for his disapproval of that\namendment. I am without any party affiliation. My own ordinary citizen\u2019s point\nof view, for what it was worth, of 18A, was positive as I explained in an\narticle in The Island at the time of its being debated in parliament, and my\nopinion has not changed to date. The 18th<\/sup> amendment was not so\nharmful as the then opposition wanted us to believe in that particular\nhistorical context, though it was impossible for its chief proponent to avoid\nopposition allegations of excessive power hunger and undue dynastic ambitions,\nand other more substantive criticisms. But, the fear that the 18th<\/sup>\namendment would pave the way for creating a \u2018Mahinda\nRajapakse-president-for-life\u2019 phenomenon was entirely misplaced. The immediate\npurpose of the amendment, of course, was to make the most successful executive\nhead of government Sri Lanka had ever had until then eligible to run for\nelection for a third term after completing the constitutionally allowed two\nterms. As the UPFA that he led had over 140 MPs in the 225 member legislature,\nthe passage of the amendment was not a problem. This made it possible for\nMahinda Rajapaksa to contest a third time (at the 2015 January presidential\nelection). But, to his disadvantage, the adoption of the new legislation (18A)\nwas exploited by opposition rivals as a negative development under an alleged\nauthoritarian ruler. No doubt, the charge was among the factors that\ncontributed  towards eroding the general\npopularity he enjoyed as the most suitable person to continue to lead the\nresurgent Sri Lanka that emerged under his leadership after the military defeat\nof separatist terrorism in May 2009. The 18th<\/sup> amendment did nothing\nmore than remove an obstacle in the path of a popular leader who had served for\ntwo terms and done well enough in office to be considered for re-election for\nyet another term. It did not interfere with the people\u2019s democratic right to\ndeny him a third term if a majority of the electorate thought otherwise, as his\ndefeat in 2015 showed. That this result had to be engineered with the\ninvolvement of foreign players is a different matter. As opposed to the 18th<\/sup>\namendment, the  19th<\/sup> amendment\nthat replaced it under the yahapalanaya administration is a really pernicious\npiece of legislation, that was fraudulently passed in parliament, as some\nconstitutional experts, ordinary lawyers and other eligible commentators have\npointed out. (The clause that says that Parliament can only be dissolved after\nthe completion of four and a half years of its five year term was allegedly\nsmuggled into the bill at the committee stage, because, according to the\nexisting constitution, such a clause had to be passed by a two-thirds majority\nin parliament and ratified at a public referendum, which was an impossible\nrequirement for the Yahapalanaya to fulfill. This fraud was casually admitted\nby one of the experts behind the drafting of 19A to the media.) It is due to\n19A that Sri Lankans are forced to passively endure a government that they\nwould love to get rid of at the first opportunity available. Their patience,\nlove of peace, humanity, and faith in democratic values have never been so\nclearly demonstrated as at this present terror-stricken moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday\nForum\u2019s post-Easter Sunday terrorist bombing statement<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning now to Friday Forum\u2019s statement under the heading \u2018Easter Sunday Suffering: Seeking and Finding Answers\u2019 mentioned above which is my focus here, it exhibits the group\u2019s customary lack of empathy with their own people, particularly the majority community. Most of the observations these reputed intellectuals make through this statement about the failures of governance that facilitated the recent attacks on some churches and hotels (in Negambo, Colombo and Baticaloa) are generally correct; but they cannot be counted as the sort of original revelations and unbiased judgements expected of savants like them in a national emergency to an innocent people stunned and immobilized in the wake of an apparently well organized terror strike by an unknown enemy motivated by an unknown objective. Instead, their sagely advice is that the presidential system of \u2018governance\u2019 be dismantled immediately, whereas the real priority at present is ensuring the physical security of the people from mindless terror and, as soon as possible, holding elections to elect a new president and a new parliament capable of containing the downward trend that has apparently started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FF correct\nabout appalling lapses in national security helping the carnage<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their\nstatement, however, the FF correctly identifies the immediate cause of the\nrecent violence as appalling lapses in national security that failed to\nprevent this carnage\u201d. The criticism embodied in the demand that The President, the Prime Minister, the Secretary of Defence\nand the Inspector General of Police must explain to the nation why the State\nintelligence agencies did not pass on the specific and detailed prior warnings\nand information on the impending violence, so as to take preventive action\u201d  is also valid. Nevertheless, their admonition\nthat the president and the prime minster should cooperate with each other,\nidentify the perpetrators, and introduce a strong effective system of national\nsecurity, though perhaps well meant, is self-consciously hollow in the\ncircumstances; further, it is accompanied with a reservation that makes a sly,\nunfair dig at the war-winning pre-yahapalana government which had developed a\nmost successful national security system and a sound economic plan managed by technocrats\nas even the former US ambassador Robert O Blake admitted during a presentation\nmade at the BMICH on May 7, 2019. No one would question the validity of what\nthe FF members advocate for the government to follow: They (prez and pm) must\ndo so (i.e., mutually cooperate, identify the perpetrators of terror, and\nintroduce a strong system of national security) while respecting the core\nvalues of democratic governance and fundamental rights in our constitution\u201d.\nBut the redundant cautionary words allude supportively to the false human\nrights violations and war crimes charges, the basis of the UNHRC Resolution\n30\/1, which the alleged local affiliate of the ISIS could be suspected to have\nexploited as a mitigating circumstance for the crime of visiting terror on Sri\nLanka. Of course this could sound a bit too farfetched. Yet the wording of\ntheir advice seems to suggest that Sri Lanka has probably committed serious\nviolations of human rights and crimes of war. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Introduction The question in the title is relevant to the current crisis in Sri Lanka. The sudden (actually, it was not sudden, it was years in the making, as it shockingly transpires now) incursion of ISIS terror is the only significant \u2018foreign direct investment\u2019 that the Yahapalana government has attracted, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88768","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=88768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}