{"id":90870,"date":"2019-06-28T16:28:15","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T23:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90870"},"modified":"2019-06-28T16:28:15","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T23:28:15","slug":"the-19th-amendment-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/28\/the-19th-amendment-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"THE 19TH AMENDMENT (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The 19th amendment to the Constitution of Sri\nLanka was passed on 28 April 2015 just four months after Yahapalana government came into being.\nIt was passed near unanimously. Only one person\nvoted against, Rear Admiral MP Sarath Weerasekera.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information\non how the 19th Amendment was drafted has now come into the public domain.  A cabinet subcommittee headed by Prime\nMinister Wickremesinghe had initiated the project  and a\ncommittee was appointed to draft the Amendment .This committee, according to President\nSirisena, consisted of Jayampathy Wickremeratne, M. A. Sumanthiran, Pakiasothy\nSaravanamuttu and the NGO community. Jayampathy was put in charge of drafting\nthe Amendment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose\nof the 19th Amendment was to transfer executive power wholesale to the Prime\nMinister Ranil Wickremasinghe.  The\ninitial draft, circulated only to a select few, in March 2015, declared that the\nPrime Minister would be the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers and that   the President shall act on the advice of the\nPrime Minister regarding the functions assigned to a Minister. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This draft had received\nCabinet approval.   The draft was then\nmade available to other political parties and once they studied it there was a\ndiscussion at the Presidential Secretariat chaired by President Sirisena, where\nmany found fault with several provisions. They   totally opposed the move to empower Prime\nMinister at the expense of the President. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister\nWickremesinghe had been really upset said Jayampathy. Rajiva Wijesinha described\nthis in greater detail. Ranil started to whine, said Rajiva. Ranil then said\nthat he would complain to Chandrika since it had been agreed earlier that Ranil\nwould have executive power. But everyone else was adamant. It was decided\ninstead that the draft should reduce the President\u2019s powers in several\nparticulars, without the wholesale transfer of them to Ranil as Ranil had wanted,\nconcluded Rajiva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There had also\nbeen a special Cabinet meeting and consultations with several officials, as\nwell, including the Attorney General and the Legal Draftsman. These led to\nfurther changes. But those supporting\nRanil Wickremasinghe did not give in easily. The draft that was gazetted\nretained the provisions about the Prime Minister being the Head of the Cabinet,\nand about the Prime Minister determining the number of Ministers.  But Supreme Court squashed this. The Supreme Court\nwanted certain other sections altered too. These clauses were later brought into the 19A through the back door contrary to the\nSupreme Court ruling<\/ins>, complained President Sirisena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19th Amendment\ncontains a few welcome provisions. These have been included to make the\nAmendment looks good. These welcome provisions include the Right to\ninformation, (Article 2 of 19th Amendment) reduction of the term of Parliament\nfrom six to five years, (Article 3) and the limit of two terms for any one\nPresident (Article 4). Two new independent commissions were created, for Audit\nand for National Procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 19th\nAmendment also has certain laughable contradictions. One clause said President can dissolve\nParliament and another clause said he could not. One clause said the President\nwas the Head of State and another clause said he was answerable to Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The 19th Amendment has been declared to be a\ngreat improvement to the Constitution. Yahapalana admirers say it has brought\ndemocracy into an otherwise dictatorial country. It has done nothing of the\nsort. 19th Amendment contains provisions that seriously violate democratic and\nsovereign rights.  Let us look at some of\nthese questionable provisions of the 19th Amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19th Amendment created a\nParliament that cannot be dissolved. Until the 19th Amendment came,\nthe President could dissolve Parliament at any time after it had functioned for\none year.But after the 19th Amendment was passed, Parliament could not be dissolved by President\nuntil   four and half years of its five\nyear period, had passed.  During those 4 \u00bd\nyears, only Parliament could dissolve itself. \nTwo- thirds of the Parliament had to pass a resolution requesting\ndissolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a\nunique clause, which is not found in other constitutions. All constitutions\nhave provision for the dissolution of Parliament by the head of state. In\nFrance the President of the Republic may, after consulting the Prime Minister\nand the Presidents of the Houses of Parliament, declare the National Assembly\ndissolved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There cannot be such a thing as a Parliament\nthat cannot be dissolved but that is what we have today, said Chandraprema. Only Norway\nhas a Parliament that cannot be dissolved until its five-year term is up. That\nis because in Norway, the government continues in power until the King gives\nthem permission to leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yahapalana government also wanted to see Ranil\nWickremasinghe continue as Prime Minister. 19th Amendment said that the Prime\nMinister once appointed by the President, cannot be removed thereafter.  He leaves his office only if he resigns or\nceases to be an MP. This is an outrageous provision.  In all other constitutions, whether\nparliamentary or republic, there is provision of some sort for the removal of\nthe Prime Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19th Amendment\nwanted to reduce the powers of the President. As a start, the 19th Amendment created a set of duties\u201d\nfor the President. This\nis the first time that Duties\u201d have been assigned to the President of Sri\nLanka, said admirers of the 19th Amendment. Duties were not\nspecified anywhere in the constitution before, they said.  That is not surprising.  In any public office, \u2018duties\u2019 are implied in the \u2018powers\u2019 given to\nthe officer. Powers\u2019 lead to \u2018functions\u2019 which lead to \u2018duties.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first duty\u201d of a President of a country, surely is to ensure law and order,\ngood governance, general welfare. But the duties given to the President in the\n19th Amendment do not refer to any of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The duties of the President as given in the 19th Amendment are, One,\nuphold the Constitution, Two, look after the Constitution Council, Three, see\nto national reconciliation and Four, see that the elections are carried out\nproperly.\u201d The more important functions of a President, that of summoning and\ndissolving parliament, announcing government policy, declaring war and\npeace   come second to this absurd\nconcoction .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a serious violation of sovereign powers, in the 19th Amendment.\n19th Amendment says There\nshall be a President of the Republic of Sri Lanka, who is the Head of the\nState, the Head of the Executive and of the Government and the Commander-in-Chief\nof the Armed Forces.\u201d  Then it states that President is\nanswerable to Parliament for everything he does. The President\nshall be responsible to Parliament for the due exercise, performance and\ndischarge of his powers, duties and functions under the Constitution and any\nwritten law,\u201d\n(Article 6 of the Amendment).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Analysts hooted at this. This\nmeant that Executive branch of government, (President), now came under the\nlegislative branch, (Parliament), they said. They pointed out that Legislative\nand Executive power are exercised separately.  The Constitution,\nsays   (a) “the\nlegislative power of the People shall be exercised by Parliament, (b) “the\nexecutive power of the People, shall be exercised by the President of the\nRepublic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was the turn of the\nCabinet.  19th\nAmendment said that the Cabinet was also answerable to Parliament. The Cabinet\nof Ministers shall be collectively responsible and answerable to\nParliament” it said. Critics pointed out that this also was not possible. The 19th Amendment itself\nhad said that President shall be a member of the Cabinet of\nMinisters and shall be the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers.\u201d So the Cabinet\nwas part of the Executive branch of the government and came directly under the President<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is argued that the 19th Amendment created\ntwo power centers, one in the hands of the President and the other in the hands\nof the Prime Minister. That is incorrect. 19th Amendment does not give power to\nPrime Minister .Any power  exercised by\nPrime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe was done outside the 19th Amendment . 19th Amendment\nkeeps certain important powers in the hands of the President. Cabinet\nof Ministers derive their powers and function as agents of the President. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPresident appoints the Cabinet. He is free to decide on the number of Cabinet ministers,\nand the subjects they hold. He can create ministries as he wishes. He could\n“at any time change the assignment of subjects and functions and the composition\nof the Cabinet of Ministers\u201d. He could dismiss Cabinet ministers. He summons\nCabinet meetings.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is now open opposition to the 19th Amendment.\nPresident\nMaithripala Sirisena has declared that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution\nwas a curse on the country\u201d and should be abolished. The\ncountry should have only one leader. Either you must completely abolish the\nExecutive Presidency and give powers to Parliament or give enough powers to the\nPresident.<\/ins>           <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milinda Moragoda said it is now apparent to\nall that the 19th Amendment has created a dysfunctional governance structure in\nwhich the Executive President, although directly elected by the people, does\nnot carry much power. He suggests transforming the Executive Presidency into a\nviable institution with adequate checks and balances. (Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The 19th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was passed on 28 April 2015 just four months after Yahapalana government came into being. It was passed near unanimously. Only one person voted against, Rear Admiral MP Sarath Weerasekera.  Information on how the 19th Amendment was drafted has now come into the public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90870","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=90870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}