{"id":97665,"date":"2020-01-12T15:14:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T22:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97665"},"modified":"2020-01-12T15:14:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T22:14:39","slug":"proposed-constitutional-amendments-21st-and-22nd-and-the-rights-of-small-political-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/12\/proposed-constitutional-amendments-21st-and-22nd-and-the-rights-of-small-political-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS 21ST AND 22ND AND THE RIGHTS OF SMALL POLITICAL PARTIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I read variety of opinions on the proposed\namendments of 21st<\/sup> and 22nd<\/sup> to\nthe constitution by Mr. Wejedasa Rajapaksa in\nweekend newspapers of 12.01.2020. The editorials of some newspapers,\npoliticians, and analysts in newspapers have expressed views on the proposed\namendments and the vital matters regard to the proposed amendments are district\nvotes cut off point, the executive power of the president and the power of\nparliament. Ordinary people of the country may have not read the comments\npublished, but they are very vital issues for the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n15th<\/sup> amendment to the constitution changed the District Votes Cut\nOff point, most probably amendment was based on opinions of influential people\nor political strategists, to 5% from 12.5%. \nThe original constitutional reforms in 1978 introduced the Executive\nPresidential System, and a new election system which was aimed at giving\nproportionate representation to parliament and what was the underhand had\nelements of the changes were not clear to ordinary people of the country, but I\nheard many people were talking that the underhand elements of the proportionate\nrepresentation were UNP to be in power forever and ever, and the future elected\nparliaments to limit the power to a less than two-third majority, which reflect\nthe inability to amend the constitution. \nI felt that the opinions of rural people were accurate to a certain\nextent and the operational pattern of the constitution clearly reflected the\npositively working the underhand elements as poor people in rural area thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndistrict election votes cut off point has been a vital concept since the 1988\ngeneral election and the concept based on the change had positive aspects at\nthe time it was introduced. The main positive point was giving an opportunity\nto represent in parliament by small parties especially JVP and LTTE which took\nweapons in hand with an intention to achieve their aims.  However, the aims of both JVP and LTTE were\nnot the aim of the entire nation and minor parties represented a small pace of\npopulation. According to the conditions of the constitution of Sri Lanka\nindividuals and groups of people have rights that are not giving accede to\ndeprive others’ rights to have own opinions. The experience in respect of the\nbehavior of Marxist and Communist parties demonstrated that the prime strategy\nof them was to bereave the opinions of other political parties and insisting\nthese Marxist and communist parties show that they have the right only for\nthem.  I observed this situation when I\nwas studying at university. There was not deviating objectives of elements of\nLTTE and JVP and all were in the same boat. However, someone can point out that\nJVP had not an aim to divide the country or to create a separate state\nchallenging the unitary status of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nI was studying at the university, I observed that ideas of small parties were\nextremely vicious and there is no point giving them an opportunity to destroy\nour society in the name of democracy or the rights of people.  Therefore, I believe, going back to the\noriginal proportionate representation with a district cut off point at 12.5% is\nthe right amendment in a situation where people are struggling to become a\ndeveloped nation. The system of working proportionate representation in Sri\nLanka seems that it is a challenge to the sovereignty of people as the system\nincluded appointing representative without direct going to votes to gain the\nauthority from public. People observed bullshits of opinions of small parties,\nwhich were established with vicious elements or intensions to show that they\nrespect the rights of religions, racial intentions, and caste dictions, which\nsupport to divide society than uniting people as human being. What is the use\nof allowing such political parties work in society if they have intension\ndestroy or take harmful action?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because\nof the diversity in society, it is not a right to destroy the right of others\nand the proposed amendment 22nd<\/sup> focuses to give justice to everybody\nwithout deviating based on various elements. \nDemocracy is a misunderstood concept in Sri Lanka.  We can clearly see in the Western countries,\nalthough they highly respect democracy they do not allow political parties\nbased on different elements. Small groups can join with major parties and if\nthey are democratic and objectives of them reflect the justice, the policies of\nthem could include in major parties if minor parties can make a difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nproposed amendment of 21st<\/sup> to the constitution focuses on\nstrengthening the power of the executive president. The editor of Sunday Times\nattempted to show that the proposed amendment of 22nd<\/sup> to the\nconstitution by Mr. Wejedasa Rajapaksa is an attempt to strengthening the hands\nof the executive at the expense of parliament to revert pre-2015 era. The truth\nis that people clearly saw that in the absence of executive power by the\npresident Sri Lanka suffered, and the parliament of Sri Lanka showed that it is\nan institution with self-centred people and the case of Mr. Ranjan Ramanayake\nshowed that members of parliament go beyond the limits of authority and\nattempted to influenced the judiciary , which is an independent institute as\nbelieved by people. The actions of the executive president are approved by\npeople than the dirty behaviour of the representative of parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People\nof Sri Lanka had the experience they were under Kings and Queens, who exercised\nexecutive power from the beginning of Sri Lanka state before Christ to the\nearly 1930s. People are used to executive power the president than a parliament\ndemocracy, which represents members, who have intentions with contradictory\nopinions, purposes and intentions, and the executive power of the parliament\nhas destroyed the expectations of people. The directly elected president by\nvotes of people is the preferred nature of executive power in Sri Lanka. The 19th<\/sup>\namendment to the constitution killed the expectation of people and people\nresponded with opposition to the 19th<\/sup> amendment in the presidential\nelection in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nidea of poorly drafting the 19th<\/sup> amendment is a proof that it is\nwrong action of parliament or misleading public to give the authority to a\nprime minister who unable to win the consent of people to be the executive\npresident.                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS I read variety of opinions on the proposed amendments of 21st and 22nd to the constitution by Mr. Wejedasa Rajapaksa in weekend newspapers of 12.01.2020. The editorials of some newspapers, politicians, and analysts in newspapers have expressed views on the proposed amendments and the vital matters regard to the proposed amendments are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97665","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=97665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}