Sri Lanka Lawlessness

Presidential and parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka are expected in the coming months. The government’s approach is to rely on its victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to consolidate its power for a further term. Its statements do not indicate any significant changes to existing policies or programs.

In previous presidential elections, the government promised to abolish the executive presidency. However, it is approaching the coming elections with a view to consolidating the power of the executive president.

Meanwhile, all opposition parties have placed the abolition of the executive presidency in their manifestos and high on the agenda of their party platforms. However, they have not explained what power arrangements would replace the executive presidency, in which the 1978 Constitution placed absolute power on a single individual, free from all checks and balances.

The opposition talks of replacing the executive president with an executive prime minister. But would this be a change of title only? Would the political monster that is presently called the executive president simply become the executive prime minister? What is needed is not a mere change of title but the addition of real checks and balances to the political system.

More fundamentally, Sri Lanka must overcome the present state of lawlessness in order to survive as a nation.

The introduction of the executive presidential system in 1978 displaced all legal mechanisms that had ensured the rule of law as the country’s governing apparatus. The legal apparatus that had been in place since the country’s independence was replaced with a security apparatus that operated above the law, and continues to do so today.

Thus, in the coming elections the nation faces one of the greatest challenges of its history. Vague words like peace, reconciliation, power sharing, and the like, in no way signify the real crisis in the nation, which has sunk to an abysmal level of lawlessness.

Can the issue of peace be separated in Sri Lanka from the issue of law? If the opposition does not address this issue carefully, it will not offer a viable alternative to the present state of affairs under the executive presidential system.

Of course, the government itself still has the chance to address this issue, but that is possible only if it is willing to renounce the executive presidential system. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has no reason not to do this. In fact, he clearly expressed in his election manifesto that he would abolish the executive presidency.

“With the consensus of all, I expect to present a Constitution that will propose the abolition of the executive presidency and provide solutions to other issues confronting the country. In the interim, I propose to present a Constitutional amendment through which the executive president will be made answerable to the Parliament by virtue of holding such office. To endorse the responsibility that the president has to the Parliament, I will attend Parliament once a month.”

The president still has the opportunity to honor his words, belatedly, as there is consensus throughout the country that the executive presidency needs to be abolished.

The task for the government and the opposition is to once and for all annihilate the capacity of the head of state to defy and destroy the law, as found in the 1978 Constitution. The nation cannot expect stability until this is done.

This is a serious problem for everyone, including the ethnic minorities, in Sri Lanka. The pursuit of peace, reconciliation and power sharing are meaningless unless the law is restored in the country. Unless this is done, the minorities will once again be deluded by the political leaders, including their own.

The electorate must demand that the contestants in the election pay attention to matters that are of crucial importance. It is up to the electorate to ensure that restoring the rule of law is kept at the top of the election agenda. Otherwise, the elections will be just a farce.

Source: Presidential power must be curbed in Sri Lanka

Filed under: civil society, civil war, Constitutional Council, Depatment of Election, human rights, politics, rule of law, Sri Lanka