Reflections on Sri Lanka’ Constitution

Posted on October 7, 2010 by srilankalawlessness
H.A. Parackrama Karunaratne (28) of No. 34, Badiwewa, Ma Oya,Jayanthipura, Polonnaruwa went to make a complaint of gambling near his house. He was arrested, tortured and hand cuffed to a tree while his other wrist was cuffed to his leg by a sergeant of the Ma Oya Police Post on 26 April 2010.

The picture above speaks for itself. It depicts what happened to a young man who went to get police assistance to stop illegal gambling happening near his house.

When the man went to police station to find about what action had been taken on his complaint the police sergeant who had earlier taken down the complaint behaved strangely. The picture shows what he did to the complainant.

Why did the sergeant do that? No Sri Lankan will find it hard to guess — the gamblers knew how to get the police officer on their side.

There is nothing unusual about the story. It is now, more often than not an example of what happens in both small and very serious matters.

The citizen that does the right thing gets into trouble and one who dares to do wrong thrives — in everything — business, politics et all.

The situation prevailing in the country is what is known as abysmal lawlessness. To go by the law is to be the loser while the law breaker is the winner.

The all important question is how did this come about? How did this happen? The answer is very simple – it was by way of the country’s constitution, which was adopted in 1978. It was a constitution made to defeat law and discipline; to create an almighty ruler, who is above the law — a supremo — a brother who is number one.

The result is the chaos we see every day.

To fail to understand this is to fail to understand anything about Sri Lanka.

Without law, without control of corruption, what can policing mean, except what is depicted in this cartoon.

The case mentioned above took place a short time ago. For details please refer to the story below; (more…)

Filed under: abductions, Constitution, corruption, fundermental rights, illegal arrest, illegal detention, Judiciary, justice, police, politics, rule of law, Sri Lanka, torture, violations | Leave a Comment »

Sarath Fonseka of Sri Lanka and Sam Rainsy of Cambodia

Posted on October 4, 2010 by srilankalawlessness
 ”Cambodia and Sri Lanka have reached the same point of rejecting the liberal democratic foundations of their countries. The jailing of the opposition leaders of both countries is symbolic of the commonality of the political strategies and ideologies.”

What Sarath Fonseka and Sam Rainsy have in common is that they are the most popular opposition leaders in their countries and that they have been jailed for that very reason. Political popularity is treated as a serious crime in both countries, where the ruling parties are aspiring to create one party rule.

Here are some similarities between the political styles followed by the ruling regimes in both countries:

The ruling regimes enjoy more than 2/3 majority in their parliaments. Hun Sen in fact has 90 seats out of 123 in the parliament, in which Sam Rainsy’s party has 26 seats. When the first election was held after the Pol Pot period May 1993, the opposition party won the election and the party of the present Prime Minister Hun Sen lost despite of their having the territorial control of the largest part of Cambodia. However, through subsequent elections, Hun Sen’s party has gradually gained control of power and the Funcinpec party, which was the party created by the former king, Norodom Sihaneuk. From having the majority, the Funcinpec party, was reduced to two seats in 2008. The next opponent to the ruling party was Sam Rainsy and now he is being jailed on flimsy charges. The ruling regime controls the courts and is able to get whatever verdicts it wants on political matters. (more…)

Filed under: 17th Amendment, 18th Amenmend, Constitution, rule of law, Sri Lanka | Leave a Comment »

The last debate on the constitution

Posted on August 30, 2010 by srilankalawlessness

The way out is to create a smokescreen. To have lots of quarrels going on and when you have the monopoly of the media it is easy to do that. The very style of the media in recent years has changed in order to trivialize everything. Trivialization is an essential component of creating quarrels and quarrels are quite an easy way of trivializing any issue.

Sri Lanka has turned out to be a land of many quarrels but no debates. Often quarrels turns into violence, sometimes murder and even worst. And the violence itself leads to new quarrels and the circle goes on. Sadly however, hardly anything ever turns into a debate. Debate has become a lost art and no one even seems to remember what it is.

Take for example the question of the constitution. Among the debates of any nation, those on the constitutions would receive the highest place. Not so in Sri Lanka. No one any longer debates the constitution.

The last debate on the constitution was on the 17 amendment. There were many who argued for it and they did so long a long time. Interestingly, no one argued against it. The government’s argument was that it was good piece of legislation but that there were some defects in it. To cure the defect, the government killed the amendment itself; very much like cutting off the arm to save a finger.

In fact, in that last debate on the constitution, the government preferred to bluff rather than to debate. The real problem of the 17th Amendment was that it tried to impose limitations on the power of executive president. The limitations were on his powers to appoint whomever he wished to important positions in the civil service. The government did not agree with having any such limitations and did not wish to debate it. The government made the decision unilaterally and merely created some pretexts for doing do so. (more…)

Filed under: 17th Amendment, civil service, Constitution, Sri Lanka | Leave a Comment »

The failure of international journalism in Sri Lanka

Posted on June 29, 2010 by srilankalawlessness

“Today, what remains of democracy and the rule of law in Sri Lanka is no different to the dream that amputees have about the continued existence of their lost limbs. The phantom limb complex prevails, while in reality, justice is impossible for those who have been victims of political crimes, as well as those who have suffered serious crimes, such as murder or rape.”
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For many decades now, international journalists have interpreted every story that has emerged from Sri Lanka to be some kind of war story. Some journalists have proposed that Sri Lanka’s use of overwhelming force was able to eradicate terrorism in the country, and that other countries such as the United States, should follow suit. The pathetic failure of international journalism is demonstrated by these endeavours.

In recent years, Sri Lanka has undergone a systemic collapse, as the rule of law system and any semblance of democracy have crumbled. This is a story that has never been portrayed adequately by international journalists; instead, almost all journalists continue to refer to Sri Lanka as a democracy. Journalists focus on Sri Lanka as a war zone, and there is little reflection about the development of Sri Lanka outside of the discourse of war.
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Depuis maintenant plusieurs décennies, les journalistes internationaux ont interprété toutes les histoires venues du Sri Lanka comme autant d’histoires de guerre. Certains ont suggéré que l’utilisation massive de la force a permis d’éradiquer le terrorisme au Sri Lanka et que d’autres pays comme les Etats-Unis devraient suivre cet exemple. Ces tentatives d’analyse démontrent l’échec pathétique qu’a connu le journalisme international au Sri Lanka……..

Click here to read full text of this article in French

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In the south, the Sri Lankan government carried out one of the most ruthless acts of repression in history, killing tens of thousands of civilians between the 1970s and 1990s. (more…)

Filed under: abductions, Constitution, corruption, disappearances, extrajudicial killings, Judiciary, justice, media, rule of law, Sri Lanka | Leave a Comment »

Legal Profession and the Protection of Individual Liberties

Posted on March 5, 2010 by srilankalawlessness

 A few decades ago, Bunty De Soysa was one of Sri Lanka’s leading criminal lawyers; at one point, he was also president of the country’s Bar Association.In one case, he represented a group of young leftist radicals in court who were charged with offences relating to their political activities. During the course of the consultations for this case, the young radicals teased their lawyer, saying: “You lawyers only do these things for the money.” Mr. Bunty Soysa retorted with “one day, when you don’t have lawyers, then you will understand their value.”

Lawyers still exist in Sri Lanka, however, their power and influence have greatly diminished. Under those circumstances, people are beginning to understand what it means to be without vigorous and fearless legal representation. Today, the Sri Lankan public is forced to reflect on how the capacity of lawyers to protect the individual liberties of their clients has waned, and are beginning to examine ways in which they can fight back to regain this essential service. (more…)

Filed under: 17th Amendment, attorney general, Constitution, Constitutional Council, Judiciary, justice, politics, rule of law, Sri Lanka, Supreme Court | Leave a Comment »

A new lie – police training without constitutional reforms

Posted on February 27, 2010 by srilankalawlessness

Peter Mountford who returned from a visit to Sri Lanka writes in an article ‘Sri Lanka’s hr and free speech problems need international attention’ (Seattle Times Editorial 27th February):

At the core of Sri Lanka’s problems is a rotten constitution, which gives the president near dictatorial power. Opposition members in parliament are easily bought through cushy ministerial appointments, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court is appointed by the president.

This core problem about the constitution is no secret or mystery to anybody except for some people in the so-called Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights who claim that they are writing a human rights plan for Sri Lanka. In that plan there is nothing that deals with the ‘rotten constitution’ that creates the all the human rights problems in the country. In fact, the rotten constitution is the real disaster that the country is faced with. (more…)

Filed under: abductions, civil society, Constitution, corruption, disappearances, extrajudicial killings, fundermental rights, human rights, justice, media, police, politics, President, rule of law, Sri Lanka, Supreme Court | Leave a Comment »

Chanaka Amaratunga – A Sri Lankan liberal leader who had no followers

Posted on February 26, 2010 by srilankalawlessness

These days who would not want to think of liberalism? In a country where the idea of tolerance and individual freedom is totally lost, the idea of limited government isreplaced with the absolute power of a single man known as the executive president who is above the law and even the constitution. Where the notion of government depending on the consent of the people is replaced with the forcing of governments on people without elections that can be called free and fair, the opposition politics and the rights of citizens to overthrow a government that see their claim to their rights as nothing less than treachery, naturally anyone would want to dream of liberalism.

True, there is no liberal to be found anywhere in the country. No one even makes the claim of being a liberal anymore. Even those who made some noise at one time saying that the Sri Lankan constitution lacks checks and balances, that it has only the worst aspects of the French and the American constitutional models without having any of the better aspects of these traditions, that the executive presidential system of Sri Lanka was the creation of a political maniac who only wanted power for his own sake, (more…)

Filed under: Constitution, Constitutional Council, election violence, executive presidential system, fundermental rights, justice, politics, rule of law, Sri Lanka | 1 Comment »

The crisis of the Electoral Commission

Posted on January 18, 2010 by srilankalawlessness

“Re-establishment of the authority of public institutions, including that of the election commissioner, and the regaining of the constitutional process within a system that effectively recognizes the separation of powers principles, would require understanding of the recent problems in a different manner.”

The groups engaged in monitoring into the election have reported about flagrant violations of election laws, use of state assets illegally and the use of violence, noting that in Sri Lanka today the collapse of the electoral system on an unprecedented scale is taking place. The election commissioners own comments about the absence of cooperation between him and the government have also been very widely reported.

None of these observations would come as a surprise to anyone who has been an observer of the constitutional process in Sri Lanka. The collapse of public institutions has taken place over a long period of time and the whole debate on the 17th amendment to the constitution is merely a reflection of the extent of this collapse. The source of the collapse is the very nature of the constitutional arrangement in the 1978 constitution, which has placed all power in the hands of a single person who holds the office of the Executive President.

The collapse of all public institutions, including the electoral process, is the necessary result of the political process initiated through the introduction of the executive presidential system. The existence of the executive presidential system in Sri Lanka and any form of democratic government, or even a rational government, are incompatible. (more…)

Filed under: 17th Amendment, civil society, civil war, Constitution, corruption, crime, election violence, fundermental rights, human rights, Judiciary, justice, President, rule of law, Sri Lanka | Leave a Comment »

Executive Presidential System – A constitutional development based on distrust

Posted on January 8, 2010 by srilankalawlessness

The development of the Sri Lankan constitutions from 1972 was mainly based on the distrust that began to manifest itself after the system of governance introduced through the 1947 Constitution was in existence for several decades.

The government that brought about the 1972 Constitution was a coalition government which considered itself a progressive government as against what it described as a conservative government of the past. The United National Party was considered the party of the more conservative sections of society and also, only one that represented the richer elements. The three parties that constituted the coalition government considered themselves as belonging to the left and as having a programme of development of development which was different to the programmes that existed in the past.

This coalition government looked at the government bureaucracy in the civil service as well as the judiciary with suspicion. In the view of the progressive government the civil service was a more conservative apparatus and the new progressives feared the judiciary of the time as being more conservative (more…)

Filed under: civil service, Constitution, Judiciary, President, Prime minister, rule of law, Sri Lanka | 1 Comment »

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