Sunday Island Editorial

Another shot at scuttling executive presidency?

Sunday 15th November 2015

 

The affection that Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha was held among the people of this country, largely because of the role he played in making a regime change possible early this year, was amply demonstrated by the turnout at his funeral and the sorrow evident by his premature departure from this world to continue his sansaric journey. The age of 73-years at which he passed on is beyond the psalmist’s span of threescore years and ten which, in today’s context of life expectancy, is more usual than unusual. The psalm continues to say that if the 70-year mark is passed and "if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Did that mean that if Ven. Sobitha had lived beyond the allotted span, his "labor and sorrow" would have been to keep his vision of good governance on track in a world peopled by venal politicians incapable of keeping their promises? Prof. Carlo Fonseka who is not given to writing loosely has strongly implied a medical misadventure as the cause of the venerable monk’s death. Be that as it may; it is well known that bypasses are common today and the success rates extraordinarily high. But that was not to be and the venerable monk who would have been better able than most to keep yahapalana on track is no more to the detriment of this country.

Nevertheless his passing has resurrected the now largely forgotten issue of abolishing the executive presidency. President Sirisena, surprising many, said in his eulogy to Ven. Sobitha that he would do "everything in his power" to make that vision a reality. Does this mean that the president after nearly a year of executive office is willing to become a symbolic president? Or does he wish to be prime minister under a new order? If that is so, what is going to happen to Ranil Wickremesinghe? Or, if as Sirisena publicly stated on the occasion of assuming office, does he not intend running for a second term; and he plans to make the office unavailable at the end of his current term to any other aspirant? Aspirants, of course, are not lacking, everybody knows. Politics has been good for most that have ascended its heights and assumed high office. So who will spurn the highest office as Ven. Sobitha did when he was urged to be the common candidate. He agreed to run only if there was no alternative.

The promise of abolishing the executive presidency was made by President Chandrika Kumaratunga but that was not to be for reasons that were not entirely of her own making. President Mahinda Rajapaksa too pledged to abolish the office. The icing on that cake was that he not only did not keep that promise but also went on to amend the Constitution abolishing not the presidency but the two-term limit on that office. He completed that project successfully, engineering a two thirds majority he could not win at the preceding election, and shot himself in the foot seeking a third term at a prematurely called presidential election! Perhaps the best placed president to have abolished the executive presidency was President D.B. Wijetunga who was thrust on the throne by President Premadasa’s assassination. He sought nothing further for himself but retirement and was ideally placed to broker a deal between the UNP and the SLFP to achieve that much desired objective at that time. But that was a missed opportunity thanks to presidential aspirations and ambitions of others.

It is no secret that many of those who backed the regime change, as much as Ven. Sobitha himself, had and have grave reservations on how well yahapalana or good governance is working out. There is a suspicion particularly among UNP supporters that the president, after winning on Jan. 8, had his own agenda and did not support the UNP as much as he could have to win at least a simple majority at the August general election by delaying the dissolution of parliament. Admittedly the president, though he neither sought nor solicited the leadership of the SLFP, had it thrust upon him with the full blessings of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. That placed him in a difficult situation. Wisdom ex post facto decrees that he could easily have said that he is president of the whole country and not only of members/supporters of the UNP or SLFP and remained neutral. Or he could have backed those who hoisted him to office at the parliamentary election in the best spirit of kelehi guna deneema. In the event, he was inactive in the campaign though he made his moves by making his loyalists secretaries of the SLFP and the UPFA – vital positions for nominating candidates. While he made no bones that he would not have Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister, even if the former president had the backing of the majority of parliament, the outcome of the election did not compel him to adopt an unconstitutional course. Insiders say that Ven Sobitha wanted Sirisena to distance himself from the election campaign.

Post-election developments like giving national list places to defeated loyalists and giving them positions in the government did little credit to the president. But the balance of power in the SLFP/UPFA between himself and the man he defeated in January influenced these decisions for which Sirisena has taken the flak. Appointments of relatives to public office by ministers (the president himself appointed his brother SLT chairman and took his son to the UN on the country’s delegation) and the recent slanging matches over Avant Garde between ministers of the government, while not threatening its existence, has sent unwelcome signals to the country. We report today that the government seems to have lost interest in the much talked about electoral reforms and it is unlikely that these would be in place at least for the local government elections next year. These elections too, it appears, may be held later than they should. Friday’s budget and the debate that will follow will be the next major event on the political calendar. Given the way events are panning out, they will not be devoid of excitement.