The Island Editorial

Executive presidency going, going …

Thursday 19th November 2015

Wielding unbridled executive powers is like chasing the dragon. Being out of power or going political cold turkey is torture for politicians.

Late Presidents, J. R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa, in spite of their failings and abuse of power, were less hypocritical than their successors anent the executive presidency. They neither pretended to have any aversion to that institution nor offered to scrap it. They made no bones about their desire to arrogate to themselves more and more power.

All presidents have promised to abolish the executive presidency since 1994. President Chandrika Kumaratunga derisively called that institution a bibikkama (a kind of cheap cake popular among ordinary people) and made a vow to do away with it. But, that became one of her broken promises. Her successor Mahinda Rajapaksa also came to power, promising to abolish the executive presidency. Instead, he kept himself busy enhancing powers vested therein.

There is no bigger fool than a person who dupes himself into believing that politicians in this country ask for mandates to serve the public and are averse to excessive power.

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday presented to the Cabinet a proposal seeking to abolish the executive presidency. That is what he has been elected for. The common opposition made a solemn pledge to scrap that institution while mitigating people’s economic woes. They fielded Sirisena for that purpose and obtained a popular mandate. Ven. Sobitha Thera has ceased to trouble them as regard their unfulfilled promises, but their conscience apparently hasn’t.

Now that the government is in a position to muster a two-thirds majority in Parliament it has to make good its promises without further delay.

Drafting a new constitution is too serious a task to be left to the self-appointed constitutional experts who represent the interests of political parties or other organisations. Nor should any effort be made to accomplish that task in a hurry. The government worthies who have taken upon that task ought to heed the oxymoronic adage, festina lente (‘make haste slowly). There is no need for another 100-day project!

The present Constitution is riddled with flaws, as is common knowledge. Governance becomes well nigh impossible when the President and the Prime Minister, representing rival parties, happen to be at loggerheads. The ship of state found itself in the constitutional doldrums from 2001 to 2004 with the President and the Prime Minister, from the SLFP and the UNP respectively, at each other’s jugular until Parliament was dissolved prematurely. Luckily, such a situation was averted following the Jan. 08 presidential polls because the antipathy of the chief architects of the regime change towards the Rajapaksas and their fear of a ‘counter revolution’ served as a providential wind to keep the ship of state moving.

The constitutional amendments are also full of serious flaws. The less said about the 13th Amendment of Indian origin, the better! Even the 17th Amendment, which is unarguably one of the few progressive pieces of legislation, was also full of gaping holes. The 18-A was simply one of the worst constitutional amendments the world has ever seen. Those who backed it unashamedly deserve to be publicly flogged! That they voted for it under duress is no excuse. The 19th Amendment is also not without flaws as evident from the provision for expanding the Cabinet on some flimsy pretext.

The Constitution with so many things crammed into it looks like pissige pala malla or ‘a mad woman’s bag of green leaves’ as a local saying goes. It is a total mess. If the executive presidency is to be abolished as promised, there will arise many practical problems especially in respect of the provincial councils. Stakeholders belonging to all ethnicities and religions and holding different political views have to be involved in the task of writing a new constitution. There should be ample time and space for a public discussion on the subject and dissenting views should be taken on board.

During the last few months, we have reported a number of incidents where several workers got buried alive under the walls they were pulling down as they made a botch of their job. Politically speaking, it behoves the would-be drafters of a new constitution to ensure that a similar fate won’t befall the nation. Caution is called for.

It is hoped that President Sirisena’s proposal which has passed muster with the Cabinet won’t be sent to the blast chiller and then consigned to cold storage.