The Island Editorial

Wooing a spent force

17 December 2016

 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan have, with the blessings of President Maithripala Sirisena, sought former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s support for the government’s constitutional efforts, according to a recent Hindu report.

Why is the government so keen to involve Rajapaksa in its constitution making process? PM Wickremesinghe has provided the answer in an interview with The Hindu: The government is confident of mustering the required numbers in Parliament to ensure the passage of the Constitution to be made, but Rajapaksa’s supporters will be crucial to a favourable vote in a countrywide referendum.

The existing Constitution is seriously flawed and the need for a robust supreme law cannot be overemphasised. But, devolution, or any other single issue, must not be the be-all and end-all of a constitution if it is to have a wider application and be acceptable to all stakeholders. Regrettably, those who have undertaken to write a new constitution are manically focused only on devolution.

Following the conclusion of the war, international pressure was ratcheted up on the Rajapaksa government to set up the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) in keeping with the 13th Amendment to solve the problems of the northern people. Has the NPC been of any help to the people struggling to rebuild their lives? The raison d’être of that provincial administration is to clash with the centre, pass resolutions against the state and demand more and more powers. Shouldn’t the NPC prove that the powers it is already vested with can be used to help improve the people’s lot before asking for more? Regrettably, the conduct of the ruling NPC members, some of whom are also involved in commemorating dead Tigers, bolsters their critics’ view that they are trying to achieve the LTTE’s goal politically by using the 13th Amendment as a launching pad for federalism with a view to achieving autonomy later on.

Let the SLFP, the UNP, the TNA, and the SLMC reveal their constitutional proposals before urging others to do so. If the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition together with its partners in progress such as the TNA, present a set of constitutional proposals acceptable to all stakeholders, then the need for seeking the Rajapaksa’s help to implement the new Constitution won’t simply arise. The Joint Opposition will have to fall in line in such an eventuality. How the 19th Amendment was implemented is a case in point.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration vilifies the Rajapaksas at every turn as a bunch of thieves who have ruined this country, and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has, in his interview with The Hindu, written off former President Rajapaksa as a spent force. So, why should the government go behind him seeking his backing for its constitution making project? Doesn’t it think its dependence on Rajapaksa will not be to the liking of its western masters and the Tamil Diaspora?

It boggles one’s mind why the government should go behind the Rajapaksas. It has within its ranks former war winning Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, who the UNP says, would have defeated the LTTE with or without the Rajapaksas’ political leadership for the war effort and Minister Champika Ranawaka, an ardent champion of the Sinhala Buddhist cause; it also has the backing of the civil society outfit founded by the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, whose patriotism was never in question. So, the government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena, who takes pride in having served as the acting Defence Minister at the height of the war, should be able to secure the support of the majority community for the constitution to be made. After all, PM Wickremesinghe has declared in his interview with The Hindu: "We’re all patriots, we’re all nationalists ... What we will decide on the nature of the state and other issues will be acceptable to everyone."

One of the present government’s main election promises was to bring the Rajapaksas to justice for what it called the plunder of public property, abuse of power and various corrupt deals. Therefore, shouldn’t the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration do everything in its power to fulfil that pledge instead of trying to enlist the Rajapaksas’ support for its constitution making project?