Ceylon Today Editorial

JR’s creation in flames

28 September 2016

Yesterday, this newspaper reported that two British constitutional experts were in town this week to help the government to formulate a new Constitution.

A new Constitution has been in the pipeline since the advent of the new Unity Government comprising President Maithripala Sirisena from the UPFA/SLFP coalition and Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe from the UNF/UNP coalition, last year.

As reported on a daily on its 11 December 2015 issue, which, quoting Wickremesinghe, said, that the pivots of the new Constitution would be power devolution, electoral reform and the replacement of the executive presidential system.

Due to space constraints, this editorial will dwell on the replacement of the executive presidential system.

Replacement of the executive presidential system would be driving the final nail on the coffin of Wickremesinghe's uncle J.R. Jayewardene's workmanship, who 50 years ago, outlining his vision for an executive presidential style of government, said, "....The executive is chosen directly by the people and is not dependent on the legislature during its period of existence, for a specified number of years. Such an executive is a strong executive seated in power for a fixed number of years, not subject to the whims and fancies of an elected legislature; not afraid to take correct but unpopular decisions because of censure from its parliamentary party...."

Jayewardene made this statement in 1966 as the guest of honour at the then Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science annual sessions, where, Jayewardene, was the Minister of State of the Dudley Senanayake Government.

However, he had to wait for 12 years till 1978, with the enactment of the Second Republican Constitution that year, to see his dream realize, with he himself being at the helm, as Sri Lanka's first Executive President.

Nevertheless, his nephew Wickremesinghe is now trying to tear down this Constitution and replace it with it a brand new one.

Nonetheless, Jayewardene's dream of an executive presidency was due to the ruination caused to governments, which since independence and at least up to 1965, in which year the Senanayake Government was elected to power,were ruled by coalitions, thereby having to bend to the 'whim and fancy' of coalition partners in order for the lead parties which formed such coalitions, merely to stay on in power.

Nevertheless, the executive presidential system of government, since its introduction in 1978, was subjected to abuse and reached the zenith of such abuse, especially during the time Mahinda Rajapaksa, the immediately preceding President, was in power during the period November 2005 to January 2015.

However, the call for the replacement of the Executive Presidency is not something new. It was on the premise of this promise, that Ms. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's coalition was elected to power in August 1994. But once in power, Kumaratunga, enjoying the plums of office, continued to retain the Executive Presidency.

Similarly, in 2005, Rajapaksa was elected to power with the promise of abolishing the Executive Presidency. But once in power, he not only retained that system of government, but further reinforced its powers.

In fairness to Sirisena, no sooner he was elected to power in January 2015, he brought in a series of laws to whittle down the Executive Presidency, by restoring its two terms (which Rajapaksa had changed to virtual perpetuity) and also the independent commissions.

There is a school of thought which believes that 19 amendments to the present Constitution are enough and the country, to 'go forward', needs a new Constitution. It's with that thinking that a new Constitution, sans an Executive Presidency, has been parroted by the Unity Government.

Daily News

Pot calling the kettle black

28 September 2016

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader and Colombo District UPFA parliament cum Joint Opposition spokesman Udaya Gammanpila wants the Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran arrested for inciting racism. The remark couldn’t have been funnier if not for its serious connotations. Because if the Chief Minister were to be arrested on the basis of inciting racism Gammanpila and his comrades in the JO should necessarily follow suit. Nay, they should have thrown behind bars many moons ago.

In this column, the other day, we admonished the CM in no uncertain terms for playing with fire, so to speak. We also mentioned that the more he holds the type of demonstrations that was witnessed in the Jaffna town, the more he would be giving ammunition to the likes of Gammanpila to set the south on fire. In fact UNP Colombo District MP S. M. Marikkar commenting on the Jaffna demo voiced his concern if in fact Vigneswaran had cut a deal with the Joint Opposition with a view to place the government in an awkward position. Perhaps uppermost in his mind would have been the deal reached by Mahinda Rajapaksa with Prabhakaran in 2005 that saw an enforced boycott by the Northern electorate that denied Ranil Wickremesinghe the coveted prize of the Presidency. Hence deals are nothing new to the Rajapaksa clan and by extension, it is presumed, to the Joint Opposition.

Be that as it may, Gammanpila is the last person who can point the finger at others for inciting racism, having thrived on it during the length of his brief political career. It is this self same Gammanpila who even went to the extent of attempting to redefine the National Flag by replacing it with another, with a design bearing only the Lion and shedding those features depicting minority representation. Gammanpila, it was, who went ballistic at the idea of singing the national Anthem in the Tamil Language when this was permitted in the Constitution to which he swore allegiance when he took his oaths as an MP. Who can forget the rowdy scenes at a court house some time ago when the Colombo District MP arrived to secure the release of some Buddhist monks who were taken into custody for misbehaving in courts. Why only this special affinity for Buddhist monks who had fallen foul of the law, unless the gesture was pregnant with racist overtones.

Gammanpila and his ilk who accuse the Northern Province Chief Minister for inciting racism should bear in mind that this is exactly what his boss is guilty of doing in the south. Can he deny that all the speeches made at the temples by Mahinda Rajapaksa are devoid of racist overtones. The difference is only in degree. The former President who boasts of vanquishing the LTTE is today lamenting the release of land occupied by the army to their original owners, giving the lie to his boasts. Are not such remarks with a racist tinge to them? What about the claim by MR in the immediate aftermath of his defeat on January 08 that he was done in by the votes of the Tigers? This, after shouting from the roof tops that the LTTE was now history. If this is not racism can Gammanpila explain what is? The PHU leader who these days is hitting all round the wicket in a frenzy also claims that Vigneswaran could be arrested by the FCID for using state property for the controversial Ezhuga Tamiz (rise ye Tamils) on the basis that an official letter head was used with Government seal to invite people to the protest. It is well known that all political parties in the south abuse state property to bring crowds to their May Day rallies and political party conventions. The recent Pada Yatra held by the Joint Opposition saw a number of state vehicles belonging to the UPFA controlled Provincial Councils being used. Is Gammanpila suggesting that using state resources - on this occasion a government letterhead and some vehicles belonging to the Northern Provincial Council - is strictly the preserve of the South and a cardinal sin if they are used by the Northern Provincial Council, wrong and a punishable offence as it may be?

Let the likes of Udaya Gammanpila know that the Northern Province Chief Minister is as much a politician as Mahinda Rajapaksa, and like the latter, is not averse to whipping up communalism to garner votes at elections as does the politicians in the North who like their counterparts in the South are wont to whip up communalism for political gain. Hence this is not a state of affairs confined to the North. All actors are in the game of politics. What is needed is to offer all sides a level playing field, in the realm of human rights, allaying suspicions and the right to live as equals in a united undivided Sri Lanka. That alone is the solution that would cut into all differences between the communities enabling all to live as equal citizens in an undivided Sri Lanka.

The Island Editorial

Gestapo!

28 September 2016

 

Those who read yesterday’s lead story in this newspaper about a very serious complaint that the CID had tapped a senior judge’s telephones and hacked his personal email may have wondered whether they were rereading an extract from George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty Four, where Big Brother controls everyone and everything.

President’s Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya deserves praise for having drawn the attention of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) to the Gestapo style operations allegedly carried out by the CID, which is apparently doing full-time political work these days. He has called upon the BASL to take up the cudgels for the judges who are under surveillance and suffering affronts to their dignity at the hands of some pro-government propagandists.

When the Trial-at-Bar judgment in the so-called White Flag case was delivered in 2011 some politicos in the garb of lawyers who could not stomach it went berserk, heaping as they did abuse on the two judges who found former Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka guilty. They even smashed up furniture in the court house and abused a beleaguered lady judge in raw filth. The police had to escort her to safety.

The BASL did not care to act against the rowdies within its ranks while urging the then government to respect the independence and dignity of the judiciary. We, in this space, called upon the BASL to have the incident thoroughly probed and the culprits punished, but its bigwigs let the thugs in black coats get away with that serious offence. If an ordinary person ever so much as lets out an ostentatious yawn in a court he is thrown behind bars immediately! Are lawyers above the law?

True, there are some judges of easy virtue, so to speak, who have sold their souls to the powers that be. They keep their courts open on Poya Days and till midnight to release government politicians on bail and remand Opposition activists. But, vilification is certainly not the way to deal with any member of the judiciary. Every institution has its share of such bad eggs tarnishing its image.

A drug baron had upright High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya gunned down by contract killers in 2004. Some politicians and their henchmen are contracting propaganda hit men masquerading as media personnel to carry out character assassination operations against judges who refuse to toe their line.

The BASL was one of the professional outfits instrumental in paving the way for the formation of the present administration last year. It cannot absolve itself of the responsibility for protecting judges from its friends in power, who promised to ensure the judicial independence.

Safeguarding judges’ right to hear cases, deliver judgments and dissent without fear or favour is a prerequisite for protecting judicial independence. Nobody must be allowed to stage protests anywhere near courts and the practice of dashing coconuts, on the pretext of invoking divine intervention, in a bid to influence judges must be banned forthwith. Those who are responsible for intimidating judges must be severely dealt with.

When the self-appointed campaigners for good governance, after capturing power last year, set up what they called the National Executive Council to restore, inter alia, judicial independence, we called some of its members’ eligibility into question. We pointed out that one of them had threatened a judge and his supporters had stoned a court. Rishad Bathiudeen is his name. Now, the ‘yahapalana’ guys have laid bare their true faces!

The present government has earned notoriety for its shameless efforts to sweep mega rackets such as the Central Bank bond scams, a multi-billion-rupee coal tender, fraudulent release of more than one hundred SUVs from the custody of the Customs, under the carpet. It is shielding lawbreakers unashamedly. Therefore, it is not likely to probe the intimidation of judges and vilification campaign against them unless pressure is ratcheted up. Will the BASL rise to the occasion by way of making atonement for its past sins? Appointment of committees which will drag on until the issues concerned die down or are eclipsed by others won’t do.

In 2012, the BASL staged a countrywide strike demanding the arrest of Minister Bathiudeen and others over the attack on the Mannar court complex. Will it resort to similar action in respect of vilification campaigns against judges, the tapping of their phones and the hacking of their emails as well?