{"id":19902,"date":"2013-04-10T19:27:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T23:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=19902"},"modified":"2013-04-10T21:57:53","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T01:57:53","slug":"potential-contenders-against-mahinda-rajapaksa-for-reform-of-the-executive-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=19902","title":{"rendered":"Potential Contenders Against Mahinda Rajapaksa For Reform of the Executive Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Vishnuguptha<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCommitment: a pledge or promise; obligation. If you’re gonna carry out its meaning 1st you have to know what it means.\u201d ~ Unknown quote<\/em><\/p>\n

\"7th<\/a>

7th Deyata Kirula Exhibition, Ampara-Mar 23, 2013-pic via: facebook.com\/NamalSL<\/p><\/div>\n

To paraphrase Leonard Wolf in the Village in the Jungle: \u201call power is evil, but there is no power more evil than that is invested in the current Executive Presidency in Sri Lanka.\u201d<\/strong> The enormity of powers, the sheer absolute authority and influence the (ab)user wields over the subject people, its telling might on the subordinate officers\u2019 free-will, its decisive advantages over the competitors in the field and its flagrant abuse by successive holders of office have contributed to it being an almost omnipotent position in the presence of which even Caesar would have trembled. So enormous is the power of Executive Presidency and its inherent powers.
\n
\nWhen the founder of this massive office, J R Jayewardene assumed its reins, he the great Anglophile he was, resisted the creation of a centralized cabal of coterie around him. Such a coterie, consisting mainly of advisors and consultants close to the office-holder and who necessarily would not have come from the parliamentary ranks but handpicked from his personal friends and associates and, J R would have presumed, might have contributed to a gradual but sure decline of the healthy concept of collective responsibility of the Cabinet, an essential built-in ingredient in the Westminster system of government which we inherited from the British Raj. Instead, he depended on his Cabinet colleagues.<\/p>\n

His main political advice and consultancy was drawn from those parliamentarians, the most senior and capable of whom were fittingly elected Members of Parliament. When the function of advice and consent was relegated to an unelected, hand-picked cabal, what suffers most was the accountability factor. It started with President Premadasa and is continuing to date with expanded powers and scope of influence and the evil hands of Presidential powers have reached alarming extents. There does not seem to be any checkmating mechanism to counter this most unhealthy and draconian process. <\/p>\n

An ugly and obscene power-cabal has been built around the President and the decline in the power and influence of Parliament and the Judiciary has accelerated at a rapid rate and with an alacrity which seems far too crazy for any sane person to control and regulate. It is a natural evolution of a process that is steeped in nepotism, favoritism and naked corruption. Cabinet Ministers have been reduced to rubber-stamp puppets; novice parliamentarians have been appointed to overlook senior Ministers, favorite Ministers have been identified and given the task of attacking top bureaucrats and other senior Ministers. In other words, the Presidential powers have eaten into the very fabric of government and the decay in the texture seems so obvious and the gaping holes look more evident and larger to fill in. Such are the Presidential powers enshrined in the 1978 Constitution. <\/p>\n

The father of that Constitution, J R Jayewardene may not have foreseen these grave ill-effects of his creation; he may have surmised that his successors would exercise the same degree of self-discipline which he selectively exercised in office with regard to its powers. But he was sadly mistaken about his successors. Today Sri Lanka is paying very dearly for those costly misreads of J R Jayewardene. Premadasa made a text book case of how to use and abuse the extraordinarily \u2018dictatorial\u2019 powers inherent in that office and showed his successors how to use them without reference to the Cabinet of Ministers. This ignoble example set by Premadasa was followed through to an increasing concentration of powers in the Executive Presidency by Chandrika Kumaranatunge and now is being pursued to an exceedingly extravagant extent by the current holder of the office. <\/p>\n

The ill-effects of the Executive Presidency are being largely reflected by the extraordinary level to which the current holder has devalued his office, especially in the sphere of nepotism. The obscene lengths this practice of nepotism has gone to and the entrenched one single family and its immediate coterie of relatives has completely eclipsed all past indulgences of the Bandaranaike clan led by the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party that once resembled something like the private property of the Bandaranaikes has now become personal assets of the Rajapaksa family. <\/p>\n

A significant transfer of power has taken place-only from one family to another. The same way that the N M Pereras and the Keunemans worshipped Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, today the Amunugamas and the G L Peirises and the clans are doing one or two notches better. All pride, dignity and self-respect have been sacrificed at the altar of power and might. Even the offspring of the current President are being treated with awe and fear reminding one of how a certain Inspector General of Police (IGP) used to carry the cigarette tin for Anura Bandaranaike during the heydays of Sirimavo. <\/p>\n

Power has such a corrosive effect on all human endeavor and its users and abusers handle it with varying aptitudes and desires. History has bestowed those who used it with a self-imposed sense of discipline and respect for human dignity with tribute and praise. Their names decorate the pages of history while those who brandished the same power with venom and hatred to achieve selfish ends are castigated in the same pages of history. The curse of the people and scorn of the readers of those histories are well-owned and earned by these corrupt traders of power and political might. <\/p>\n

Viewed in such a context of complex development of political power in Sri Lanka, what was suggested by Venerable Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thero by way of an amendment to the Sri Lanka\u2019s Constitution deserves comment and critical analysis by all academics, intellectuals and decision-makers in the country. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, personally I cannot endorse the tinge of \u2018affirmative action\u2019 approach the proposed amendment is suggesting to the current crisis in ethno-relations between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils on the one hand and the one developing between the Sinhalese and the Muslim communities. Such affirmative action approach would invariably lead to further sharpening of the racial divisions among the various ethnic groups and the polarization process such affirmative action sets in, would be disturbing to the overall development of Sri Lankan society as a whole. The provision for two Vice Presidents representing ethnic groups other than the one representing the office of the proposed non-Executive President would create that impression of affirmative action-based approach. <\/p>\n

But the main question remains as to the person who could be trusted with enacting the reforms if and when he or she is elected. The Sri Lankan electorate had been repeatedly deceived in this respect. Once by the Bandaranaikes and then by the Rajapaksas and there is no guarantee that the people who would go to the polling station would have the sufficient degree of trust and faith in the candidate who is proposing such reforms. The selection of a candidate who could enjoy such unmitigated trust of the people is the most important and crucial task. This candidate would not only have to be utterly impeccable in personal integrity, he needs the essential ingredient of a politician who could win votes against a very popular President. That combination indeed is a very rare commodity in today\u2019s political market place. <\/p>\n

I have already expressed my reservations about the traces of \u2018affirmative action\u2019 that the proposed Amendment to the Constitution that intends to replace the Executive Presidency is suggesting. I do not wish to dwell on it any further but wish to state that if no other compromising formula is spelt out and available, I would go with the proposed Amendment rather than accept the current Executive Presidency system that has had social, political and economic repercussions on a remarkably progressive scale. <\/p>\n

However, one must realize that in order to implement the policies and principles of a given political platform, one must make sure that particular political platform has more than a fighting chance at the polls. Various agendas have been suggested by various quarters at various times during the last two decades, but all these agendas that advocated the abolition of the Executive Presidency system fell flat after the winner took office.<\/p>\n

In the case of Chandrika Kumaranatunge, it was sheer ineptness and lack of desire on her part to depart from her natural tendency to acquire absolute power while in the case of the present ruler, he gives the unambiguous impression that he is determined to pass down the baton of power to his offspring, if not to his siblings. His greed for staying in power was even more evident in the manner in which the infamous 18th Amendment to the Sri Lanka Constitution was \u2018passaged\u2019 through Parliament. Mahinda Rajapaksa and renunciation of power apparently are two paradigms that are diametrically opposed to each other. On the other hand, the present cry for abolition of the Executive Presidency is a direct result of Rajapaksa\u2019s propensity to cling on to power at all costs.<\/p>\n

Against such a bleak backdrop, the current political field has some serious contenders who might have, as was pointed out earlier, more than a fighting chance at the next Presidential polls. The following list, consisting of prominent men and women, has been compiled by me after rendering due consideration to various factors that usually \u2018matter\u2019 in a national election. Readers must note that the names are arranged in the alphabetical order based on the last name of each candidate. There is no weightage, I repeat, none whatsoever, given to any other factor in the order. Let us examine them one by one. <\/p>\n

\u2022\tBandaranaike, Chandrika
\n\u2022\tDr. Bandaranayake Shirani
\n\u2022\tGeneral Fonseka Sarath
\n\u2022\tGunasekera S L
\n\u2022\tJayasuriya, Karu
\n\u2022\tVenerable Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thero
\n\u2022\tPremadasa Sajith
\n\u2022\tWarawewa W T M P B
\n\u2022\tWickremesinghe, Ranil
\n\u2022\t<\/em><\/p>\n

Chandrika Bandaranaike<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chandrika Bandaranaike was elected to the office of President of Sri Lanka after the tragic death of the then UNP Presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake who was slain by the Liberation Tiger of Tami Ealam (LTTE) during the Presidential campaign of 1994. After assuming power under such tragic conditions and disorderly circumstances and on a platform that promised the electorate that the Executive Presidency would be abolished, unfortunately that very abolition was the last thing on her mind. Chandrika not only reneged on her electoral pledge but she also began an era of disorderly pattern of governance and the extent to which she reached out to humiliate and ridicule her opponents surpassed many landmarks set by her predecessors, both J R Jayewardene and R Premadasa. <\/p>\n

Her rule during the two terms in which she managed to secure herself in the exalted halls of power, had no parallel in all of Sri Lanka\u2019s history. Inefficiency in administration, unchecked waste, appalling sense of punctuality, \u2018unpresidential\u2019 language she used on public platforms, unleashing the cruel sensitivities of some of her Cabinet Ministers: all contributed to one of the most forgettable governances of the land from King Vijaya downwards. <\/p>\n

Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake hit the headlines after she was impeached in the most lopsided way, by the present regime. The sheer travesty that was enacted and displayed in her removal from the office of Chief Justice created many a shock in the Colombo legal circles. The very whispering of her name generated waves and many an observer and listener were sent into hiding for the effects of the fear-psychosis had such drastically alienating influence. Yet she created an enormous amount of sympathy among the intelligentsia and academics around Colombo and other major town centers. Yet the failure on the part of the Opposition to carry the \u2018impeachment story\u2019 to the streets and the general masses had a dampening effect on the whole episode.<\/p>\n

General Sarath Fonseka<\/strong><\/p>\n

General Sarath Fonseka made an unsuccessful attempt at the last Presidential Elections. However, though he lost, he managed to score the highest number of votes for a losing candidate, both as a raw number and a percentage, surpassing all numbers recorded after the present leader of the UNP assumed office. Much has been written about General Fonseka and in fact, of all political leaders of today, he stands as the most popular leader next to President Rajapaksa. <\/p>\n

S L Gunasekera<\/strong><\/p>\n

S L Gunasekera is a President\u2019s Counselcil and a well-known figure among the Colombo intelligentsia and political activists. The innumerable occasions on which he has shown his guts and courage against all odds have spoken volumes for his determination and the image of unimpeachable honesty and integrity has created an aura around this gentleman and that alone would go a long way to measure him in good stead. The special stand he took in the instance of the impeachment motion against Chief Justice Bandaranayake won him many friends.<\/p>\n

Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith Premadasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith Premadasa launched an unsuccessful attempt at displacing Ranil Wickremesinghe from the leadership of the United National Party. They won many a friend and ally during that time but it is not clear whether those friends and allies are still there with Karu and Sajith at the moment. The emerging realities of the present day politics might eclipse their stature unless they adapt themselves to a more robust and daring journey in politics. Jawaharlal Nehru said that \u201cbeing too cautious could be the greatest risk that one can take\u201d and in that context, both Karu and Sajith might have to rethink their approach to politics and general strategy. <\/p>\n

Venerable Maduluwawe Sobhitha<\/strong><\/p>\n

Venerable Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thero has shown tremendous courage and leadership in initiating the process of amending the 1978 Constitution. At a time when almost all religious dignitaries have, perhaps with the exception of the High Priest of Malwatte Chapter , chosen to keep mum about the unjust way the Government is run and the general mayhem created by the henchmen of the ruling clan, Venerable Sobhitha Thero\u2019s efforts need to be applauded without any qualification. <\/p>\n

W T M P B Warawewa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warawewa came to the limelight solely due to his delivering the dissenting judgment on the infamous \u2018White Flag Case\u2019 that was filed against General Fonseka. Coupled with this, his involvement with the drafting of the proposed Constitutional Amendments gave additional momentum to his being talked about as a potential political candidate who could be trusted. <\/p>\n

Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ranil Wickremesinghe stands alone as the perennial loser among all these contenders. His lack of leadership qualities and his being identified with the powers that be has only scorn from the diehard UNP supporters and the middle-of-the-road intelligentsia. Eighteen years in the dump- yard of election-losses do not augur well for a potential contender. His most untimely utterances and unwise political stances taken at critical times have reaped the harvest and the people have taken a decisive stand with regard to this contender. Not paragraphs and chapters but books could be penned about the way in which Rail has brought down the most celebrated political party of Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n

Final observations<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was only a cursory attempt at identification that was made by me regarding each of these contenders. However, the critical factors that would determine the winner of the Presidential Elections are:<\/p>\n

1.\tName Recognition
\n2.\tVisionary Image
\n3.\tWinner Image
\n4.\tClear principles and policies
\n5.\tOrganization
\n6.\tMoney
\n7.\tTRUST of the People that the pledge given would be fulfilled. The ultimate deliverable is the abolition of the Executive Presidency and the candidate that is chosen would be judged by the people on the TRUST factor and whether the word given by the candidate in the past has been delivered. <\/em><\/p>\n

The choice is yours.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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By Vishnuguptha \u201cCommitment: a pledge or promise; obligation. If you’re gonna carry out its meaning 1st you have to know what it means.\u201d ~ Unknown quote To paraphrase Leonard Wolf in the Village in the Jungle: \u201call power is evil, but there is no power more evil than that is invested in the current Executive …<\/p>\n

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