{"id":27182,"date":"2013-12-18T22:49:42","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T03:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=27182"},"modified":"2013-12-18T22:49:42","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T03:49:42","slug":"ranilkarusajithsobhithashiraneewho-among-these-can-be-trusted-to-abolish-the-executive-presidency-after-becoming-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=27182","title":{"rendered":"Ranil,Karu,Sajith,Sobhitha&Shiranee:Who among these can be Trusted to Abolish the Executive Presidency After Becoming President?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/p>\n

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


\n\u201cIt is more shameful to distrust one’s friends than to be deceived by them.\u201d<\/em>
\n ~Fran\u00e7ois Duc De La Rochefoucauld<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many moons ago, this writer in his column dated September 28, 2012 wrote thus: “However much the Opposition in general or the United National Party in particular, tries to dislodge the present incumbent regime they will not succeed unless and until they find a game-changing issue. If an issue is found that has the potential for changing the game, the issue itself will find a leader to lead the followers towards the change that is so desired”. Nothing has changed in substance since then except perhaps, the leadership of the United National Party. <\/p>\n

On top of the leader, a Council of Leadership has been imposed mainly due to the obscenely devastating results of the Wayamba and Central Provincial Council elections. For the first time since Ranil Wickremesinghe rose to the helm of the UNP, he has conceded some powers to the newly-formed Leadership Council and to what extent this arrangement is going to be practical and legitimate, would be decided only after the proposed ratification by the Annual Convention of the Party scheduled to be held later this year. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, when one ponders about a single-issue platform against the current President, abolition of the Executive Presidency stands out as a predominant socio-political issue. In the same aforementioned column I wrote: “Abolition of the Executive Presidency not only lends itself as a very pliable tool for all anti-Rajapaksa forces, it will also have a great amount of ground support, provided it is marketed as a first step towards the restoration of fast-diminishing fundamental rights of the people. It has the potential of being a real game-changer. The Opposition today is in dire need of a game-changer and they must be bold and creative enough to take that unconventional step in order to change the game in their favor. One more thing: abolition of the Executive Presidency is a prerequisite to any meaningful social change that any political party could advocate in the current environment of stinking aroma of politics”. <\/p>\n

Yet in the 1977 campaign that J R Jayewardene launched against the similarly dictatorial regime of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the preparatory work that was carried out prior to the general elections in ’77 was immense both in quality and quantity. It is nevertheless futile to compare the two eras, for the dynamics that dictated the pace and style, in addition to the substance and content of the issues involved and the way they were articulated to the public in the late seventies, are not comparable by any measure to those of today.<\/p>\n

The economic conditions were incomparably harsher than today. The focus on the center of government was much sharper in that there were no Provincial Council or Pradesheeya Sabha administrators scattered throughout the land making a mockery of justice by behaving like regional warlords. However, a corrupt and self-centered lot of Parliamentarians made up for that deficit in comedy and fun. Drunkenness inside the Chamber of Parliament, remote Rest Houses and even at public functions was evident even to any unperceptive man or woman. The real difference was the frequency and numerical quantity of incidents and their reportage to the public through the print medium- there were no TV or computer-related websites or other social media such as Facebook, twitter, i-phones etc- and the time gap between the incident and the time it came in for attention of the listener or the reader was much too large for the incident or news to be considered ‘current’. <\/p>\n

In other words, the current way in which news and information is relayed to the consuming public via television, radio, cellular phones and computer has made a world of change not only in the very nature of the delivery of news but it has made the value of that news utterly short-lived as the shelf-life of the news, however spectacular it may be, has to give way for another groundbreaking item that would invariably follow. As result of this quick switching on\/off process daily taking place inside the drawing rooms of each and every home, the attention span of the viewer and listener is miniscule in comparison to those days when the news was read and assimilated over a longer period of time and space. <\/p>\n

The resultant effect of all this communications revolution is, irrespective of the gravity of the story, for instance the Shirani Bandaranayake impeachment, Rathupaswela fiasco, the easy passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, White Van syndrome, intimidation of journalists, the Mervyn Silva melodrama and numerous other potentially devastating news and political stories, they have come and gone without creating the essential juice for a prospective political strategist to plan and execute a carefully-crafted campaign. <\/p>\n

So, when the reader\/listener\/viewer is surrounded by myriad of issues and when it’s becoming increasingly difficult to sustain the interest and attention of the public on many issues that are springing up from almost nowhere, planning and conceptualization of a political campaign based on more than one or two selected issues could be a monumental task and that is why most of the political parties in democracies that have been successful in securing electoral victories have handed their public relations and electioneering campaigns to expert professional organizations. <\/p>\n

However, if a singular-minded political leader or group of leaders who are thoroughly focused on winning, venture into the accomplishment of their task, he or they more often than not, should be able to ascertain as to what issue or issues are valid and legitimate in the political arena and what are not. Arousing an electorate towards a ‘single’ goal is much more achievable and the campaign so launched is less troublesome to manage in terms of messaging, training of local and regional leaders, advertising etc. <\/p>\n

When all these political theories are applied to the local scenario, the next Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka lends itself as a very fascinating challenge. The challenge for the Opposition is manifold. The incumbent is obviously offering himself once again as the ‘sole winner’ of the war. The campaigns they launched ever since the end of the Northern conflict for all elections, whether Presidential, General, Provincial Council or local, were fought on the war-victory platform and they were successful in securing a majority of votes for them. In fact, they have gone even one or two steps further. In the last Presidential Elections, the real hero of the war, General Sarath Fonseka was castigated and branded as a ‘traitor’ to the county and its soldiers. The cruel irony is that the people bought it. <\/p>\n

The electoral organization that the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) maintains is enormous. The fine-tuning of the machinery has been consummated and the main carriers of their message at the grassroots’ level are the Samurdhi Niladharis, Agriculture Extension Officers, Grama Niladharis and other Government servants whose official functions include, among others, the very job of extending the handouts from Government to the needy and poor. On top of this unfair advantage, the UPFA candidate enjoys an exclusive character image with all Presidential Elections being fought on the issue of the ‘personality’ of the candidate. In this respect the United National Party suffered very heavily except in the last elections at which the candidate was not Ranil Wickremesinghe but Sarath Fonseka. Even then, what contributed most to the defeat of the Opposition was firstly, poorly-managed messaging and secondly, as was mentioned earlier, painting of a gruesome picture of Fonseka as a ‘traitor’ by the UPFA. <\/p>\n

It is beyond any argument that the only chance the Opposition has is by fielding a common candidate who could command the respect, confidence and trust of all other Opposition entities. Nevertheless, it is even more crucial to decide whether the next Presidential Election is fought on the basis of a single-issue platform and if so, what that single issue is. Among the issues that are most salient and relatable to the voter are as follows:<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\tCorruption
\n\u2022\tGood Governance
\n\u2022\tDanger to Human Rights
\n\u2022\tExecutive Presidency
\n\u2022\tNepotism
\n\u2022\tCost of living
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

When these issues are taken as one single whole, one sees that ‘good governance’ embodies all the rest of the issues. Yet, ‘good governance’ remains an intangible and abstract issue as far as the average voter is concerned. The culture of bribery, corruption and ‘santosams’ both in cash and kind have taken root in society to such a deep extent, it looks almost impossible to reverse the process. In such an unfriendly environment, ‘good governance’ as a political slogan stands aloof and ‘unrelatable’ in tangible terms.<\/p>\n

Given the intricate context of the single-issue platform, the most viable issue looks like the abolition of the Executive Presidency. Although at all Presidential Elections since the one in 1994, all candidates, except of course the UNP contenders, have pledged to abolish the Executive Presidency, once in office they failed to deliver on the promise as they found the post so lucrative personally and a way too powerful collectively. <\/p>\n

In such a context, if the Executive Presidency is chosen as the ‘single-issue platform’, then the most vital and legitimate question that arises is: Who can be trusted to deliver on the promise. Following are the possible candidates: Ranil Wickremesinghe, Karu Jayasuriya, Sajith Premadasa, Venerable Sobhitha, and Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake.
\n<\/p>\n

From amongst them, who would be the most trustworthy? <\/p>\n

Mr. Reader, you decide. <\/strong> <\/p>\n

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by Vishnuguptha \u201cIt is more shameful to distrust one’s friends than to be deceived by them.\u201d ~Fran\u00e7ois Duc De La Rochefoucauld Many moons ago, this writer in his column dated September 28, 2012 wrote thus: “However much the Opposition in general or the United National Party in particular, tries to dislodge the present incumbent regime …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Ranil,Karu,Sajith,Sobhitha&Shiranee:Who among these can be Trusted to Abolish the Executive Presidency After Becoming President?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27183,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182\/revisions\/27183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}