Dr. NM Perera spoke astutely on adverse repercussions of creating an Executive Presidency; “The Constitution of a country must have checks and balances if it were to operate properly taking into account the diversities and eventuating in the highest common factor of the accord. There can be fair time lags between the elections for the two institutions. One can, therefore, imagine a position where two diverse political characters can prevail in the two bodies. A left-of the centre Parliament can well confront a right-inclined Executive. This can be the beginning of a continuing and perpetual conflict. The President appoints the Prime Minister from among the members. He will choose one who he ‘thinks’ commands a majority in the House. With a left majority in Parliament, he will be obliged to decide on a left Prime Minister.”
We had the first bad experience in 2001-2004, CBK-RW ‘unity’ cohabitation that took the country back by several years before it was unilaterally dissolved by the President. In the second, the current scenario, the first three years with a Cabinet consisting of Ministers from both factions it lost the unity of command too. With an amendment (19) introduced to constitution preventing a dissolution before four and a half years, what we experience today unless the two heads decide to drop petty differences and to work together, it could lead to disaster.
Constitutional Amendments
Speaking on the proposed 1978 Constitution, NM once said, “The manner in which this Bill has been rushed through Parliament makes us a little suspicious. What is the urgency about amending a Constitution? After all, Constitutional Amendments are effective not for a year or two but for all time.”
He continued, “I can think of no country with a written Constitution that facilitates Constitutional amendments to be carried through in the headlong manner that he has done. Most Constitutional amendments take years to fructify and some nations provide even for a referendum before such an adjustment is made effective. There may be many in this country who hold diverse views on the Presidential system of government. Why should they be deprived of the right to communicate their different viewpoints to the Parliament and to the people and urge that full consideration and weight be given to their views?”
Speaking further, Dr. N.M. Perera questioned, “In the face of this familiarity, why are we hovering merrily to embrace an unknown Constitutional form? The experience of other countries bashed about by the countless obstacles in the Presidential form, we would be stupid to overlook. Coup d’e tat has followed coups in these countries. And stagnation and paucity have been the hapless heritage of the masses in these states. Are we blindly to get into this uncertain gamble and throw away fifty years of Parliamentary democracy, which with all its flaws have offered a measure of stability and progress? We have certainly rejected the violent disorder that other Presidential system practised states, except the US, have witnessed...” “The net result of this one-party rule and the stamping out of the opposition in terms of political corruption, economic mismanagement and downright dishonesty has to be seen to be believed. Tribal rivalries have rendered this unbearable situation foreseeable. Does not J.R. Jayewardene by implication express this sub-conscious first choice for a one-party dictatorship in Sri Lanka?”
Dr. NM continued, “If neither party is prepared to succumb to ground, the Constitution might as well be scrapped. It will be unworkable. The whole country sick of Parliamentary democratic system will turn to alternative forms of government such as Fascism. It is a pity that JR has ceased to think of the future.
“The present Parliament may well shun the kind of deadlock that I have prognosticated but the next Parliament will not. We would be guilty of an unforgivable crime if in fashioning a Constitution for this country we become obsessed by the advantages we can gather by the present concatenation of favourable situation. It is wrong to presume that the antagonism between the President and Parliament will spring only from the political complexions of the two bodies diverge. This is not the experience of the United States where the Presidential system continues to function albeit with cracks and groans. The tendency over the years is for the legislature to become apprehensive of the power wielded by the President and his entourage.”
During the 2001-2004, CBK-RW administration, President Chandrika Kumaratunga (SLFP) saying she needed funds to meet her education and health projects, issued a gazette notification taking over the Development Lotteries Board which operated under Milinda Moragoda (UNP) Economic Reforms Minister. In a letter, the President has thanked the Minister Moragoda, for the efficient manner he had run the Development Lotteries Board since it was allocated to him in 2001.
Govt. Printer awaits AG’s decision
The crisis on the Development Lotteries Board (DLB) emerged with Government Printer awaiting a decision by the Attorney General whether to print the Gazette notification bringing the DLB under President Kumaratunga.
The President was adamant that the Gazette should be printed and the Development Lotteries Board be brought under her. The Government Press had to be sealed after crowds stormed into its premises and damaged three vehicles parked under the porch. Police said that several glass panels had been broken needs replacement while the repairs of the vehicles damaged in the incident would be costly.
President’s Media head Janadasa Peiris releasing a communiqué said that the Government Printer had to print the Gazette, “he has no other alternative.”
Meanwhile, the Cabinet met with the PM and unanimously said that this was a move by CBK to sabotage the peace process with LTTE and the Tokyo Donor conference to be held a month later.
The Cabinet authorised the Prime Minister to take action against what they called the unconstitutional act of the Executive President. However, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had responded wisely saying that he wanted to resolve the crisis through discussions.
The two-party government came to an abrupt end with President taking over three vital ministries and finally prematurely dissolving the Parliament.
from daily news