Editorial

Playing with fire

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Saturday 27th July, 2024

The Executive President is thought to be the most powerful person in Sri Lanka so much so that some of the presidential powers have been reduced over the years, and the opponents of the executive presidency, which they consider a threat to democracy, have been campaigning for its abolition. But it has now been revealed that there is another equally powerful person. He answers to the name of Deshabandu Tennakoon.

Going by the government’s response to Wednesday’s Supreme Court order, one wonders whether Tennakoon is above the law. President Ranil Wickremesinghe says he cannot appoint an Acting IGP because Tennakoon remains the IGP. Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has also said so in Parliament. Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena is of the view that Tennakoon’s appointment cannot be challenged in court because it was constitutional and endorsed by the Constitutional Council (CC).

Interestingly, the Speaker, who stands accused of having manipulated the CC process to facilitate the elevation of Tennakoon as IGP, himself, says there was nothing wrong with that controversial appointment! This is a textbook example of circular logic or petitio principii.

The government has thus chosen to go by what the Speaker, one of the respondents named in nine fundamental rights petitions before the SC, says about something highly questionable that he is blamed for!

The government has arrogated to itself the power to interpret the Constitution, hear cases and deliver judgements! Some of its members have even sought to summon judges and try them before parliamentary committees. President Wickremesinghe once declared in Parliament that the CC was part of the Executive, and now the government claims it is part of the Legislature and the judiciary cannot scrutinise its decisions!

The people have lost faith in the Executive and the Legislature, and it is the judiciary which is holding democracy together by supporting and sustaining democratic systems. The government must refrain from undermining the authority of the judiciary lest it should make the public think it is not possible to control politicians intoxicated with power, through judicial means, and alternative methods have to be adopted.

The government had better remember that the constitutionally prescribed methods of removing the Executive President were not followed in 2022, when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted. The people took to the streets, and President Rajapaksa showed them a clean pair of heels. The government must stop testing the people’s patience and creating conditions for mass protests which tend to snowball into popular uprisings.

Shortages of essentials, queues, etc., are not necessary conditions for the emergence of People Power campaigns. Even a government policy that is not to the liking of the public could act as a trigger in a volatile polity. What is reported from Bangladesh should serve as a warning to those who are playing with fire in this country.

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