There is a baby in bathwater

Saturday 15th August, 2020

Justice Minister Ali Sabry has reportedly said a bill will be presented to Parliament soon to change some sections of the 19th Amendment (19A). He has made no revelation. The SLPP is bent on amending or abolishing 19A, which has been a thorn in its side. However, it is not known whether the government will seek to amend 19A or deep-six it. Some SLPP leaders including Basil Rajapaksa said before the recently concluded general election that they wanted to frame a new Constitution.

The government is not planning to get rid of the independent commissions, some newspaper reports have said, quoting Minister Sabry. This is certainly good news, but the problem is that the SLPP leaders know more than one way to shoe a horse. The 18th Amendment is a case in point. The commissions may be there but without independence. What is needed is to make these commissions truly independent if they are to be of any use.

First of all, the Constitutional Council (CC) should be made independent if the public service is to be depoliticised. Under the last government, the CC functioned as a rubber stamp of the UNP; most of its members were either ruling party MPs or government sympathisers; they were swayed by the yahapalana concerns. They even overlooked eligible candidates for high posts and favoured others who were in the good books of the government. They were responsible for the controversial appointment of IGP Pujith Jayasundera, who subsequently failed to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks despite intelligence warnings.

The constitutional provision that prevents dual citizens from being either elected or appointed to Parliament is welcome and must be retained. Similarly, dual citizens and the civil society members who receive funds from foreign governments for their NGOs should be barred from becoming CC members, for they are beholden to external forces that are known to interfere with the internal affairs of this country. There was a CC member whose family-run NGO receives millions of dollars from the US. The independence and credibility of the CC also suffer when its members who are not MPs fail to remain politically neutral.

Leaders of the political parties that have governed this country for the last several decades boast of having ushered in development. But they like a bunch of mendicants go hat in hand to foreign governments, unable to fund some projects they launch at Parliament. They have no sense of shame. China has donated computers to Parliament. The US has spent American taxpayers’ money to set up a parliament media centre. Governments panhandle in this manner while spending public funds to the tune of billions of rupees on purchasing vehicles for ministers. Luxuries that Sri Lankan MPs enjoy will make even their counterparts in the developed world turn green with envy.

Minister Sabry is reported to have said the presidential term length and limit will remain unchanged. According to 19A, a president can serve only two five-year terms. However, even before the introduction of 19A, none of the two-term Presidents completed 12 years. President J. R. Jayewardene’s two terms were limited to 11 years. (President Ranasinghe Premadasa had completed only a little over four years of his first term at the time of his assassination. President D. B. Wijetunga, who was appointed as President Premadasa’s successor, served for about one and a half years.) President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s two terms were also limited to 11 years. President Mahinda Rajapaksa served only for a little over nine years.

No President should be allowed to serve more than two terms. President Jayewardene’s second term was a total disaster. The same is true of the second terms of both President Kumaratunga and President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The country is lucky that there was no second term for President Sirisena.

The President should be able to hold the Defence portfolio, and 19A should be amended to enable him to do so. SJB leader Sajith Premadasa, who will be the Opposition Leader in the new Parliament, has consented to help bring in sensible constitutional amendments. Therefore, the government should adopt a consensual approach to amending the Constitution instead of bulldozing its way through.