Abolishing executive presidency non-issue at present moment

There are many who believe that Mr. Karu Jayasuriya, though not in active politics now, is the best president this country never had. His accomplishments in the political field are too numerous to list and his integrity is widely acknowledged. Given the proximity of the event, people even in this country notorious for their short memories, remember his sterling performance as speaker in October 2018.

That was when then President Maithripala Sirisena, elected to office in 2015 mostly on anti-Mahinda UNP votes, triggered a constitutional crisis by appointing former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister while Ranil Wickremesinghe held that office and retained a parliamentary majority. The result was two concurrent prime ministers. The wild scenes in parliament then with chillie powder thrown and other missiles flung and the speaker physically restrained from taking his seat cannot be forgotten. Jayasuriya demonstrated guts showing he would not be intimidated by thuggery.

Karu Jayasuriya has assumed the leadership of the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) from Ven. Madulwawe Sobhita Thero who played a major role in fielding Maithripala Sirisena as a common opposition candidate in 2015. Sirisena was committed to abolishing the executive presidency running against then President Mahinda Rajapaksa who, abolishing the constitutional two-term limit on the presidency, unsuccessfully sought a third term for himself. Ven. Sobhitha’s untimely death undoubtedly enabled Sirisena to welsh on his promise of abolishing the executive presidency.

Among those who have recently held that office, Gotabaya Rajapksa, despite the ignominy of the manner of his exit, stands out as the only president who did not promise to abolish that office. Mahinda Rajapaksa did so in 2005. Chandrika Kumaratunga who talked of a bahubootha constitution came closest to getting rid of the office in 2000 but her attempt to retain transitional provisions in a new constitution retaining executive powers for herself until the end of her term resulted in that effort being aborted.

With the presidential election approaching at the end of this year, Karu Jayasuriya has once again brought up the question of abolishing the executive presidency. In a recent statement he said: “The NMSJ has been conducting discussions with social groups across the country. Based on the views expressed in those discussions, it is understandable that there is a widespread opinion among the people that the executive presidency should be abolished. Therefore the prospective candidates in the upcoming presidential election should state their positions regarding the abolition of the presidential system in their election manifestos. Those who promise to abolish it should also state the timeline for fulfilling it.”

With the clock ticking and the election drawing nearer, the matter of the abolition of the executive presidency seems to be a non-issue at this particular moment. Whether it will remain so further down the road or surface once again is an open question. President J.R. Jayewardene was not elected for his first term as president. As is well known, he scored a landslide five sixths parliamentary majority in the 1977 general election under the first-past-the-post Westminster-style election, became prime minister and thereafter created the executive presidency deeming himself the first executive president.

He was elected president for the first time only in October 1982. Thereafter, he extended his massive parliamentary majority for a further term through what is widely perceived, though not conclusively proved, as a rigged referendum. He purportedly obtained the people’s consent for a further term, without an election, for the incumbent parliament to retain his 1977 majority. It has been argued that the concentration of power in an executive presidency enabled the defeat of the LTTE after a near 30-year civil war but these are imponderables that could forever be debated.

Karu Jayasuriya’s NMSJ is not a political party. It is an influential social movement led by a trusted retired politician who has acquitted himself well in various elected and unelected positions including cabinet minister, mayor of Colombo, ambassador to Germany, business leader and, early in his career, a voluntary military officer. Whether NMSJ has the muscle to get the various presidential candidates who will run later this year to declare, with a time-frame, in their manifestos their stance on abolishing the executive presidency is something that remains to be seen.

The aragalaya demanded “system change.” Although it achieved the ouster of the Rajapaksas from the heights of power, there was no system change. What it created was the paradox of Ranil Wickremesinghe, who led the UNP to a zero seat defeat in August 2020 being first appointed prime minister and then president by a president on the run. RW who returned to the legislature on the UNP’s single national list seat, no doubt, has established more than a semblance of normalcy and hopes to be elected president on the back of this performance. Abolishing the executive presidency is not a part of his present agenda although the subject had been perfunctorily discussed.

The incumbent is busy cobbling a broad alliance on the back of which he hopes to be elected. The principal contenders are not likely to include the abolition of the executive presidency in their manifestos whatever NMSJ requests. The top priority of the electorate will be setting the economy right and easing the cost of living. Other things, most voters are likely to feel, can come later.