Bills, wiles and servility

Friday 2nd October, 2020

The bane of this country is that most people are divided along party lines, follow their political leaders blindly and view all issues through the prisms of party politics. They think their political masters can do no wrong. One may recall that during the United Front government (1970-77) overenthusiastic SLFP backers, taking part in May Day parades, shouted that they were ready to consume gravy without chillies if Sirimavo asked them to—Sirimavo kiyanawanam miris nethuwa hodi kannam. Some others went so far as to say that they would eat bath (boiled rice) without haal (rice grains)—Sirimavo kiyanawanam haal nethuwa bath kannam. (That era was characterised by severe shortages of rice, chillies, etc.) Today, staunch SLPP supporters will say they are ready to partake of hodi without kaha (turmeric). This kind of slavish, feudal respect the masses have for political leaders have enabled the latter to act according to their whims and fancies.

UNP supporters cheered when the late J. R. Jayewardene introduced the present Constitution and boasted that the only task he was not equal to as the Executive President was making a man a woman and vice versa. (He, however, rendered all members of his government, save S. Thondaman, gender-confused by obtaining undated resignation letters from them.) Political opponents of the UNP denounced the JRJ Constitution as a threat to democracy, and among them were many of the present-day SLFP/SLPP heavyweights; they vowed to abolish the executive presidency and save democracy, but did exactly the obverse of that after winning presidential elections after 1994. At present, the UNP and its off-shoot, the SJB, want the executive presidency scrapped, and the SLFP and the SLPP are bent on strengthening it further.

The SLPP has sought to make its 20th Amendment (20A) to the Constitution attractive to the public by icing it with promises to introduce a brand-new Constitution in a few months and go for a referendum thereon if necessary. If 20A is passed in its present form, there will be absolutely no need for a new Constitution, for everything will be new about the existing Constitution thereafter; proposed amendment will eat into the vitals of the existing Constitution and make the executive presidency far more powerful than ever before. What the people need at this juncture is not a referendum or a new Constitution but assistance to dull the pangs of hunger.

Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, PC, has, in an article published on this page today, highlighted the fact that there is no provision for the post-enactment judicial review of laws in Sri Lanka. True, every law is a fait accompli unless Parliament changes or scraps it with the constitutionally stipulated majorities. The best time to introduce provision for the post-enactment judicial review of legislation was in early 2015, when the yahapalana leaders were willing to do anything to be seen to be protecting democracy in view of the general election to be held a few months later, and the UPFA MPs were so scared that they were ready to do as the new government said lest they should be made to pay for their past sins. The drafters of 19A should have included that provision thereinto so that bad laws steamrollered through Parliament could be dealt with later.

However, better late than never. Pressure ought to be brought to bear on the incumbent government to incorporate into the Constitution a section to enable the judiciary to review the laws that are passed. Bad laws made under successive governments in this country are legion, and they have had a corrosive effect on the entire legal system and democracy. The one that prevents the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption from initiating investigations on its own without waiting for complaints is a case in point. The SLFP (and its former members currently in the SLPP), the JVP and the UNP are responsible for this law made under the Chandrika Kumaratunga government, in the early 1990s. (The JVP secured representation in Parliament in 1994 through the Sri Lanka Progressive Front.)

A prerequisite for protecting democracy is for the people to see through the wiles of political leaders, realise the need to fight for their rights and/or at least register their protest against the actions of the power-crazed rulers. It is heartening that young Sri Lankans are apparently doing so if their thought-provoking social media posts are anything to go by; one of them was uploaded immediately after a recent statement by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (fondly called ‘Gotabaya Sir’ by SLPP MPs and supporters), in Badulla, that his verbal instructions took precedence over government circulars. A youth said in a Facebook post, “Circulars hereafter should become ‘Sir-culars’.” The government had better realise that resentment is welling up in some quarters.