Feizal Samath
Social media, as evident at the January 2015 presidential poll, could be the deciding factor as the country heads towards bringing in critical amendments to the constitution.
Yet to be decided is whether the 1978 constitution which replaced the 1972 law will be changed in its entirety and promulgated as a new 2016 constitution or subject to just amendments.
The process began yesterday when the newly-appointed Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reforms began its first public sittings in the capital Colombo. The move came a few hours after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters at a Sunday news briefing that social media would be used to garner public representation and support.
The need to change the constitution in which the rule of law and everything that follows in the country including the mandate of the parliament has been a bone of contention over the past three decades. A knotty issue is the powers of the executive president and the electoral system, which over the years have raised many problems making it necessary to either curb the unlimited powers of the president or do away with the presidential system of government.
It was social media that helped Maithripala Sirisena swing the vote in his favour to defeat his former ‘boss’ President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the January 2015 poll. Like many members of Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Sirisena, a senior cabinet minister at the time, was disillusioned by massive corruption by the Rajapaksa family, the president stamping out any opposition (even within his own party) and a ruthless crackdown of opponents.
Rallying together a few like-minded SLFP ministers and the support of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) led by Wickremesinghe plus a strong backing from social media, Sirisena succeeded at the polls.
Now the SLFP is split between a faction led by the new president and one controlled by the former president, making it even harder to push through crucial constitutional amendments.
One of Sirisena’s main election promises is to abolish the presidency and revert back to a British-style Westminster model, earlier in place in Sri Lanka prior to the 1970s, where parliament is supreme and the president a mere figurehead. Currently the president appoints the cabinet, can override parliament and appoints the judiciary, all of which is expected to change in the new process. No question; under present laws the President can do whatever he wants.
While the changes — either through a new constitution or amendments — are expected to be incorporate in the next 12 to 18 months, most political parties are hoping that they would be able to reach agreement on a hybrid proportional representation (PR) and the Westminster first-past the-post system in time for forthcoming local government elections due anytime between March and June this year.
The hybrid system, first recommended by a parliamentary committee in 2018, provides for half of parliament’s 225 MPs being elected on the basis of casting firstly a vote for the party and then listing one or two preferences in terms of the contesting candidates (the latter which is optional). The balance 50 per cent is to be decided in a straight contest between candidates where voters list the candidate they prefer, not the party.
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene, a respected civil rights lawyer and newspaper columnist, says that apart from the presidential system of governance and the electoral system, there is also a need to change fundamental rights’ provisions which are archaic in the constitution.
“There is a need to bring back parliament as the supreme body,” she said, adding that at the time (in 1978 when the constitution was amended) there was a need for a president with strong, unlimited powers to provide some equality and protection to the minorities who represent about 15 per cent of the population.
However successive presidents used the full force of their powers, often overriding parliament or cracking down on opponents without inhibition. The PR system and the battle for the ‘manape’ (preference vote) have led to bitter infighting within parties and bloody confrontation on the streets.
According to the Lal Wijenayake, a veteran lawyer who chairs the Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reforms, public sitting in Colombo will be held till Friday January 22 and then move to the outstations.
Next month, a 2-day session would be held by the committee in each of the districts in the country where the committee will collect public representations and recommendation on constitutional amendments. Thereafter the committee will process the public comments and views, add their own recommendations and submit a report to the government by April.
Trying to get a consensus in Sri Lanka on sensitive political issues is not only challenging but extremely frustrating. Soon after the government two weeks ago announced its intention to change the constitution, opposition politicians and the pro-Rajapaksa faction in the SLFP began picking holes in a process that hadn’t even got into full gear.
This prompted Prime Minister Wickremesinghe to state that the opposition concerns were uncalled for since no decision will be taken on any changes until the people are consulted and parliament votes on it. Any constitutional amendment has to secure a 2/3rds vote of parliament plus support through a national referendum.
Referendums have been rare in Sri Lanka, the only one held has been in 1982 to extend the life of the Presidential term (at the time it was Junius Richard Jayewardene, architect of the 1978 constitution) for another six years, without holding an election. That became a controversial move and ever since then, triggered the call to abolish the presidency.
Meanwhile political analysts and newspapers columnists question the wisdom of focusing solely attention of constitutional change when the economy is in tatters. The cost of living is soaring, taxes are rising and Sri Lanka is living on ‘borrowed’ foreign cash reserves.
Sri Lanka, it appears, is so desperate that it – rather Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake – has asked Sri Lankan expatriates and foreigners to invest here under a ‘no questions asked policy, to shore up foreign reserves. But the minister is facing opposition from commercial banks who say they must follow strict compliance rules on ensuring deposits are not black (laundered) money or connected to terrorist funding.
At the end of the day, both - constitution changes vis-à-vis clipping the powers of the president and an economy bucking under pressure - are important, though the latter has a bigger impact in the people and invariably need to be dealt with first.
The writer is Consultant Business Editor at The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka.
All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.
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