Mahinda Chintanaya to Promote National Interest through Electoral and Constitutional Reforms

By Dr. Nath Amarakone
January 20, 2010
Sri Lanka

Former Permanent Secretary,
Founder President, Organization of Professional Associations (OPA),
General Secretary, Eksath Lanka Maha Sabha,
President, Citizens Solidarity Front and National Integration Front.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his manifesto seeking re-election for the second term of office as President of Sri Lanka has come out with a number of important proposals for Constitutional reform.

As a veteran politician and a representative of the people in Parliament for a period of about 40 years, he has identified the shortcomings of the legislature, and has proposed to

1. Re-establish the Electorate MP system in place of District MPs,

2. Re-introduce a Senate as a part of Parliament,

3. Introduce changes to the Office of the President, and

4. Interlink Village level Jana Sabhas with Regional level Pradeshiya Sabhas, and Provincial level Palath Sabhas with the National level Parliament on the basis of promoting National (Deshapremi) Interests as opposed to Anti-National (Deshadrohi) Interests.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has defeated LTTE terrorism militarily over the last four years, and is now seeking the mandate of the people, including those in the North who were prevented from voting at the last election for a second term of office. His concern to stabilize the country, and launch an ideological revolution to establish National (Deshapremi) Interest in the National Conciousness is most relevant to rid the country of neo-colonial interference preying upon anti-national sentiments and ethnic susceptibilities.

He has identified the necessary changes to the Constitution to allay the fears of ethnic groups manipulated by foreign powers who have been interfering in the internal affairs of our country. Similar attempts to exploit inter-party rivalries has brought about disaster in many countries of the third world. The attempt at tinkering with the existing Constitution merely to shift power from the President to the Prime Minister, as advocated by opposition factions, is a mere camouflage to play for time and confuse the masses.

Let us examine the proposed reforms in the light of the mistakes of the past sixty years of poor governance.

Governance in Sri Lanka: A Historical Perspective

The Soulbury Constitution, introduced to our country at the time of Independence, comprised two chambers in our national legislature similar to the Westminster Parliamentary System. They were, the Elected House of Representatives with 101 Members of Parliament (MPs), and a Senate comprising 30 nominated Senators. All bills presented in Parliament had to be adopted by both Houses to receive the assent of the Head of Government before becoming Law.

Of the 101 MPs , 95 were elected to represent electorates covering about 80,000 people each, while 6 seats were reserved for unrepresented interests, including ethnic groups. The elected MPs campaigned at elections under registered political parties, or even as independent candidates, and were elected on the basis of first-past-the-post.

The MPs enjoyed the right to dissent with their party if the interests of his electors in his electoral constituency warranted it. Usually, these candidates were well established patrons of the locality who depended on their personal popularity in the electorate to get elected. The expenditure on elections was generally low as the candidate needed little introduction to the people of the area. In any case, they were obliged under the law to divulge the election expenses to the Election Commissioner who had established certain norms. Generally, there was no need for these candidates to amass vast funds for elections, and the elections were relatively free of corruption.

The Senators were nominated by the Elected House from among persons of eminence, such as professionals from commerce, administration, banking, engineering, medicine, agriculture , management, labor trade unions, and religious groups. These Senators were expected to enhance the quality of the Parliamentary debate. However, these noble sentiments, spelled out in the Constitution by the founders, were largely not realized. Sometimes, candidates defeated at elections, and rejected by the people, were nominated to the Senate. Eventually, the Senate was abolished on 1971 by a bill passed in the House of Representatives. The overt reason advanced by the movers of this bill was that the Senate was responsible for delays in passing legislation.

In 1972, the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka was adopted, doing away with the Senate, and entrusting their executive powers to the Cabinet of Ministers. These included powers to make appointments to state services, grant promotions, implement disciplinary action on state officers, etc. This initiated, and exacerbated, politicization of the entire state service. The Statutory Commissions set up under the Constitution such as the Public Services Commission, the Judicial Services Commission, the Local Government Services Commission, etc. became ineffective as the Cabinet of Ministers exercised total power in the state sector. Thus, the Public Services were politicized, opening the flood gates of corruption in the state sector.

The Organization of Professional Associations (OPA), formed in 1974, had pointed out the anomalies resulting from appointing Elected Members of Parliament to executive portfolios. A number of senior professionals, occupying high posts in the state sector, joined me in this exercise. However, without any nexus with the entrenched power of the state, the voice of the OPA was a feeble cry without impact in the public eye.

To make matters worse, J. R. Jayawardena, after his electoral victory in 1977 by a resounding majority, proceeded to amend the Constitution to make way for the Office of an Executive President, incorporating all the powers of the former Cabinet of Ministers, and requiring District MPs to be elected on a preference vote system. Thus, the accepted principle of an MP as a representative of the electorate was undermined and eliminated.

J. R. Jayawardena appointed himself to the post of the Elected Executive President, and declared all MPs to be District MPs under the amended Constitution. Thereafter, they could be replaced by nominees of the party, following rules applicable to District MPs. He even required all MPs of the government to sign undated letters of resignation, which he kept in his possession so that any deviant could be replaced at his will and command.

This process led to much dissatisfaction among both politicians, and the members of public they had previously represented. The preference vote system killed the very concept of an MP as a representative of the people in a local area. The net effect was an erosion of confidence in the electoral process. It was the party in power that mattered, and the leader of the party virtually became a dictator. Democracy was practiced only in breach of all norms of representation of the electors by the elected, and governance became the rule of the leader, for the leader, by the leader. Even Prime Minister R. Premadasa in the J. R. Jayawardena government felt emasculated, and quipped that he had even less authority than a peon in his office.

Thus, the practice of democracy in the country deteriorated. In the subsequent period the Sinhala youth in the South resorted to violence against a political system they felt was unresponsive to their needs. A major insurrection led by the JVP, in 1987-89 , resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 youth. The internal divisions weakening the Sri Lankan state, now apparent to all, encouraged foreign nations to attain their own agendas by egging on the Tamil youth of the North and East to rebellion; training and deploying them as an instrument for carving out a separate state of Eelam, and bringing Sri Lanka to heel. Using assassination and murder inflicted on their own people, and other Tamil separatist groups, as a weapon to enforce compliance, the LTTE emerged as the dominant separatist terror group. It created a Tamil Diaspora in foreign countries, largely by promoting illegal immigration, as a cornerstone of their strategy to fund and gain international support in the struggle for Eelam. This course of action gave rise to a militant terrorist movement that held Sri Lanka hostage for period of over thirty years.

During this period, Ranil Wickremasinghe, who came to power in 2001 as Prime Minister, came under severe pressure by Norway and other Western powers to compromise with the LTTE, and sign a Cease Fire Agreement (CFA), conceding to terrorists the right to govern a territory amounting to over one third of the land area of the country, and two thirds of its coastal belt. This allowed the LTTE to hold sway over the entire population of the North and East of the country, as a captive enslaved constituency without democratic rights.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was elected to the Presidency in 2005, had to renegotiate the CFA signed by Ranil Wickremasinghe when the LTTE demanded complete separation of the North and East territory as a new nation of Tamil Eelam. This demand was rejected by President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was compelled ultimately to launch a war to liberate the population living in the areas conceded under the CFA to the LTTE, and to reunify the nation. This took three years, incurring the death of almost 60,000 people. Over a million citizens of Sri Lanka living in these areas were liberated from terrorist rule, in 2009.

The Norwegian and other Western powers, who had a variety of vested interests in supporting the LTTE, attempted to save the terrorist leaders in the last stage of the war, to enable them to continue the war, and extend it indefinitely. Having failed in this effort, they are now busy undermining President Mahinda Rajapaksa by threatening to take the military leaders, who saved the country from terrorism, to a UN War Tribunal as war criminals.

This short history identifies the deficiencies in Sri Lanka's democratic system of government in protecting and preserving its National (Deshapremi) Interests, and the consequences of those deficiencies to the nation and its people.

Projected Constitutional Reforms

There have been many Parliamentary Committees who have examined new proposals for Constitutional reform to undo the ill effects of the Executive Presidential system, and the District MP system. So far, none of them have come out with firm proposals. Some have recommended the abolition of Executive Presidency, while others recommended a reduction of its powers and privileges. Some have advocated a return to the Donoughmore system. The Mahinda Chintanaya - Futurist Vision manifesto presented by President Mahinda Rajapaksa expects to take up these matters with all political parties in Parliament, to make a final decision to bring about desirable changes in the National Interest.

The manifesto points out the need for unity in operation of the local government system. It has proposed the formation of Gam Sabha in every Grama Sevaka division in order to integrate the village polity, and promote their participation in village level activities devoid of political differences. This is expected to eliminate corruption and misuse of funds spent on village-level development.

The Gam Sabhas are to elect representatives to the Pradeshiya Sabhas, or Urban/Municipal Councils. Such representatives would have no political leanings, and the representatives of the Gam Sabha would be elected to the Pradeshiya Sabha on the basis of merit rather than political affiliation or agenda. In support of this concept, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has cited the Indian example of the Panchayat system.

The Provincial Council system introduced in the 13th Amendment to the National Constitution will be reviewed in consultation with all interested stake-holding parties.

The Senate as a part Parliament is to be revived. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appealed to the nation to adopt a national approach in politics, and to join his government to work in the best interest of the nation as a whole. He has already brought into the government many MPs from opposition political parties, and has offered them Ministerial portfolios, demonstrating his willingness to be pragmatic and realistic. He has appealed to them to be patriotic, rather than be manipulated by foreign interests for personal gain.

In this connection, I note that the emphasis of President Mahinda Rajapaksa on National (Deshapremi) Interest parallels the advocacy of National Interest Sectors linking village level government to the highest level of governance, as an alternative to political parties, that was proposed in the National Solidarity Charter in 1995 by a group of professionals in the Organization of Professional Associations (OPA). The current trend in forming political parties based on class, caste, religion and ethnicity has been the curse of Sri Lankan politics. I hope that President Mahinda Rajapaksa will consider National Interest based on Professions associated with the Economic and Social Sectors of the country, as proposed in the National Solidarity Charter (1995), as an alternative means of implementing the Mahinda Chinthanaya - Futurist Vision manifesto. In this way, those who would disregard National (Deshapremi) Interest can easily isolated from the national ethos as Anti-Nationals (Desadrohis), and be prevented from acquiring the power to undermine and degrade the nation.

The National Interest Sectors suggested in the National Solidarity Charter (1995) are:

1. The Professional Sector, comprising existing professional bodies and new associations and institutions to be recognized in the future when new professions emerge and are recognized,

2. The Religious Sector, comprising representatives Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Islamic bodies,

3. The Consumer Sector, comprising consumer societies representing different consumer groups such as food, education, health, finance, security, social welfare, etc.

4. The Trade Union Sector, comprising major labor trade unions recognizes by the Commissioner of labor, and

5. The Business Sector, comprising Trade Chambers, Investment Chambers, Finance Chambers, Consultancy Chambers, etc.

National Interest Sector Groups at Village level could elect their representatives to the Regional Council Pradeshiya Sabhas, who in turn could elect their representatives to Provincial Council Palath Sabhas. An Electoral College of Representatives composed of Village-Level , Regional-Level and Province-Level leaders could elect electoral representatives to the National Parliament.

Conclusion

The far-sighted reforms proposed in the Mahinda Chintanaya - Futurist Vision to promote National (Deshapremi) Interests while discouraging Anti-National (Deshadrohi) Interests, by permanently embedding Deshapremi Ideology in the National Conciousness, is necessary to focus and sustain the nation's efforts on National Development in the future.

This will bring to a permanent end the adversarial jockeying for power that has plagued Sri Lankan politics in the 62 years since the dawn of independence in 1948.