Convergence On Over-Centralisation 

Of Power

By Jehan Perera- Monday, June 09, 2014

The issue of over-centralisation of power has grown more prominent in the aftermath of the 18th Amendment, which restored to the President the total powers of appointment to the highest bodies of state, including the judiciary, public service and security forces. The overwhelming power of the Presidency, where the President is for all practical purposes above the law, is increasingly being seen as a major problem.

If the governance framework is altered, all sections of the population will be the beneficiaries and not just the people of the north and east. The present governance framework makes it virtually impossible for it to address the post-war ethnic issue in a manner that accords with principles of good governance.

The prospect of anything significant happening is still improbable because de-concentration of power is not in the interests of the government and the weakness of the opposition in mobilising popular opinion against the government continues.

However, the international pressure on the government with regard to the implementation of a political solution to the conflict also continues unabated. The government’s expectations that the change of government in India would lead to a reduction in Indian pressure on this count suffered a reversal when the new Indian government took the same position as its predecessor. At their first meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi informed President Mahinda Rajapaksa that India expects Sri Lanka to implement the existing 13th Amendment to the constitution and to also go beyond it in terms of the devolution of powers.

The Indian request to implement the 13th Amendment and to go beyond it has come at a troublesome time for the government. It is widely anticipated that presidential elections will be called soon, possibly by the end of the year. The government has placed its reliance on winning the Sinhalese majority vote and in the context of likely elections it appears implausible that ethnic minority aspirations will be given priority by the government.

Therefore there is little or no prospect of the government heeding the Indian Prime Minister’s suggestion to go beyond the devolution of powers prescribed by the 13th Amendment. The challenge is to even implement what it already contains.

So far the government, and those that came before, has refused to implement the police and land powers contained in the 13th Amendment.  According to External Affairs Minister Prof G L Peiris, who was reporting to Parliament, the President had informed his Indian counterpart at their meeting about his unwillingness to devolve police powers to the provincial councils.

During the period of war, national security was provided as the justification for not devolving police powers.

However, in a time of peace the government has less justification for not devolving police powers, at least to the community level. In addition the government has even less justification for not implementing the 13th Amendment in the North and East to even the extent that it is implementing it in the rest of the seven Sinhalese-majority provinces. Neither the President nor the External Affairs Minister dealt with this issue in their responses.

COMMON CAUSE

The devolution of powers to the Northern and Eastern Provinces is severely undermined at the present time by two institutional devices. The first is the active role played in these two provinces by the two Governors who have been appointed by the President. Both of them have been keeping a close scrutiny of the decisions taken by their respective Provincial Councils and have utilised the powers vested in them to often over ride the decisions made by their Boards of Ministers.

The second institutional device, which is found only in the Northern Province, is the establishment of a Presidential Task Force that monitors all non-governmental activities there, and stands as a doorkeeper that approves or denies permission for developmental or even humanitarian activities. 

Getting PTF approval can be an onerous process, but one that has to be gone through.

NGOs have been refused permission to hold even welfare events like eye clinics by the military if they did not have prior PTF approval.

This type of centralisation of power which undermines the functioning of the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils has generated resentment in those areas. It is therefore significant that the centralisation of power in the Presidency is now being seen elsewhere in the country also as a problem.

Two political parties that are coalition allies of the government have now come out publicly in support of the abolition of the Presidency or at least in favour of the reduction of its powers. Leaders from both the Communist Party and the JHU have agreed that the abolition of the Presidency should be a key element of a new constitution if it were to meet the aspirations of all Sri Lankans.

The Ven. Athuraliye Ratana Thera of the JHU called for reducing the powers vested in the executive president and said that a President who was not answerable to Parliament and could not be summoned to court should not be allowed to hold so many ministerial portfolios.

It is significant that this debate is taking place within the government coalition at a time when the government still retains overwhelming strength over the opposition. Although there are sporadic and local level acts of dissent against the government, by student groups and trade unions for the most part, they are left to be isolated events without being unified by a strong opposition party.

The lack of opposition unity continues to be a notable feature in the national polity, with the opposition unable to agree on a common opposition candidate to contest the forthcoming presidential elections. Therefore it seems that the concern of the government allies is not so much the fear of losing forthcoming elections, but rather is with issues of good governance. Instead of being downcast by the apparently unchangeable realities of the present, there is the emerging hope of a growing convergence on the need to tackle the over centralisation of power.