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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Monday, June 9, 2014
Country needs a benevolent dictator, says SLMC
BY RUWAN LAKNATH JAYAKODY- June 9, 2014
The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) yesterday said the Executive Presidency should not be abolished and what the country needed was a benevolent dictator who would control the situation without bias. General Secretary of the SLMC, Hasan Ali highlighted that in a completely 100% democracy, the majority would bulldoze decisions on the minorities. Commenting on the controversial issue of abolishing the Executive Presidency, he said while the democratic institutions of the country should function independently, the Elections Commissioner should be given more powers like in India.
The number of portfolios must be restricted to 20 or 25 he said noting that certain persons crossed over solely based on portfolios.
According to the SLMC, a Parliament Committee comprising all political parties must be set up without consulting only parties with vested interests.
Ali was also of the view that the recently unveiled ideas of the Jathika Hela Urumaya were very good ones.
"We cannot blame the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, entirely for the powers possessed by the Executive Presidency because it is others working within the paradigm of close personal relationships and friendships who use their influence with the President to do unwanted things and the President also unfortunately gets swayed. It is not only persons in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party who do this. This is why a check and balance method is needed he said, adding that the present government had not achieved a natural two thirds majority but had managed to do so only thanks to Parliamentarians crossing over.
"Even though there are rules to curb crossovers there are loopholes in the judiciary. Although in the ballot paper it is the Party that first receives the vote after which the candidate gets the vote, after elections this process gets reversed. The two thirds should come naturally but the SLMC also crossed over due to a policy decision. We had a clear memorandum of understanding with the United National Party in that we would function individually. These things must be changed in the Constitution and we certainly do not want piecemeal changes," he said.
BY RUWAN LAKNATH JAYAKODY- June 9, 2014 The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) yesterday said the Executive Presidency should not be abolished and what the country needed was a benevolent dictator who would control the situation without bias. General Secretary of the SLMC, Hasan Ali highlighted that in a completely 100% democracy, the majority would bulldoze decisions on the minorities. Commenting on the controversial issue of abolishing the Executive Presidency, he said while the democratic institutions of the country should function independently, the Elections Commissioner should be given more powers like in India.
The number of portfolios must be restricted to 20 or 25 he said noting that certain persons crossed over solely based on portfolios.
According to the SLMC, a Parliament Committee comprising all political parties must be set up without consulting only parties with vested interests.
Ali was also of the view that the recently unveiled ideas of the Jathika Hela Urumaya were very good ones.
"We cannot blame the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, entirely for the powers possessed by the Executive Presidency because it is others working within the paradigm of close personal relationships and friendships who use their influence with the President to do unwanted things and the President also unfortunately gets swayed. It is not only persons in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party who do this. This is why a check and balance method is needed he said, adding that the present government had not achieved a natural two thirds majority but had managed to do so only thanks to Parliamentarians crossing over.
"Even though there are rules to curb crossovers there are loopholes in the judiciary. Although in the ballot paper it is the Party that first receives the vote after which the candidate gets the vote, after elections this process gets reversed. The two thirds should come naturally but the SLMC also crossed over due to a policy decision. We had a clear memorandum of understanding with the United National Party in that we would function individually. These things must be changed in the Constitution and we certainly do not want piecemeal changes," he said.
