PLAYING FOOTBALL WITH OUR CONSTITUTION

by ASOKA SENEVIRATNE-September 6, 2020
Washington DC.

1978 Constitution: Our constitution is once again set for amendment for the 20th time within 42 short years. The 1978 JRJ constitution moved us away from the Westminster model to a more US-like model with the creation of the so called three co-equal branches; legislative, executive and judicial. The three branches were meant to be independent and watch over each other. The power of the purse was left to the legislature while the power to govern was the job of the executive. The judicial branch was meant to be the custodian of the constitution and the laws to ensure that the Rule of Law was ensured.

The 1978 constitution was full of holes and was self-contradicting. The legislature had the power of the purse while the executive appointed ministers to his leadership team, the cabinet. This simple ill-advised provision high-jacked the independence of the legislature. Compare this to the US constitution, wherein members of the legislature are not allowed to hold office within the executive branch. So we experienced a ton of meaningless ministers appointed by the executive to win them over. A rampant waste of money we don’t have.

Moreover, JRJ created the Provincial Councils, District Development Councils, Governors etc. and all for what? Just to manage a 25,000 sq. mile island? What an administrative mess he created. Nobody knew who did what! The entire administration apparatus was a gigantic wasteful mess with overlapping responsibilities. The public watched while their towns became yet another unplanned bunch of shops with broken sidewalks, open drains potholed roads and a barely functional and lethargic local beaureaucracy who don’t care a darn. The bosses in those local bodies were not in their offices while a frustrated public were left with no answers to their basic problems. Files were gathering dust on the boss’s desk; a simple bribe will locate lost files.

JRJ gave immense power to his office and bragged that the only thing he could not do was to turn a man into a woman. But who had oversight over the executive? The legislature whom he hijacked? Besides if the Executive is the all-powerful party leader, which member of his party would want to deny him money or cross his path? We lost accountability and transparency. This led to unprecedented corruption. There was no mechanism for oversight over the president, his cabinet or his bureaucracy. Rot began to set in to our political culture to the point that after 42 years people are simply fed up of corruption from the top to bottom.

The epitome of this level of corruption was when the central bank was robbed with the last regime just a few months into power. Millions were spent on a presidential investigation but nobody was indicted nor the findings made public. Everybody knows that this was not the only mega robbery. Billions of public money went unaccounted for. JR’s so called independent judiciary was hijacked by the top cop, the Attorney General coming under political pressure. The entire law enforcement apparatus was politicized. Police were not allowed to do the job they swore an oath to do. JR’s independent judiciary was a myth. So the entire JRJ experiment was just hog wash and dragged our government’s apparatus into historical levels of corruption.

 

National character

Besides being a 2,600 old civilization, can we be proud of our national character? Buddhist monks wearing the much revered saffron robe use thug-like language on national TV and in public with monks kidnapping monks in the fight for a seat in the legislature and monks attacking fellow citizens in broad daylight. This is unprecedented. Isn’t the essence of Buddhism elimination of craving? Huh!

Elected leaders are openly attacking private lives of each other or using abusive language in rallies instead of addressing much needed policy to fix our nation’s problems. They brazenly violate the law on national television. Remember the minister who grabbed the camera of a TV reporter and also tied a public servant to a tree? He was never indicted. Where was the Attorney General? Where was the police? Was this not because of the politicization of out law enforcement apparatus? JRJ constitution was not equipped to deal with this. Was it not a joke?

Worse, remember members of the legislature behaving like a herd of cattle in front of the nations’ eyes just a couple of years ago. They too hurled ugly verbal abuse at each other without debating policy and yelled other like street thugs while the House was in session. What happened to common decency and mutual respect at least while inside the nation’s supreme assembly? Is this the example the leaders set to our youth? Is this how we would like to define our national character? what happened to our nation? What happened to honor and common decency? Who is responsible?

 

President Rajapaksa

Never has our nation been led by a leader like Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He has the right thinking, approach and policies to rescue our nation from this sad state. He has a full plate. For the brief period he has been in power he has displayed competence and good judgment. He made the massive electoral victory for his party possible. He is confronted with a mammoth task created by mismanagement by all previous leaders. He appears fearless about achieving his goals. However, he is definitely challenged by at least some of the members of the new parliament who see politics as business as usual – gettting a luxury vehicle, getting a luxury bungalow, appointing family and friends to top jobs, wasting precious time at five star receptions, and virtually doing nothing much to help the nation but adding to its massive debt burden. It cannot be business as usual. The nation is in peril in every which way.

 

20th Amendment

The constitution of a nation is a sacred document . It is the national script. It defines our fundamental rights and obligations. It basically defines who we are as a nation. It is not meant to be amended every five years to suit the party in power. Instead it is meant to protect the nation against tyranny, abuse and excesses by rulers among other things.

For God’s sake let our constitution, including the proposed 20A be in simple and concise language. The US constitution which is the oldest in the world and written over 230 years ago only had 4,543 words and only 27 amendments to date. I quote the US constitution because it stands out as the founding document of the most successful nation the world has ever seen. The document in very simple language makes it possible for almost anybody to read and understand it. The constitution need not be filled with legal jargon and wrap around provisions, edits and exceptions. Just try and read the 19A and see how complicated it is. I am not sure if even some lawyers can comprehend it. Get rid of the office of the prime minister. Why do we need a costly prime minister when the executive power is vested with an elected president? Get rid of provincial councils. Get rid of governors. Get rid of chief ministers. Get rid of the nonsensical PR system. Get rid of state ministers. Get rid of MP’s appointed as ministers. Their job is to legislate and see to the welfare and development of their electorates.

The president’s leadership team or the cabinet should be made up of proven experts in their field from the private sector, military and state sector. The president can run his administration with the GA’s and grama niladharis. Use technology. Streamline processes. Hold ministers accountable with public hearings by committees from the legislature. Makes sure members of these committees know their constitutional responsibilities and not just loyalty to their parties. Sorry, but that is how a good democracy is supposed to work. Create a post of independent Inspector General in each ministry, appointed by the elected president whose job it is to watch over waste, fraud and abuse. He or she will be a watch dog on behalf of the president and the public.

Do not remove the independent commissions created by 19A. That was a great idea and Rail and Sirisena deserves credit for it. Do not change the term limits of the president. Countries have learned bitter lessons from leaders who remain in power for ever and ever. That includes USA too who enacted 22nd Amendment to create term limits after FDR displayed undesirable, high handed attitudes. The proposed 20A should not be a document merely discussed by the cabinet. It is too sacred not to deserve a large public debate. It should be debated over the local media so we can get it right. If not the next government will amend it again to suit itself.

Remember cabinet decisions are mostly the decisions of the leader of the cabinet. Do you think our cabinet members are free to challenge the leaders without losing their jobs or getting kicked out of the party? Thank you JRJ! You were so smart!!! People have respect for President Gotabaya and his ability to make correct decisions. That is also why his party won hugely. He has the noble task of amending the constitution to suit the country, not the party. Done right, he will be in the history books. Done wrong, he will go down in history as just another leader who played party politics just to remain in power!

I personally think Gota is better than that. May he have the wisdom to do right by his troubled nation!