System Change in Sri Lanka

 

A key demand of the protests in Sri Lanka which kicked the Rajapaksas out of power last year is system change. This is something we have yet to see. In this article, I’ll be giving my thoughts on how system change can be carried out.

Constitution of Sri Lanka

One aspect relates to the Sri Lankan Constitution. Both Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, during their presidencies introduced draconian undemocratic amendments to the Constitution strengthening the power of the President, doing harm to rule of law and independence of government institutions which were the 18th Amendment in 2010 and the 20th Amendment in 2020. Following these two Rajapaksa presidencies, there were restorative amendments to the Constitution passed which were the 19th Amendment in 2015 and the 21st Amendment in 2022.

We can’t keep going back and forth between authoritarian and restorative constitutional amendments. This cycle must end. What’s tragic is that many parliamentarians voted for the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Amendments. They didn’t see the dangers of draconian amendments and even if they did, their thirst for power prevented them from voting sensibly. Then with the 20th Amendment, they went back to voting for an authoritarian amendment again not learning their lesson.

Firstly, it’s important that we learn not to vote again for rulers who seek to strengthen their powers and engage in corruption. Secondly, we need to elect sensible parliamentarians who won’t vote for such authoritarian laws. In the Parliament we should have, the government and opposition members will have different ideologies and policies, but they would all believe in values such as rule of law, integrity, good governance and serving the country well. Both sides should be competing to perform better in these fronts which would be a healthy competition.

Unity

Unity is an issue Sri Lanka has had a problem with for many years with mistrust occurring among different communities. A positive factor of last year’s protests is that it was a rare case of Sri Lankans of different ethnicities being part of a common movement. While that was one moment which didn’t solve unity, it’s imperative that we don’t go back to the way we used to be. That can very easily happen.

We need to have a united Sri Lanka with a common Sri Lankan identity. We should use what happened last year as a stepping stone to overcome our divisions and make permanent unity. It’s important to reflect on how politicians divided Sri Lankans. Unity is a valuable subject to be taught in schools. This issue ties into my previous point of the need for common values across parliamentarians. Unity should be another common value across the political divide.

Abolishing the Executive Presidency

I am of the view that the Executive Presidency needs to be abolished. This concentrates too much power on one individual. I believe it has caused much damage to Sri Lanka and is a major factor which contributed to Sri Lanka’s present state. A President who gets elected on a reform mandate gets corrupted by the system resulting in him or her not performing as promised and infuriating much of Sri Lanka.

It’s worth noting that Gotabaya Rajapaksa got elected President when the 19th Amendment was in force. The 19th Amendment greatly reduced the powers of the President. A parliamentary system could make it less likely for an individual with no political experience to be elected Head of Government. I think that we should transition into having an Executive Prime Minister with a ceremonial President.

Bribery and Corruption

Bribery and corruption unfortunately is very common in Sri Lanka including politics, the public and private sector. We need to have systems in place to deter individuals from engaging in these practices. There needs to be successful bribery and corruption prosecutions especially politicians.

We have been enabling bribery and corruption for a long time. This needs to change. Saying no to paying bribes including politicians will make a difference. If a politician asks for a bribe, when saying no there are important points to tell them. They are, this is causing damage to Sri Lanka, the need for system change and mention their election comments against bribery if they said it. Sri Lankan businesses should implement policies of not paying bribes to the government and for their staff not to solicit bribes from customers.

It’s important to teach school students the dangers of bribery and corruption including not participating in it and saying no to paying bribes. It would be useful for public servants and elected representatives to be instructed not to get involved in bribery and corruption when they start their roles. While this won’t prevent all public servants and elected representatives from engaging in these practices, it has the potential to noticeably reduce it.

Conclusion

I gave my perspective on four issues I think need to be fulfilled for system change in Sri Lanka. This is a small selection I gave with many more issues relating to system change needed. This process is an enormous challenge for us to undertake, but that shouldn’t deter us. We can accomplish system change. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic.

Let’s Not Revert (A Poem About Sri Lanka)

I wrote a poem about the future of Sri Lanka as the country is going to face a Presidential election

very soon on the 16th of November. This is my personal take on it, and it isn’t an in-depth discussion

about what has been going on and what could happen going forward. It’s a short expression of my

views in poem form.  

I don’t wish to see

Sri Lanka revert to

Pre 2015 again

There’s now a threat

Of white vans,

Authoritarianism,

Lawlessness, 

Inability to criticise,

And more coming back  

Yes, post 2015

Didn’t bring all

That was needed

And disappointments came

Though I feel

We’re headed in

The right direction

We did get

A reduction of 

Presidential powers,

Right to information,

Open policy debate

Among others

The current negatives

Don’t make the 

Pre 2015 status

More attractive 

What we need

Is to study

What went wrong,

What went right,

And take our country

Where it needs to be

Let’s strive to

Improve on our

Current state

To make the Sri Lanka

We wish to see

Thoughts on President Sirisena's Shocking Betrayal

Last month, the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena sadly began degenerating into a greedy

power hungry politician. This noticeably started on the 26th of October 2018 in his shocking move

where he unconstitutionally sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed former

President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. This was followed by him proroguing Parliament on

the following day. Two weeks later, he made another unconstitutional move on the 9th of November
where he dissolved Parliament and called for general elections to be held in January. The dissolving

of Parliament has been temporarily suspended by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka whose final

judgement is scheduled to be delivered of the 7th of December. It is very distressing to see the

President brazenly violate the Sri Lankan Constitution and betray everything he stood for. In this

article, I’ll be giving some of my thoughts on the President’s behaviour.

Violating His Own Restrictions

In April 2015, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was passed in Parliament. The

President was one of the key people responsible for the 19th Amendment. Some features of the 19th

Amendment include the restoration of the two-term limit for Presidents and the removal of the

President’s ability to sack a Prime Minister & to dissolve Parliament until the first four and a half
years of its term. Having done the last two actions, he has violated the very restrictions he was
instrumental in bringing about.

Unethical Conduct  

I think this conduct is very unethical as the President purported to remove the man who helped him

win the Presidency and appointed the very man he contested against. In November 2014, Maithripala

Sirisena who was then the Health Minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, crossed over to

the opposition to be the Common Candidate to campaign against his former boss. Defeating

Mahinda Rajapaksa seemed very difficult then and it was achieved on 8th January 2015. The

President even said in 2015 after former President Rajapaksa got nominations to contest in the 2015

general elections that if the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) won, he wouldn’t appoint Mahinda

Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. What President Sirisena did is a betrayal of his mandate of good

governance, accountability, reconciliation, media freedom among other issues. He was elected to

usher in a new era to Sri Lanka and had the potential to be a good President, but he has sadly

reverted to the lowest level of political indecency.

Since the 26th of October, he has been acting in such a disgraceful way. He has been getting

involved in and supporting a very bad form of governance. Incidents include the forceful taking over of

state media by those loyal to Mahinda Rajapaksa, apparent bribery as United National Party (UNP)

MP Palitha Range Bandara claims that he was offered $2.8 million USD to crossover and the

disrupting of Parliamentary proceedings by many United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MPs. I

don’t believe the appointments to the role of Prime Minister and the Cabinet by President Sirisena

were constitutional, but even if you put aside the constitutionality of his actions, it’s very distressing to

see his reactions following the no-confidence motions passed against Mahinda Rajapaksa and his

purported government. Firstly, it’s him not accepting the first no-confidence motion. He requested the

first clause stating that the appointments were illegal to be removed which was adhered to resulting

in a second no-confidence motion being passed. He again did not accept the second no-confidence

motion. This is disgusting behaviour to request for something, have it granted and then not do what

you promised.

Party Centric Thinking

An issue I had with President Sirisena was that he had been focusing too much on his party the

SLFP which got into conflict with his mandate and his working relationship with Ranil

Wickremesinghe & the UNP. It is my perception that those actions led to this moment. I wish he
had been an Independent President, that is being a President with no party allegiances. I think this

arrangement would have resulted in him accomplishing more, making more sensible decisions and

not reuniting with Mahinda Rajapaksa.  

The Need to Abolish the Executive Presidency

The President’s actions to me are a reason why the Executive Presidency should be abolished. It

shows that the powers of the Sri Lankan President can easily corrupt those who come in with good

intentions. This is despite the fact that President Sirisena himself was responsible for reducing

presidential powers. In fact, founder of the Citizens’ Movement for Good Governance (CIMOGG),

Attorney-at-Law Elmore Perera who contributed in 2016 to my article “Impact of the 19th Amendment

One Year On” said the thought provoking words in my correspondence with him that I didn’t include

there, “It was widely agreed that 35 years of experience had shown that the Executive Presidency

had contributed immensely to several of the ills that plagued the country.”

The Presidential system enables Governments to be formed where the President and the Prime

Minister are from two different parties. This results in the two leaders getting into conflict with one

another, which happened in the relationship between Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe

despite the fact that they came together on the same platform. I am in favour of a ceremonial

President which Sri Lanka did have from 1972 to 1978. I think that a ceremonial President would not

get into conflict with the Prime Minister, as the President in this situation wouldn’t be a member of a

political party. I further think that an Executive Prime Minister would have less opportunities to abuse

his or her position than an Executive President.

Conclusion

These are very sad and difficult times for Sri Lanka, which is so disturbing as the cause of these

problems comes from the President elected against the type of governance he has been currently

practicing. I am pleased that the actions of Maithripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa seem to be

getting weakened and remain confident that the status quo in Parliament prior to the 26th of October

can be restored. It’s encouraging to see activism against the actions of the President by many Sri

Lankans. This activism gives hope that it can drive our country further once we are out of this mess.

Sri Lankan Twitter Showcase: September 2018

On the Internet, people discuss and share happenings of Sri Lanka. One platform where this occurs is on social media. I decided to showcase a collection of tweets about Sri Lanka from the social media website Twitter covering the month of September 2018 in sequential order. If you don’t use Twitter or are unfamiliar with it, you can still read this post. The tweets (a message of 280 characters or less) are featured on this blog post. I selected a group of tweets that I like. Issues covered include politics, economics, pictures and positive occurrences. I’m including positive occurrences as there is usually more talk about the negative occurrences than the positive ones and hearing positive news can make us feel good.

Sunsets in Matara pic.twitter.com/i2VKwvWMzq

— Kalani Kumarasinghe (@KalaniWrites) 1 September 2018

This is a good picture of Matara by Kalani Kumarasinghe. Sorry, but the image embedding doesn't do it justice. I recommend clicking the picture link above to see it properly.

#SriLanka #Finmin @MangalaLK says  “the government needs to undertake more difficult and challenging #reforms in order to drive future economic growth and development”, given higher debt and unproductive mega infrastructures like port & airport

— Shihar Aneez (@shiharaneez) 2 September 2018

I think this is a good statement from Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera. What ultimately matters is if the government takes these reforms and how successful they are if carried out. I am of the opinion that Mangala is one of Sri Lanka’s better ministers so that gives some hope.

After falling to 10% of the average World GDP in 1978, Sri Lanka's GDP per capita has now climbed to 38% since the liberalization of the economy, and most of this boom happened in just the last 15 years!
Our last post will show you how this has reflected in Sri Lankan households. pic.twitter.com/SH3q7hxU8h

— Frontier Research SL (@FrontierResSL) 3 September 2018

These statistics show economic growth of Sri Lanka, particularly since the start of the 21st century.

Power limitation is an overriding concern in democratic constitutions - one way of ensuring this is through term limitations @welikalaa#19A #constitution #lka

— Verité Research (@VeriteResearch) 6 September 2018

This is a good point made by Dr. Asanga Welikala at his recent Verité Research talk titled “The Presidential Term Limit After The Nineteenth Amendment”.

Sri Lanka's per capita GDP 1820-2016. From Angus Maddison's brilliant dataset. pic.twitter.com/WictyrGbmO

— Daniel Alphonsus (@danielalphonsus) 7 September 2018

This is an image of Sri Lanka’s GDP per capita as shared by Daniel Alphonsus who got the figures from English economist Angus Maddison. The reason this is different to the previous Sri Lankan GDP per capita figures that showed GDP decreasing from 1960 to 1978 is because that one was in comparison with the rest of the world. This shows tremendous growth Sri Lanka has undergone and gives hope that as the GDP per capita has gone up in the past, it will go up again in the future to bring benefits to Sri Lanka.

#Citra, #SriLanka's first Social Innovation Lab, recently entered into a partnership with the Mount Lavinia Municipal Council to develop a citizen-centred open source platform for dengue prevention and control. pic.twitter.com/Io78H6dtgp

— Sri Lanka Times (@SriLankaTimes) 8 September 2018

It’s good to see technology being used to work on dengue prevention and control.

Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has received 1968 complaints during the past nine months of the year, according to the commission. #Srilanka

— Thuvaraki Thuva (@NilaThuva) 11 September 2018

These are interesting statistics regarding CIABOC. It’s good that they are getting these complaints. I hope that CIABOC will get more complaints and that it will get more effective in the fight against corruption.

Sri Lanka Navy rescued a Whale Shark (Rhincodon Typus) that was stranded to Alampil beach area in Mulathivu and supported it to swim deep waters, yesterday (10th Sep). It weighs about 9000 Kg and about 9m in length. pic.twitter.com/uRHQ8scnOi

— Sunil Jayasiri (@sjayasiri) 11 September 2018

It’s good to see a story of a whale shark being rescued. It’s interesting to note that whale sharks are not harmful to humans.

RTI Commission has received 951 appeals of which 690 have been completed hearing and 4% of received appeals have been rejected by the commission, DG of RTI Com. Piyathissa Ranasinghe says. #lka #srilanka #RTIworkshop #RTIsrilanka

— Piyumi Fonseka (@Piyumi_KF) 17 September 2018

This is a good example of the Right to Information (RTI) law functioning with all the work on appeals by the RTI Commission.

#NuwaraEliya #SriLanka

Photo credit: @rovinovic pic.twitter.com/6RD38giHwY

— Sri Lankan Trends (@SriLankanTrends) 18 September 2018

This is a great photo of Nuwara Eliya taken by Rovin Shanila featured on the Sri Lankan Trends Twitter account.

Price of a 400g Milk Powder packet to be reduced by Rs. 25 - Cost of Living Committee #LKA #SriLanka

— Sri Lanka Tweet 🇱🇰 (@SriLankaTweet) 18 September 2018

The Sri Lankan economy functions in a way where the government sets prices for certain goods. As it’s very unfortunate that prices of goods frequently rise, it’s worth noting that there are also some price reductions such as this one.

Sri Lanka will celebrate RIght to Information week from 21st to 28th September, 2018 says Ms. Tilaka Jayasundera, Addl Secy (Development), Minister of Finance and Media today while declaring open the RTI week today. #RTI

— Sudarshana Gunawardana (@Sudarshana_RN) 20 September 2018

It’s good to note that Sri Lanka is celebrating Right to Information week this week of writing as recounted by Director General of Government Information, Sudarshana Gunawardana. It's also worth noting that today (28th September) is International Right to Know Day.

This year #lka's #PenalCode was amended increasing the min. age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12 years. According to the #UN Committee on the Rights of the Child a min. age below 12 years is not acceptable #CRC #children

— Verité Law (@VRlawSL) 20 September 2018

This is information of the Amendment to the Penal Code which was passed earlier this year that increased the minimum age of criminal responsibility as reported by the Verité Law Twitter account (part of think tank Verité Research).

Sri Lanka's  @DailyNews_lk  is 67 years younger than the NYT, but the Sri Lankan daily got on the internet a year before the prestigious New York publication! NYT went on line on January 22, 1996, when the Daily News of Colombo was already on the World Wide Web. https://t.co/MeJJDWNTGk

— M A Ratna (@maratnasiri) 20 September 2018

M.A. Ratnasiri shares recent contrasting facts alongside the New York Times of Sri Lanka’s paper the Daily News. It’s good to know that the Daily News went online before the internationally acclaimed New York Times.

We collected over 200 sacks of garbage cleaning up Preethipura beach this morning. Thanks to everyone who participated from @EU_in_Sri_Lanka @UNOPS and the Marine Environment Protection Authority! #BeatPlasticPollution #lka pic.twitter.com/NnOYREHiIe

— EU in Sri Lanka (@EU_in_Sri_Lanka) 21 September 2018

It’s good to see a beach clean-up effort by the EU in Sri Lanka, UN agency UNOPS and the Government entity Marine Environment Protection Authority.

UPFA MPs Wimal Weerawansa and Prasanna Ranaweera were suspended from parliament for two weeks and four weeks respectively for unparliamentary conduct and breach of parliament standing orders.

— K.T.Rajasingham (@KTRaja) 21 September 2018

At the end of last week, two MPs were temporarily suspended from Parliament. I suspect that this is a result of the new Parliamentary Standing Orders adopted in April.

The constitutional council (appoints indep commissions) requires 3 "persons of eminence and integrity who have distinguished themselves in public or professional life and who are not members of any political party" -any names that should be top of the list for consideration? #lka

— Asoka Obeyesekere (@asokao) 24 September 2018

This is from Asoka Obeyesekere (Executive Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka). My suggestions are Priyan Dias, Nishan de Mel and W.A. Wijewardena.

I hope you enjoyed reading my selection of tweets on Sri Lanka. I am on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sumith90 in case anyone is interested. I would enjoy hearing people’s thoughts on any of the issues and happenings featured here.