A Triumvirate in January 2014 … who can look back from January 2015 with… WHAT THOUGHTS!@#!!$$
Category Archives: Presidential elections
With the Samasamajists out in the Cold, Tissa Vitharana surveys the Scene in Q and A with Chandraprema
Courtesy of The Island, 17 September 2015, under the title “We warned Mahinda of international regime change conspiracy – Prof. Vitarana”
When it came to the presidential elections, we warned Mahinda that an American led regime change conspiracy was afoot in this country and we suggested ways out of this trap. But astrology outweighed scientific socialism and the country is now faced with this situation.
A part of the conventional political wisdom in this country was that the SLFP loses when they contest elections on their own but wins when they contest together with the political parties of the traditional left. This was the pattern from the first SLFP victory in 1956 where they had no-contest pacts with the LSSP to defeat the common enemy the UNP. What started off as no-contest pacts later developed into coalitions and this partnership with certain ups and downs has continued for the past several decades. But for the first time since 1975, the traditional left has now been deliberately left out in the cold by an SLFP leadership. In this interview, LSSP leader Prof. Tissa Vitarana speaks to C. A. Chandraprema about the future of his party and the trajectory the country has taken after the August 17 parliamentary election. Continue reading
Donald Trump: An American Volcanic Threat to the World?
The Economist, 5 September 2015, where the title is “American Politics: Why the Trump is Dangerous”
“THIS country is a hellhole. We are going down fast,” says Donald Trump. “We can’t do anything right. We’re a laughing-stock all over the world. The American dream is dead.” It is a dismal prospect, but fear not: a solution is at hand. “I went to the Wharton School of Business. I’m, like, a really smart person,” says Mr Trump. “It’s very possible”, he once boasted, “that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures and declares “You’re fired!” at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – RTX1GZC
When Mr Trump first announced that he was running for president, he was dismissed as a joke. A wheeler-dealer with lots of experience of reality TV but none whatsoever of elective office wants to be commander-in-chief? Surely, sophisticates scoffed, no one could want this erratic tycoon’s fingers anywhere near the nuclear button. But for weeks now he has led the polls for the Republican nomination, despite saying things that would have torpedoed any normal campaign. Americans are waking up to the possibility that a man whose hobby is naming things after himself might—conceivably—be the nominee of the party of Lincoln and Reagan. It is worth spelling out why that would be a terrible thing. Fortunately, the Donald’s own words provide a useful guide. Continue reading
The Challenge of Unity and Diversity in Sri Lanka Today
Asanga Welikala, courtesy of LSE web site and institution = http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2015/09/01/sri-lanka-and-its-democratic-revolution-the-constitutional-challenge-of-unity-and-diversity/ where the is slightly different
The results of Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election on 17 August can be seen as an endorsement of recent reforms to limit the powers of the executive presidency and strengthen democratic governance. But Asanga Welikala stresses that the political difficulties ahead must not be underestimated, particularly the challenge of finding a constitutional settlement that addresses ethnic and religious pluralism while maintaining the unitary character of the Sri Lankan state.
Sri Lanka concluded its most peaceful and orderly parliamentary election in living memory on 17 August, demonstrating how even a modest de-politicisation of state institutions, together with a political leadership that broadly respects the rule of law and civic freedoms, can significantly improve the quality of democracy almost overnight. The election result, which returned the government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, can be seen as an endorsement of the constitutional reforms enacted in April to significantly prune the powers of the executive presidency and strengthen democratic governance; and a mandate for further reforms to consolidate these and to address minority aspirations to devolution. Even though several other measures of the government’s 100-day programme were not successfully enacted, this can be welcomed as an important re-validation of the democratic revolution at the presidential election in January, which deposed the corrupt and autocratic Rajapaksa regime.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, constitutional amendments, democratic measures, devolution, economic processes, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, parliamentary elections, plural society, power politics, power sharing, Presidential elections, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, world events & processes
Reforming Sri Lanka’s Political Order: Challenges
Asanga Welikala, courtesy of CONSTITUTIONNET, where the title is “Sri Lanka after the Elections: Challenges and Opportunities for Further Reform”
photo credit: AFP, Getty Images
On 17th August 2015 Sri Lankans elected a new Parliament with a mandate for a series of far-reaching constitutional reforms, which if implemented successfully, could extensively change the institutional form of the Sri Lankan state. In the presidential election of 8th January 2015, the sitting President Mahinda Rajapaksa had suffered a shock defeat by the common opposition candidate, Maithripala Sirisena. The common opposition had fought that election with the promise of abolishing or substantially reducing the powers of the executive presidency and re-establishing an institutional framework for de-politicisation and good governance. The reforms that focused on limiting presidential powers and establishing the Constitutional Council along with various independent commissions were enacted in April by the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, a democratic milestone, even though it fell short of a complete abolition of the executive presidency. By returning the minority government headed by President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (which had served since January) as the largest party in the legislature in the parliamentary election, the electorate endorsed the Nineteenth Amendment and mandated the reform proposals outlined in the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) manifesto. Sri Lanka’s constitutional reform process therefore looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. This raises a number of substantive and process challenges that are well illustrated by the two major constitutional restructurings undertaken by the last Parliament in the first and last six months of its life. Continue reading
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Victory in War and Defeat in Peace: Politics and Economics of Post-Conflict Sri Lanka
Prema-chandra Athukorala & Sisira Jayasuriya, ……Forthcoming in Asian Economic Papers, 14(3), 2015 … and also available elsewhere.
Abstract: This paper examines causes and implications of Sri Lanka’s political regime shift in February 2015, which has been widely hailed a victory for democracy, against the backdrop of the country’s political and economic development in the post-independence era. The regime shift vividly demonstrates that voters, given the chance, turn against leaders they perceive to be corrupt, nepotistic or needlessly divisive, even if they deliver handsome growth figures; there are limits to gaining political legitimacy in a multi-ethnic state simply by creating cleavages between majority and minority communities. For the first time, the minority communities in Sri Lanka appear to have felt themselves part of, and potentially an important influence on, the national political scene. It is, however, difficult at this stage to predict whether the regime change would usher in an era of ethnic harmony and robust economic growth. One hope is that war-weariness and discontents with the previous regime seem to have led to a greater willingness to accommodate diverse perspectives and demands within the political system.
- Introduction
Sri Lanka is one of the most heavily researched of the developing countries. It has repeatedly gained attention among scholars as a laboratory for studying issues central to the debates on socio-political and economic transformation in countries that gained independence from colonialism. In the 1960s and 1970s Sri Lanka attracted attention as an illustrative case in the debate on the growth-equity trade-off and the untoward consequences of prolonged adherence to a state-led import substitution development strategy. From the late 1970s it became an important case study for the analysis of the impact of economic liberalization and structural adjustment. Following the eruption of the ethnic conflict in the early 1980s there was a new focus on Sri Lanka as a test case for studying various facets of the interplay of government policies and social harmony in a multi-ethnic nation. It provided a fertile ground for studies of the art of unconventional warfare, of internationalized conflict resolution and peace-making in protracted ethnic conflicts, and finally for studies of how military means can be effectively used to defeat armed separatist movements. With the stunning change in the political regime at the presidential election held on 8 January 2015, Sri Lanka now provides the international research community with an opportunity to undertake illustrative case studies of a range of issues relating to political transitions and regime change, post-conflict economic management and governance in a multi-ethnic country. Continue reading
From Frying Pan to Carnival in Sri Lanka! The Political Circus that is Sri Lankan Democracy
18 July 2015, Elmo Jayawardena, whose preferred title title is “Oh what a circus Oh what a shame!”
No this is not Argentina that has gone to town, but good old Sri Lanka, my beloved home land. Only thing missing is a flamboyant Evita to come and sing the haunting ‘Don’t cry for me’ to complete the carnival. The day has dawned again for the political leaders to gather and discuss who should represent the swans, bells, elephants, betel leaves, weighing scales and such symbols and we the minions like fools await the dawn of reckoning on 17th August. Man! I am even scared to write the who’s who of this situation as things change like monsoon skies and many a modern day Humpty Dumpty gets toppled from the wall. But there is a difference, all the King’s men in this fairy tale are putting all the Humpty Dumpties together again.
Let us ponder a while about this mega comedy called politics. Where is the corruption that was spoken of in the loudest decibels and flashed in brilliant neon before the January regime change? What happened to the billions that were supposed to have been stashed overseas and who drove away the flashy Lamborghinis? What about those who did not settle debts to the Air Force for joy rides in helicopters? This report was called for and that inquiry got completed, they came, they saw and nothing was conquered, and everything slid out like drain water. COPE findings and Weliamuna conclusions, man! Didn’t we really ‘go around the mulberry bush’ to cleanse the country? Sannasgala interviews with hopes eternal and sastharakarayas barbecued for wrong predictions and all that rigmarole of change, what happened? A hundred days was ear-marked to incubate a ‘born again’ new Sri Lanka. Where did it all end? Oh what a circus, oh what a shame?
Pic from circus.com 
Pic from www.thesrilankatravelblog.com Continue reading
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Political Convolutions in Sri Lanka Today: Perspectives from Hariharan and Jehan Perera
ONE: “Mahinda’s return as PM: Not yet a done deal” — by Col. Hariharan, courtesy of Times of India, 13 July 2015
Unfazed by his surprise defeat in the last presidential polls, Sri Lanka’s Mahinda Rajapaksa appears to be back with a bang on the nation’s political centre stage with the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition nominating him to contest the August 17parliamentary election. as a candidate. Six months ago, when Rajapaksa went into a sulk after his defeat, nobody would have imagined that he would bounce back so soon and so strongly with the support of UPFA.
His nomination ended weeks of suspense, as his bête noire President Maithripala Sirisena, chief of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), tried to persuade the party, the UPFA coalition and even Mahinda to prevent the latter’s comeback. But Rajapaksa seems to have made up his mind, well before political manoevures began, to contest the election with or without SLFP support as the anti-corruption bodies were making life miserable for him and his siblings. But no one, probably not even Mahinda, was certain of the UPFA nominating him. Continue reading
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Dhanapala clarifies 19A and Present Presidential Programmes for the Diplomatic Corps
Jayantha Dhanapala, courtesy Sunday Island, 21 June 2015, –conveying TEXT of Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala’s keynote address at “19 A: Landmark of Democratic Revival” a panel discussion and Q & A for the diplomatic community of Sri Lanka on the 19th Amendment on June 16, 2015, at Jaic Hilton –with the Speech transcript being provided by the President’s Media Division. Dhanapala was accompanied by Savithri Goonesekera and Mohan Munasinghe. he is presently probono adviser to President Maithripala Sirisena. For his credentials and career see www.jayanthadhanapala.com>
Distinguished members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ladies & Gentlemen,
On behalf of His Excellency Maitripala Sirisena and my colleagues in the Presidential Secretariat, I have great pleasure in warmly welcoming you to this afternoon’s briefing on the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. It is just over a month since this important Constitutional amendment was formally certified by the Speaker of our Parliament although it was passed on 28 April. In a 225-member legislature this revolutionary piece of reform was adopted with 212 voting in favor, one against, one abstaining and 10 being absent. We undertake this task out of a conviction that the significance of the amendment should be conveyed to you in the context of the revitalization of democracy in Sri Lanka since the Presidential Election of January 8th this year.
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Chandrika in Lively Q and A with Lakshman Gunasekara
Lakshman Gunasekara in Sunday Observer, 28 June 2015: “I am now an activist for my country …[and] I’m ready to take to the streets [if the need arises]” says CBK
Celebrating her 70th birthday, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga reminisces about the past, and looks ahead to the future with a promise she will take to the streets to push through reforms: At 70 years age, she is still chubby-cheeked and grins mischievously or, scowls expressively as she recalls some politico’s annoying action. Press photographers loved her for her animated face that rendered her photogenic, like her equally famous mother.And it was by no means just photographers. Millions loved her while some either were disillusioned or even hated her – often because she did not live up to their expectations or ambitions or desires. After all, who wouldn’t glamorize her for her meteoric rise to political power and fame? ‘Meteoric’ because, after years in exile during the ‘terror’ of the second JVP insurgency and equally ferocious counter-insurgency, with her husband assassinated, she returned to re-build her mother’s party and successively defeat the government at provincial, parliamentary and, presidential levels. 
At her husband’s funeral Continue reading
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