Category Archives: Presidential elections

January 11, 2019 · 1:57 pm

Lakshman Gunasekara’s Reflections on the Political Turmoil in Late 2018: Three Essays

Lakshman Gunasekera

ONE. Lakshman Gunasekara: “Politics vs Constitutionalism,” in Horizons, 9 December 2018 …

When the Bandaranaike International Memorial Conference Hall (BMICH, what a mouthful) began hosting conferences in those old-fashioned 1970s, we, the ordinary citizens hadn’t a hope of freely strolling into its premises (let alone its halls). One needed a conference invitation to enter the gates and some ‘delegate’ or ‘media’ tag to enter the main hall or ‘committee rooms’ (as they were quaintly termed then). Today, in our lower-middle-income country comfort zone, people are constantly streaming in and out of the BMICH, for weddings, exhibitions, conferences, convocations, concerts and seminars, all at the same time (and I am sure there is romance in those verdant gardens).    Continue reading →

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January 7, 2019 · 1:14 am

Constitutional Amendments are Vital for Sri Lanka

Neville Ladduwahetty, in Island, January 2019, with title “The Need To Revisit the 19th Amendment”

Recent political developments have brought into sharp focus the need to revisit the 19th Amendment (19A) despite the unanimous approval it had received in Parliament in May 2015, with the notable exception of one brave Naval Officer Rear Admiral MP Sarath Weerasekara. The primary aim of the 19A was to transfer power from an Executive President to a Prime Minister and a Cabinet of Ministers. The first attempt to indulge in such an exercise was in 2002. Having failed in 2002 a fresh attempt was made in 2015. The 2015 attempt succeeded subject to the Supreme Court determining that some named provisions required approval of the people at a Referendum. Notwithstanding this judicial intervention the fact that certain provisions that should have received the attention it deserved escaped attention makes it necessary to revisit 19A in order to address at least some of the omissions that matter for the sake of clarity.

 

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January 6, 2019 · 10:47 am

Incisive Thoughts on the Presidency in Today’s Situation from Rajan Philips

Rajan Philips, in Sunday Island, 6 January 2019, with this title “Leaving Sirisena alone and finding a way to change the Executive Presidency”

There is redundancy in the 2019 air. Impeach, censure or force his resignation – all targeting Maithripala Sirisena for his rampant violations of the constitution in 2018. He deserves any and all of them. The question is whether he is worth the effort and energy that any one of them will involve. Impeaching him or forcing his resignation will only remove the man but will leave in place the institution of executive presidency that became Sirisena’s wrecking wrench. It would be more worthwhile to spend time in radically reforming the executive presidency than waste time getting rid of Maithripala Sirisena who will be gone in one year anyway. Keeping it simple, leave Sirisena severely alone and keep targeting the executive presidency.

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December 19, 2018 · 8:14 am

A Political-Constitutional Deadlock that highlights the Powers vested in the Presidency

 C. A. Chandraprema, in Island, 19 December 2018, entitled  “A UNP govt. under a hostile President” with highlighting being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

The whole purpose of making it virtually impossible to dissolve Parliament until the lapse of a period of four and a half years was a knee-jerk reaction to the dissolution of Parliament in 2004 by Chandrika Kumaratunga, who sent the UNP into the political wilderness for over a decade. While the recent Supreme Court decision shows that the UNP has succeeded in achieving its objective, the wisdom of what it did through the 19th Amendment needs to be called into question. What is surprising is that there would be so-called ‘constitutional experts’ who would seek to insert such an ill-thought out provision into the Constitution without giving any thought to the practical aspects of running a government.

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December 19, 2018 · 7:42 am

Three Depth-Charges from the West Celebrate Outcome of Sri Lankan Power-Struggle

Take note of These Three Items

A = https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/12/22/sri-lankas-prime-minister-regains-office-humiliating-the-president

B = https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/sri-lankan-president-doubts-he-can-work-with-reappointed-pm/2018/12/16/4fafa892-01a2-11e9-958c-0a601226ff6b_story.html

C = https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/sri-lankan-lawmakers-question-rajapaksas-parliamentary-seat/2018/12/18/ce209500-02c0-11e9-958c-0a601226ff6b_story.html

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December 16, 2018 · 1:58 am

Hatreds. Chasms. Bill Deutrom’s Insights on the Political Impasse in Sri Lanka

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 15 December 2018, where the title is different

    pro-UNP rally

Email Note from Bill Deutrom in Lanka to Michael Roberts, 8 Dec 2018

Thank you, Michael for your amazing collection of articles on the Eelam War and its aftermath as well as the present political impasse. Alas, they will not convince people who have already made up their mind based on emotion, ethnicity or with a hatred for Rajapaksa. Continue reading →

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November 19, 2018 · 8:33 am

Peiris Confronts Samarasinghe and Other Pundits

Gerald H Peiris

Having collaborated with Professor S. W. R. DE A. Samarasinhe (Sam) in several research projects, I have had the occasions to admire his extraordinary analytical skills and his clarity of thought. I also recollect that he was one of the earliest in the intellectual firmament of Sri Lanka who applied his expertise in ‘Banking and Public Finance’ to expose procedural irregularities in the infamous issue of ‘Central Bank Bonds’ early in the tenure of the Yahapalana regime, disregarding his own leanings vis-à-vis the party configuration of Sri Lanka. However, I have to say that his article titled ‘Implications of the Supreme Court Verdict’ (The Island of 15 November) is a rare instance of his departure from scholarly understanding and impartiality.

In the first place, what the Supreme Court (SC) issued on the 13th of November was not a ‘verdict’. As explained to me by two of Sri Lanka’s most respected lawyers about 45 years ago, an ‘Interim Injunction’ is no more than a postponement of a verdict. Despite Sam being aware of that, it is disappointing to see him in the political mob (which includes representatives and lackeys of  the global powers that contributed substantially towards the processes that installed the Yahapalana government) attempting to persuade the people that the Court issued a verdict against President Sirisena’s decision announced on 26 October to reformulate the Cabinet and, on 9 November, to dissolve the parliament which was prorogued at that time. Thus, what did happen was that, due perhaps to the legal intricacies concerning the presidential decision, the SC gave itself and the lawyers on both sides of the dispute 22 days until it could sit once again to arrive at a decision. Continue reading →

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November 8, 2018 · 10:27 am

Sri Lanka’s Political Story from 1948-2018 in a Slash-and-Burn Nutshell

Qadri Ismail, in Groundviews, 3 November 2018, where the title is “WHAT, to the minority, is democracy?” ….with emphasis insertedby the Editor, Thuppahi

Maithripala Sirisena violates the constitution, stands to destroy democracy itself. Liberals, overwhelmingly Sinhalese, are aggrieved, appalled, aghast.

As a minority, I laugh. Not the happy laughter of someone enjoying a good joke. But the bitter, mirthless cackle of someone forced to read this script many times before – like every full moon, when the temple speakers blare its bana and you can’t blot out the noise with sleep because the liquor stores are closed.

All postcolonial Sri Lankan heads of government, all of them Sinhalese, have consistently violated the constitution and/or “threatened” democracy – usually by practicing it – and/or oppressed minorities. One could deem it a job requirement.

Just a few months after independence, Don Stephen Senanayake denaturalized, then disenfranchised ‘Indian’ Tamil citizens, already alienated from this country by their naming. Constitutional? Probably not. Democratic? Absolutely – passed by a majority of Parliament. Continue reading →

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November 7, 2018 · 1:24 am

The Situation of the Tamils in the Present Saga — Guruparan

Kumaravadivel Guruparan in Scroll, 5 November 2011, where the title is “Sri Lanka’s political crisis explained, and what it means for the island nation’s Tamil community”

In November 2014, Maithripala Sirisena, who was then a cabinet minister and member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, broke ranks with his leader, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and agreed to be the common presidential candidate of the Opposition, led by the United National Party. Sirisena won the election in what was then hailed as a “democratic revolution”.

He undid that “revolution” on October 26 this year when he sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointed Rajapaksa in his place. He did so ignoring the constitutional amendment he had helped pass after coming to power in 2015, which had done away with the president’s power to remove the prime minister. He thus triggered what is being called Sri Lanka’s first unconstitutional transfer of power – a coup.

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November 3, 2018 · 9:41 am

A Naked Display of Double Standards by the West in Sri Lanka

Tamara Kunanayakam, in Island, 3 November 2018, where the title is Tamara: Why was West silent on wrongdoings of former regime”   ………..Note: the highlighting is the work of The Editor, Thuppahi

Tamara Kunanayakam, Economist, Expert on international affairs, Former Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN at Geneva, Former Cha”irperson/Rapporteur of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development yesterday asked why West had been silent on some grave wrongdoings of the ousted Premier Wickremesinghe.  Kunanayakam, speaking at a briefing organized by Eliya Organization said: “What is the explanation for the West’s silence on the postponement of local government elections for some three years and delays in holding Provincial Council elections, all under the Premiership of Ranil Wickremesinghe?

 

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