Executive Presidency

The abolition of the Executive Presidency was supposed to be the main theme of the joint Opposition during the Presidential election that concluded last week. It was also the single most important point in the agenda of the NDF candidate Sarath Fonseka.

A retrospective glance at the campaign, however, shows that it was one of the least discussed subjects at the Opposition election platforms. The contradictions in the nature of change to be effected as well as the willingness of the presidential candidate to accommodate those changes made the abolition of the Executive Presidency a non-issue half way down the campaign.

Besides, it should never have been an issue for the simple reason that the Executive President cannot change the system. The task of effecting Constitutional reforms, including the change of Presidency falls within the ambit of the legislature, the Parliament. This slogan of its abolition had nothing more than a cosmetic value at the presidential poll. The hypocrisy of the Opposition in purring forward that slogan could be seen from the fact during the past five years none of its constituent members tried to bring up the issue in Parliament.

The only candidate who had put forward a meaningful proposal on Constitutional reform was President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The UPFA has now a real chance of taking its Constitutional proposals before the public at the forthcoming general election.

The Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dekma outlines the proposed changes including the change of the Executive Presidency to a system under which the President is answerable to Parliament. Further, the establishment of a Second Chamber or a Senate is another very important proposal. The UPFA has also decided to ask the people for a two-thirds majority so as to consider the election as a referendum for Constitutional change.

The country has been unified after a lapse of nearly three decades. Any Constitutional change should also consolidate that unity. Unity means unity in diversity. The best way to consolidate this unity in diversity is through proper devolution of power from the grassroots level. It should guarantee equity and equal opportunities for all peoples irrespective of class, creed, ethnicity or status.

The Constitution of 1978 has acted as a constraint on many occasions. There are also many deficiencies in it. For example, it does not guarantee right to life of citizens, a right that was enshrined in the 1972 Republican Constitution. Whatever it is and however deficient it is the way to change is to use its provisions for change. The general election would provide an ideal opportunity for those interested to educate the people on the proposals put forward and the methodology to be adopted for such change.

Question of a certificate

The Indian Government is persisting with its request for Velupillai Prabhakaran’s death certificate. It says it is vital for the on going proceedings in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. What a bizarre turn of events. Here is man who butchered nearly 60,000 innocents and sent them to their premature graves sans any documentary evidence of their existence on earth. But the man himself is given a grand send off with a death certificate tucked under his arm. What irony!

With all the atrocities committed against it Sri Lanka still managed to keep him in one piece so that a death certificate could be issued. Not so fortunate was Rajiv Gandhi himself who was blown into smithereens. Prabhakaran wherever he would be grateful to India for according him due respect to his dead body by insisting on such niceties as a death certificate, bringing him into the realm of civilized existence although this may not be a comforting thought to the next of kin of thousands of Sri Lankans who were blown out of existence.

So Prabhakaran wherever he may be will be grateful as he was not made to suffer the fate of most of his victims by the Sri Lankan Army so that he was sufficiently presentable in death for a post mortem and a death certificate.

It may look like gallows humour to some. But the fact remains the world’s most dangerous guerrilla leader was spared the fate of his countless victims so he is accorded respectability with a death certificate. Small consolation to them though.