Inauguration of 10th Parliament:
by Vishvanath
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake sought to break away from tradition at the inauguration of the 10th Parliament on Thursday (21). He travelled in the front seat of his presidential vehicle, opened the door himself, got off and walked straight to the parliament together with new Speaker Asoka Ranwala, Secretary General of Parliament Kushani Rohanadheera and others.
Thursday’s ceremony was devoid of customary pomp and circumstance. President Dissanayake’s policy statement apparently went down well with the public. It however had the trappings of a campaign speech. This happens when a political leader ascends to the presidency after being in the Opposition for a long time.
Some of the salient points in President Dissanayake’s Policy Statement are as follows:
? A vote on account will be presented to the Parliament in December. The Budget 2025 will be presented in February 2025.
? The government will increase the allowance of the Aswesuma social benefit Programme and salaries of the public sector employees through the 2025 budget. It will provide allowances to students for purchasing school supplies.
? The IT Sector workforce will be increased to 200,000 from about 85,000 with a view to boosting IT-related exports to US$ 5 billion per year.
? The government will continue with the IMF programme and enter into a staff-level agreement shortly.
? No room will be left for racial politics or religious extremism in Sri Lanka again.
? Economic benefits will be equitably distributed among the people.
? Monopolistic exploitation of the public will be brought to an end.
? An efficient public service will be created for the benefit of the people.
? Nobody will be allowed to remain above the law; the rule of law will be strengthened.
? The corrupt will be severely dealt with according to the law.
? A task force will be created to carry out the Clean Sri Lanka programme.
? Religious, political, cultural freedoms will be guaranteed for all Sri Lankans, and democracy preserved.
? Action will be taken to solve unsolved crimes; perpetrators will be punished and justice served to their victims.
? A new economic strategy will be formulated with inclusive growth as the goal.
? Quality goods and services will be made freely available at reasonable prices – through competition and regulation. The cooperative movement will be revitalized for that purpose.
? There will be state participation in the power and energy sector to ensure the country’s energy sovereignty.
? Developing tourism will be high on the government’s list of priorities.
? There will be value addition to mineral resources through Public-Private Partnership.
? A national plan will be implemented to promote innovation through research and development.
? Digitalization will be a top priority of the government.
Some Opposition politicians, speaking to reporters, on Thursday, pointed out that the President had skipped foreign policy and devolution in his policy statement. They had a point. However, what they did not notice was that the President’s speech had no reference to the JVP-led NPP’s commitment to abolishing the Executive Presidency.
The JVP has been campaigning against the Executive Presidency since 1978, when the existing Constitution was promulgated by the then UNP government. One of the reasons it gave for arming itself to launch its second uprising in the late 1980s was the executive presidency vested with draconian powers, which President J. R. Jayewardene used to suppress democratic dissent and perpetuate his rule.
The JVP resumed its campaign against the executive presidency after its re-entry into democratic politics in the early 1990s. One of the conditions it put forward for skipping the 1994 presidential contest in support of the SLFP-led People’s Alliance candidate Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was that she had to agree to abolish the executive presidency. She undertook to do so and prevented a split in the anti-UNP vote, but after becoming President she reneged on her pledge although she herself had been an ardent campaigner against the executive presidential system.
The JVP obtained an assurance from Mahinda Rajapaksa before throwing its weight behind him in the 2005 presidential contest. He was the candidate of the SLFP-led UPFA. The JVP campaigned really hard to ensure his victory. Rajapaksa also did not make good on his promise. The JVP fell out with him, and campaigned against him in the 2010 presidential election. It backed Maithripala Sirisena’s presidential bid on the condition that the executive presidency would be abolished, only to be disappointed; Sirisena skirted his pledge and made no serious effort to scrap the presidency; instead, he allowed some of its powers to be pruned down through the 19th Amendment. Gotabaya Rajapaksa restored those powers through the 20th Amendment after winning the presidency in 2019.
Today, JVP leader Dissanayake himself is the President, and his coalition, the NPP has a two-thirds majority in the parliament, having won all districts except Batticaloa in the recently concluded general election. This is the best time for the JVP/NPP to abolish the executive presidency if it is serious about doing so.
Addressing an election rally in Jaffna on Sept. 05, days before the last general election, Dissanayake said the NPP would ‘rapidly conclude the constitution-making process that began in 2015-2019” and draft a new constitution based on equality and democracy to ensure that everyone could participate in governance.’ He said a referendum would be held on the new Constitution to be drafted.
The NPP beat the main Tamil political party, the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) in the recent general election in the Northern Province and in the Eastern Province except the Batticaloa District. The seats won in those parts of the country helped the NPP secure a supermajority. Therefore, President Dissanayake was expected to make mention of devolution and his party’s pledge to draft a new Constitution and abolish the executive presidency, in his Policy Statement, on Thursday.
It may be that the NPP has had to prioritize the resolution of numerous other issues over constitutional matters. The economy is still not out of the woods, and there are some more tranches of the IMF extended fund facility to be secured. Above all, the new government will have to carry out economic reforms in keeping with the IMF bailout conditions, and they are bound to have political consequences, which the new government has to be mindful of. The Budget 2025 has to be prepared for presentation to the parliament next February, and a great deal of ground work will have to be done. There are some pressing issues in the food sector, with the prices of some commodities such as rice and coconuts increasing rapidly. Some varieties of rice are in short supply, and the government has opted for rice imports.
However, it can be argued that a reaffirmation of the NPP’s commitment to introducing a new Constitution and abolishing the executive presidency, along with a reference to the NPP’s foreign policy would have made President Dissanayake’s inaugural address to the parliament more comprehensive
