by Vishvanath
The newly-elected NPP government finds itself in an unenviable position. It is under the microscope as well as tremendous pressure to carry out its election promises, especially tax and tariff cuts. It is struggling to make essential commodities freely available at affordable prices.
Rice and coconuts are in short supply, and their prices have gone through the roof, as a result. The government has been left with no alternative but to import rice as it has failed to make millers release enough rice stocks to the market. The Ceylon Electricity Board has refused to reduce electricity tariff for another six months although it is said to have earned profits amounting to Rs. 200 billion, and hydro power generation has increased as all reservoirs are brimful. As if these problems were not enough, the government has undertaken, of all things, to carry out its promise to introduce a new Constitution.
Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa on Tuesday (Dec. 04) told a media briefing that a new Constitution would be made in three years following an extensive dialogue with the public in keeping with its policy of participatory governance. He invited the public to submit their views on devolution.
Speaking in Jaffna, on Sept. 05, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, as the NPP’s presidential candidate, said a new Constitution would be introduced on the basis of the constitution-making process the Yahapalana government (2015-2019) initiated but could not complete due to its defeat in the 2019 presidential election. The NPP won the November 2024 general election impressively in all parts of the country, especially in the North and the East, beating the main Tamil political party, ITAK, which could win only the Batticaloa district.
Perhaps, Minister Jayatissa reiterated the NPP’s pledge to introduce a new Constitution in view of the following day’s meeting between President Dissanayake and the ITAK MPs Sivagnanam Shritharan, Pathmanathan Sathiyalingam, Shanmugam Kugathasan, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, Gnanamuthu Srineshan, Kaveenthiran Kodeeswaran, Elayathamby Srinath, and Thurairasa Raviharan.
On Tuesday (Dec. 03), Rasamanickam, speaking in the parliament, called upon the government to reveal its position on the future of the Provincial Council system. He said JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva had suggested its abolition. His question prompted Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake to say that the President had made the government’s position clear and asked Rasamanickam not to get ‘spoilt’ by those who were around him.
A brief history of constitution making
Since 1994, when the UNP lost power for the first time after the introduction of the 1978 Constitution, all governments have promised to introduce a new Constitution and abolish the executive presidency. One of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s main election promises in 1994 was to replace the existing Constitution with a new one. In 1994, she steered the SLFP-led People’s Alliance (PA) to victory and won the presidency in quick succession, promising to do away with the executive presidency, among other things. She unveiled a constitution reform package and presented a draft Constitution to the parliament in 2000 after securing a second term.
It was obvious that Chandrika was trying to abolish the executive presidency because the Constitution debarred her from serving more than two terms, and she wanted to return to the parliament as the Prime Minister. Her plan fell through because the UNP, which had agreed to help the PA government muster a two-thirds majority for the passage of the draft Constitution, refused to back it, at the eleventh hour, claiming that Chandrika had incorporated some transitional provision into it, without the concurrence of the Opposition. The MPs of the UNP and the JVP literally burnt the draft Constitution in the parliament.
President Kumaratunga retired in 2005, when Mahinda Rajapaksa became President, promising to abolish the executive presidency; that was the condition on which the JVP backed him in the presidential race.
Mahinda not only reneged on his promise to abolish the presidency but also went so far as to introduce the 18 Amendment to the Constitution, enhancing his executive powers, after winning a second term and mustering a two-thirds majority in the parliament, in 2010. His successor, Maithripala Sirisena, also pledged to scrap the executive presidency and introduce a new Constitution, after winning the 2015 presidential election. He only allowed some powers of the executive presidency to be pruned down.
However, the UNP-led UNF (Yahapalana) government initiated a constitution-making process, which did not reach fruition for obvious reasons; President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe were at loggerheads, and that government became dysfunctional, as a result. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who became President in 2019 also promised a new Constitution in his policy programme, ‘The Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’.
A nine-member expert committee consisting of Romesh De Silva PC (Chairman), Gamini Marapana, PC, Manohara de Silva, PC, Sanjeeva Jayawardena, PC, Samantha Ratwatte, PC, Dr. A . Sarveswaran, Prof. Wasantha Seneviratne, and Prof. G.H. Peiris was appointed by President Rajapaksa to draft a new Constitution.
The expert committee handed over its report on constitution reform to President Rajapaksa in April 2022 amidst widespread protests against his government, and he had to resign three months later due to a mass uprising against him. The report has since been shelved, and President Dissanayake has indicated that he has no interest in it.
Economic recovery prioritized over constitutional reform
On Wednesday (Dec. 04), Deputy Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs and senior lawyer, Sunil Watagala, who is a JVP stalwart, in an interview with the state-owned ITN, did not mince his words when he called theProvincial Council (PC) system a white elephant. He said he himself had been a provincial councillor and he spoke through experience. He added in the same breath that it had to be retained as what had been given should not be taken back.
Watagala said the NPP government would abolish the executive presidency in consultation with the public.
Stressing that the NPP remained committed to its pledge to hold the PC elections in 2025, Watagala said there would be no 13-A Plus (devolution that goes beyond what is stipulated by the 13th Amendment). A new Constitution would be introduced in keeping with the NPP’s election manifesto, after the government restored economic and political stability, he said. How long the government will take to accomplish that task is anybody’s guess.
Thus, the NPP government has been careful not to set a deadline for the completion of the constitution-making process it has undertaken to carry out. Constitutional reform is a contentious issue, which any government is wary of addressing, and whether the current administration will act differently and fulfil its promise to introduce a new Constitution, or we will witness another half-hearted approach to constitution making,remains to be seen.
