By Vishwamithra –

“Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, which will itself need reforming.” ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Everyone is now talking about the Presidential system of government. Its advantages and disadvantages, especially accruing to the people of the land, are being debated and conclusions, right or wrong, are being reached irrespective of one’s personal political beliefs. In a deeply polarized body politic such as Sri Lanka, it’s rather painstaking to analyze and arrive at the right deductions. Each person would adopt each one’s methodology or approach to untangle the messy and shambolic system that obviously has failed time after time. 

Against such a confusing backdrop, one would be more equipped to offer constructive critique of the system if one has the patience and discipline to study its birth and its evolution thereafter and how it has failed so grossly, firstly the people and secondly its practitioners.

That is why I venture in this column to shed some light on the political background and the sociocultural milieu that prevailed at the time of the introduction of the so-called 1978 Constitution which drastically changed the way in which our government is established, how its workings are to be managed, its invariable impact on the economy of the country and its inescapable binding of the people. However, one must remember that the Westminster system of government that existed prior to 1978 had failed to satisfy the greater demands of the people on the one hand and exclusive leverage that the Executive president held on the other. 

The writer was privileged to have been associated with the original thinking of JR Jayewardene who is the author of the 1978 Constitution and the Presidential System of government. A way back in 1973, soon after JR took over the United National Party (UNP) after Dudley Senanayake’s demise, a few of the student leaders who were affiliated to the UNP met the new leader at his ‘Braemar’ residence at Ward Place, Colombo 7. At that discussion JR presented his macro thinking of the country’s problems, its gradual worsening and the potential solutions, both on the economic sphere as well as the sociocultural field.

JR was quite animated in his presentation of facts and statistics and also his capacity to admit the failures of the then UNP and the various governments it happened to lead from 1947 to 1970. In 1973, when we met, the country’s economy was in dire straits. Lines were building up for a pound of bread. Imported goods were scarce. One had to produce proof of getting married to purchase clothing necessary for the bridegroom. For purchase of a bicycle tire one had to take the broken tire to the shop; rice was not available on Tuesdays and Fridays in restaurants. Rice could not be transported from point A to point B without a permit. NM Perera’s economics has plunged the country into one large pit of failures and non-accomplishments. 

Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Felix Dias were running the country as if they owned lock, stock and barrel of the nation and dissatisfaction was manifest all over the land. Failure of Socialism as a political ideology and a system of economic practice was visible. The people were utterly helpless because the Sirimavo-government was holding rallies all over the country asking them to tighten their belts in order to save the country from non-existing foreign powers. Caught right in the middle of a fierce cold war which had reached its peak between the West and the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or more commonly known as the Soviet Union, the leftist leaders misled the common man and woman and their families.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)-led coalition government was swept into power in 1970 despite the fact that the UNP-led government from 1965 to 1970 had had some significant achievements such as the launching of the massive Mahaweli Ganga Project in 1969. Yet the people defeated the UNP without any reservation. Dudley and his UNP were reduced to just 17 seats on first-past-the post system of elections. Dudley Senanayake did not display the same sense of defiance and stoicism which was an integral part of J R Jayewardene’s personality. Dudley, much to the annoyance and surprise of his loyalists, asked JR to be the Leader of the Opposition. And JR did not hesitate a bit. 

In 1971 the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which campaigned for the victory of the SLFP-led coalition staged an insurrection and it was brutally suppressed by Sirimavo and her government. On top of economic hardships, the people of the land had to go through another period of utter anguish and mothers who were waiting for their children to come home from the revolution were angrily turning against the government. Yet the UNP, under Dudley Senanayake did not change; it refused to embrace the new culture that had pierced the fabric of Sri Lanka’s society. Tradition-bound, the old leadership of the UNP took more than two years after its defeat in ’70 to come out in the open and address the public. That ultimately happened in 1972 at the famous Hyde Park on Darley Road, Maradana.                                   

However, with the passing away of Dudley, the UNP began a new journey along a new path under a new leader. JR was 68 years old when he took over the Party. But he showed the energy and vigor of a man in his thirties or forties. In the aforementioned discussion at ‘Braemar’, JR explained to us the causes of the UNP’s defeats. He said that, despite it being the Party that brought about long-term development to the country, the people did not identify themselves with the UNP. A set of Colombo-educated and elite bunch of pukka sahibs ran the show, he told us. He said that the UNP had to go back to the people, not the so-called ‘common man’, but the educated villager. As a result of his approach to this new political philosophy, men like Laggala Wijeratne Banda, Haputale WJM Lokubandara, Rattota Kaviratne, Minipe Attanayake and Galgamuwa Loku Banda were elected to parliament in 1977.

In addition to this ‘ruralization’ of the Party, JR also pointed out that the existing Westminster system acted as a decelerating system to fast development of the economy. It is here that he came out with the proposition that an Executive President system would accelerate the country’s development. Although JR had been vocal about Executive presidential system for some time, even in Parliament, this was the first time he told a small group of students the pros and cons of such a system of government.

At the time we did not pay much attention to JR’s proposition, yet when he introduced the 1978 Constitution within which was included the Executive Presidential way of governance, we were actually not surprised. The rest, as they say, is history. Now allow me to discuss what happened after the introduction of the Executive Presidential system.

When JR was President, there was no presidential secretariat. He ran his office with one President’s Secretary (WMPB Menikdivela). His advisors were an unofficial inner Cabinet that comprised of R Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali and Ronnie De Mel. JR’s adherence to the old parliamentary system did not desert him during his tenure yet with a vigor of ‘an old man in a hurry’, as K M de Silva wrote in JR’s biography, JR made many a slip and especially his deafening silence in the wake of the ’83 July riots still remains as one of his tragic legacies. 

In the Executive President system, JR provided for himself room and space for President to be above the rule of law and that element in the Executive Presidency is a defining flaw in the current context. All those who succeeded JR as President, including JR himself, abused such unlimited powers to the hilt. From R Premadasa, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) to Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe are being derided for exercising this element of powers that is invested in Executive President. But with all his abuse of power and failures, corruption is not one badge that JR wore. His successors cannot be spared of that accusation. Corrupt to the core, they stand apart from JR in that ignoble sphere of personal dishonesty, corruption and insecurity. While JR was quintessentially secure in his position, all other Presidents have time and again shown their sense of insecurity in power. JR was never shy or uncomfortable with the so-called pundits and intellectuals. His successors were utterly uncomfortable and insecure in such educated company. 

While JR presided over an economic boom, all others, except perhaps Premadasa, showed their sheer incapacity and incapability to manage a country’s development. While JR delegated his work, all others refused to embrace such a successful management principle. Yet the Presidential System, as is being shown even today, remains a ‘thornish’ element on our governance-principles. Had JR introduced the Presidential System for a limited period of time (he could have done it because he had the five sixths of parliamentary majority at the time), the country may have had the chance to recover from the pits his successors had driven into during their respective tenures in office. But it is futile to indulge in such speculation now.                             

Presidential system, as a governing organism and a political process has had its beautiful and productive moments. But its nasty and dangerously devastating flashes have overshadowed those beautiful profiles. During JR’s time the massive Mahaweli Development program was completed with six reservoirs built and more than one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) families settled in newly irrigated land. Premadasa’s housing projects and the development of the Colombo Port were all successful programs that were completed during those seventeen years in which the UNP was in power. Despite an on-going war, the country’s stability was never a question. Nonetheless, the country’s current status could be largely attributable to the unlimited powers vested in the Executive Presidency. No future government would want to change this system. The only way it could be changed is, whether one agrees or not, through an ‘Aragalaya’. 

The Aragalaya happens to be taking a much-needed pause. The month of October is relatively a dull period in Sri Lanka. Being situated in the tropics, away from the vagaries of seasons which otherwise temper the regular climatic changes on the globe, Sri Lanka, in a very acute sense, goes through these whether changes in a matter-of-fact manner. Intermittent torrential rain that batters the wet zone claims its inevitable victims- landslides in the hill-country, floods accompanied with its regular debris hugging the land and resultant camps to accommodate the victims of these natural irregularities. The sun breaks through, piercing the morning mist and shedding much wanted light on a sleepy population. With the chores of the day completed, as twilight approaches, the autumn moon dominates an otherwise dark sky. Billions of stars are keeping company to a solitary moon and the usual lullabies and serenades begin their evening meditational twirling, bringing forth the calmness and serenity to an expectant land. Let’s indulge in the magnificence of this moment.

*The writer can be contacted by vishwamithra1984@gmail.com