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THE 19TH AMENDMENT: A WALK TO REMEMBER constitutionNo one man
should have all that power. Kanye West-APRIL 29, 2015If you were to
liken the 19th Amendment to poop, youd end up with an incredibly
crude but hilariously accurate description. It was a long poop.
Protracted. Painful. It even made me want to quote Kanye West. But
it was necessary, oh, so necessary. Because Kanye, despite being a
pop culture icon completely unrelated to Sri Lankan politics, is
right:no one man should have ever had all that power.Not so long
ago, we had a school debate on the Constitution. At the 13th hour,
I got myself a copy and started reading. It quickly became clear
that the office of the President of Sri Lanka was nothing short of
a legal dictatorship. Indeed, it became a running joke among us
that the President had more power in his pinky finger than the
Queen of England ever did something we used to good effect in the
debate that followed.How? Because in 1977, Sri Lanka passed an
amendment to the Constitution that created an Executive Presidency.
The Prime Minister at the time, J.R. Jayawardene, was promoted into
the post, becoming the first Executive President of Sri Lanka.In
the coming years, the government of Sri Lanka passed a series of
changes that made this Executive Presidency a virtual nexus of
power. The Third Amendment, of 1982, enabled the President to seek
re-election after 4 years in office. In 1988, the sweeping changes
brought by the Fourteenth Amendment not only changed the political
balance of the country forever; they also made the President
virtually immune to being called up for anything they cared to
do.By the time Mahinda Rajapakse stepped into the field to win the
war, the Presidency was the perfect tool to pull a demoralized,
flagging country together. One man could dictate war strategy,
order the police about, pardon anyone and anything in the name of
national security and so on, and so forth. He was a king hampered
only by how long he could (legally) rule.In 2010, the 18th
Amendment took out the limit of the number of times a President
could be re-elected, essentially giving the country a legal
dictator that coulda) Dissolve Parliament at will
b) Control the armed forces and the judiciary (the second via
appointment rather than directly)
c) Take on any Ministry and sack any Minister
d) Convene elections at will
d) Rule forever.Too much of a good thing? No. Too much of something
that never should have been in the first place.THE 19thAMENDMENT
WAS AN ATTEMPT TO UNDO THE DAMAGEParliament_smallerOr, as Indi
succinctlyputs it, itsa big Ctrl+Z on the Constitution. The 19th
Amendment sought to redistribute that power, to take it away from
the one man and give it back to the Parliament. The logic is that
in a democracy, the elected representatives of the people are a
fairer representation of what the people want than one man with
asatakaya. There may be problems with this model, especially when
it comes to the goons in Parliament, but dilution of power is
necessary. The 19th Amendment passed. Parliament gave it 212 out of
225. One person voted against. Seven people choose not to vote at
all.The person who voted against was Sarath Weerasekara, former
Rear Admiral, former Director General of the Civil Defense Force,
former Deputy Minister of Labour and Labour Relations, current MP
of Digamadulla and pro-Sinhala, pro-Rajapaksa man.Note: I dont know
much about Sarath Weerasekara. I know he once directed and wrote a
film called Gamini. I know he idolized Mahinda His name will be
written in gold in the Mahawamsa,he is reported to havesaid. He
hold degrees in Buddhist philosophy and is a decorated war hero. He
apparently doesnt believe people should have true freedom of speech
hes called war film directors treasonous and apparently believes
the National Anthem should only be sung in Sinhala. He looks like a
complex man who seems to have been born forty years too late; one
gets the impression that he would have fit very well into the
post-S.W.R.D era.Back to the story. I find a surprisinglyhuge
number of people asking What does 19A give us?. Its astonishing
that we, the general public of Sri Lanka, do not know this stuff.
Politics is too important to be left to the politicians.So heres
what we got.A limit on the number of terms a President can serve
(2).This is important because it negates the 2010 changes.
Dynasty-building is still possible, but no one man can hold all
that power for more than two terms.
A minimum term of service after which a President can dissolve parliament (4.5).Again important, because it gives the Parliament staying power and, by extension, allows the 225 to oppose the President if need be without having to worry about getting them collectively booted out of the house.
It does not drastically limit the Executive Presidency in favor
of a Prime Minister. Thats because 19A has been diluted by the
many, many arguments that took place at Decision-Making HQ
yesterday. The current setup looks like a neat catch to keep
Mahinda in his place. MR cannot return as the President; now if he
becomes PM, he still doesnt get the Iron Throne.A rather neat way
to end a dictatorship, isnt it? It is not as much as we hoped for,
but it is something. The Parliament is still full of fleas. But
Maithripala Sirisenas government is too weak to steamroll everyone,
so everyone has to get together and compromise and work things out
which is more or less how a government should work. Checks and
balances, mate.I do not say MR is evil; he did more for this
country than any President ever did. But power corrupts, and the
absolute power of the Executive Presidency apparently corrupts
absolutely.Its sad, really: you either die a hero, or your rule
long enough to become the villain. Never has that been more
appropriate than in Sri Lanka.Let me, therefore, end this with the
most fitting tribute to Mahinda Rajapakse ever written in
English:Im livin in the 21st century
Doing something mean to it
Doing better than anybody you ever seen do it
Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it
I guess every superhero need his theme music.Posted byThavam