Taking a reality check on the 22nd Amendment

Argument
By Editor_1
Sri Lanka's new president dissolved Parliament on Tuesday (September 24, 2024) and called a snap election as he prepares to renegotiate the bankrupt nation's unpopular International Monetary (IMF) bailout program - Adnan Abid/ REUTERS/File
By. Kassapa

The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was taken up for debate in the legislature on Thursday (20), but its chances of seeing the light of day and becoming law are as great as the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) winning the next national elections: virtually zero.

The ‘father’ of the 22nd Amendment in its current form is Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe. He began work on the amendment at the behest of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. That was at time a when the ‘aragalaya’ at Galle Face was at its peak and the masses were literally at Gotabaya’s doorstep, demanding reform.

Minister Rajapakshe has soldiered on even after Gotabaya Rajapakshe fled from office and Ranil Wickremesinghe took over. However, it is not for nothing that he is known as ‘Deal dasa’. He must take great pleasure in being identified with the proposed constitutional reform. That is his way of remaining politically viable, first under the Rajapaksas, now under Wickremesinghe and also in the eyes of the Sri Lankan public.

To begin with Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s 22nd Amendment is in fact, much ado about nothing. It is being marketed as an attempt to dilute the powers of the Executive Presidency because it includes a Constitutional Council which will oversee the so-called ‘independent’ commissions. The devil is in the detail, though.

Under Rajapakshe’s proposed amendment, seven out of ten members of the Constitutional Council are under the control of the President and the ruling party. What chance then does such a Council have of being truly independent? It will be a re-enactment of the current Parliamentary Council in another name, with a few outsiders thrown in for cosmetic purposes, so that it can be said that democracy is alive and well in Sri Lanka.

Then, there is also the business of whether the President or the Prime Minister has authority in determining the composition of the Cabinet. The proposed legislation initially stated that the President should appoint the Cabinet on the ‘advice’ of the Prime Minister but a Supreme Court determination has meant that now it has been watered down to ‘in consultation with the Prime Minister’. Thus, the authority now remains with the President.

In the harsh world of realpolitik though, all this debate about what the 22nd

Amendment means is merely an academic exercise. That is because it will never become law. The SLPP – which is still being manipulated by Basil Rajapaksa although he is out of Parliament and currently in the United States – remains opposed to the Amendment. So, it is unlikely to secure even a simple majority, let alone the two-thirds majority that is need for it to become law.

Basil has a bone of contention vis-à-vis the 22nd Amendment. That is the clause relating to dual citizens. As long as that remains part and parcel of the legislation, he will ensure that a faction of the SLPP parliamentary group loyal to him will vote en masse to prevent its passage in Parliament. This will ensure that Basil Rohana Rajapaksa, a dual citizen of the United States of America and Sri Lanka, retains the option of returning to Parliament and to his former glory as an omnipotent minister- or maybe even more.

That is plainly obvious for all to see. Yet, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the great ‘democrat’ and ‘patriot’ that he is claims that the clause regarding dual citizens will remain. Surely, he must know that the amendment is doomed to failure in the current Parliament as long as this is the case. Yet, he persists and perseveres with this stance. Is it because he can be in the good books of the Rajapaksas privately while appearing to be a hero who fought for the cause publicly?

And what is the role of President Ranil Wickremesinghe in all this? In the brief period when he was Prime Minister under Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe was an ardent advocate of the 22nd Amendment and understandably so: any enhancement of Prime Ministerial powers would have been to his advantage.

Now that he is President though, it is an entirely different equation. Why would he offer to diminish his own powers, the powers that he lusted after for four and a half decades, the powers which fortuitously became his by default when Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled and the powers that he now wields with gay abandon, enthusiastically crushing all forms of dissent?

Yes, we hear Wickremesinghe say every now and again that he is still for the 22nd Amendment but we have not seen him taking any practical measures to ensure it becomes law. Despite all his faults, we recall how former President Maithripala Sirisena coaxed, cajoled and coerced MPs into voting for the 19th Amendment. We see nothing of that sort from Wickremesinghe.

For instance, knowing very well that a faction of the SLPP is against the 22nd Amendment in its current form, Wickremesinghe could woo the opposition to vote for it and that way at least attempt to see it through Parliament. Instead, he opts for repressive policies and directives that continue to antagonize the opposition and does nothing to win their confidence, thereby ensuring that the legislation will fail. Of course, all this would be while mouthing platitudes to the effect that he tried his best to enact the amendment.

That then is what the 22nd  Amendment has been reduced to: a drama, a charade that is being enacted by Wickremesinghe, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and the Rajapaksas so they could all tell the world that they ‘tried their best’ to reduce the powers of the Executive Presidency- but they failed because it fell well short of a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

It has been suggested that this will provide us with a silver lining: under the provisions of the current 20th Amendment, it will allow Wickremesinghe to dissolve Parliament by early next year, which wouldn’t be possible if the 22nd Amendment took effect. That is to live in fantasy rather than hope: Wickremesinghe has promised the SLPP that the Parliament will run until 2024 and that is unlikely to change, come what may!

– counterpoint.lk

 

Editor_1
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