By Raju prabath lankaloka
Basil Rajapaksha resigned on 19th June. That was exactly one month after the disgraceful resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksha. Many media had reported that Basil Rajapaksha had resigned before the commencement of parliamentary proceedings on the proposed 21st Amendment, which is reported to have included provisions once again to disqualify dual citizens holding parliamentary seats. As Basil is alleged to have been closely associated with corruption, during the recent protests people have raised their voices against him. It is widespread that Basil’s resignation was a victory to the struggle and that the proposed 21st Amendment has contributed to that victory. Of course, sending Basil home was another victory in the struggle. There is no doubt about that. However, it is important for us to see whether the proposed 21st Amendment is a viable solution, which can fulfil the demands of the people’s struggle.
During this economic collapse, the ruling class has the challenge of coming to a compromise among them in order to patch up the political instability. It is one side of the crisis. The other side is that people, shouldering the entire burden of the collapsing economy, have taken to the streets as they cannot take that burden anymore. The people’s struggle, which was started with economic demands is moving towards political demands. The main demands of the struggle are to send home the failed ruler, who has no answer to any of the country’s problems and to remove the corrupt regime altogether.
The 21st Amendment to the Constitution is an expression of this crisis.
Before the Cabinet has taken a discussion on 21st Amendment, two draft amendments to the Constitution were tabled in Parliament as private members’ bills. These were the proposals made by Wijedasa Rajapaksa, which he tabled before he became a Minister and the proposal made by Ranjith Madduma Bandara, an MP of SJB. Amending the constitution with provisions going beyond the 19th Amendment, was one of the main proposals of the Bar Association, which they resolved as a solution to the current crisis.
It is clear that none of the demands of the people’s struggle has been considered in these draft amendments. The main slogan of the people’s struggle is “Gota Go Home”. The meaning of that slogan is to send back Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, whom the people call the most failed ruler in history. The political meaning of it is the ability of the people to recall their elected representatives. Going beyond that, the majority of the people are now saying that not only the President but also the executive presidency should be abolished. At the same time, there is a strong voice to change the existing system.
In this context, it is clear that the proposed constitutional amendments are not to fulfil the demands of the people but to reach an agreement among the various sections of the ruling class in an attempt to keep the save their system. The proposed 21st Amendment does not provide any provisions to abolish the executive presidency. It also does not include provisions to empower the people to recall their elected representatives. In general, the proposed constitutional amendment seems to be confined to the framework of the Nineteenth Amendment. It does not have anything other than to limit the Presidential Powers to a certain extent and transfer those powers to the Prime Minister.
This is in a way like a temporary agreement between the President and the Prime Minister on their respective powers. The same thing happened in 2015 with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which was enacted after the election of Maithripala Sirisena of the SLFP as the President and Ranil Wickremesinghe of UNP as the Prime Minister. As soon as a strong regime capable of standing on its own has re-emerged, those powers transferred to the Prime Minister were taken back by the Executive President. That is what happened with the 20th Amendment. The same thing can happen again in future.
Under the proposed amendment, contrary to the main demands of the struggle, President Gotabhaya Rajapakse, will not go home, but will continue his tenure with another corrupt and failed character, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the executive presidency will continue.
Questioning this corrupt regime is another aspect of the struggle. For that, there are demands to audit all the assets of the MPs and Ministers. Under the current law, neither the Auditor General nor the Audit Commission can audit individuals. It has the power only to audit institutions. No proposals were made by the Amendment to amend those laws to provide provisions required to audit individuals.
We must understand that these proposals, which are being brought by the ruling class to show their unity have not addressed any of the demands of the people’s struggle. These were proposals made merely for the sake of continuing their system and for spraying cold water on the masses. People are arriving at conclusions necessary to resolve the current crisis and eliminate its causes. The necessity to change this system is the main one. Today, it is our responsibility to take the struggle forward with more determination to change this system without being deceived by the constitutional amendments brought by the ruling class once again to mislead the people.
