If a general agreement is not reached for the purpose of arriving at a solution to the crisis that has arisen from the President’s take over of three ministries the country will inevitably be driven to a major crisis from which there cannot be an easy recovery. Although the President’s action appears to be a headstrong one that would lead to chaos, it was something that had to happen sooner or later, due to the way things were happening.
The President’s action carries the warning that she would not, as the Executive President, tolerate being sidelined. Although the parliamentary election had given a mandate to the Prime Minister, the Executive Presidency had gone to the leader of the People’s Alliance. If Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe could not work with her, he should have taken action at the beginning to remove her from her post. The other option for him was to accept the prevailing reality, and to enrol her participation in the decision making process, however difficult it might have been in practice.
The discord that exists in the constitution as well as the selfish feelings of the two leaders has contributed to the present chaos. The nature of the constitution is such that, when the presidential power goes to one party and the parliamentary power goes to another, the two centers of power cannot co-exist peacefully. The Prime Minister should have understood that fact at the outset. He had a responsibility to understand that, in a context in which the presidential power was in the hands of the leader of the opposing party, serious conflicts could occur, and that he had to find a way to overcome them.
If the Prime Minister had opted for discussions with the President, soon after he had received his mandate, for the purpose of reaching an agreement on the limits of each other’s power, in a manner that would prevent future rifts, it might have been possible to arrive at an understanding that would have helped avoid this kind of rift. Why did the Prime Minister fail to do it? Was it because he did not foresee such rifts? Or, did he want to maintain the Presidency without entailing any of its powers, because his next target is to become the President?
The Prime Minister’s strategy appears to have been to hold on, without curtailing any of the Presidential powers until the Presidential election of 2005. The peace program was the chief means for such holding on, and due to the acceptance which that program had gained nationally and internationally, the Prime Minister seems to have believed that he would be able to preserve his own popularity until the next Presidential election without any problem from the President although she had Presidential powers.
While one of the reasons for the President’s anger towards the Prime Minister was his taking actions in disregard of her in spite of her being the Executive President, another reason was his apparent eagerness to become the President himself, while letting her become a cipher. Finally she was driven to a policy of using the powers given her by the constitution in such a way as to blot all his dreams. The signal thus given by her was that she was not prepared to be disregarded and that he must come to an agreement with her if he wanted to proceed any further.
An irony of history is that the program she has put forward for a mutual understanding is the same program of reforms which Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should have taken up at the beginning but which he never did. The President who almost strangled the system of independent commissions is compelled now to speak for the need of its revival. The President who abused the state media in the worst possible manner at the elections is now compelled to stand for the need to bring the state media under an independent authority. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is now left with nothing more to speak about than peace.
What she says forcefully now through the proposals put forward by her is that she too, as the Executive President, must be enrolled in the process of taking decisions on peace. Although it might be difficult to work with the President, the Prime Minister must make up his mind to do that job in the interests of the country. It is not good to have the process of taking decisions on peace as a one party affair. The acceptance of the peace program can be strengthened by turning it into a bi-partisan matter.
In addition to these conditions, a necessity might also arise of giving the President the right to contest the next presidential election. Although such a demand might not be very attractive, allowing it will not do any particular harm to the country, if it helps to bring a general agreement between the two parties. If the two leaders fail to bring about such an agreement due to whatever reasons, not only those two leaders and their parties, but also the entire country will have to pay a very heavy price for it.