Will the president be checkmated?
Using and misusing state resources to the utmost, a desperate PA played even its last trump card, the Tiger card, and the people disregarded all of it and defeated the government with the power of their innocent vote. What the President can still do, and what should be done to her office, is the question.
ජනාධිපතිනිය චෙක් මේට් වේද?
After the People’s Alliance defeat, Ivan weighs the options facing Chandrika Kumaratunga, who still holds executive power. Contrasting American practice and French cohabitation under Mitterrand and Chirac with Sri Lanka’s short 1994 experience, he sees three paths: resignation, a Wijetunga-style nominal presidency, or removal by the new majority through budget control or impeachment. He calls for constitutional reforms making the president accountable to Parliament and the courts and giving the Prime Minister full domestic authority.
මහජන කැමැත්තට පයින් ගැසීම
Anura Bandaranaike said that even if the United National Front won, his sister would not let it form a government but would keep proroguing and dissolving Parliament. The editorial replies that Sri Lanka is not a Bandaranaike feudal estate, that sovereignty lies with the people, and that voters also decide which politicians belong on the rubbish heap of history.
පොදු පෙරමුණ පරාජය වුවහොත් විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
Ivan considers cohabitation between a PA President and a UNP Parliament. He recalls how President Wijetunga cooperated with Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1994, quotes N.M. Perera’s 1978 warnings that a hostile Parliament could paralyse a president through its control of finance, and argues that a PA defeat would amount to a popular verdict against her. He concludes that she must accept the leader of the winning party as Prime Minister or face public revolt.
Powerless presidency and power of parliament
Under the 1978 constitution one party can hold the presidency while another commands parliament. That happened briefly between August and December 1994, and it is about to happen again — and this time the President will be at the greater disadvantage.
හවුල් ආණ්ඩු දේශපාලනය
The editorial argues that the People’s Alliance government will be remembered for arrogance, inefficiency and corruption. It contrasts the hopes placed in Chandrika Kumaratunga with elections won by thuggery since 1997, development stalled and the Electricity Board’s savings turned into debt, and a one-woman government in which she took the finance portfolio and alienated her own cabinet.
කුණු වී සැරව ගලන තුවාලයක් බවට පත්ව ඇති දේශපාලනය
Ivan likens all parliamentary parties, the PA, UNP and JVP alike, to maggots feeding on a festering wound. He examines the charges traded after S.B. Dissanayake and others crossed to the opposition, including Mangala Samaraweera’s claims about Dissanayake’s Hanguranketa mansion, and the defectors’ own accounts of Chandrika Kumaratunga’s chronic lateness, her hoarding of ministries and her control of tenders through Ronnie Peiris, whose business links to the Katunayake expressway and Hiru radio he details.
ජනාධිපති ක්රමය හා ඇටිකෙහෙල්
Comparing the executive presidency to seeded bananas, tasty but hard to digest, Ivan recalls N.M. Perera’s warning that the 1978 system would produce crises once president and legislature diverged. He traces the Premadasa impeachment attempt and Wijetunga’s restraint, then argues that Chandrika Kumaratunga’s arrogance towards her ministers and the opposition, capped by Rauff Hakeem’s dismissal and the prorogation, has trapped her and may pit a hostile new government against her.
Other side of executive presidency
The President called the 1978 constitution ridiculous and went on enjoying the privileges of the system it created, without even reforming away its contradictions. She is paying for that now.
ජනාධිපතිනිය තමන් වැටුණු බොරු වළට විපක්ෂය කැඳවීම
Ivan argues that President Kumaratunga, trapped in a pit of her own lies, wants to lure Ranil Wickremesinghe in with the premiership and a national government, climb out on his back, purge the rebels in her own camp and then discard him. He urges the opposition to build an all-party interim government for reform with the government rebels, predicts she will keep Parliament shut rather than face defeat on a policy statement, and says lasting stability needs a settlement with Prabhakaran that meets Tamil grievances.