“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” – Lord Acton
The Executive Presidency in Sri Lanka has done incomprehensible things to the holders of that exalted office ever since it was created in 1978, with the country and its people almost always being at the receiving end. The first holder of that office and uncle of the current, Junius Richard Jayewardene, who customised and crafted the post for himself, knew exactly what he was doing, and even boasted that the only ‘power’ it lacked was to transform a man into a woman and vice versa.
The legacy he left behind after holding that post for 11 tumultuous years – starting with a rapid transformation of the economy into an Asian Tiger to an equally rapid regression into a country burning at both ends with two raging conflicts tearing the nation apart in the north and south – should have, in hindsight, pointed to the nature of the beast he created at that relatively early stage.
No President since, save for one brief interim holder of that office in 1993, has ever succeeded in not capitulating to its alluring, self-destructive influence. In fact, the four individuals who have held the post in the last decade have been the worst in that sense, with each outdoing the other in terms of abusing that office.
In 2013 Mahinda Rajapaksa successfully managed to introduce the 18th Amendment so as to have a shot at being president for life. The man who followed, Maithripala Sirisena, sacked his own Government and proceeded to install the ‘Leader of the Joint Opposition in Parliament’ as the Prime Minister until the Supreme Court ruled the political coup illegal. To date, no one has thought it fit to institute legal action for this gross abuse of power.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa went to the extent of even disregarding the statute books and told State officials that his word was the law. It was that mindset that led him to take arbitrary, drastic decisions that finally ended up crashing the economy and the country. Now, the present holder of the office appears to be outdoing all others in the manner the State apparatus is being used – or rather, abused – to stifle the fundamental rights of the people.
Touted as the panacea to solving the nation’s problems by its creator, over the years it in itself has morphed to become the mother of all problems, so much so that every president elect since 1994 has promised its abolition but never kept their word. Up to date, no less than five constitutional amendments have been made specifically targeting the presidency – either to decrease or increase its powers – but all said and done, the post in its present avatar is not very different from its original, all-powerful form.
As Lord Acton said, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. A direct consequence of such corruption is the moral decay that sets in. When that decay sets in right at the top for a prolonged period, there is nothing to prevent it from flowing down right to the bottom. That basically explains the plight of this country today where corruption, indiscipline, and abuse of power in all its forms have become the order of the day from top to bottom.
Corruption per se is not only about swindling money and assets or peddling influence, it is also about accruing undue power and privilege through constitutional manoeuvring. Today we have a President who while in Opposition was the epitome of a democrat. But in the brief period since assuming the high office through a constitutional provision, he has managed to successfully destroy all notions of being the democrat he once made himself out to be. As we said at the beginning, this presidency does inexplicable things to even the best of people.
By preventing the holding of elections mandated by law, and as such officially declared by the relevant authority, the Executive is not only denying the people of this nation their fundamental right to express their franchise at this critical juncture, but in doing so is also attempting to accrue to himself powers to govern all the Local Government authorities through provincial governors appointed by him.
With that done, all tiers of Government in this country – namely, the Local Government bodies, Provincial Councils, Parliament, and Cabinet – will be controlled by a single individual, hitting for a six any pretension of a democratic set-up. As seen in the last few months, the so-called independent commissions too have been anything but that and appear to be mere clay in the hands of the Executive.
No president has ever wielded such unprecedented and extensive clout spanning every strata of the governance structure. And the icing on the cake is the fact that this all-powerful Executive does not enjoy a popular mandate, even from his own electorate. Needless to say, it all amounts to a mockery of the democratic process and is hardly the kind of thing that will inspire confidence among the creditor community.
Despite this Executive bulwark in the making, the one obstacle standing in its way and in fact the only recourse available to the people to keep things in check is the Supreme Court. Interestingly enough, it is the Supreme Court that gave Wickremesinghe his job back when former President Sirisena decided to sack him and his Government in 2018. Today it is the same Supreme Court that is safeguarding the rights of the people from his increasingly authoritarian ways.
The main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has earned itself a rare pat on the back for petitioning the apex court and obtaining an interim order preventing the Treasury Secretary, the Attorney General representing the President who is also the Finance Minister, and other State officials, including the Government Printer, from withholding any of the budgeted funds for holding the Local Government Elections.
While it is certainly a tactical victory for the SJB, it will be of little or no consequence if it limits its success to winning a battle rather than the war. In order to bring about the democratic change that the people have been calling for for over a year now, it is crucial for all Opposition parties that claim to represent the interests of the people to unite towards achieving the common goal of bringing about meaningful, wholesome, and sustainable change and thereafter go their separate ways. As the main Opposition, the SJB must stretch out its hands rather than quarrel with each other.
As for the Government, economic data shows signs of improvement, notwithstanding questions over sustainability if the IMF programme does not kick in by this month. Short of what in the opinion of the Central Bank Governor is fulfilment of the IMF wish list, there has been little or no inclination on the part of the administration towards curbing corruption. After all, it takes two to tango and for reform to be sustainable, the Government must also walk the talk.
A meaningful first step would be to initiate austerity from within without piling the entire burden on the people. On that score, the precedent set by the Government of Pakistan, which too is wooing the IMF for a similar bailout package by implementing strict austerity measures for all ministers and heads of government entities, is worthy of duplication. The measures include immediate suspension of all salaries and perks for ministers and officials and the auctioning of vehicles and houses allocated to ministers to raise State revenue.
That aside, it must also heed what the IMF has been consistently stating, that any agreement should necessarily be with the people – a sentiment that has been echoed by its main stakeholder, the US.