Don’t waste time confessing the sins of others`

It now seems that President Maithripala Sirisena is having second thoughts on writing to the Supreme Court for a determination on whether his term of office begins on January 9, 2015, the day on which he was sworn-in or on May 15, 2015, the day on which the Speaker gave his assent to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

The President’s advisers must have held the view that in case of the latter, the President could hold office till May 15, 2020 in which case he would be able to dissolve Parliament no sooner it completes four and a half years and hold the general elections in a manoeuvre to weaken the United National Party (UNP) and most notably its Leader, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The President was thwarted from doing so in 2018 in the aftermath of the October 26 conspiracy when the apex court had unanimously ruled that his dissolution of Parliament was a violation of the Constitution. Permit us, at this point to ask a hypothetical question. If in the remotest likelihood, his term of office was found to have begun on May 15, 2015, then what might be the fate of the documents and gazette notices he signed between January 9 and May 15 on the assumption that he was the President of Sri Lanka. By carrying out his duties of President from the moment he was sworn-in also points to the fact that for all intents and purposes he accepted and acknowledged that his term of office began on January 9, 2015. Be that as it may, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by the then Chief Justice Priyasath Dep and comprising Justices Eva Wanasundare, Buvaneka Aluvihare, Sisira de Abrew and K. Chitrasiri confirmed that the President’s term was restricted to five years. This came in the wake of the President seeking a Court ruling on the extent of his term of office on the basis that he was elected prior to enactment of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

With his plans to remain in the hot seat till May 2020 not likely to materialise, he is bound to return to his home in Polonnaruwa as a one-term President. This he publicly pledged to do at his well-attended swearing-in ceremony on January 9, 2015. But more often than not pledges like promises are broken when distracted and corrupted by power and prestige. It is against this backdrop with the presidential election now certain to be held by December this year, that the country is agog with speculation as to who would be the probable presidential candidates, with or without political labels, waiting on the side-lines for an ‘auspicious’ time to throw down the gauntlet. 

For the first time in Sri Lanka’s electoral history, we had a non-partisan presidential candidate in 2015. Some 6.2 million people countrywide voted for Maithripala Sirisena with so much of hope and expectation that he would provide the necessary leadership to a Sri Lankan renaissance. But unfortunately it was not to be with the President and the Prime Minister pulling in different directions resulting in all hopes and expectations being dashed to the ground leaving the voters dejected and disappointed.

Meanwhile, the UNP-led United Front (UNF) government defeated the latest of the several no-confidence (NCM) motions it faced by a majority of 27 votes with 119 members, including those of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Muslim parties voting against the NCM while 92 members including those of the joint opposition, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which submitted the NCM and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) voting in favour.

Amid the dark clouds of uncertainty and chaos overshadowing this country’s political climate, the future that awaits Sri Lanka and its people is too difficult to foresee. We thought we got it right in 2015 but sadly though the nuts and bolts fell apart leaving us in a worst plight not so much in terms of human rights or institutional freedoms such as the freedom of the press, the freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary, but with much to lament about in terms of fraud and corruption, siphoning off of the country’s wealth and resources and a lack of progress and development.

Are we so unfortunate that we can get little or nothing right even though we have the teachings of the four major world religions shining their benevolent rays on Sri Lanka and its people? Let us even now make up our minds to be responsible for our own actions instead of wasting time confessing the sins of others.