Govt. urged to work out timeline to scrap executive presidency

• Introducing a new constitution is the best thing  the government could do for the country

By Yohan Perera   

The government should come up with a particular time frame  within which the Executive Presidency would be abolished and a new  constitution would be enacted, a well-known civil movement said  yesterday.   “There is no obstacle for the National People’s Power (NPP)  government to introduce a new constitution in a situation in which it  commands a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The government has a  golden opportunity to abolish the executive presidency, which has brought  about much destruction. We expect the government would approach in this  endeavour by drawing up a time frame for it. President Anura Kumara  Dissanayake will go down in history as a statesman if he acts nobly  in bringing reforms. Introducing a new constitution is the best thing  the government could do for the country,” a statement from the National  Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) said.   
“What NMSJ will focus more on is engaging all parties in the  exercise of deciding Sri Lanka’s future. The effort made by former  President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to compile a new constitution by engaging  only a few persons for the exercise of compiling a new constitution has  failed,” the statement signed by NMSJ General Secretary Sunil Jayasekera  said.   
NMSJ recalled that the exercise by former President  Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga back in the year 2000 failed  initially as the time during which the new constitution would come into  effect was delayed till her second term was completed. “The then  opposition protested against the new constitution even after the former  President agreed to shed the earlier plan to go ahead with a long  transitional period. The then opposition did a grave injustice to the  nation then,” the statement recalled.   
“We are happy to note that the government is to go ahead  with constitutional reforms and NMSJ will fully back such an approach,”  the statement further said.