Be like Boris

At the last general election in the United Kingdom in 2019 the Conservative Party won a landslide majority with 43.6% of the popular vote – the highest percentage for any party since 1979. The man who led this victory, Boris Johnson was forced to resign this week after several high profile members of his cabinet resigned over countless scandals and policy mismanagement. 

In a few weeks the Conservative Party will elect a new leader who, once he or she gains the confidence of parliament, becomes the UK’s next prime minister. Despite the uncertainty of the coming weeks, there is little potential for violence or disruption of the economy and civil administration due to the political upheaval. This stability even amidst serious political chaos is testament to the strength of the UK’s parliamentary system which ensures that the legislature and the institution of government continues and evolves irrespective of the political fortunes and crises of the individuals involved.

The obvious comparison is with Sri Lanka, which repealed this system in 1978 and replaced it with the executive presidency. Through the years, the Sri Lankan presidency has become one of the most powerful in the world, bestowing upon office-holders almost god-like power and anointing them as principal political power centre in the country. By constitutional design, Sri Lankan executive presidents are immovable once elected to office, as the political crisis of the day will bear out. Despite a tanking economy, the options to remove and replace the President at the helm of the bad policies that got Sri Lanka here remain woefully limited. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who brought about this calamity and created system-wide chaos and instability is safely ensconced in the presidential office. 

The dangers associated with concentrating excessive power with one institution, i.e. the presidency, and by extension one individual has been known for decades. Colvin R. de Silva, who drafted the first republican constitution, observed at the time of the enactment of the current constitution in 1978: “An incumbent President will in practice be irremovable. The procedure provided for removal of a President by Parliament is so cumbrous and prolix that one cannot see it ever being resorted to in respect of intentional violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, misconduct or corruption involving the abuse of the powers of his office or any offence under any written law, involving moral turpitude. 

Even in the case of the President being permanently incapable of performing the functions of his office by reason of mental or physical infirmity, the same procedure has to be resorted to; so that we can be ruled by a mad President for quite a time.”

The clamour for the dilution of presidential powers over the decades stems from this reasonable fear – and no bearer of the office has done anything to allay those concerns. In every presidential election but the last, Sri Lankan electors have voted to clip the wings of the executive presidency – and the only reason they voted differently in 2019 was because of the desire for a strongman leader in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks and the SLPP canard that it was a weak presidency that brought about the terror attacks. Knowing what we know today about those terror attacks, the justification for retaining the powers of the president and in fact enhancing them with the enactment of the 20th Amendment has been roundly debunked.

As tens of thousands of disgruntled, starving and increasingly hopeless citizens march on the streets demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation, it is as clear as day that he has lost all legitimacy to govern the country, irrespective of his thumping mandate in 2019.

And yet despite this, the only democratically viable option to get over this impasse is his voluntary resignation according to article 38(1)(b) of the Constitution. It is laid bare then that in order to prevent a recurrence of our current predicament, where the life and security of the whole nation depends on the ability, mental health and integrity of a single individual, the executive presidential system must be abolished.

Until such time, it can only be hoped that President Rajapaksa read the writing on the wall and take a leaf from Boris Johnson’s book. For the sake of Sri Lanka and the future of our children, Gotabaya Rajapaksa must go.