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| Sunday, 20 October 2002 |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 Holding moral high ground The Supreme Court is understood to have made its ruling on the Bills for the 18th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution. While the actual Court judgements will only be officially known when they are conveyed to Parliament this week, the general content of the rulings seem to have been indicated in the mass media in the past few days and both the Government as well as the Opposition have already made known their responses. The United National Front Government faces the unfortunate situation of having its attempt to overcome a very major political and constitutional problem effectively blocked by judicial action. With its options limited and the security of its tenure in power increasingly uncertain as the constitutionally stipulated deadline that enables Presidential intervention approaches, the UNF Government is naturally anxious. After all, the UNF has every right to expect to continue in power and to implement its electoral mandate, especially the vital peace process now so successfully under way. This is the moral right of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his parliamentary colleagues and is also the right of the country's voters. After all, a majority of the votes of the electorate are with the political parties now in coalition government. Furthermore, the progress of recent history has clearly indicated the critical political necessities of our time: a rapid end to the war and peaceful resolution of the ethnic problem, establishment of sustainable economic growth and, social and economic uplift of the mass of people. When the bulk of the people decide, by means of democratic ballot, that the previous People's Alliance government has failed in these tasks and is unsuitable in power, it becomes the moral obligation of the succeeding governing party, the UNF, to take up the reigns of governance. Notwithstanding the misdeeds of some of its past leaders, the United National Party and its partners in the United National Front have been chosen by the people to replace the People's Alliance in government. In the face of the threat of a dissolution of Parliament by a hostile Presidency, the UNF Government has thought fit to attempt to dilute the powers of the President in this regard and thereby save those vital governmental initiatives to fulfil its popular mandate. But, this moral high ground can only be retained by action that is morally justifiable. If the Supreme Court finds that the action proposed by the UNF does not meet constitutional requirements, the Government is then challenged to evolve creative ways and means to deal with the constitutional conundrum without violating the spirit of the Constitution and, more importantly, the spirit of democracy and natural justice. If the Court finds that the proposed action has not been Constitutionally viable, any alternative action too must be within these constitutional norms. In its next moves, the UNF has made declarations that it is prepared to call a snap poll. Meanwhile, many of the Opposition politicians are known to have dismissed such declarations, pointing to the illogic of the UNF's argument that, at one time, decried elections just a year after the last as a colossal waste of funds. Today some course of action may be necessary, but only one that would retain the moral high ground of the ruling coalition. The Government will find that such a propriety and respect for norms will retain the support of the people. Most importantly, such legitimacy will ensure confidence in the peace process. |
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