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| Sunday, 28 March 2004 |
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Vigil Lanka advocates change of Constitution By E.Weerapperuma The Freedom Alliance proposal to present a new Constitution to the country has been endorsed by Vigil Lanka Movement President, Siri Nanayakkara, Attorney-at-Law. He said that the Movement fully endorsed the view that the present Constitution of Sri Lanka needed to be changed or altered. Vigil Lanka is an organisation of lawyers and members of civil society which keeps vigil over the operation of the fundamental law of the country, the Constitution and the human rights situation with a specific interest in institutional development relating to law enforcement and rule of law. Nanayakkara said the Movement firmly believes that the present Constitution should be removed in toto. It is a Constitution which has brought destruction and calamity to the country. It is a constitution which grabbed the supremacy of the people and placed it in the hands of one person. It empowers the person holding power to act like a dictator. Democracy is a mere nominal concept under this constitution. It creates a dictator. Even on the surface, at a mere glance, it is apparent that the constitution could be changed. What it needs is a 2/3 majority in Parliament. Although it looks easy to change the Constitution with a 2/3 majority, the question is, will it be possible to get that 2/3 majority. Past experience shows that under the prevailing system of election (Proportional Representation), it is not an easy task. Hence there is a need to establish Supremacy of Parliament and that could only be done through a promulgation of a new Constitution. All political parties except the UNP and the parties working together with the UNP have expressed in strong terms the need to change the present Constitution. But that alone is not enough. They need a majority to make the change democratic. Right now, we are in the same situation that Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) found itself in 1947. Under the Soulbery Constitution, the entrenched clause was considered a barrier to the amendment of that Constitution. Overcoming that dilemma in 1970, the United Front Government, having got an absolute majority, decided to write a new constitution, the very first autochthonous one, a Constitution of the People for the People. It made Sri Lanka a Republic. The architect of that Constitution may not have foreseen what would become of the Constitution at a future date. That was replaced with the 1978 Constitution. Sri Lanka, 26 years later, is back to square one, looking for a new constitution. A procedure has to be followed when in writing a new Constitution. The 1972 Republican Constitution was written off from the House of Parliament and they turned to members of the Constituent Assembly. There are other internationally accepted methods of writing a new constitution. Three ways of doing it are; 1. Making use of the provisions of the existing constitution; 2. Turning the Parliament into a Constitutional Assembly and/or; 3. Adopting the revolutionary method; imposing a constitution on the people by one person. From these options, Sri Lanka could use only one and that is to get members to form themselves into a constituent assembly and provide the required 2/3 majority to adopt the new constitution. All parties contesting under the Freedom Alliance are in agreement to write a new constitution. They go a round the country canvassing the support of the people for this. It they get a simple majority from members of the Parliament, they could still claim that they have the mandate of the people as MPs have been voted into power. Sri Lanka, a country committed to democracy, cannot act undemocratically. The party which comes to power, if it intends to change the constitution, has to follow the provisions in the existing constitution. If not, it has to get all elected members to agree to become part and parcel of a constituent assembly formed to write a new constitution. All these depend heavily on the Will of the People expressed at the forthcoming General Election. |
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