Will PA and UNP share governance?

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, NOV. 6. The question is back: is Sri Lanka ready for French-style cohabitation? Can the Executive President and her Cabinet be from two different and opposed parties?

The issue was a matter of debate during the last election, and with the United National Party (UNP) looking stronger this time around, it has resurfaced in the run-up to the December 5 Parliamentary election.

As political parties plunged into their second week of campaign, the two main stake-holders, the People's Alliance (PA) and the UNP-led United National Front (UNF), have provided different answers to this crucial question.

No, says the President and the leader of the PA, Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga, whose elected term of office ends in January 2006, making a case for voting her coalition back to power.

``The polls will decide with whom I have to work for the next five years and it is up to the voters to elect a PA government because I cannot work with a UNP government and the 12 dissidents who joined their side,'' she declared in her inaugural campaign speech at Anduradhapura.

Mrs. Kumaratunga seemed to be hinting at a deadlock in administration and government if the PA did not return to power.

The PA general secretary, Mr. D.M. Jayaratne, expanded upon the idea at a meeting of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Youth League over the weekend.

As the President was the repository of all executive powers under the Constitution, she would continue to preside over cabinet meetings, make key appointments in the judiciary, the armed forces and in the top echelons of the government, even if the UNP came to power, he said.

``All the Cabinet memoranda will have to get her approval. If the proposals are not good enough, the President will have the discretion to veto them.''

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), a constituent of the PA, has also painted a picture of chaos if the UNP was voted to power.

``A clear majority for the PA at the next election is crucial to the orderly conduct of government for the next five years during which period President, Mrs. Kumaratunga will hold the mandate given to her by the people to head the government. To deny to the PA its majority will result in the country being pushed to political crisis,'' the LSSP declared in a statement last week.

Arguing that the government could function only where there was no conflict between the President and Parliament, the LSSP pointed out that under the present Constitution, there was provision for only one power centre, the Executive President. ``A parliamentary election cannot result in the creation of another power centre within Parliament and independent of the President,'' the party said.

Under the 1978 Constitution, which has vested draconian powers in the office of the Executive Presidency, the President can appoint as Prime Minister that member of Parliament who ``in his (her) opinion'' is most likely to command the confidence of the House.

It is the President who determines the number of ministers, ministries and the assignment of portfolios, and appoints the ministers. The Constitution says that in this task, the President shall consult the Prime Minister, ``where (s)he considers such consultation to be necessary''. The President can also assign to herself any portfolio.

UNP's argument

Misleading propaganda, says the UNF. Addressing a press conference today, the UNF spokesman, Mr. G.L. Peiris, who was also the PA Constitutional Affairs Minister till recently, argued that the functioning of the country was determined by Parliament, and not by the President.

``The Parliament discharges certain essential functions. The most important of them is control over the country's finances. The financial resources of the country can be put at the disposal of the government only by Parliament,'' Mr. Peiris pointed out.

He pointed out that it was the Parliament that passed laws under which a government functions. ``The President cannot govern the country without Parliament.''

Mr. Peiris said that if the UNF won a majority, the ``circumstances'' would transform the office of the President into a French-style Presidency, where the top executive acts on the advice of the cabinet of ministers.

``We are not asking her to shed her powers, but exercise them in accordance with the will of the people.''

Drawing analogies with the U.S., Germany and France, Mr. Peiris made the case that a UNP victory would lead to collaboration in governance between the two major parties - a sort of enforced national government - which was an important consideration for the resolution of the problems before the country.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : ASEAN, China agree on free trade
Next     : Aid agencies speed up relief work