The Constitutional Coup, three years on

This week marks the third-year anniversary of one of the most shameful episodes in Sri Lanka’s 90-year democratic history. President Maithripala Sirisena, elected on an unprecedented platform with a mandate for democratic reform, betrayed all those who had entrusted him with the task, and illegally appointed former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa as “prime minister” on 26 October 2018. The constitutional coup was President Sirisena’s desperate attempt to hold on to the presidency he had pledged to abolish.

His unceremonious removal of a Prime Minister who enjoyed the confidence of Parliament led to 52 days of turmoil and State sector paralysis. MPs were bought and sold like commodities, while others oscillated between loyalty and principle – and often made the wrong choice. In the end, a series of historic events, including crucial interventions by Chief Justice Nalin Perera and his Judiciary, and the extraordinary courage of then Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, reversed the trajectory of the illegal power grab and delivered a people’s victory. One year later, the people voted the coup-plotters into power again, and the past two years have proved that the current regime governs in the same way it plotted to grab power in 2018 – violently, and through any means necessary. 

Three years after President Sirisena’s illegal power grab was defeated, when the nation seems bereft of principled leaders of sound judgment and empathy with the people’s plight, it is necessary to remember those who stood on the right side of history and fought for something bigger than politics. Top of that list is undoubtedly former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, who showed the country the soldier he was during three crucial days in Parliament in November 2018 that stripped the de facto prime minister of his legitimacy to govern. The image of the octogenarian Speaker, marching into Parliament beside a human wall of unarmed policeman to protect him from chairs, books and chillie powder being hurled at his head, and huddled in a corner bringing the House to order to hold a vote of no confidence is an enduring testament to Jayasuriya’s courage under fire and unswerving commitment to uphold democracy.

The other battle against the attempted coup was waged in the courts of law, as a legion of senior counsel petitioned the country’s highest courts against the President’s unconstitutional actions. A hero of the Supreme Court battle was young Attorney Hejaaz Hizbullah, who appeared for Jeevan Hoole, a member of the independent Election Commission who had decided to oppose the President’s attempt to force an election. Hizbullah stunned the courtroom with his powerful submissions about President Sirisena’s dictatorial actions. Six months after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed office, Hizbullah was detained under anti-terror laws and has remained imprisoned for 18 months on flimsy, trumped up charges. 

Chief Justice Nalin Silva delivered a historic judgment ending the constitutional coup in December 2018 after stopping it in its tracks a month earlier in what senior lawyers called the most consequential Supreme Court order in their lifetimes. He has since retired and the Attorney General who argued on behalf of the President’s illegal actions is Chief Justice today. The hooligan MPs who sat on the Speaker’s chair and hurled projectiles in the Chamber are high profile ministers in Cabinet. Such is the cruel irony of history. 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was reinstated in December 2018. It was arguably Wickremesinghe’s finest hour and most wasted opportunity. Wickremesinghe failed to understand the people’s anger at President Sirisena, failed to harness the goodwill his Government had wrested from the clutches of unpopularity during the coup, and refused to hold the guilty accountable. Instead, Wickremesinghe did what he does best – he spent the rest of the year sowing division, playing politics and eventually being decimated electorally at Presidential and Parliamentary Polls. 

The biggest losers, however, were the people, who stood up to be counted during the 52-day power grab, when their democratically elected leaders failed them again. It was not unlike January 2015, when elected leaders betrayed the trust placed in them and went back to playing politics as usual. Post-coup, the UNP adopted a policy of pacifying the petulant President, refused to call him out and took the path of least resistance. Everything the people lined up to protect in those 52 days of turmoil – the independence of the Judiciary, the supremacy of Parliament, the checks on presidential power – all turned to ashes with the enactment of the 20th Amendment. 

When the whispers for change and course correction begin once more, we must look to the heroes of Sri Lanka’s story of the 2018 coup and draw inspiration from their courage and commitment to constitutional ideals.