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Saturday, 6 December 2014 00:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Need for good governance and impartial State service
Addressing the gathering, former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva said young professionals had a significant role to play in achieving good governance in Sri Lanka. He said after World War II, the young professionals played a significant role in introducing laws to achieve social, economical and political stability across the world.
He said: “Today Sri Lanka is facing a politically-unstable condition and the reputation of State service has deteriorated due to the executive power of the President.”
He asserted that the State service had been interfered with by politicians and unqualified political representatives who had become heads of State arms as well as MPs.
Noting that the Constitution of Sri Lanka clearly states that the Government must protect human rights and stand for independent State services, while ensuring access to information by the people, media freedom and other fundamental rights, the former CJ said this hads been destroyed due to the executive powers held by the President.
Voting for political ideology beyond candidate
MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said in the past the country had had the best executive presidential system, which was also the best executive presidential system in Asia.
He said today the first citizen in the country was violating the Constitution and his loyalists were doing the same.
“Today, Members of Parliament and village representatives of the UPFA have criminal records. Now we are experiencing the bad results of extreme executive power,” Rajapakshe charged.
He said matters were worsened by communist parties in the country supporting executive presidential power instead of fighting on behalf of the country’s wellbeing.
He further said the country needed a system which was not dependent on an individual and pointed out that many voters believed in the person and voted for the candidate, not for his or her political ideology.
“Obama is a black person but he became the President of the USA by drawing support for his political ideology from the majority of the people there, even though only 20% of the population in the USA is biracial like him. It was not only those votes that he garnered,” Rajapakshe added.
He also pointed out that Indian Congress Leader Sonia Gandhi had only temporary citizenship in India and former Indian President Abdul Kalam was a Muslim, even though the majority of Indian society was represented by Hindus. “The people in those countries vote for the political ideology of the candidate, not for the person,” he emphasised.
Rajapakshe further outlined how the International Criminal Court (ICC) reported on war crimes of Sri Lanka after the President had invited them to do so in 2009. He said: “The President invited Ban Ki-moon to commence investigations but is still complaining about the UNP leaders who didn’t do such foolish things.”
Rajapakshe further charged that via his Ministry, Minister of External Affairs G.L Peiris was spoiling the country’s reputation.
Rajapakshe pointed out even though Peiris was now supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa, at a press conference held in 2005 he had said the country would face struggles if the people voted for Rajapaksa, who had committed financial fraud via the ‘Helping Hambantota’ Program.
State’s power separation and eradicating Government corruption
UNP MP Eran Wickramaratne asserted that to ensure good governance, independence of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary was required, while the Executive was responsible for the other two.
Wickramaratne said that due to the abuse of power by the President, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) couldn’t independently play its role and Opposition leaders couldn’t criticise the Government without facing harassment such as threats to their lives and business-related obstacles.
He said the all-powerful presidency granted by the Constitution and the resultant abuse of the office by the incumbent had resulted in the President commanding even more power, enabled by the system.
He further asserted the Legislature had bowed to Presidential pressure and as a result Opposition MPs no longer had a voice in Parliament and had been reduced to merely raising their hands to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when their vote was required.
“Even though environmentalists have showed the bad results of digging for granite in Hambantota to build a fort as well as reclaiming land from the sea at Galle Face, the recommendations outlined in the expert reports have been neglected by the Government,” Wickramaratne added.
He said many of the useful recommendations by experts to reduce traffic congestion in Colombo suburbs were rejected by the President who had chosen to build expressways instead, which had not solved the traffic problem.
According to the reports, construction of the Southern Highway had cost Rs. 900 million per km and the Katunayake Expressway had cost Rs. 1,800 million per km, while the Colombo Outer Circular Highway of the Kandy and Northern Expressways had been allocated more than Rs. 7,000 million per km. Wickramaratne also charged that the construction companies had not been selected under a competitive tender system.
Railway constructions in Vavuniya had been allocated Rs. 50 million per km while the southern railway had been allocated Rs. 1,000 million per km with the financial support of China banks, he added.
He said there had been no transparency in budgeting for the projects, their financing and construction, which had all been in the hands of the President and his relations.
“The principle of conflict of interest should be established to achieve good governance. The best answer for good governance is to vote for the common candidate,” Wickramaratne added.
