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Chandrika as a champion of power sharing

by Prof. W. A. Wiswa Warnapala

Deputy Minister of foreign affairs

(Continued from yesterday)

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga

Therefore, the election of Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike as the new Chief Minister or Western Province opened yet another chapter in the history of Sri Lanka.

Bandaranaikes always used the electoral process to reach the national stage and the emergence of Chandrika via the Western Provincial Council election gave her added strength to champion the cause of the construction of a new democratic political order in the country.

In the wake of the anti-UNP wave which surfaced with the victory of the SLFP-led forces at provincial elections came the Southern Provincial election of 1994, which, in fact, provided Mrs. Kumaratunga an opportunity to campaign at this election, and it was in association with the campaign in the South, which electorally and politically volatile, that she emerged on the national scene in August, 1994.

The victory in August, 1994 ended nearly seventeen years of UNP rule in the country; the People's Alliance led by the SLFP entered into a coalition with eight other parties and there was a majority of one in the 225 member Parliament. Mrs. Kumaratunga brought about a transformation in the SLFP which now became a 'modified version of a socialist party'.

She became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and it was this stepping stone from which she emerged as a formidable political leader with a new vision.

The political and social context from which she emerged made it necessary to change a number of policy positions of the SLFP and the party re-adjusted its policies under the visionary leadership to suit the changing internal politics and the changing new world political order.

People wanted an end to political violence that had tormented the Sri Lankan society. It was in this background that Mrs. Kumaratunga contested the Presidential election in November, 1994, and it was a historic event in terms of votes she polled as the candidate of the Peoples Alliance.

The Presidential election was the third of its kind in Sri Lanka, and Mrs. Kumaratunga polled 4,709,205 votes which was 62.28 percent of the total valid votes. In other words, her opponent of the UNP was able to poll 35.91 percent and the winners of the two previous elections registered 52.91 percent and 50.45 percent respectively.

It, therefore, was an astounding victory unprecedented in the democratic world where governments are changed with the ballot. Yet another feature of this Presidential election was that the opposing candidate was able to obtain much less than the two candidates who came second in 1982 and 1988 respectively.

In that respect too, it was a historic election which demonstrated the extend to which Chandrika has been accepted by the people as their leader who could transform both the society and the polity of Sri Lanka.

It would be interesting to examine the electoral statistics of the Presidential elections so far held to prove the point that Mrs. Kumaratunga's election in 1994 was unique and she, in fact, is the only person who successfully won two Presidential elections consecutively. This, in itself, is a major political achievement plus a record.

The mass upsurge in 1994 was unique; people were yearning for a major political change. Above all, people yearned for a political change devoid of violence, killings, human rights violations and instability.

Discussing the background in which this change took place, Dennis Austin wrote that 'perhaps the much abused voters of Sri Lanka have learned not only to live with political turmoil but to respond to the opportunities for change'.

When the opportunity came, the people of Sri Lanka responded with vigour to bring about a change and this, again, explained the ability of the Sri Lankan electorate to change governments with the ballot.

In August, 1994 Sri Lanka, despite the violence and the continuing ethnic strife, went to the polls, and the Peoples Alliance led by Mrs. Kumaratunga was elected to power. She demonstrated the qualities of a formidable political personality under whose leadership the party was galvanized into political action and the party was able to win a number of elections.

It was at the election in the South that the country as well as the people came to be enlightened that a new leader with both a formidable personality and a charisma had emerged to take the country forward in the direction of democratic consolidation.

In 1994, her role was that of an emancipator; her role was that of an architect of a new political order and this role of her could be compared with the role of her illustrious father, the late S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1956 and with that of her mother, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike who, in 1960, dedicated herself to the continuation of the advances made in 1956.

The popular acceptance among the masses was very much similar to the situation in 1956 and 1960. The results of respective Presidential elections show that the performance in 1994 was historic and the percentage of votes which she received was the highest ever recorded at a Presidential election in a democratic country.

The nature of this performance and the victory at all subsequent elections could be rightly attributed to her emerging personality which displayed a number of qualities of a charismatic leadership.

The introduction of a Presidential system of government along Gaullist lines in 1978 was a major constitutional change, and it was the style of leadership of the incumbent President which gave a different characteristics to the Presidential model of government Sri Lanka experienced under four different individuals who occupied the Executive Presidency with its enormity of powers.

The system, which the constitution of 1978 created, devalued the legislature and this, according to an Indian commentator, Urmila Phadnis, 'led to a de facto devaluation of the power for the other governmental organs - the legislature and judiciary thereby diminishing the overall balance of a democratic framework".

The new system of government, with the massive parliamentary majority which the UNP enjoyed in 1977, came to be manipulated to achieve its primary political goals, and the system, as Saul Rose pointed out, was a government with a two-thirds majority in parliament which can actually secure the passage of valid legislation in consistent with the constitution, and the courts were powerless to check the abuses.

In 1994, though the new government inherited this tradition, it enjoyed no two thirds majority in Parliament and the government, therefore, depended on the skill of the leader who was entrusted with the task of managing a coalition government consisting of eight parties, some of which were regional parties without a national agenda.

It was here in this context of the management of coalition that Mrs. Kumaratunga displayed her acumen as a versatile and astute leader.

Cabinet-making in Sri Lanka is an exercise which demands careful consideration of all competing social and political forces; in the end, the constructed Cabinet needs to be a balanced affair.

In a coalition, which consists of smaller political parties elected on a proportional system of representation, the selection and accommodation of varied interests become yet another complex problem.

Yet another constraint placed on the formula of construction of a Cabinet was the policy position adopted in the election manifesto to limit the size of the Cabinet to twenty, and this position was adopted in view of the fact that the UNP Government retained a large and expanded Cabinet.

The restriction which the manifesto imposed to contain the size of the Cabinet to twenty Ministers made the task of Cabinet making much more difficult and she, displaying her ability and maturity, constructed a Cabinet that functioned in the entire period of office of the government without disruption and internal conflicts.

Thought the People's Alliance had 105 members in a legislature consisting of 225 members, she was able to solicit the support of the minor parties to assist her to run the government which completed its full term without much internal strife.

The success of the People's Alliance Coalition was entirely due to her role as its leader and the skill with which she managed the coalition which consisted of all kinds of political incompatibles.

Even the smaller political parties, which joined the People's Alliance, had their own alliances and alignments, and this complex nature of the coalition brought in various fissures within the coalition; they were successfully managed by Mrs. Kumaratunga who displayed tremendous skill in managing the coalition with her towering political personality.

It was in this area of legislation and the democratisation of the polity which hitherto remained ungovernable due to the nature of political violence engulfed the country for more than a decade, that her regime excelled; several important pieces of legislation were introduced to guarantee the fundamental and human rights of the people.

The commitment to a new political order, devoid of violence and violations of human rights, came to be highlighted on the occasion of the assumption of office as the fourth Executive President of Sri Lanka in November 1994.

In her historic acceptance speech, she, like a visionary politician of the period, focused her attention on good governance and good constitutional government. Mrs. Kumaratunga, speaking on the historic occasion, stated that:

"I assume office as the fourth President of Sri Lanka at a momentous turning point in the history of our nation. The people have overwhelmingly demonstrated their collective desire for democracy, for peace, for honesty and efficiency in governmental affairs and for an economic policy which will offer to everyone the privileges so jealously guarded by a handful of self-seeking unscrupulous elements.

I have no words to express appropriately how deeply touched and overwhelmed and how humbled I am to witness the immense confidence and faith the nation has respond in me, and my government.

This, in fact, was her philosophy of government and it was based on the fact that the ultimate sovereign power of the State depended on the will of the people. Therefore, she, understanding the nature and content of the massive popular mandate she obtained at the Presidential poll, expressed her desire to bring about a new political order, in the country.

She, justifying her commitment to the restoration of a new political order, stated that' the scale and dimension of the mandate that has been given to us knows no parallel in the history of elections of the democratic world. Yet, it is even more significant to note that all the people of Sri Lanka, in all diversity, have spoken in one loud and unswerving voice.

I take this opportunity to bow in homage before the courage, the political acuman and the quiet determinations of our people in the resolve to triumph over the might of State terror and political victimization'.

It is an accepted fact that stability and change in a democratic country depended, to a large extent, on the perception of the political leadership and their understanding of the mood of the great mass of the people.

Mrs. Kumaratuga's unprecedented record at the Presidential poll showed the nature and level of the popular acceptance, and it was this massive fund of popular good will, reflected in the voting patterns throughout the length and breadth of the country, which she was expected to exploit to build a stable and peaceful Sri Lanka in the 21st century.

The political change, through major elections, demonstrated the desire on the part of the people for profound changes in the sphere of politics, economy and society. She, in fact, stated that their vote is in essence and above all, a vote for change'.

The change, which Sri Lanka's electorate looks forward to are as diverse as they are far-reaching. Pre-eminent among the changes, that our people yearn for is the rejection, absolute and uncompromising, of violence and terror they had endured in silence - the pain of senseless killings and disappearances of their loved ones'.

Therefore, what was immediately needed was to put an end to violence and establish a political order that could guarantee the rights of the peopole.

It was on the basis of this political strategy that she gave leadership to the regime of the Peoples' Alliance which, within a period of six years, transformed the Sri Lankan polity to such an extent that the country was able to regain its prestige as a nation which could play an effective role in the arena of international politics.

It was with her dynamic leadership that Sri Lanka, after a lapse of nearly twenty years, began to experience the characteristics of a democratic state; in effect, Sri Lanka came to be transformed from that of a lawless State to a violence-free democratic state. It is in this context of the transformation that one has to examine the policy decisions which came to be adopted with a view to solving the major problems facing Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka became a fractured society due to the intensity of the ethnic conflict, and Mrs. Kumaratunga, from the very inception of her political career, had her own perception of the question and the opportunity came in 1994 for her to introduce a set of policies with a view to bringing about a permanent and durable solution to the national question which, for decades, destabilized both the polity and the economy of the country.

In 1994, when the manifesto of the Peoples' Alliance was prepared, Mrs. Kumaratunga played a key role in the preparation of the manifesto which, in addition, to its major focus on political, economical and social issues, devoted special attention to the ethnic question. It meant that she gave priority to this question which, from her point of view, demanded an immediate solution if Sri Lanka was to survive as a modern nation.

The manifesto stated that 'the Peoples' Alliance believes that the ethnic question is one of the most complex problems of our country which needs an urgent solution. It is our conviction that without restoring peace through a political solution to the ethnic question, it would be impossible to achieve our goals of economic development, social progress and political stability".

It was on the basis of this strategy that the Peoples' Alliance advocated a scheme of genuine and adequate devolution of power'; it further stated that it stands for the building of new administrative units, having regard to geographical, economic and social factors, to arrive at a durable solution of the basis of a scheme of devolution of power.

A scheme was place before the country and the people were mobilized through various methods to examine the pros and cons of the set of proposals for devolution of power. So much of mass interest was articulated and aggregated to see that it finds acceptance among the people.

In addition, the appointment of the Select Committee on Constitutional Reforms was yet another important landmark in the process, and the Draft Constitution, which this committee prepared, had blessings of Mrs. Kumaratuga who, taking an unprecedented move hitherto unknown in constitutional history of Sri Lanka, tabled it personally before Parliament

It was the second occasion on which an Executive President appeared before the floor of the House for the propose of presenting some proposal before Parliament. It, though unprecedented, was an unique achievement of Kumaratuga Presidency which unlike those of its predecessors, was an innovative Presidency.

It was during her period of office as the Executive President that several innovations were made in the area of government. Mrs. Kumaratunga, instead of using the enormous powers assigned to it by the constitution of 1978, made a number of innovations to make it more responsive to the people of the country.

By this time, all institutions of government and administration had deteriorated to such an extend that the new President had to take new measures to strengthen the apparatus of democratic government.

She had to restore the checks and balances in government in order to ensure good governance. In fact, measures were immediately taken to prevent further deterioration in the standards of political behaviour; in addition; democratic safeguards were necessary to prevent a further erosion in the normal standards of behaviour.

Such institutions as the Ombudsman and the Commission on Bribery and Corruption were established or their duties expanded to guarantee good governance. It was her view that the ethnic question could not be solved without a major constitutional change and it, therefore, could not be inappropriate at this stage to discuss the constitutional proposals which she placed before Parliament.

She needs to be congratulated for her historic speech, which she delivered amidst a barrage of interruptions from the UNP. The hooliganism, which the UNP displayed on that day in Parliament, demonstrated the extend to which the UNP has deteriorated as a political party.

Constitution-making in any country is a difficult exercise as a constitution is expected to satisfy all shades of political opinion in the given country. It therefore, requires maturity and ability to compromise on matters pertaining to the constitution.

These things become fundamentally important in a situation where an attempt is made to enact a 'autochthonous' constitution or what is called a 'home made' constitution. It would be interesting to look at some of the salient features of the Draft Constitution.

She, in her capacity as the President of the country, wanted the draft proposals to be examined substantially, and the discussion was conducted in three stages at the request of the President. The introduction of the devolution proposals was the first stage, and it was during this stage that the scheme of devolution as a basis for constitutional changes was discussed.

Next stage of the process was the establishment of a Select Committee on Constitutional Reforms, and this was an all party committee.

It started its deliberations in January, 1996 and held 7 meetings within a period of 36 months. All political parties were given the opportunity to place their views on the proposals. Sri Lanka has a plethora of pressure groups, and some of them are associated with traditional social institutions of the country.

Such pressure groups, as well as NGOs interested in a new political culture based on the characteristics of a pluralist society, too, got an opportunity to express their point of view on the need for constitutional change.

It is not easy to examine each and every opinion in a pluralistic political environment but Mrs. Kumaratunga gave enough time and opportunity for the varied groups in the Sri Lankan society to express their point of view.

With a view to arriving at an acceptable consensus, she invited all political parties to meet at the highest level, and it was at this stage that the final shape to the final draft was given. It was not a draft constitution hastily prepared to achieve a political objective; it was a constitution, that could have laid the foundation for lasting peace and stability in this country.

In the preamble of the proposed constitution, there are five objectives to be realized with the enactment of the constitution, and they fell in line with the philosophy of government which Mrs. Kumaratunga championed for years. They are as follows:

1. Strengthening the institutions of governance

2. Wider sharing of power

3. Achievement of democratic values, social justice and human rights.

4. Economic and social and cultural advancement; and

5. Promotion of ethnic harmony and good governance.

The need was to restore the confidence in institutions of government through the restoration of their effectiveness. The wider sharing of power was the fundamental aim of the Draft Constitution, and this, again, fell in line with her belief in an expanded scheme of devolution of power.

Sri Lanka has debated this question since the thirties and several attempt have been made in the past to lay a solid base for the purpose of sharing power. Sri Lanka Freedom Party was associated with this process; it was in this context that Mrs. Kumartunga took the view that if we do not use this opportunity to share power on the basis of the formula suggested, Sri Lanka is certain to remain a fractured nation for ever.

She also realized that ethnic harmony, in countries where multi-ethnicity exists, is fundamentally important for the achievement of economic advancement and good governance.

There are today nearly 200 sovereign states in the world and each State had its own unique ethnic and social composition and its unique history, and it is on the basis of this that a constitution has to be enacted.

Mrs. Kumaratunga adopted the view that constitution-making is an exercise through which a compromise is reached amidst multiplicity or competing social, economic and regional interests to secure general good for the efficiency in Government.

She, as a visionary politician, strongly believed that a constitution lays the foundation for a 'market place' of competing interests and it is through that both compromise and consensus could be built in the given Sri Lankan context. Mrs. Kumaratunga was the only political leader of Sri Lanka who understood the nature of an ethnically divided state.

In this kind of situation, State faces empirical weakness and vulnerability in the context of ethnic strife. It was this feature, as emphasized by Mrs. Kumaratunga on numerous occasions, promoted instability in the country; it was her view that it could be corrected only by sharing power on the basis of an acceptable framework for devolution of power.

The Development Report, 2004 discussing the question of 'ethnic diversities', stated that 'political leaders and political theorists of all persuasions have argued against explicit recognition of cultural identities - ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial. The result, more often than not, has been that the cultural identities have been suppressed brutally, as state policy.

Today people have recognized the rise of identity politics and people are being mobilized around old grievances, along ethnic, religious, racial and cultural lines, demanding that their identities be acknowledged, appreciated and accommodated by wider society.

Long before the introduction of this Report on Human Development, Mrs. Kumaratunga, as a visionary politician, realized the importance of cultural liberty as a vital part of human development, and it is on the basis of this that she, throughout her illustrious political career, advocated the building of a multi-cultural democracy in Sri Lanka.

Nearly a decade of active political leadership in Sri Lanka showed that she is committed to this ideal. She, within a decade, has successfully laid the foundation for a period of change and democratic consolidation in Sri Lanka.

(Concluded)

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