THE CON IN THE CONSTITUTION

It appears that the UNP has now settled on the 'constitutional route' to power. The Opposition Leader, with a good deal of trumpeting and cacophonous fanfare, has unveiled a brand new document which he says is the UNP's constitutional blueprint -- to be made the law of the land when the UNP is in power. It is the wonder of all modern day wonders that it is J R Jayewardene's nephew himself that's now shedding copious tears about the damning nature of the JR brand Republican constitution that was supposed to establish a strong presidency that was to keep the UNP in power forever.

Didn't quite turn out the way that the old Royal College Pushcannon boy expected, of course! Ranil Wickremesinghe, therefore now suitably sobered by his uncle's daring constitutional experiment is flush with his new ploy of taking the constitutional route and landing himself in power, no matter that it may be in a new office of his creation, which is the caricature of the Presidency that he so dreamt about ...

But his new document is a curious screed, that proposes a system that seems to exist nowhere on earth. The UNP seems to be calling for a layered Executive hierarchy that is constituted of a Council of State, comprised of the Speaker, Prime Minister and other potentates.

Perhaps only Wickremesinghe can come up with something as priceless as this, but it's not the document itself but the rationale for it that is pertinent. As some commentators have already observed, it is the UNP and the UNP's Jayewardene that laid the foundation for the gross abuse of executive power.

Wickremesinghe in his starry eyed manner and with his exaggerated sense of entitlement, coveted the Presidency ever since his uncle dramatically made it into law. The most egregious abuses of Presidential power were during the Jayewardene era, and Wickremesinghe totally acquiesced in these excesses.

He had absolutely no desire to get rid of the Presidency, and on the contrary in the short interim that he was Prime Minister, transparently made sure that the institution was intact so that he will be the next man to occupy the office.

This was at a time Chandrika Kumaratunge, the then incumbent had broken all her promises to rid the country of the Presidency, and the call for the abolishing of that office had become an article of faith among oppositionists for the simple reason that Chandrika Kumaratunge enjoyed all the Executive Presidency's considerable powers, but did absolutely nothing gainful with them.

The grapes were never more sour. After decades of trying and having never been able to become President, the Opposition Leader now inveighs against the Presidency, and says the institution is the fountainhead of all evil. He is so sickened by his failure that it seems to be the only thing on his mind, which means he cannot think of any other way of coming to power except to demonize the Presidential office - which was his obsession!

By doing this he is surely not doing himself any favours; his credulity is slipping to a lower ebb, with this somersault - a man who coveted an institution and idolized its first occupant, now saying that it is an abomination that needs to go?

That's not rational, but then it's an act of desperation. But worse, he seeks to replace the Presidency with what seems to be such a mishmash that it appears to be recipe for constitutional gridlock and weak governance by unstable governments.

That's always the case when untried hybrid systems are mooted, as a measure of desperation against strong and popular governments. Ranil Wickremesinghe's rationale for constitutional change should have been better than 'I couldn't do it', and certainly he should have appeared to be less personally motivated. But even if those aspects were to be ignored, what's clear is that the UNP wants to foist on the country something similar to what keeps that party backward and battered by uncertainty -- which is a constitution that is neither fish nor fowl, neither useful, tractable or geared for change. One Ranil constitution, it seems, is obviously is one too many.