Why in news?
Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka recently after the collapse of the governing coalition.
What is the overview?
- The government of Sri Lanka is led by the president of the country who is the head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces.
- The presidential system is determined by the Sri Lankan constitution and the current constitution of Sri Lanka is the third constitution since the country got independence in 1948.
- The Sri Lankan government comprises the president and legislature that are elected on a national level, and the elections are held after every six years.
- The President of Sri Lanka is elected by the people to serve a term of five years.
- The elected president who is the head of cabinet is also responsible for appointing cabinet ministers, who are responsible to Parliament.
- The deputy to the President in Sri Lanka is the prime minister who is also the leader of the ruling party in Parliament.
- The President is responsible for dissolving the current cabinet and appointing a new one in the event that a parliamentary no confident vote is passed.
- The president has also the power to suspend, summon, end a legislative session and dissolve Parliament at any time if it has served for one year.
- The Sri Lanka has a multi-party system where there are two dominant parties which includes the New Demonstrate Front (NDF) and the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
What are the present events?
- Rajapaksha served as the president for a period of ten years in Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015.
- He is a fierce political opponent of the current President Sirisena.
- Sirisena had defeated Rajapaksha in the Presidential election of 2015.
- Sirisena's SLFP and Wickremesinghe's UNP had come together to form the Unity Government in August 2015 following the general elections in the country.
- The ousted Prime Minister, Wickremesinghe also survived a no-confidence motion in the country's Parliament that was brought by the supporters of Rajapaksa before.
- However, Mr. Sirisena’s fast-deteriorating relationship with Mr. Wickremesinghe was an open secret, and there were indications that he could be negotiating a possible partnership with Mr. Rajapaksa.
- Hence, Sirisena has recently decided to withdraw his faction from the ruling coalition as a sudden and secret manoeuvre.
- He replaced Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa which has plunged the country into a political crisis.
- Mr. Wickremesinghe has termed his replacement “unconstitutional” and maintains that he remains Prime Minister.
- He has also challenged the Rajapaksa-Sirisena combine to take a floor test in the 225-member House.
- In return, the president suspends the parliament, which is seen to have exposed his own insecurity about garnering the required strength.
- All this has come at a time of economic fragility, with a plummeting rupee, soaring unemployment and rising living costs in the country.
What are the concerns?
- An extra-parliamentary power struggle, with the usage of illegal means, heightens the risk of political thuggery and unrest.
- Mr. Sirisena’s appointment of Mr. Rajapaksa even before conducting the floor test on the Parliament is a blatant abuse of his executive powers.
- The President’s actions betray an utter disregard for the parliamentary process, guided by narrow political interests.
- He has put democracy in serious peril in resorting to these emergency measures.
- He has also let down Sri Lankans, including a sizeable section of the Tamil and Muslim minorities that backed him in the critical 2015 election.
- Sri Lanka is still recovering from the violence and bloodbath during its nearly three-decade-long civil war and has been grappling with the economic and social challenges in its aftermath.
- The Unity Government had promised to put the country back on the path of democracy, after a decade of Mr. Rajapaksa’s authoritarian rule.
- But the recent episode shows that Sri Lanka cannot afford to recede from the democratic space that opened up with the coalition.
- Desire of the president to consolidate power by hook or by crook is extremely unfortunate.
- Though much damage has been done already, a fair vote must be ensured when Parliament reconvenes to ensure a stable government.
Source: The Hindu
