Sri Lankan president tightens his grip

by Feizal Samath

(June 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Since his landslide election victory in January Sri Lanka’s president continues to bring key ministerial positions, including the once independent attorney general’s office, under his control, with legal experts warning the moves are undermining democracy in the country.

After the appointment of a new cabinet earlier this month following Mahinda Rajapaksa’s successful re-election and his ruling party’s overwhelming victory in the parliamentary elections last month, the president has taken over the portfolios of defence, finance, ports, aviation and highways.

His younger brother, Basil Rajapaksa, was appointed minister of economic development earlier this month and handles tourism and economic development across the country among other portfolios. Another brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, was retained as defence secretary at the ministry.

But the most significant development that has shocked many jurists is the office of the attorney general, the chief prosecutor for the state, being brought under the president although it is an independent institution under Sri Lanka’s constitution.

In Sri Lanka, presidents are allowed to bring any ministry under their control but traditionally they only take on the defence and finance portfolios, more than those two is highly unusual – taking control of the attorney general’s office has never happened before.

“Unprecedented,” said Kishali Pinto Jayawardene, a legal scholar and columnist for the Sri Lankan Sunday Times newspaper. “Placing all this power in the hands of one individual has never happened before in Sri Lanka.”

While there had been growing concern among the public over the domination of the government by the Rajapaksa family, the placing of the state’s chief legal officer under direct control of the presidency has become a serious issue, raising concerns that the president could influence prosecutions.

Until now, the office has been officially independent from the government but it is widely believed that over the past decade, the attorney general and judges were subject to influence by the political authorities.

“What was de facto is now de jure,” Ms Jayewardene said, explaining that political influence in public prosecutions and the judiciary was unofficially happening already. But now, she said, it has been formalised.

Jehan Perera, a human rights activist and a weekly political columnist for the daily Island newspaper, said the concentration of power in the hands of the president and his brothers undermined the country’s democracy.

“This is not sustainable as there ought to be checks and balances in a democracy through delegation and clear separation of powers,” Mr Perera said.

“The miserable state of the opposition and its inability to raise these issues is also of concern.”

JC Weliamuna, another well-known constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, who also described the powers of the president as unprecedented, said most people outside the legal profession and higher levels of civil society are unaware of the ramifications of the powers being held by one individual.

Mr Weliamuna said the attorney general’s role is to represent the public above political considerations. “If he comes under the president, this would be a conflict of interest,” he said. As these developments have unfolded, international human rights groups, including Amnesty International, last week repeated earlier calls for
an independent investigation into human rights violations committed by Tamil rebels and government troops during the last stages of the 26-year civil war that ended in May 2009.

Amnesty urged the UN to set up a panel to investigate the violations.The UN had earlier announced it would create such a panel but the move has been delayed due to objections from Sri Lanka. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, headed by Louise Arbour, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on foreign governments to impose travel sanctions on visiting Sri Lankan officials and their families unless Colombo co-operates with an independent investigation into the violations.