The President in accordance with time-honoured traditions of Sinhala monarchy cannot be accused of any offences. His legal powers will be comparable to British monarchs till recent times: The King can do no wrong.
by Gamini Weerakoon
The Ministry of Justice has called on citizens for proposals for a new constitution. The writer being committed to democracy and republicanism submits his proposals.
The Constitution of the United States of Sri Lanka
Preamble: Sri Lanka being the strategic hub of the Indian Ocean and determined to expand its territorial boundaries with annexation of territories near and far with objective of bringing them under its sovereignty; to accommodate such beliefs shall henceforth be known as the United States of Sri Lanka. (USSL) Jayawewa!
Government
The Government of the USSL will comprise three branches: Executive, Legislative and Judiciary: each of which will function independently, but under the absolute control of the Executive President.
Executive President
The Executive President will be elected at a free and fair election by citizens of the USSL on being nominated by the Foremost Family (FF) as a candidate and the Elections Commissioner duly informed of the nomination. The FF can nominate any number of presidential candidates, all of whom should be members of the FF, and the Elections Commissioner shall nominate all those thus approved as candidates. After the Presidential Election, the Elections Commissioner shall declare the candidate who polls the highest number of votes as the Executive President of the USSL. (See appendix 1. FF is now being formulated. Re: its composition, powers, by a team of President’s Counsel).
Parliament
The Parliament of the USSL shall comprise 225 members, 200 of whom will be elected by citizens of the country and 23 former officers of the three-armed services and two former gazetted officers of the police, nominated by the President (This inclusion of ex-armed service officers and police officers is being made in the context of national security and political stability. Ref. Myanmar’s constitution in this regard).
While any citizen can seek nomination from the Elections Commissioner and be identified as being independent or candidates of political parties, the Foremost Family too shall nominate members to all 200 seats and identify them as being FF party nominees.
The member who commands the support of the largest number of elected members will be declared Prime Minister by the President.
Parliament can be dissolved within one month of its formation by the President and the President can be removed from office on a Vote of No Confidence adopted against him by parliament.
In the event of unresolvable disputes between the President and Parliament, the issues will be referred to the FF for an official decision to be taken at an official meeting and not at family dinners or lunches.
(In this context, the committee working on the composition and powers of the FF should be impressed upon for speedy completion of its task.)
Powers of the Prime Minister
The Prime Minister will be guided by the opinions of members of parliament. He will be answerable to the President and his functions will b broadly on the lines of Kacheri Mudliyars of yore.
Powers of the President
The President in accordance with time-honoured traditions of Sinhala monarchy cannot be accused of any offences. His legal powers will be comparable to British monarchs till recent times: The King can do no wrong. He can only be removed on a decision made by the FF. These powers of the FF have yet to be defined as said earlier by the said committee.
The President will be the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the Police.
As the Executive President, he shall appoint all heads of government departments, universities and professional services. He shall be responsible for the appointment of all judicial officers and the conduct of the judicial services. Judges will be fully independent and be held responsible for their conduct to the President.
Universities will be granted full autonomy within limits and be permitted full academic freedom in the pursuit of studies within the confines of lecture rooms but not in open spaces of campuses or on highways. They will be subject to military exercises and war studies in their first year.
(See appendix 1. FF is now being formulated on its composition and its powers
Citizenship
A citizen of the USSL should be entitled to become not only a dual citizen of the United States of America but become a multiple citizen of many countries in the context that we are a member of the United Nations. Recent reports said that some citizens in the North of USSL had even wanted to become dual citizens of India.
The USA is a great country with great opportunities in education, pursuit of careers, a consistently rising Dollar against the depressing Rupee, among other benefits.
The Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America taken by our patriotic, intensely nationalistic, once fanatical socialist Sri Lankans may help us to understand their desire to give up their motherland and become Americans. We give below the said Oath of Allegiance.
The Oath of Allegiance to the USA: I hereby declare on oath that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been subject to or citizen; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law, that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by law and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me God.
Jayawewa United States of Sri Lanka! This is the kind of citizens we want back in our motherland to lead us back to the promised paradise.
These constitutional proposals have been drafted in haste because the deadline given by the Ministry of justice is October 30. We will endeavour to make more detailed proposals before the deadline.
(Gamini Weerakoon is a former editor of The Sunday Island, The Island and former consultant editor of the Sunday Leader)
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