Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga says that a change in the country’s political ambiance and the political attitudes of the leaders will be required before any constitutional reform as it would likely not get passed in parliament.
She made these comments today (26) while participating in a scholarly discussion organized by the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) on ‘constitutional reform that strengthens democratic values in accordance with national aspirations’.
“How we are going to that in this present situation where political parties are irresponsible, they do not think of the national interest, they think of what they can do at the next election, whether they can win or not. Even if they sabotage a very good program of an incumbent government they don’t care,” she said.
The ex-president said she believes that first and foremost the political ethos has to change. “Of course the ‘Aragalaya’ changed that. The message of the ‘Aragalaya’, the very powerful message of the ‘Aragalaya’, it seems that the traditional political parties haven’t still understood it, they don’t want to listen or they don’t understand, is that they are sick and disgusted with the existing systems. Not the constitution but with the existing systems.”
She further said that they tried to do away with the executive presidency, but those attempts were futile. “There was one whole separate chapter on it, the abolition of the executive presidency but all that was thrown out in parliament.”
“So, I think first before anything else, well while doing, there are so many constitutional drafts. It will be very easy to put them together and draft something which is suitable to the present day. We will have to change the political ambiance, the political attitudes of the leaders. If not it won’t get passed in parliament.”
“We will have to change the whole nature of parliament. The majority of people in parliament today refused the constitution or at least their party did. So, how they are going to do it now I don’t know,” the former president said.
