The government should not have been in an indecent hurry to present it to Parliament.

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Editorial
Untramelled power without responsibility is a recipe for disaster

Where from here?September 7, 2010, 6:56 pm
The 18th Amendment is a fait accompli, whether we like it or not. There is nothing that can prevent its passage in Parliament today. The government should not have been in an indecent hurry to present it to Parliament and there should have been ample time for a public debate. As for its contents, the government should have taken on board views of the Opposition parties and other stakeholders and secured their co-operation, though President Mahinda Rajapaksa says most of the proposals in the 18-A came from the UNP.
We are a nation in a mighty rush. Look at our roads, where chaos reigns. Perhaps, we are the fastest nation on earth but we have made little progress. It is this trait that characterises our constitution making as well. We introduced the first republican Constitution in 1972, but it lasted only six years. The 1978 Constitution we are burdened with at present has the trappings of a periodical if the whole caboodle of amendments numbering 18 including today's one is anything to go by.
The UPFA is making the most of President Rajapaksa's popularity to consolidate its power and bulldoze its way through. The Opposition has been crying wolf so much over the past several years that people no longer take its warnings seriously. That is why it has failed to mobilise the public against the 18-A. As much as the government exuding arrogance of power is at fault, the Opposition, too, should be held responsible for this sorry state of affairs. It seems to have outsourced its duties and functions to the international community and INGOs hostile to this country. Whenever the government commits something wrong, it goes running to western embassies in Colombo to make complaints.
The Opposition has also lost its credibility by being selective in campaigning for democracy. The UNP, which is lashing out at the government––quite rightly so––for its inordinate haste in presenting the 18-A, which was prepared on the sly, slapped a CFA with the LTTE on the country in 2002. That agreement was similar in many ways to the Machakos Protocol (MP), which paved the way for UN intervention in Sudan. The same countries that crafted the MP in 2002 were involved in Sri Lanka's 'peace process'––Norway, the US and the UK. The UNP leaders who are screaming blue murder about the 18-A had no qualms about negotiating with Prabhakaran, who had himself declared both 'President and Prime Minister' of Eelam in 2002. The TNA, which wholeheartedly accepted the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamils and used to advocate separatism in Parliament in blatant violation of the Constitution, has also called the 18-A undemocratic! The JVP, which joined forces with the UNP and the TNA to topple the UPFA government at a time the war on terror had reached a crucial phase, is now on a campaign to protect the country and her democracy!
The Opposition with such an obnoxious track record has provided President Rajapaksa with a perfect foil to project himself as a beleaguered patriotic leader. He has managed to convince the electorate that the Opposition campaign is not against the 18-A as such but him and that the same forces that strove to scuttle the war effort and destroy his government in the past have ganged up against him once again. His claim, which is not entirely false, the threat of a war crimes probe and hostility of some western countries towards his government have caused people to rally round him.
Now that the government has demonstrated its ability to tinker with the Constitution at will and the Opposition its total impotence, the question that needs to be asked is: Where from here? If the government continues to act according to its whims and fancies simply because it is in a position to muster a two-thirds majority in Parliament with ease, it will not only ruin this country before long but also bring about its own downfall one day.
The onus is on President Rajapaksa to act with self-restraint, desist from seeking self-aggrandisement and live up to people's expectations.
Untramelled power without responsibility is a recipe for disaster.