Curiouser and curiouser!
Editorial-October 14, 2014,
The JVP insists that President Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot contest another presidential election. Its contention, reiterated by its General Secretary Tilvin Silva on Monday at a media briefing, is based on former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva’s claim that the inauguration of President Rajapaksa’s second term preceded the enactment of the 18th Amendment which did away with the presidential term limit and, therefore, he is disqualified to seek another term.
There are arguments for and against the former CJ’s claim, but what really matters is the opinion of the Supreme Court, which has not yet been sought. Another argument the JVP has put forth against the President seeking a third term is that the government’s two-thirds majority with which the 18th Amendment was steamrollered through Parliament is illegal. The UPFA, the JVP argues, mustered its present parliamentary majority with the help of some Opposition MPs returned by the voting public to oppose the government.
Whether President Rajapaksa is qualified to contest the next presidential polls or not remains to be determined by the Supreme Court which alone is empowered to interpret the Constitution officially. But, the fact remains that the JVP has already disqualified itself from contesting the next presidential election which it says will be illegal if President Rajapaksa enters the fray. It won’t be able to justify contesting an ‘illegal’ election, will it?
One is intrigued by the JVP’s argument that it is illegal for a government to muster a parliamentary majority by enlisting the support of MPs elected by the people to oppose it. Have JVP MPs always done what the electors want them to do? In 2004, it may be recalled, 39 JVP MPs got elected on the UPFA ticket. People first voted for the UPFA and then marked their preferences for those individual contestants. The JVP candidates were thus elected to back the UPFA government, but they broke away and even tried to bring it down by voting against a budget!
In 1982, the then UNP government craftily retained its five-sixths majority by replacing a general election with a controversial referendum which the JVP and other Opposition parties declared illegal. As such, all the laws passed by Parliament between that referendum and the 1988 general election should be considered illegal and the JVP has no moral right to take part in elections to provincial councils which were ‘illegally’ set up under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution passed in 1987!
The Old Left also condemned the 1982 referendum as an electoral fraud and rejected its outcome as illegal, but curiously, it now wants the 13th Amendment which was passed by an ‘illegitimate’ Parliament, with an ‘illegally retained’ majority fully implemented!
The JVP General Secretary has urged President Rajapaksa to complete his full term without going for a snap presidential election. One is intrigued again. The JVP rejected the outcome of the last presidential election as a computer jilmaat (fraud) and refused to accept President Rajapaksa’s victory, didn’t it? It joined forces with other Opposition parties including the UNP and held public rallies where they declared the unsuccessful candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka as ‘People’s President’ and condemned Mahinda Rajapaksa as ‘Rogue President’. So, why should the JVP ask President Rajapaksa to continue to be in office for two more years without pressuring him to step down forthwith?
The JVP says it is confident of ensuring President Rajapaksa’s defeat if he contests the next presidential election. If so, why should it ask him to complete his second term? It should dare him to hold a snap presidential election and defeat him so that it could see the back of its bĂȘte noire who reneged on his promise to scrap the executive presidency, secured a second term through a ‘computer jilmaat’ and mustered a two-thirds majority ‘illegally’ to do away with the 17th Amendment and introduce the draconian 18th Amendment.
