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Lanka need to Reintroduce the Senate.

ASOKA S.

Former President Jayawardene, probably the most outstanding President of our short history after the scrapping of the Westminister Model, has quite a few good things left behind as his legacy. The gigantic Mahaweli Scheme, the Creation of Jayawardene Pura, Creation of the Free Trade Zones all of which propelled an era of huge economic growth to a country that was stagnant after the 70-77 economic debacle left by Sirimavo. It is an undisputed fact that he changed the Sri Lankan political and Economic landscape for ever. Unfortunately the Tamil Terrorist movement and the vicious Southern JVP insurgent movement both erupted during his time thereby cutting short a period in our history of unprecedented economic growth and dragging Lanka to a near Pol Pot like anarchy.

Presidents Premadasa, Wijetunge, Chandrika B and Rajapksha followed him. Any Sri Lankan with a conscience will never forget or forgive how this man once called the grand old man of Asia and was also honored with a full State Visit by the Reagan White House as well as a full state visit to Lanka by Queen Elizabeth the 2nd was not honored with a public holiday during his funeral by Chandrika B, the then President.

While fundamentally Jayawardene's legacy will go down in history as a period of revolutionary changes in our political, economic and social system he will also be remembered as the architect of a constitution which bestowed unprecedented power with the Executive President that helped propel a deterioration of our democratic, social and government institutions. In the Jayawardene constitution there is hardly any if not no oversight over the President. This could and did have disastrous consequences. The famous statement "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is so true in this case.

Family members, party henchmen, thugs, smugglers, crooks, businessmen who poured money into the ruling party all ended up getting cabinet posts purely at the pleasure of the president. History as well as looking at the contemporary world teaches us that for any country to progress the set of leaders need to be of the right stock, education, outlook and most importantly those who respect the rule of law and the rights of the fellow citizens to live with their heads high. These are fundamental prerequisites for civilized living among other things.

During the Premadasa Era a well known Colombo underworld leader had powers of a cabinet Minister just to illustrate my point, but this should not tarnish the fact that Premadasa was an effective and capable leader who produced results and worked tirelessly.

Sri Lanka need to address this issue sooner rather than later before our entire country end up as a nation ruled by fear, intimidation and corruption. Sri Lanka is a country today where a man who gets onto a public platform and talk rights and wrongs of the government can end up disappeared overnight. This has been the trend since early 90's.

We need to reintroduce the Senate as a matter of national importance. They will be elected through national elections and will comprise of learned and respected men and women of all disciplines. All ministers, permanent secretaries and chairmen of government owned enterprises must be screened by the Senate before they can be appointed. Any blemish in their character should immediately disqualify him or her from holding the high office. Their appointments should be subject to a full national debate and Senate ratification.

This can have the effect of ensuring some oversight over the Presidents handling of affairs. And making sure the people who lead our nation are worthy of the office they hold as well as that they have earned the right to be making decisions that affect the lives of ordinary Lankans by setting exemplary standards.

The current young generation of Lankans starting from late 80's till today have witnessed every conceivable evil ranging from Tire Parlors, beheadings, disappearances, suicide killings, social chaos and unprecedented corruption with no end in sight. Both major parties offer the same medicine that only protects their own interests.

Let us hope and pray that the few good leaders still in power in our dear country will pave the way for a Senate that may be the first stepping stone to bring back normalcy, democracy, decency, respect to each other to this once very peaceful and decent country.

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All views and opinions presented in this article are solely those of the surfer and do not necessarily represent those of LankaWeb.com.

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