Photo courtesy of Sunday Times
“One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien’s One Ring was an instrument of power and suppression, forged to subjugate the free people of Middle Earth. Yet, the first word-picture of the Ring begins by emphasising its seeming ordinariness. When Frodo Baggins, the hobbit to whom the One Ring is entrusted, takes it out of his pocket, it “appeared plain and smooth, without mark or device he could see. The gold looked very fair and pure, and Frodo thought how rich and beautiful its colour, how perfect its roundness. It was an admirable thing and altogether precious. When he took it out he had intended to fling it from him into the very hottest part of the fire. But he found now that he could not do so…” (The Lord of the Rings). A key plot point is thus sketched in few simple sentences. The possessor does not own the Ring; the Ring owns the possessor. The Ring might seem an attractive or useful commodity; but in truth, it is the master.
The Sri Lankan executive presidency is no different. Since 1994, all but one president pledged to abolish the system. None did. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga spent her first term exercising the powers of the presidency to the fullest. She made an attempt to abolish the presidency via a new constitution only in her second term and abandoned it in the face of opposition by the UNP, the JVP and the JHU. Mahinda Rajapaksa pledged to abolish the presidency in 2005 and 2010. During the 2010 parliamentary election, the UPFA asked for a two thirds mandate to abolish the presidency. Having garnered a near two thirds majority, Mr. Rajapaksa did the opposite; his 18th Amendment enhanced presidential powers still further and removed presidential term limits. Maithripala Sirisena forgot his promise of abolishment within a year and staged the 52-day coup in the hope of winning a second term. Ranil Wickremesinghe, a strong backer of abolishment while in opposition, focused all his guile on winning a second term once he gained the presidency.
Tolkien’s One Ring can be destroyed only by casting it into the Crack of Doom in the Mount Doom. Frodo braves many dangers, risks his life again and again in this quest. But in the end, the greatest and deadliest challenge he faces is not from enemy armies, murderous orcs or fallen mages but his own lust for the ring, himself.
Abolishing the executive presidency has been a long standing demand and a promise of the JVP. The NPP inherited that demand and promise. During 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, Anura Kumara Dissanayake pledged to abolish the presidency via a new constitution. Instead of reinventing the wheel, his government would begin the constitution making process from where the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government left off, he stated.
Yet, when asked about abolishing the executive presidency during a recent marathon interview with Sirasa, President Dissanayake seemed to equivocate. Perhaps because he has nothing much to say. The new government is yet to appoint any committee, council or commission charged with completing the constitution drafting process. True, the government has much on its plate, starting with such basics as rice and coconuts. But resolving critical everyday issues and making systemic changes are not mutually exclusive tasks. The renovation of rice storage facilities and the drafting of a new constitution can be done at the same time. Worryingly, the government is not only not walking the talk; even the talk has been abandoned. President Dissanayake’s interview was a veritable marathon yet he made no mention of abolishing the executive presidency until asked about it.
As the mage Gandalf warns Frodo, the One Ring has many ways of subverting hearts and minds. “…the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity by weakness and the desire of strength to do good… I dare not take it… The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength. I shall have such need of it”. It is not only the power hungry and the venal who fall under the Ring’s spell. The Ring’s unique power is its ability to subvert even good intentions to further its own ends.
Has President Dissanayake too fallen under the spell of the One Ring? Will he join Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe as one more leader who, lured by the fatal charms of the presidency, destroyed his own legacy and possible place in history?
Bewitched
In The Lord of the Rings, the quest to reach the Mount Doom begins as a collective endeavour. A fellowship is formed tasked with protecting and assisting the Ring bearer, Frodo. It consists of hobbits Merry, Pippin and Sam, mage Gandalf, elf Legolas, dwarf Gimli and humans Strider (Aragorn) and Boromir.
Boromir’s main concern, his obsession, is saving his native city-state. Patriotism. He enters the fellowship believing, correctly, that the path to salvation lies in the destruction of the One Ring. Yet, as the quest progresses, a change happens and he begins to consider the possibility of using the One Ring to defeat the enemies of his city. Eventually he pleads with Frodo to visit his city and use the ring for a good purpose before destroying it. When Frodo refuses, he accuses Frodo of being in cahoots with the enemy, tries to kill him and is in the end destroyed.
“A madness took me,” he cries when he regains his senses. The executive presidency has had a similar effect on so many Sri Lankans, politicians and non-politicians. Without its lure, the impeachment against President Ranasinghe Premadasa and the fatal breaking up of the UNP would not have happened. Had Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga abolished the presidency, she could have continued with her political life either as prime minister or the leader of opposition. If Mahinda Rajapaksa abolished the executive presidency, he might still be Sri Lanka’s executive (wildly popular) prime minister. Had Maithripala Sirisena or Ranil Wickremesinghe fulfilled that particular promise, they could have spent their retirement as respected elder statesmen and not what they have become -political has-beens forever dreaming of a fortuitous comeback.
Businessman Lalith Kotelawala was once one of the richest men in Sri Lanka. Then, lured by the fatal charms of executive presidency, he began to dip his toes in political waters. In 2001, he inaugurated a peace movement and seemed to be positioning himself as the peace candidate. He would end up remanded, accused of misappropriating Rs. 26 billion from one of his companies. Dhammika Perera came to his senses just in time but Dilith Jayaweera remains as besotted with the presidency as ever despite two humiliating defeats. How his presidential ambitions impact on the health of his businesses remains to be seen; what is indubitable is that desiring the presidency can make even the most hard-headed lose all touch with reality. Thus the pathetic spectacle of Sarath Fonseka on the 2024 presidential election campaign trail with his bomb damaged vehicle in tow, holding forth to crowds numbering tens as if they were teeming millions.
The tidal wave of support that swept the NPP into unprecedented power in November 2024 seems to be retreating already. In the last couple of months, the NPP has suffered a string of humiliating defeats in cooperative elections including in Anuradhapura, Madampagama, Beruwala, Kelaniya, Homagama, Angunakolapalassa, Welivitiya and Divitura. The NPP campaigned heavily for these elections with posters and handbills, so the losses are even more telling. If President Dissanayake thinks he can abolish the executive presidency in his second term, these results should make him think twice. Unlike the SLFP, the SLPP, the UNP or the SJB, the NPP does not have a substantial core vote base it can fall back on (its core vote base is around 3 percent). Plus, President Dissanayake is the only president who failed to win with a majority vote. Thus his chances of a second term are far slimmer than those of any of his predecessors.
The NPP manifesto is more a wish list than a plan of action. Abolishing the executive presidency is one of the few major promises the government can keep without endangering the economy with unsustainably lavish spending. The government has the requisite majority in parliament to get a new constitution through and a good chance of winning in a referendum. If the stumbling block is the shape of a new electoral system, as President Dissanayake seemed to indicate at the Sirasa interview, then a committee of experts can be appointed to consider the many hybrid versions out there in the world and come up with an answer suitable to specific Sri Lankan conditions.
But if a journey doesn’t begin, how can it reach its desired destination?
Dysfunctional
When the fellowship of the Ring is sundered, Frodo and his faithful servant Sam head to Mount Doom on their own. During that perilous journey, their relationship evolves and solidifies into a deep and fraternal friendship. At Mount Doom, Frodo is attacked and almost killed. When he is eventually saved by Sam, Frodo falls into despondency believing the Ring had fallen into enemy hands. Sam tells him that he saved the Ring by secreting it on his person. An elated Frodo calls Sam a marvel. “Then quickly and strangely his tone changed. ‘Give it to me!’ he cried, standing up, holding out a trembling hand… Sam had changed before his very eyes into an orc…leering and pawing at his treasure…” Frodo recovers from his madness but the harrowing scene illustrates how the Ring impairs not just Middle Earth’s freedom but also the life of its bearer.
The lust for the One Ring is supremely dysfunctional. It can destroy any institution or relationship. Presidency was the reason for the fatal division between Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa. Those twin divides paved the way for Gotabaya presidency and all the disasters which followed in its wake. Now both the SJB and UNP are in danger of further fragmentation, due to the presidential ambitions of second level leaders who dream of replacing Sajith/Ranil as the next presidential candidate.
Divisions caused by presidential ambitions have become an almost a law in Sri Lankan politics. There’s no reason to think the NPP/JVP could resist this tendency towards fragmentation. It would be beyond the powers of even a Delphic Oracle to know how many NPP/JVP leaders are dreaming of stepping into President Dissanayake’s presidential shoes in the fullness of time.
Parliamentary systems are primarily about parties. Presidential systems are primarily about individuals. In Sri Lanka, this begins with the showcasing of presidential candidates as super humans and ends with soon-to-be former presidents trying to create palatial official residences to enjoy their retirement. J.R. Jayewardene’s egregious Presidents Entitlement Act (No. 4 of 1986) has legalised such gross abuses of power. The ongoing controversy about the money spent on maintaining former presidents, even as more than quarter of Sri Lankans live in poverty, stems from the individual-centric nature of this system and the abuse of power for personal gain inherent within it. Nothing illustrates this more than the statement made by Minister Nalinda Jayatissa in parliament that in 2023 more than Rs. 15 million of public money was spent on installing an escalator in former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s official residence. Why on earth would a two storey house need an escalator. An elevator, yes, but an escalator? Such madness would continue so long as the executive presidency remains.
The first couple of years of a new government is the best time for constitutional changes. The 1972 and 1978 constitutions as well as 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st Amendments were effected within this time frame. If the NPP government is not to join the ranks of other serial promise breakers, if it is to work seriously to abolish the presidency via a new constitution, the work has to begin now. If not, the window of opportunity will close and no meaningful constitutional change will be possible.
If Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga kept her promise of abolishment, Sri Lanka would have been spared the Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency and the contagion which is Rajapaksa politics. If Maithripala Sirisena kept his promise, Sri Lanka would have been spared the Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency and every disaster which followed in its wake, bankruptcy downwards. A worse outcome may result if President Dissanayake too fails to honour is promise.
Sri Lanka has been waiting from 1994 for a Frodo Baggins to take the One Ring of executive presidency and cast it into the Crack of Doom. President Dissanayake is the fifth president to don the garb of the hobbit of Bag End, Hobbiton. Is he the real thing or another imposter? The signs are not propitious but only time can really tell.