Prioritise People based Constitution making- A depoliticised method – By Bernard Fernando It is well known that the silent majority of the sovereign voters across the country elected the new President and his team as the only political party fully committed to creating a new political, public and media culture through a series of crucial ‘Political and Electoral System Changes’ via a New Constitution ‘by the People and for the People’. Towards that end, they have overwhelmingly succeeded in, a) precipitating the elusive National reconciliation effort by building pillars of ‘Sri Lankan ness’ in the four corners in North, South, East and West of the Country; b) setting live examples of ‘System change’ by nominating more Political Professionals and Women to the Parliament; c) curtailing Govt. expenditure by reducing privileges to MPs such as duty free vehicles, and princely meals at heavily subsidized rates ; d) celebrating Independence ...
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Make the new Constitution a Document solely by the People and for the People – By Bernard Fernando. At the outset, it should be stated that the silent majority of the sovereign voters across the country were able to elect the new President and his team as the only political party fully committed to creating a new political, public and media culture in our homeland through a series of crucial ‘System Changes’ via a new Constitution. Towards that end, they have exceptionally succeeded in the elusive National reconciliation effort by building pillars of ‘Sri Lankan ness’ in the four corners in the North, South, East and West of the Country. They have already set examples of ‘System change’ by nominating Political Professionals and more Women to the Parliament. Also, we raise our hats for ‘Charity begins at home’ measures to curtail expenditure by reducing privileges to MPs such as duty ...
Allow the number of MPs to be elected rationally and transparently based on actual Election results. – By Bernard Fernando The writer’s attention was drawn to the recent press release issued by the Elections Secretariat on the above matter, as it is one of the 3 main reasons distorting the equal value of vote envisaged country wide, under the Proportional Representation (PR) system. From time to time since 2015 Election, the writer as a sovereign voter has been updating his package of crucial Reforms /‘System changes’ to rationalise and simplify our existing political and electoral systems by highlighting an analysis of the results of 2015 and 2020 General Elections. They were published accordingly in the Sinhala and English National Press. The writer was also invited for a presentation to senior Election Dept. Officials at the Elections Secretariat by the former Chairman of National Election Commission (NEC) in 2017. The package ...
To re-democratize SL, abolish Executive Presidency: A response – By Bernard Fernando As a labelled sovereign voter and a stake holder in the Country’s Governance and Electoral system /process, the writer was enlivened by a clarion call in the Press by a group of Lawyers, Academics and civil rights activists to abolish the Executive Presidency. To my knowledge, this was a specific demand by one Political Party as far back as in 1994 to support a major Party which was heading towards victory in the General Election of 1994. This popular promise was quickly picked up by all Political parties in the fray as their main ‘Election carrot’ offered to the populace. Alas ! it still remains in the back burner for the last 30 years signifying the ‘truthfulness’ of our traditionally cunning and power – greedy politicians! The latent public detest towards Executive Presidency exploded with the slogan ...
