A few suggestions for the proposed new constitution

by Prof. H. Sriyananda

( January 26, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Most thoughts for a new constitution are constrained by the form(s) of existing or past ones, either in Sri Lanka or elsewhere. However, it may be useful to look at them not so much as models, but as providing lessons to be avoided.

1. Representative democracy has failed in most situations, even in the fairly well established ‘democracies’; one glaring example of which being Britain’s intervention in Iraq despite the opposition of the vast majority of its people to such intervention. Ensuring that electorates are kept very small (of the order of a100), allows for the recall of the representative in case the representative ceases to reflect the wishes of the electors.

The assemblies so elected should also be small (not more than 100 members) to ensure meaningful interaction among them. This may be implemented by visualising a threetier structure as follows:

Basic unit a ‘ward’ of about 100 electors.

Level 1 administration ( Local government) consisting of about 100 ward representatives), electing one among them to represent it at the next level.

Level 2 administration (Provincial administration) consisting of about 100 representatives elected by each of the Local government units. Thus, each of these would ultimately represent about 1M electors.

Level 3 administration (National administration) to consist of about 30 members, two (one male, one female) elected by each Provincial administration. These thirty members would represent about 15 M electors (as the eligible population now stands) The Level 3 assembly should have, in addition to the thirty members elected as above (on a territorial basis), another thirty members elected on a national basis to represent group interests; one each representing peasant (agricultural) farmers, industrial workers, estate workers, fishers, workers in service industries, University students, academics, school teachers, medical practitioners, engineers and architects, scientists, small industrialists, medium scale industrialists, large industrialists, other entrepreneurs (such as traders, bankers etc.).
The Level 3 assembly (the National assembly) will thus have about 60 members, a minimum of fifteen (and a maximum of 45) of whom being female.

2. The National assembly will elect the President and the Speaker, the President being from outside; and divide itself into not more than 12 subcommittees representing the major areas of governance: Defence and Foreign affairs, Finance, Health, Education, Food and agriculture, Justice, General administration and law enforcement, Industries etc. Each subcommittee shall elect a chairperson. The committee of such Chairpersons shall form the Cabinet, which will elect the Prime Minister from among themselves.

3. Even though the wards and Local administrative districts will be geographically determined (by a delimitation commission), the Local administrations (Level 1) will be able to negotiate among themselves as to how to affiliate to form the Provincial administrations (Level 2)

4. The powers and responsibilities of each level of administration shall be determined on the basis of the need to hand over certain powers and responsibilities to the next higher level on a ‘needs’ basis; that is, these are not so much to be devolved to the periphery starting from the centre but to be centralised from the periphery to the centre.

5. As there will exist the power of recall at all levels, the term of office of all bodies can be fixed at (say four years, similar to that of the President of the USA), and all elections rescheduled to the month of December, every four years. The ward elections may be scheduled to be completed during the first week of December, and elections to each succeeding level at one week intervals so that the new National Government can takeover at the beginning of January. This will minimise the cost and disruption caused by unscheduled elections.

This is only a very brief outline of what is possible, to form a basis for discussion among the public. The two main criteria are the Right of Recall, and small and manageable institution.