MR’s Role, 13A & The Constitutional Changes

By Dayan Jayatilleka – 

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

If all power and decision-making are vested in one person, even if that person has originally been elected, then that political order is defined in classical (Aristotelian) terms as “the rule of one man”, a “tyranny”. In modern times this is defined as a dictatorship, especially if the ubiquity of the military is an aspect of that person’s rule, as in Sri Lanka today. Other terms, also deriving from political thought and philosophy can be used: ‘absolutism’, ‘autocracy’, ‘despotism’. 

Substituting the 19th amendment with the 20th  is not merely throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it is doing so and substituting ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ or a baby by Daenerys Targaryen—one of the wee dragons that used to sit on her shoulder in Game of Thrones. 

The 20th amendment creates an absolutist Presidency. The new Constitution will construct an absolutist State.