In Sri Lanka, no quiet after the storm
The HinduEven after the fall of his official residence and the Presidential Secretariat into the hands of protesting citizens, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa tried to defy the massive public pressure on him to resign. Abolishing Sri Lanka’s much-hated executive presidential system of government through a comprehensive package of political reforms will have to be a priority in the policy agenda of any new government. A new generation of young political activists who have little patience with the traditional political class and political culture seems to be providing new direction to Sri Lanka’s politicised citizens. The demand of the new citizen movement is not merely a return to parliamentary democracy, but a democracy that addresses deficits in representative democracy through a strong framework of checks and balances, contains effective measures to prevent corruption and abuse of political power, and enables voters’ right to recall the elected representatives at every level of government. Possible changes Thus, in the coming weeks and months, two new contradictions with fatal consequences for Sri Lanka’s newly gained democratic freedom are likely to spring up.