Urgent Reply Needed by a Sri Lankan
Ok I heard from a friend that according to the constitution of Sri Lanka, a Sri Lankan Tamil or any other non-Buddhist for that matter will NOT be able to run for Office of the President. After reading Chapter 7 of the Constitution of my country, I am baffled because I did not find such wordings. {I should read slower the second time round.} Google did not help as well so I am asking any of you folks out there to post a comment or a link stating whether this is true or not. A link would be ideal. Since I am really not sure what is going on in the island at times ,{Is there a party called UNP after all the crossovers? What happened to the peace process ? JVP used to kill a lot of people right and now they are Members of Parliment???????? - the latter really makes me chuckle, especially when i hear the JVP pointing fingers at LTTE} it would be nice to hear from one of you folks.
Cheers
I have not come a cross such a sentence. I can be wrong. Because I don’t like to read our constitution that much – it make me feel like I’m reading my own jail sentence.
Oh yes. JVP kill more than even they can count. Caesar kill more people than even we can imagine - Pompeius Magnus did the same and they both blame each other. That is nothing new. That is what rulers do all the time.
It is very hard to find rulers without blood in their hands in countries like ours still in this age.
your friend is quite the ignorant git.
The constitution of Sri Lanka today is the 2nd Republican Constitution of 1978.
http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Introduction.htm
http://www.tamilnation.org/srilankalaws/78constitution.htm
Refer Chapter VII : The Executive. Article 31 (1) states any citizen whi is qualified to be elected to the office of President may be nominated.
The only disqualification being Art. 31 (2) - having being elected to the office of president twice before.
Further refer Art.12 (2) - no citizen shall be discriminated against on the ground of race, religion, language …
So your ‘learned’ friend is wrong in suggesting that the constitution officially recognizes discrimination on grounds of race etc either braodly or even in the context of criteria to be the prez of the republic.
Of course in practice it is another story. It’s unlikely a Tamil president would be elected in the forseeable future, but any citizen who hasn’t been elected twice before would be eligible to be nominated for office. A non-buddhist though would be more probable. Wasn’t Vijaya Kumaratunga a Roman-Catholic? I think in the late 80’s he quite the up and coming politician at the head of the MEP.
Sam - that was a good comparsion …hmmm why didnt i think of that???
Voice of Reason - No i doubt my friend is an ignorant git - just a Lankan brother who forgot to read the Consitution. Then again I dont blame him - most things in lanka happen through corrupt dealings or intimdation than whats written on paper. Rumors definetly helps the first and well since i am trying to get englightened {failing miserably} i just wanted to check. But i like your points and reasoning - do you have a blog by any chance???
Vijaya converted to Buddhism, so did all politians who seeked higher office. Even Kadiragamar converted.
it’s much much easier that way.
The constitution does not discriminate anyone seeking public office, including presidency. In fact there was at least one Muslim guy (abdul Gazur ? cant recall) who ran for president in 2000. Nominations were nearly handed out by another Muslim person in 2005 as well, he dropped out in support of Ranil.
However you got to give Buddhism the foremost place.
http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Chapter_02_Amd.html
Article 9
“The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e).”
This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the state Religion; although some JHU monks wanted an explicit statement through the anti Conversion bill in 2004.
Ethnic issue is very catchy. Politicians just point us only to that part and misguide us form the real issues we have. So I don’t care I lost my freedom by Buddhists or Tamils or Jews. Remember we have a lady in remand for 21 years and still she is fail to prove her not guilty and our bloody constitution fail to do nothing about it.
I’m not happy with a constitution that can put me to jail and ask me to prove I’m not guilty. Defiantly our constitution provides too much power to the leaders – but we all don’t care about it. So the real issue is not who – but how
There are obviously some good and bad parts in the constitution, that religion thing to me is bullshit and should be taken out. It insults the very nature of Buddhism to seemingly elevate it above others like that. SL would be so much better as a secular state…but then thats a personal view…the US for example at least on the surface appears to have a special place for Christiniaty…
Also on the topic of it unlikely there being a Tamil president, I think that runs true for most countries, how unlikely is a woman or black president in the US. BTW interestingly enough the US doesn’t let American citizens who were not born in the US to run for presidency. Interesting for a country that prides itself as being one of immigrants.
btw Sam any more info on that story about the lady in remand? JR masterminded the executive presidency and nobody who gets elected will realistically want to get rid of it.
Nice to see another CIS guy blogging Thanesh
yes agreed calling him an ignorant git was out of line but it just ruffles my feathers when people jump to conclusions on such sensitive matters without bothering to check up on the facts. It’s too bad that people let their pride, I-know-best and i’m-always-right attitude overshadow reason most of the time.
Kudos to you for attemtping to clarify.
On some of the other comments up here, certainly the flaws in our constitution far out weigh any good features in it. Just for example with relation to the non-discrimination article and all other articles in the FR chapter see Article 15 which places unqualified restictions on all FRs mentioned in the constitution. See, Art 15 (7) “The exercise and operation of all the fundamental rights declared and recognized by Articles 12, 13(1), 13(2) and 14 shall be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests of national security,…”. Also Article 16 which says any written or unwritten law that contravenes any of the articles in the FR chapter remain effective. These have been mainly used in effecting the emergency regulations over the past 20 odd years almost continuously.
There are many other damning shortcomings in our constitution such as the overbearing power of the executive etc.
Other than the very provisions of the constitution the very process used in its framing is propostorous. Any constitution that is not the product of consensus and open negotiation is against the very principle of sovereignty of the people - that being basically the will of the people and the power of the people being where the constitution and subsequently all State institutions and their functions draw their authority from. A bunch of politicians asigning powers to their institutions back in the day just doesn’t cut it.
On Buddhism being given foremost place, the JHU did actually try to bring a 19th amendment to the con to render buddhism the “official religion” of the State. Its a damn good thing that has apparently fallen by the way side considering what happened when Sinhala was made the only official lanugage in ‘56.
Hmmm and childof25… you don’t think condolezza rice could make a successful bid for the presidency some time soon? Black…woman…tick both!
childof25 - name please??? i couldnt see anything on ur blog. if needed to be kept discrete and i guess most bloggers are please shoot me an email…
voice of reason - Condolezza Rice - nahhhh …i didnt think Powell had a chance - definetly not Rice - maybe Arnold but he was born in Austria.
voice of reason - unlikely I said not impossible. Hillary Clinton maybe, at least shes a WASP, Condi or someone like her highly unlikely I don’t even see a black pres in the near future…
hmm…funny Thanesh, I actually met you this season, will drop you an email soon…
I learned a lot
lol 
but i know one thing.. If you’ve been to jail [for being naughty] you can’t [souldn't] be president! 
I accidently found this thread on global voices (Very late to comment through). Very informative. Thanks for all who contributed. I learned a lot. Actually, I also heard this “wrong” statement sometimes back. But, Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam ran for 1982 election if my memory is correct. (Correct me if I’m wrong). Only thing is, I don’t think we would have a Tamil or Muslim leader strong enough to convince Sinhalese majority to be elected as the president. Cuz, still our people have not completely given up racial identities. (Though people respect each others’ races & religions much more, compared to few decades back)
It’s nothing different from the reason why we don’t see Black presidents in USA. Cuz, white people are still not “completely” given up the racial pride.