Constitutional Reform for ‘System Change’
The protesting young citizens at Gogotagama have also appropriated a cliché that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa introduced as part of his presidential vocabulary – ‘system change.’ They have given this phrase a radical twist proposing a system change of a different kind: a change in the existing system of government, the nature and styles of conducting the affairs of government, and the political culture in which that system is embedded.
The meaning of this phrase can, and should, also be extended to include social and economic transformation.
The participation in the ‘struggle’ of trade unions, workers, peasants, the urban and rural poor, as well as the middle, or intermediate, classes who have experienced a rapid fall into poverty in recent months clearly suggest that a policy shift from neo-liberal capitalism should also be in the vision for system change in Sri Lanka. Changes in the socio-economic system that sustains injustices and inequalities has been a long-standing social demand in Sri Lanka. Reforming the ‘system’ in order to ensure justice and equality to the ethnic and religious minorities should also be on the agenda for ‘system change’ in contemporary Sri Lanka.
That is the only way to transform that empty cliché into a meaningful idea for change at a time when the citizens have come forward, asserting their right to define politics on their terms.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s on-going political crisis has generated a new interest in constitutional reforms. There has been consensus emerging among opposition political parties and civil society groups that some measure of ‘system change’ in the country’s constitutional order is a prerequisite for resolving the present political crisis, which erupted with the protest movement. Constitutional reforms are seen as necessary to remove one of the contributory factors to Sri Lanka’s present crisis – the system of autocratic-authoritarian government established through the 20th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s present constitution