Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

30 May  2020

Dual Citizenship Dismissal of  Mr Premadasa’s group

To my simple mind, in democracy, one cannot be member of two political parties at the same time nor represent two electorates at the same time. The absolute power of representation is confirmed through one common form from top to bottom.

When Mr Premadasa replaced Mr Wickremesinghe as Leader of the Opposition in national parliament, I assumed that he did so as UNP member. Mr Premadasa’s new party Samagi Jana Balawegaya was not in existence when this Parliament was formed in 2015. Hence today I was surprised to learn as follows:

[Ninety-nine members of the United National Party (UNP)  including its one-time Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa and Party Chairman Kabir Hashim had their party membership suspended yesterday  widening the rift with the UNP’s breakaway faction, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB)] UNP gets tough on SJB article by FT

My search led to following discovery:

[11 February 2020 - Election Commission accepts the appointment of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa as the leader of Samagi Jana Balawegaya and Ranjith Madduma Bandara as General Secretary.] Wikipedia

Mr Premadasa had the duty to resign as leader of the Opposition and from UNP membership before registering as member  of another Political Party. This was an issue when SLPP was formed with Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa as the real invisible leader and Dr G L Pieris became his proxy. By becoming leader of a party that did not exist in 2015, Mr Premadasa was in breach of the Doctrine of Universal Franchise which prohibits dual forms of belief. A belief expressed at primary level can have only one form. This is why we cannot vote for two or more contestants in the one election. This is why, in democracy one who has dual citizenship cannot be in Parliament.

The fact that Mr Premadasa has effectively set aside all these values that we discovered through Parliament – is upsetting. More upsetting is that UNP led by which Mr Wicremesinghe – which was the architect of the 19^th Amendment to the constitution permitted it. Dual citizenship is not permitted in Democratic leadership because majority voters realise belief through one form. If Mr Premadasa was member of both UNP and SMJ – he disqualified himself from making policy. By birth Buddhism may be the junior religion of Hinduism. But if the same person was a Buddhist priest and Hindu priest – there is no common pathway for Buddhists or Hindus to realize Nirvana / Liberation through that person.

By not questioning this dual membership back in February – the current President failed in his duty to oversee Parliament on behalf of the People. Likewise Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa who became Prime Minister. Mr Rani Wickremesinghe is reported to have stated:

[that following the defeat of Sajith Premadasa at the 2019 Presidential Election, the UNP Parliamentary Group took the decision that the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Ministers would leave the government and sit in the Opposition.]

 That was find because the new president chose his brother to be Prime Minister. But in opposition – one is required to work harder than the government to effectively complete the picture of  Parliamentary Sovereignty. When the two sides interpret through same form of belief – they become  senior and junior and not equal opposition. What a mess!! – all because the true opposition of Tamils was overridden to show pretend opposition to please Sinhalese.

I expected much better from Ranil.