"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." – James Madison. Federalist 47.

The Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya has stated that the UNP will abolish the Executive Presidency. But he talks of replacing it with an Executive Prime Minister. One hopes it is not a change of name from President to Prime Minister. Our politicians are very fond of absolute power. But we don’t need any proof of Lord Acton’s statement about absolute power. No one neither priest nor layman can be trusted with absolute power. It was after a long and bitter struggle that the kings in the West who claimed to be absolute monarchs were tamed. In the East this struggle never took place and the rulers exercised absolute power. There were no checks on their power except the moral principles if they chose to abide by them. Often they chose not to abide by them and the subjects were made serfs under the arbitrary rule of the monarchs. Those close to them were the most exposed to their tyranny and often rebelled. But no institutional measures were ever introduced to check the absolute power of the monarch.

It is the ancient Romans who raised the issue of who is to guard the guardians. The answer was the rule of law. Any ruler who violated it and became a tyrant deserved death  and Brutus justified the killing of Julius Caesar because he had become a tyrant.  So the UNP must realize that the public don’t want an  absolute power wielding chief executive whether you call him a President or Prime Minister. The introduction of checks and balances is based on the principle of separation of powers. Although the two  arms of the State- the legislature and the Executive must work in co-operation neither should trespass on the powers and functions of the other. One of the ways to do so is to make the Executive (President or Prime Minister) not to be part of the Legislature ( Parliament). Similarly the Ministers should not be part of the Legislature although they may attend Parliament without voting rights. The same principle should apply to the Prime Minister. The Executive should be free to appoint persons as Ministers from outside Parliament. We need both responsible government as well as government with expertise. The division of functions should be based on the departments and Ministers should fit into the slots rather than twisting and turning the departmental structure to fit the Ministers. A functional classification of government was first recommended in Britain by the Haldane Committee in 1918 ad was adopted and few new departments have been added since then. The distinction between the Ministry and Department has to be abolished and the head of the Department is the Ministry Secretary and the present heads of Departments should be Under-Secretaries. A proper hierarchical structure should be drawn up and officials from the Secretaries downwards should be appointed by the PSC with the concurrence of the Chief Executive who should have only a veto power which can be exercised only once. He can have consultants who are specialists to advise him but they should be outside the administrative hierarchy with no power to give orders except through the Minister.

The power to impeach public officials is another serious omission in our Constitution. The US Constitution provides for the impeachment not only of Ministers but of any official.  The public officials cannot then plead Ministerial orders for violating the law.