Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister says protesting young groups would be encouraged to participate in governance as part of the political changes he proposes to address the country’s political crisis, which has been precipitated by an unparalleled economic collapse.
On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appeared on national television, offering demonstrators an olive branch: more input in how the country is run.
According to him, the president’s powers would be curtailed while parliament’s will be increased as a result of the proposed constitutional revisions. He said that government would be broad-based, with politicians, youth, and professionals working together in parliamentary committees.
‘The youth are calling for a change in the existing system. They also want to know the current issues. Therefore, I propose to appoint four youth representatives to each of these 15 committees’, Wickremesinghe said.
For more than 50 days, protesters, mostly young people, have camped outside the president’s office. They want President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign, accusing him and his family as being responsible for the country’s economic woes.
They also want a governance overhaul, saying successive administrations since independence from Britain in 1948 have misruled the country leading to economic and social crises.
According to Wickremesinghe’s proposal, one of the youth representatives will be appointed by the so-called ‘youth parliament’ and the other three will come from protesting groups and other activist organisations. ‘The methodology used to choose these individuals can be decided by the youth organisations themselves’, he said.
His plan has elicited no instant response from youth organisations.
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Under the existing constitution, new broad-based parliamentary committees appear to be possible, but wider modifications, such as limiting presidential powers, would require Supreme Court permission and a two-thirds legislative majority. When the measure will be brought for discussion is unknown.
Wickremesinghe is not a member of Rajapaksa’s party, but was appointed when Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president’s elder brother, resigned as Prime Minister on May 9 after weeks of demonstrations and no other legislator volunteered to take his place.
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