Ranil’s resolve to end rule of law

“The reactionary is always willing to take a progressive attitude on any issue that is dead” - Theodore Roosevelt

- By Dr. Ameer Ali

RW's agenda is a move to restore the ancient regime with its weaknesses

RANIL Wickremesinghe (RW), one of the fallen heroes at the 2024 Presidential Election, has been reported to be planning to organise 1,000 rallies across the country and calling all Opposition leaders, their aficionados and apparatchiks to rally behind him in his war against what he described as a “constitutional dictatorship”.

If one understood the logic behind that concoction, one would have gathered that if there is a dictatorship prevailing currently in the country then that dictatorship has been permitted by the constitution.

But what is strange is the fact that that constitution was introduced by none other than RW’s own uncle and Sri Lanka’s first Executive President, J.R. Jayewardene, who boasted that he could do anything under his constitution except to change the gender of a person, and RW was a minister under JR. It was the same constitution but with additional powers that elevated President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to become a virtual dictator. When the Aragalaya youth forced him to run away from the country and resign, RW stepped into the presidential shoes with the consent of the Parliament, and the first thing he accomplished was to order the security forces to end the Aragalaya by arresting its leaders, demolishing their temporary shelters and chasing out the rest to their homes. Now he is calling AKD Presidency and NPP Government a constitutional dictatorship. Is it?