People have the right to repossess power

In one clear and unanimous voice, we, concerned Sri Lankans say ‘enough is enough’ to our leaders, Maithripala Sirisena, Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa. They have proved in no uncertain terms, their inability to lead the country and have only weakened it to such an extent that Sri Lanka is fast moving towards a ‘failed state’.

The preservation of the Fundamental Rights of our people and adherence to the Rule of Law’ are prerequisites for Good Governance.

The present leaders have failed miserably in this respect and instead have misused the powers that people have placed in them and consistently put themselves, their families and friends and their political parties before the people and the country.

The foremost duty of the State is to ensure the safety and security of the people of the country.

The significant differences between the Head of State and the Prime Minister and the way vital intelligence information has been handled have caused a bloodbath where innocent peoples’ lives have been destroyed, children orphaned and parents left childless; this and the subsequent incidents have also caused severe damage to private and commercial property. Consequent impact on the Economy and loss of livelihood are major concerns.

Failures of the present leadership, political complacency and political instability have led to the whole machinery of the state being seriously flawed and totally unmanageable. Further crisis is manifest in a manner in which major international agreements are negotiated by the President and the Prime Minister without either of them knowing what the other is doing.

In the light of the above it is clear that the President and the Prime Minister cannot work together and give leadership to the country.

Moreover experience has also shown that the office of the Executive President has not encouraged strong accountable leadership, but rather abuse of power, disregarding the welfare of the public.

The people are sovereign and their sovereignty is inalienable.the source of power is in the people and we have the right to repossess that power that we have entrusted to them.

We call the President, the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition to resign forthwith enabling the appointment of the Speaker as the President and Prime Minister to steer the country until the next General Elections. Our constitution provides (Ref. Article 40 (1) C Proviso) for this action.

The major responsibility of this interim Government would be to take steps to abolish the Executive Presidency as proposed in the 20th Amendment.

This will pave for the General

Elections where a new Prime

Minister would be elected and the person elected would be accountable to the Parliament and the People.

BY A GROUP OF

CITIZENS