President ,PM join party leaders to hail parliamentary democracy on 70th anniversary

President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday paid tribute to the people and the political leaders of the country on the day that the county's Legislature commemorated  70 years of parliamentary democracy .

He joined Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the Opposition R. Sampanthan and other political party leaders to mark the landmark achievement in the parliamentary history of the country.

The Speakers of all South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) nations were the guest of honour on the occasion.

The President in his address gave a brief overview of the evolution of parliamentary democracy in the country starting with the Solbury constitution of 1947 to the first republic constitution of 1972 following in which in 1978, the system of governance was changed with the establishment of an executive presidency with unlimited powers.

“We have to admit that move weakened the parliament. Then there was 18th amendment to the Constitution, further consolidating powers around the post of executive presidency.  But people voted on Jan 08, 2015 for a new government which introduced the 19th amendment to the constitution abolishing the 18th amendment. That was a victory of democracy. It strengthened this supreme institution,” he said.

The President said that  many leaders who worked for the strengthening of democracy in the past and mentioned the names of  D.S Senanayake, SWRD Bandaranaike, Sirimavo Bandaranike, Dudley Senanayake, JR Jayewardene, Ranasinghe Premadasa, Chandrika Kumarartunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa are among them.

“During the course of past 70 years we have obtained many experiences. Those lessons and experiences would help us further safeguard the rights of people and democracy in the country. It is a duty of all of us to strengthen democracy and order of the law in the country. We should usher in economic prosperity. We should always act with the intention of decentralizing the powers concentrated in the hands of a single person,” he added.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who moved the  motion for the vote said that parliament commemorated with price the 70th anniversary of its first meeting as an independent parliament and noted that parliament of Sri Lanka is the oldest parliament elected by universal adult franchise in the Asia region with an unbroken record of democratic governance and wished for parliament and people of the country a prosperity, development and further strengthening of democratic traditions, principles and rules of law.

“Today we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of this assembly. We have not only safeguarded 70 years but also have set a record. We have ended an era which limited the rights of people and weakened parliament. We have a parliament tradition that goes back 116 years. If we could deliver a political solution for the ethnic problem we could achieve economic prosperity and development. It is the UNP which continuously remained in in parliament as a party during the entire 70-year period though we had ups and downs in numbers,” he said.

The other speakers included Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan, Minister of Transport and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva on behalf of the SLFP, Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella, Chief Government Whip Gayantha Karunathilaka, Chief Opposition Whip and JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, SLMC leader Minister Rauff Hakeem, EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, Joint Opposition Leader Dinesh Gunawardena.