Sri Lanka 1979: New Stresses in the Economy and the Polity

Abstract

TEHE UNITED NATLONAL PARTY (UNP) government showed several features of instability in 1979. Such measures as the incorporation of new provisions into the Constitution and the reshuffling of the Cabinet indicate that disintegrating trends within the ranks of the government and the party apparatus may now be at work. The politics of the opposition and developments within the economy have encouraged these trends and the UNP leadership is issuing pronouncements to the effect that unity within party ranks needs to be maintained in order to constantly revitalize the government's efforts to achieve an economic miracle. There are now indications that the miracle could well be a miraculous failure. The amendments to the 1978 Constitution were aimed at political stability as the primary precondition for economic stability, but have stirred the rank and file of the UNP, and it is in this context that one needs to assess the political and economic developments of 1979. As a preface to major constitutional and political developments, some discussion of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of 1978, introduced in February 1979, would be useful. The 1978 Constitution was amended to allow members of the opposition to cross over to the government. Prior to the amendment, Article 161 in Chapter 21 provided that when a member ceases by resignation, expulsion or otherwise to be a member of a recognised political party to which he belongs upon the commencement of the Constitution, his seat will become vacant upon the expiration of one month from the date he ceases to be a member of such a party.' This law empowered the Secretary of the