Sri Lanka stands at a familiar crossroads — one it has visited many times before, yet rarely navigated with lasting success. The island nation's constitutional journey is a story of promise repeatedly deferred, of reform agendas that have dissolved under the weight of political expediency, ethnic tension, and institutional inertia. Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne's Constitutional Conversations arrives as a timely and deeply personal account of this troubled trajectory, written not from the detached vantage point of an academic observer, but from the perspective of someone who has spent more than three decades as an active participant in Sri Lanka's constitutional debates. His work compels us to ask a difficult but necessary question: how many opportunities for genuine constitutional transformation has Sri Lanka allowed to slip through its fingers?
A Ringside View of Three Decades of Constitutional Struggle
What makes Dr. Wickramaratne's contribution particularly significant is the intimacy of his perspective. He has had what might aptly be described as a ringside view of Sri Lanka's constitutional evolution — witnessing firsthand the negotiations, the compromises, the moments of near-breakthrough, and the eventual retreats into the status quo. His account is therefore more than historical documentation. It is a lived testimony to the persistent gap between constitutional aspiration and political reality in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka's constitutional history since independence has been marked by pivotal moments that carried genuine transformative potential. The 1978 Constitution, introduced under President J.R. Jayewardene, concentrated executive power in ways that many constitutional scholars have since argued were fundamentally incompatible with democratic accountability. Rather than serving as a foundation for stable governance, the executive presidency created through that document became a source of recurring controversy — one that successive governments promised to reform but rarely did in any meaningful sense.
The Pattern of Missed Opportunities
Perhaps the most painful aspect of Sri Lanka's constitutional story is not the absence of reform efforts, but the regularity with which those efforts have fallen short. The 1990s saw sustained attempts to address the ethnic conflict through constitutional means, with proposals for devolution of power that might have reshaped the relationship between the central government and minority communities. These efforts, despite significant investment of political capital and goodwill from multiple parties, ultimately collapsed — victims of electoral calculation, Sinhalese nationalist opposition, and a political culture that struggled to prioritise long-term institutional health over short-term partisan advantage.
The pattern repeated itself in the years following the end of the civil war in 2009. With the military conflict concluded, there was a window — however narrow — during which a more inclusive constitutional settlement might have been pursued. That window closed without producing the structural changes that might have addressed the underlying grievances driving decades of conflict. The opportunity was real. The political will was not.
The 19th Amendment and the Limits of Incremental Reform
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 2015, represented perhaps the most significant attempt at structural reform in recent memory. It restored term limits on the presidency, strengthened independent commissions, and sought to rebalance power between the executive and the legislature. For a moment, it appeared that Sri Lanka might be charting a more accountable constitutional course. Yet even this reform proved fragile. The 20th Amendment, passed in 2020, systematically dismantled many of the 19th Amendment's key provisions, restoring executive dominance and weakening the independent oversight mechanisms that had been so carefully constructed.
This cycle of reform and reversal illustrates a deeper structural problem. Constitutional change in Sri Lanka has too often been driven by the immediate interests of whoever holds power, rather than by a shared commitment to enduring democratic principles. The result is a constitutional framework that shifts with the political winds, offering citizens little in the way of stable, predictable governance.
Why Constitutional Reform Matters Now More Than Ever
Sri Lanka's recent economic crisis — the most severe in its post-independence history — has thrown the failures of its governance structures into sharp relief. The concentration of executive power, the weakening of parliamentary oversight, and the absence of robust accountability mechanisms all contributed to an environment in which catastrophic policy failures went unchecked until they produced a national emergency. Constitutional reform is not an abstract legal exercise. It has direct, material consequences for the lives of ordinary citizens.
Dr. Wickramaratne's Constitutional Conversations serves as both a historical record and a call to renewed engagement. The conversations Sri Lanka needs to have about its constitutional future are urgent, complex, and unavoidable. They require honesty about past failures, courage to confront entrenched interests, and a genuine commitment to building institutions that serve all citizens rather than the political class alone.
The Road Ahead
Lost opportunities need not define a nation's future. Sri Lanka's constitutional story remains unfinished, and the possibility of meaningful reform — however distant it may sometimes appear — has not been permanently foreclosed. But seizing that possibility will require political leaders, civil society, and citizens alike to engage seriously with the lessons of the past. Dr. Wickramaratne's work provides an invaluable foundation for exactly that kind of honest, informed, and courageous constitutional conversation.