Sri Lanka, Sept. 20 -- Until a new Constitution is promulgated, Sri Lanka has a distinctly presidential system of government. This fact among other things has been given the Supreme Court imprimatur in the court's decision on the 19th Amendment. Powers cannot be transferred from the President to the Prime Minister without a referendum, the SC decided in its decision on the draft 19A.

Forget everything about the 20th Amendment until people get their heads around this fundamental fact. The current iteration of the Sri Lankan Constitution, primarily of J R Jayewardene is a 'presidential-model document' - and there is so much tinkering that can be done within that reality without altering that basic characteristic.

The presidential-model se...