It would seem that the Government has got into a right royal jam with the 13th Amendment (13A) to the Constitution. Under pressure from India once again, and the Western countries on the one side, and counter-pressure from domestic forces adamantly opposing its continuance, the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been boxed into a corner. It is trying to wriggle out of a situation it has brought upon itself. For one, the Government procrastinated in bringing about an alternative to 13A. For another, it also procrastinated in implementing the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) which itself saved the day for the Rajapaksa Government by warding off international pressure for a Crimes Against Humanity Tribunal following the liquidation of the LTTE in 2009. This has had a knock-on effect on the Government and the country insofar as allowing world opinion spearheaded by the US and ably supported by India, to snowball.

That the Provincial Council system, a corollary to13A was a geo-politically expedient but administratively flawed local government mechanism that has been perpetrated for more than 25 years now, is a travesty on the people of this country by itself, is clear.

Introduced to devolve political power to the North and East, this utterly useless ‘Made in India’ model was forced upon the rest of the country. It has neither served man nor beast and only duplicated and complicated the already existing government machinery.

The Government has not said why it wants to continue with the Provincial Council system; and especially so for a political party that got onto the streets in protest when it was made into law in 1987 under the most controversial of circumstances. The only signals that emanate are the continuing pressure that is being exerted by India and the West, mainly due to their own domestic compulsions to grant a certain degree of autonomy to the representatives of the minority Tamils living in the North and East.

Unable to withstand this pressure due to its own deficiencies in getting its act together, what with resolutions against Sri Lanka at the United Nations in Geneva and quid pro quos for India’s support to allow Sri Lanka to host the Commonwealth summit (CHOGM) later this year, the Rajapaksa Government is wilting and allowing anti-13A forces to raise the ante. In other words, it is walking a tight rope doing a balancing act: on the one side are the international demands, on the other, domestic demands.

Lost in the process are the crucial issues; what is the most suitable form of devolution of the Centre’s powers to the periphery; what is the unit of devolution; and what are the powers that can be devolved without compromising the unitary nature of the country.
Instead of addressing these, we see ad-hoc measures being taken with this tightrope walking going on and on. We have made it known that there must be devolution; that District Councils must be the unit and that there must be a re-think on such councils being mere appendages of political parties in the country.

The resurgence of the demand for the repeal of 13A and the abrogation of the Provincial Councils is understandable. The argument is that the Provincial Councils as they exist today are ‘white elephants’; that devolution must be an administrative requirement and not a political one; and that there is a real threat to the country’s national security if the Northern Provincial Council falls into the hands of a political party that is a puppet of India. No better proof of this is illustrated by our Political Editor in the adjoining column revealing how India can summon that party to New Delhi for instructions.

As we have said before, there is a way out of this mess for President Rajapaksa. One such way is to invoke Article 86 of the Constitution and hold a Referendum of the People and seek their views on the matter. Article 86 states: “The President may………. submit to the People by Referendum any matter which in the opinion of the President is of national importance”. This is in addition to Article 85 that provides for a Referendum of the People should the Supreme Court determine a particular Bill needs their approval to make it law — something that has never happened yet in these 35 years of the 1978 Constitution.

This is now too much of an issue to be left to a few politicians or in the hands of the President and Parliament. It is now a matter for the People to express their opinion.

Only one Referendum has been held in Sri Lanka since it was introduced to the 1978 Constitution – that was the 1982 Referendum that sought to, and did, extend the life of that Parliament by another term.

Political parties will be allowed to campaign on the question that will be put to the People (the framing of the question is of fundamental importance), but the opinion of the People must be of the whole country and not just limited to a geographical area or an ethnic group.

This opinion will then make it easier for the President to decide which way he should proceed as there seems to be a great deal of confusion on which road he should take. Clearly, the Government’s reluctance to push through with the LLRC recommendations on good governance on the whole has resulted in it being placed in this predicament. Coupled with the resulting problematic issue of devolution must come measures towards good governance in general.

We see no movement in that direction; in fact we see several retrograde steps taking place. There are deficiencies everywhere. In the end, the Government is pleasing no one and only hoping that the uneasy status quo remains until it can spin itself out of the tangled web it has woven for itself.

Source: Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)