‘Miracle  of Asia’

June 12, 2013, 7:35 pm 

(1) Frontline banker / businessman and wife accused of robbery. Thumbelina sized wife cannot be found.

(2) Chief Justice accused of undeclared assets - impeached.

(3) District Judge accused of bribery - interdicted.

(4) DIG accused of murder - remanded.

(5) Mawanella Pradeshiya Sabha chairman accused of murder - convicted.

(6) Several local authorities chairmen / members accused of murder, rape, robberies - pending.

(7) Mothers and children committing suicide

(8) Fathers abusing their own daughters.

Nihal Ratnayake

Dehiwala

Never the twain shall meet

Editorial-

June 12, 2013, 8:01 pm 

The UNP is cock-a-hoop that the JHU has welcomed its commitment to a unitary state. Following meeting with the JHU yesterday at Sirikotha it is sanguine about the prospects for another round of talks on its constitutional proposals.

There’s no harm in the Greens and the Saffrons having talks on a new Constitution. In fact, the UNP proposals contain some valuable features that need to be discussed widely, the downsizing of the Cabinet being one of them. But, it is doubtful whether even if the two parties go on talking about devolution for all they are worth till the cows come home anything will come of their discussions. For, their ideological stances on devolution are like chalk and cheese!

The JHU does not see eye to eye with even its main coalition partner, the SLFP, on devolution though their nationalist agendas dovetail with each other in many other respects. The latter is for provincial councils, of course, without powers to handle the police and land and stymie the enactment by Parliament of laws that clash with the 13th Amendment. The former wants the provincial councils abolished. So, one should not be so naïve as to expect the JHU to agree to the UNP’s offer of ‘meaningful devolution’ which one may read as a promise to fully implement the 13th Amendment.

The JHU is in a dilemma. Its support base in the urban and semi-urban areas is shrinking with a considerable part thereof already lost to the UNP and the SLFP as could be seen from the results of the last few elections. It has also had to vie with Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s National Freedom Front (NFF), the Ravana Balaya, the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) etc to retain the support of the dyed-in-the-wool nationalists. Today, it is in the same predicament as a wayside grape seller who started his business with very little competition but today has more competitors than customers!

The JHU, fighting a political turf war of sorts, has got to compete with President Mahinda Rajapaksa as well while benefiting from his munificence and popularity; when the commander in chief responsible for defeating the LTTE vows to defend the country at any cost and goes among people kissing children and hugging the elderly, the JHU has its work cut out electorally. The only way it could retain what is left of its vote bank is to try to be more nationalist than the SLFP, the NFF and others by campaigning against the provincial councils. Given this situation, it will be political hara-kiri for the JHU to discuss devolution with the UNP. Instead, it is likely to make use of future meetings with the UNP, if any, to discuss its move to abolish the provincial councils

President Rajapaksa has shrewdly made a virtue of necessity; he is reported to have allowed the JHU to go ahead with its anti-devolution campaign; he knows that anyone who refrains from voting for the SLFP in protest against its failure to either scrap the 13th Amendment or at least strip the provincial councils of police and land powers, is likely to vote for the JHU or the NFF at the forefront of the on-going campaign against the 13th Amendment. A vote for the JHU or the NFF is, in the final analysis, a vote for the government.

Therefore, we reckon all chances are that the JHU in spite of having commended the UNP’s commitment to a unitary state will go all out to mine a rich seam of fears and prejudices of the majority community as regards devolution and wild horses wouldn’t keep it from opposing the UNP’s draft constitution to gain political mileage.