A woman to enter Parliament amidst bomb threats
BY GAGANI WEERAKOON-2017-10-29
Similarly, the Yahapalana Government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appear to look for desperate measures amidst the growing storm threatening to overwhelm constitutional reforms due to protests by extremist groups about the description of the nature of the State of Sri Lanka.
In one such move, the government is proposing that the Sinhala phrase Ekeeya Rajya be used in both the Sinhala and English drafts of the proposed constitutional changes to describe the nature of the Sri Lankan State.
According to reliable sources, legal and constitutional experts have pointed out to the Prime Minister and several other stalwarts in the Government that this could be the best solution at the moment as the use of the term 'unitary' to describe the State may lead to separation as observed in the cases of Scotland and Catalonia in recent times.
The term unitary will be replaced by the Sinhala phrase Ekeeya Rajya.
Sri Lankan law requires the Supreme Court to interpret the Sinhala version as the correct one in case there is a different interpretation in the words in the other official languages.
The constitutional experts of the government have been studying the matter in-depth ever since Catalonia voted in favour of the referendum to be independent from Spain.
"They pointed out that the terminology of the word 'unitary' has changed internationally over the years and could lead to a volatile situation in the future. Thus, they were of the opinion that the best solution would be to use Ekeeya Rajya in the English draft as well as the Sinhala word puts more weight on the terminology in describing the State as an indivisible one. In addition, it also ensures the sovereignty of the land and territorial integrity," highly placed government sources added.
As of now there is no mention of what words will be used in the Tamil draft.
Meanwhile, a three-day debate will be held in Parliament on the Steering Committee interim report presented to the Constitutional Assembly on 30, 31 October and 1 November.
In another move, which may probably lead to a bigger chaos, the government is planning to bring in a powerful woman politician to Parliament in a bid to push forward the proposed Constitution.
This politician though once powerful, was not in fulltime active politics for over a decade but made an appearance with the political change country faced in 2015. Recently, she once again entered into party politics from the grassroots.
According to government sources, the move prompted by a suggestion of minority parties who believe she could be useful in gaining confidence of the minorities, Tamil Diaspora as well as the international community as she has a reputation for voicing the need of a political solution to the national question with powers being delegated to provinces or regions.
Accordingly, she is all set to enter the House through UPFA national list as one member out of the 12 UPFA appointed members has already expressed his willingness to resign paving the way for her.
However, many Government members expressed concerns about this decision, stating it may have negative responses locally even though she may to appeal the international community.
The move comes at a juncture where opposition to proposed constitutional reforms has gone as far as issuing threats of violence.
Leader of the National Freedom Front Wimal Weerawansa, recently, threw a stone at the hornets' nest by stating that the Parliament should be bombed if the Constitution Reforms win a 2/3s majority. This came in the immediate aftermath of retired military top brass Kamal Gunaratne claiming all those who support new Constitution be shot.
Even though it is considered in vernacular language to say, 'I will kill you if you do this' as quite literally a playful threat, the majority of the citizenry and political fraternity took these two remarks quite seriously based on the fact who uttered them.
The retired Major General's utterance came during the 14- day observation visit by UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff in the country.
Thus, there was an uproar amongst many including parliamentarians that this matter should not be dealt with lightly.
Justice Minister Thalatha Atukorale recently called that MP Weerawansa be dealt with provisions under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). This was irrespective of the fact that the Government has pledged to do away with the draconian piece of legislation.
On the other hand, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said he would take suitable action on the remarks made by MP Weerawansa to 'bomb' Parliament. Issuing a statement, the Speaker's media unit said the matter would be discussed in Parliament as soon as it was convened.
It said MP Weerawansa was alleged to have said that there was a necessity to bomb Parliament. The media unit said the members of the Government, Opposition and other factions had drawn Speaker Jayasuriya's attention to Weerawansa's remarks as it posed a threat to the security and wellbeing of all parliamentarians, officials and other employees of Parliament.
"All these factions requested the Speaker to take the threatening remarks made by MP Weerawansa seriously," it said.
The fact that Sri Lanka's Parliament came under a hand grenade attack some thirty years ago in a similar political circumstances and the fact of the main accused of that incident being a family member of Weerawansa may have erupted this unease among the politicians.
The incident which nearly killed the then Executive President J. R. Jayewardene and Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa along with a few ministers and MPs in a single attack, took place at the Government Parliamentary Group Meeting held that day in Committee Room A of the Parliament Complex on 18 August, 1987- the first day Parliament convened after signing the Indo-Lanka Accord. If the assassin's attempt has succeeded, it would have plunged the country into one of the greatest catastrophes ever.
Many civil activists are of the opinion that both these remarks are threats to democracy and call for violence in society.
LG polls
Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faizer Musthapha would issue the gazette notification, on the amendments to the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill, which was approved by Parliament in August, this week.
He said that he would submit the amendments to the Cabinet on Tuesday and issue the gazette notice on the next day, giving ample time to the Elections Commission to conduct the Local Government polls in January next year.
"I have prepared the groundwork and it is now up to the EC to set the date for the match. The amendments will be gazetted making them effective from the day on which the Act was enacted," the minister said.
Three more Pradeshiya Sabhas will set up in Ambagamuwa and Nuwara Eliya under the amendments and said a fresh demarcation for the six Pradeshiya Sabhas would not be necessary because new PSs will be set up within the existing wards of Amabagamuwa and Nuwara Eliya.
The two Pradeshiya Sabhas have a population of over 200,000, necessitating the broad basing of Local Government administration. For instance, the Ambagamuwa PS has 30 wards for a population of about 200,000. This PS will be divided to three Pradeshiya Sabhas with 10 wards for each Pradeshiya Sabha. The same method will be applied for the Nuwara Eliya PS, the minister explained.
There was an all party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last week with the political party leaders demanding that the LG polls be conducted without any further delay.
"If we wanted to we could have further delayed the LG polls based on demands to divide Samanthurai Pradeshiya Sabha in Kalmunai to four. Even Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has promised the SLMC and TNA to do it. But it needs more time and further amendments to the LG Electoral Act which will take a few more years and we decided not to go ahead with this proposal," he said.
The minister said the delay in conducting LG polls was because of a controversial paragraph inserted to the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill that required ignoring the mandatory requirement of 25% women representation from a political party but this had been rectified.
Meanwhile, another crucial meeting is likely to take place between the Mahinda Rajapaksa camp and Maithripala Sirisena camp of the SLFP soon to decide whether to contest under one banner or to go on separate ways.
Rajapaksa would meet Joint Opposition members to discuss the matter today (29) to take a final decision on attending the crucial SLFP meeting called by President Sirisena on 3 November.
Concerns remain
Amidst a battle to draft a new Constitution while facing a possible referendum and definite Local Government polls, the fact of the Government having to face the Geneva Human Rights Council in March remains unchanged.
Taylor Dibbert who previously worked for human rights organizations in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, recently, wrote in The Diplomat: "While it's ostensibly good that the Sirisena administration is granting UN Special Procedures mandate holders (among others) access to the country, let's not conflate these types of visits with sincerity vis-à-vis reform or genuine changes on the ground.
Sri Lanka has largely ignored the Human Rights Council resolution from two years ago. Even aspects of reform that are arguably more modest – pertaining to demilitarization, repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act or releasing Tamil 'political prisoners', for example – are being disregarded."
He was referring to the concluding remarks by UN Special Rapporteur Pablo de Grieff made on Monday (23) in Colombo.
The fact that the list of achievements does not include most of the priority measures that I mentioned in the statement after my first visit (dated 11 April 2015) makes obvious that the process is nowhere close to where it should have been more than two years later. These expectations were not merely those of the international community but of the Government of Sri Lanka and of Sri Lankans' generally. It was the Government's '100-day programme' that made commitments to its people concerning accountability. Those commitments were specified in greater detail in a resolution at the Human Rights Council co-sponsored by Sri Lanka (HRC Res 30/1 Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka adopted on 1 October 2015), which won plaudits not just among the international community but in Sri Lanka as well. The country committed itself to establishing in a two-year period (which lapsed in March of this year) measures on four different areas including, truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence, Grieff noted.
Some of the pending issues Grieff had mentioned in April 2015, include: The release of land, the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and its replacement by legislation that is fully compliant with human rights standards, the establishment of a mechanism to review expeditiously the cases of those held under the PTA, and the cessation of overbearing and intimidating forms of surveillance especially against women, human rights activists, and those involved in memorialization initiatives in the North and the East.
Each of these issues involves questions of basic rights and thus, the continued failure to achieve progress in fully addressing them constitutes a denial of justice. "Furthermore, the delays raise questions in many quarters about the determination of the Government to undertake a comprehensive transitional justice programme and undermine trust, which is not plentiful—as demonstrated by continued incidents of inter-ethnic violence," he asserted.
