Gotabhaya’s Talk About Abolishing The 13th Amendment!
Dr Laksiri Fernando
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Anyone of course has a right to advocate ‘abolishing the 13th Amendment’ or anything else for that matter. Sri Lanka should be a free country for peaceful political expression. But what is worrying is the almost ‘fanatical’ advocacy of the ‘abolition of devolution’ with the 13th Amendment by the Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. What is apparent is his ‘anti-Tamil’ crusade.
Could there be a connection between his present anti-Tamil crusade and his ‘war crusade’ during the last stages of the war? This is not mere speculation, but something important to investigate and/or research in terms of accountability, rule of law, good governance and democracy.
Implications
When one Googles Gotabhaya Rajapaksa what comes prominent, of course after his handsome images, are what he told the BBC recently about ‘North is not just for Tamils’ and the ‘TNA should be accountable for LTTE atrocities’ etc. and etc. This is irrespective of him being a public servant. The latter pronouncement was uttered just after the government released Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), who in fact has an Interpol arrest warrant and well known for at least arm procurements for terror activities of the LTTE against the state and the people. If Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is a good defence professional, he should keep quiet on political matters focusing on his defence matters. Citizens have every right to protest against this blatant deviation.
When he says that the North is not just for Tamils, there is an element of truth in it. There are Muslims and also Sinhalese. But this should not preclude Tamil speaking people claiming the North as their ‘historical habitation’ or even ‘homeland.’ Moreover, the question is the way he says it and the context. He is undoubtedly emotional and frenzied and that is an indication of prejudice and perhaps something worse than that. ‘Google’ also says that he was the key person who didn’t want the national anthem to be sung in Tamil by the school children in the North!
The implication of the abolition of the 13th Amendment would be not only on devolution but also on the Tamil as an official language. Without the 13th Amendment, the Tamil will be relegated into a mere ‘national language’ or ‘language of administrative use’ in some provinces. Even this might be doubtful the way things are moving in this ‘miracle of Asia’ these days. This is exceedingly a controversial matter with far reaching implications on the rights of the minorities both Tamils and Muslims. With the abolition of the 13th Amendment, all what Vasudeva Nanayakkara has been doing or ‘pretend to be doing,’ as the Minister of National Languages and Social Integration, will go for mere sixes.
No one would doubt that the 13th Amendment is beset with some legal and practical infirmities. That is one reason why the Provincial Councils cannot properly utilise its great potential to develop the regions outside the Western province. This is common to many legal enactments including the Constitution itself, and particularly its various amendments. The 17th Amendment was another example. Although there is a government in place with more than a two third majority, of course with untenable alliances, there is no broader vision or democratic commitment, with people’s interests and future at heart. Or otherwise many of these defects could be or could have been rectified in the right direction.
What is happening instead is completely the opposite. The 18th Amendment is the best example. On the pretext of rectifying the weaknesses, the spirit of the 17th Amendment was completely annihilated by restricting the independence of the independent commissions and also taking the opportunity to do away with the limited terms for the Presidency. Now the independence is a question of asserting that right, like what the judiciary demonstrated in recent times. Without asserting independence, no commission or institution would be true to its purpose.
