Government Considering Amending The Thirteenth Amendment Before NP Elections

April 30, 2013 |

Caught between its promises to India and the international community to hold elections to theNorthern Provincial Council in September 2013 on the one hand and certain defeat at the hands of the Tamil Nationalist Alliance on the other, the Rajapaksa Government is now mulling an amendment to the Constitution to take away some of the powers of Provincial Councils, theColombo Telegraph understands. According to Government sources, the proposed amendment will make far reaching changes to the Thirteenth Amendment.

Rajapaksa

Under the Thirteenth Amendment, if a Bill on a subject devolved on Provincial Councils is to be passed by Parliament, the Bill has to be referred to all Provincial Councils for their views. If all Provincial Councils agree, then the Bill can be passed by a simple majority. However, if one or more Provincial Councils do not agree, then the Bill must be passed by a two-thirds majority if it is to apply to the provinces which did not agree. If passed only by a simple majority, the Bill will be law only in the provinces that have agreed.

It may be recalled that several Bills of the Rajapaksa Government on provincial subjects were rejected by Provincial Councils including Councils controlled by the UPFA. The Government is worried that with a TNA-controlled Provincial Council in place, other Councils, especially the Eastern Provincial Council, would follow the Northern Provincial Council and not agree to government Bills. As such, the new amendment would provide that a Bill on a provincial subject will become law applicable to the whole country, if a majority of Provincial Councils agree to the passing of the Bill. The Government is confident that Provincial Councils other than the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils can be pressurized into supporting any Bill.

Another amendment being considered relates to Police powers. Although Police powers have been devolved to a certain extent by the Thirteenth Amendment, Provincial Councils are unable to exercise those powers as the Police Commission Act, No. 1 of 1990 which provides for the establishment of a National Police Commission and a Provincial Police Commission for each province has still not been brought into operation by successive Governments. Police powers will be completely taken back to the central government or limited to minor offences, Government sources told Colombo Telegraph.

At present, Provincial Councils have certain powers over State land. Under paragraph 1:3 of Appendix II of the Thirteenth Amendment, alienation or disposition of State land within a Province to any citizen or to any organisation shall be by the President but only on the advice of the relevant Provincial Council. It may be recalled that in the case filed against the former President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, for transferring state land to Water’s Edge Golf Company, one of the grounds on which the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Sarath Silva held that the transfer was illegal was that the advice of the Western Provincial Council had not been given. The Government is now considering deleting the requirement of advice and also taking back many other land powers devolved.

However, the Rajapaksa government is worried that the required two-thirds majority will not be forthcoming in the new political climate. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress is already under severe pressure from the Muslim community to withdraw from the Government because of the Government’s reluctance to deal with extremists who are fuelling anti-Muslim hatred. Muslims also believe that the newly formed extremist Buddhist organizations have the covert support of the Government. Further, the SLMC would find it extremely difficult to agree to a dilution of the powers of Provincial Councils. The Government may also find it difficult to get the Left parties to support such an amendment. At the vote on the impeachment of Chief Justice Bandaranayake, the Secretary General of the SLMC and three MPs of the Left parties, all Cabinet Ministers, did not vote with the Government.

However, the Government is exploring the possibility of getting a few more UNP MPs to join the Government “to strengthen the hands of the President”, Government sources stated.

Colombo Telegraph -

SRI LANKA: The absence of political will to eliminate thuggery

April 30, 2013

For a law enforcement agency the elimination of thuggery is one of the simplest things to do. For thugs are cowards and they crawl and beg for mercy whenever they find that there is a strong enough will on the part of the law enforcement agencies and the courts to deal with crime. Anybody who has been to a High Court where serious crimes are tried will have plenty of stories to tell as to how so-called 'strong men' who have been involved in crimes begs for mercy. Many of them pay huge sums to their lawyers to ensure that they would be kept out of jail.

If thuggery has gone to the extent of being a scourge or a serious social problem it only means that the thugs have lost their fear of the law. It means that thugs have got the upper hand in the struggle over those who represent the law.

The strength of the thugs does not lie in their muscles, it lies in their connections. The connections matter only when the law enforcers are afraid of those connections. In times when the spirit of defiance and boldness is strong in the law enforcers and when they dare to do their duty without "caring a damn" as they say for anyone who opposes them, no amount of connections can help the thugs.

Thus, the problem of thuggery is essentially a political problem. Where thuggery is widespread it means that the government in power has shackled the law enforcers. The government has taken the side of the thugs and communicated a very strong message to the law enforcement agencies that they if they try to go against thuggery they do so at their peril.

That is, in fact, what has happened in Sri Lanka since 1978 in particular, and by now it has increased in epidemic proportions. When President J.R. Jayewardene immediately after his electoral victory gave a few weeks of 'holiday' to the police, he passed a very strong message to the law enforcement agencies and to the society at large. That simple message was that from that point on the government will resort to lawlessness when it suits its purposes. That simple message is now a political doctrine that is followed by every government that comes into power. Later the same president used one of his ministers, Cyril Matthew, to take the employees of the state transport services to the opposition meetings to attack them. Similarly during the general strike of 1980 the government used thugs to attack the workers. That tale is a very long one and there are graphic records of this patronage of thugs by the government in power over many decades.

It is this same legacy that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime follows and the influence of thugs has been magnified a thousand-fold. Today it is hard to distinguish an act of the government, which is done lawfully through lawful agencies, and one that is done with the support of the criminal elements.

The problems of the law enforcement agencies are two-fold. If they act independently they get into trouble. There have been reports of death threats even to senior police officers who were involved in investigations into some crimes. And there have been instances when some of them have been killed. On the other hand the law enforcement agencies themselves are so much linked to criminal elements that it is the complainants of the crimes that really get into trouble. Recently, a casino den that enjoyed state patronage was raided by an SSP who is now receiving death threats. In a separate incident it was reported that a DIG warned his officers not to discharge their duties without his express permission. The article stated him as saying, "I am like a snake, even Gota is under my thumb". The DIG, Anura Senanayake, who is in charge of the Colombo police division sent his warning to all police stations in Colombo.

One could go to the extent of saying that thuggery in Sri Lanka is constitutionally protected. The 18^th Amendment to the Constitution amply illustrates the constitutional protection enjoyed by those who take to thuggery. Even the limited attempt taken up through 17^th Amendment to the Constitution was removed thus empowering the criminal elements that can now go about their business without fear of a law enforcement agency that may be pursuing them. What the 17^th Amendment attempted to do to was overcome the overwhelming problem created by the 1978 Constitution which disabled all the public institutions from performing their duties within the framework of the law. However, the 18^th Amendment reinforced the position under the 1978 Constitution and opened the floodgates for the entering of thugs into all areas of life with state patronage.

The central problem in Sri Lanka regarding thuggery is the state patronage extended to thuggery. That is the very reversal of a rational government. The most basic and primary duty undertaken by a rational government is to protect the people from all types of criminal activities. That is exactly what has been abandoned in Sri Lanka. When President Jayewardene made his famous comment that, each person should look after his own protection, it was a declaration of the abandonment of the most basic and primary duty of the government to uphold the law and hold itself responsible for the protection of the people. It is the same policy that is continuing now.

Even the more honest intellectuals in Sri Lanka do not want to face the magnitude of the crisis of the rule of law in their country. They complain about this or that aspect which comes to the surface but are unwilling to face the most obvious crisis that entangles them in almost everything they try to do. They often boast of their pessimism. However, they do not look into the root causes that give rise to such pessimism.

As long as the absence of the political will to deal with thuggery remains unchallenged thugs will reign despite of the songs being sung about people being the kings and the queens. The Duminda Silva episode exemplifies the royal place that is given to thugs in Sri Lanka.

BBS US Pictures: Sumptuous Feasts For BBS Monks

April 30, 2013 

The picture below shows the Bodu Bala Sena Secretary General, a Buddhist monk Galagodaththe GnanasaraThero  having a meal while he was in the US two weeks ago.

“Sumptuous feasts for BBS while bread and dhal for faithful” an ordinary citizen told Colombo Telegraph.

Sri Lanka 'intensifies crackdown on dissent' - Amnesty

30 April 2013 
Amnesty International has accused Sri Lanka of intensifying a crackdown on dissent and urged the Commonwealth not to hold its summit there unless the human rights situation improves.

The final phase of the war, in 2009, left many thousands of people dead

It says the government is responsible for harassing and imprisoning critics.

Sri Lanka has rejected the allegations, saying that a rehabilitation process is under way after years of conflict.

Last week Commonwealth foreign ministers agreed to hold the summit in Colombo despite objections by Canada.

The next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is set to take place in Colombo in November and Sri Lanka would then represent the Commonwealth as its chair for the next two years.

Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird has said he was "appalled" that Sri Lanka had been chosen to host the meeting, arguing it had failed in the fundamental Commonwealth values of "freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law and good governance".

Dismissing Canada's objections, Sri Lanka's cabinet spokesman and information minister Keheliya Rambukwella told the BBC: "We have dealt with this human rights issue and we feel they are very biased and very unfair."

But Amnesty International's report, released on Tuesday, echoed some of the criticisms.

It says that journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and opposition politicians are among those who have been targeted in what the report calls "government-sanctioned abuse".

"Violent repression of dissent and the consolidation of political power go hand in hand in Sri Lanka," Polly Truscott, Amnesty International's deputy Asia Pacific director, said in the report.

"Over the past few years we have seen space for criticism decrease. There is a real climate of fear in Sri Lanka, with those brave enough to speak out against the government often having to suffer badly for it."

It said that human rights violations must end before Colombo is allowed to go ahead with hosting the meeting.

The Sri Lankan High Commission in London rejected the group's allegations, saying that a rehabilitation process is under way after years of conflict.

Sri Lanka's army defeated Tamil rebels after a brutal 26-year war in 2009. The entire conflict left at least 100,000 people dead.

Both sides were accused of human rights abuses throughout the conflict, with much focus on what happened in its final stages, when thousands of civilians were trapped in a thin strip of land in the north of Sri Lanka as fighting raged around them.

Estimates of civilian deaths in the final months range widely from 9,000 to 75,000.

Last month the UN's Human Rights Council passed a resolution highly critical of Sri Lanka's record.

The resolution encouraged Sri Lanka to conduct an independent and credible investigation into alleged war crimes.

Amnesty Wants Commonwealth Meeting Moved From Sri Lanka

By Joanna Sugden

Ron D’Raine/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Sri Lankan President Mahendra Rajapaksa at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Perth, Oct. 30, 2011.

Amnesty International has joined the calls for Commonwealth nations to relocate a major meeting from Sri Lanka, days after the Indian secretary general of the Commonwealth indicated that such a move would be rejected. 

In a report titled “Assault on Dissent,” Amnesty International said the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November should be moved from Colombo in protest over the country’s human rights record. Human Rights Watch made a similar request in February. 

A U.N. panel in 2011 found that 40,000 people, mainly Tamil civilians, died in the final stages of the 27-year civil war in Sri Lanka. A U.S.-sponsored resolution has called on Colombo to investigate crimes allegedly committed by government forces against the minority Tamil community. 

In its report published Tuesday, Amnesty International said the Sri Lankan government was “intensifying their efforts to eradicate dissent, striking out against prominent national institutions, including the judiciary, and public figures who express opposition to government policies and practices.” 

Polly Truscott, Amnesty’s deputy Asia Pacific director, said that all attacks on individuals in Sri Lanka must be investigated promptly and impartially if the country is to host the meeting. Those responsible for the attacks should be held to account, she said. 

Canada publically denounced the decision to hold the meeting in Sri Lanka, but the country has stopped short of a boycott, according to a BBC report.  

John Baird, Canada’s foreign secretary, said Saturday his country “finds it appalling that the government in Colombo would be given the honor and the privilege and responsibility of hosting Commonwealth leaders.” 

“The Commonwealth has fundamental values of freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, good governance and the government in Colombo has failed in all of those respects,” he told the BBC.

No other Commonwealth member states, which include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, have expressed concern about holding the meeting in Sri Lanka. 

Friday, the secretary general of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, said the organization had been “engaging across a wide front with Sri Lanka.” 

“I am sure it will yield very good results in all the areas of human rights, of rule of law, of governance, and institution building and strengthening,” Mr. Sharma told a press conference following a meeting of the Commonwealth ministerial action group, which deals with serious and persistent violations of Commonwealth values. 

Mr. Sharma said he was “fully persuaded” that all member states were sincere in subscribing to Commonwealth values. 

The CHOGM convenes every two years to discuss global issues including human rights, multilateral trade, democracy and peace.  The host nation then serves as chair of the group of nations for two years.

Australian Labor MP Calls For Sri Lanka CHOGM Boycott

April 30, 2013 

A federal Labor backbencher has broken ranks and called for Australia to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka later this year.

John Murphy

Canada’s government has already threatened to boycott the November meeting in protest against alleged human rights violations.

Sri Lanka has been accused of sanctioning the torture of Tamil civilians and abuse of the media, judges and opposition politicians.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr has said Canada’s boycott would be counter-productive and it would be better to stay engaged with Sri Lanka to directly raise concerns.

But backbencher John Murphy says he thinks it is too late for that.

“All the empirical and other evidence today indicates an arrogant reluctance by the Sri Lankan government to deal properly with these very, very serious allegations and so I’ve reached the conclusion that the best step would be for our country to boycott CHOGM,” he said.

“The Sri Lankan government is not listening to the international community in relation to conducting an independent and credible investigation into the allegations and violations of international human rights.

“I think the time has come to send a powerful message to the Government that international leaders should boycott CHOGM.”

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has also backed the need for a boycott.

The Federal Opposition supports the Government’s position, with border protection spokesman Michael Keenan saying it is important to continue to engage with Sri Lanka.

Courtesy Australian Broadcasting Corporation

EU decision on SL fishing sanctions in June Tamil Guardian 30 April 2013 The EU’s decision on whether to impose sanctions on Sri Lanka in regards to Illegal Unregulated Unreported (IUU) fishing will be made on June 26. Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Ministry made submissions to Brussels last week, in an attempt to avoid sanctions. “We have taken a number of measures. The EU is happy about it. We also have a vessel monitoring system in place,” Minister Rajitha Senaratne said. “My discussion with EU officials was fruitful. We were able to impress upon them about our case. Our fisheries industry is a means of livelihood. Also, it is important for food security. Therefore, it is not practical to impose certain tough rules on vessel monitoring. We explained this to them,” he said. The EU is a major trading partner for fish and fisheries product exports, which bring in an annual income of Rs.22 billion. Sri Lanka promises to comply with fishing rules after UK complaint (13 May 2012)

Sri Lanka 'criminalising dissent', says Amnesty

JONATHAN MILLERForeign Affairs Correspondent

Amnesty International says Sri Lanka should not host November's Commonwealth heads of government meeting unless it stops "systematic violation of human rights".30 APRIL 2013

There has been a surge of indignation among human rights groups over the staging of the summit in Colombo. On Friday, the Canadian Foreign Minister broke ranks with fellow members of a Commonwealth steering committee, saying he was "appalled" that the CHOGM would be taking place in Sri Lanka.

Channel 4 News has meanwhile learned from a Commonwealth insider that had any other member state unconstitutionally impeached its chief justice - as Sri Lanka did in January - it would probably have triggered immediate action by the organisation. The feeling among some members of the group's ministerial steering committee, which met in London last Friday, is that Sri Lanka got away with it simply because it is hosting CHOGM.

Ten days ago, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association passed a resolution calling for Sri Lanka's suspension from the Commonwealth altogether. But discussion of even moving the location of CHOGM did not make it onto the formal agenda of last Friday's foreign ministers' meeting. "It would have been a logistical nightmare to change the venue," said a Commonwealth source.

Another senior insider told Channel 4 News that Sri Lanka's minister of external affairs, Professor GL Peiris, informed the Commonwealth secretary general, Kamalesh Sharma, that placing discussion of Sri Lanka on the meeting's formal agenda would set a dangerous precedent, enabling Commonwealth countries to interfere in each others' internal affairs. This, he reportedly said, could lead to the disintegration of Commonwealth values.

'Undermining shared values'

But Sri Lanka's critics say that Colombo's hosting of CHOGM and its subsequent two-year chairmanship of the Commonwealth will undermine these "shared values", as set out in the new Commonwealth Charter - signed by the Queen six weeks ago.

Hugh Segal, a Conservative Canadian senator recently dispatched by his country's prime minister on a fact-finding tour of Sri Lanka, was excoriating in his criticism of the regime in Colombo, when interviewed by Channel 4 News (see video above).

My assessment is that the space for democracy and dissent (in Sri Lanka) is being radically reduced.Hugh Segal, Canadian senator

"My assessment, frankly, is that the space for democracy and dissent is being radically reduced," he said. "Ensuring that there is no broad democratic expression - and that of course is a complete violation of Commonwealth values - freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of assocation... we come away with a sense that the situation was getting worse and not better.

"And that," he added, "is without even addressing the issue of the impeachment of the chief justice by non-constitutional means."

'Equating dissent with treason'

In Assault on Dissent, a report released on Tuesday, Amnesty International accuses the administration of President Mahinda Rajapakse of intensifying its effort to eradicate dissent and promoting an official attitude that "equates dissent with treason".

"Sri Lankan officials and state-owned media employ the term 'traitor' with alarming frequency against detractors," the report says, "often threatening death or injury to the person accused." It says that there have been no prosecutions of suspected perpetrators of these threats and attacks - which it alleges include arrest, repeated interrogations and enforced disappearance.

Sri Lankan officials and state-owned media employ the term 'traitor' with alarming frequency against detractors.Amnesty International report

The report goes on to list groups of those whom it says have been verbally or physically abused or intimidated. They include human rights advocates, women's and workers' rights advocates, student leaders, university lecturers, clergy, trades unionists, party activists, judges, lawyers and journalists.

It is now four years since the Sri Lankan military ended the 30-year-long Tamil insurgency - at the cost of more than 40,000 civilian lives, according to the United Nations - but allegations of persistent human rights abuse have continued. "A volatile situation has built up," the Amnesty report says, "as popular demands for reform are met with continued repression..."

Last Friday, in a news conference at Marlborough House, Commonwealth Secretary Geneneral Kamalesh Sharma said he was fully persuaded that Sri Lanka was sincere in subscribing to and following Commonwealth values.

Channel 4 News sought a response directly from the Sri Lankan high commissioner in London to concerns raised by these groups, but has received no response.

GTF vows to discourage C’wealth leaders visiting Colombo

Govt hits back at TNA, GTF

by Shamindra Ferdinando-April 29, 2013, 9:20 pm 

 The UK based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) yesterday vowed to intensify its campaign aimed at discouraging the Queen and main member states from attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2013) though its project to thwart the meeting failed.

GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran told The Island that it would go all out against the Sri Lankan government to make it impossible for world leaders to shake hands with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Surendiran echoed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M. Sumanthiran’s assertion that the authoritarian government shouldn’t be given the honour for hosting the summit.

Government sources said that the likes of MP Sumanthiran and Suren had been silent when the LTTE was running the show. At the LTTE’s behest the TNA had to declare the terrorists as sole representatives of Tamil speaking people way back in late 2001, while the GTF came into being in the British parliament in February 2010 after the eradication of the LTTE. They remained silent as long as they felt the LTTE could overwhelm the military, sources said. Had the government failed on the Vanni front, MP Sumanthiran and Surendiran would not have dared to issue a statement without consulting Prabhakaran.

The GTF official insisted that it wouldn’t give its struggle against the government. Responding to a query, Surendiran reacted angrily to Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma’s declaration that Colombo could go ahead with CHOGM 2013. Surendiran said that the Commonwealth would soon become irrelevant unless Commonwealth leaders and its Secretary General Sharma followed Commonwealth doctrine.

How could they allow the Sri Lankan leadership to get away with indiscriminate military action? Surendiran queried, alleging such international gatherings would only sanitize the murderous Sri Lankan regime.

Asked whether a fresh campaign would be launched against Sri Lanka, Surendiran said that it would aggressively campaign in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, India, Malaysia as well as many other countries to discourage their leaders from visiting Colombo in November.

Surendiran said: "The core values and principles of the Commonwealth, are as stated in the recently signed charter: inter alia to democracy, human rights, the rule of law, separation of powers, freedom of expression, good governance, tolerance, respect and understanding and the role of civil society. As the custodian of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values, the Group pledged to continue to promote these commonly agreed goals."

Although the government had claimed war victory, the military remained deeply involved in civilian affairs at the expense of the Tamil community, Surendiran said. "Government sponsored attacks on media institutions, government sponsored premeditated attacks on the Muslim faith, the lack of independence in the judiciary, the undemocratic features of the 18th amendment to the country’s Constitution, corruption, economic mismanagement, government sponsored colonisation, forced evictions and land grabbing remained contentious issues," the GTF official said.

The Absence Of Political Will To Eliminate Thuggery

By Basil Fernando -April 30, 2013 |

Basil Fernando

For a law enforcement agency the elimination of thuggery is one of the simplest things to do. For thugs are cowards and they crawl and beg for mercy whenever they find that there is a strong enough will on the part of the law enforcement agencies and the courts to deal with crime. Anybody who has been to a High Court where serious crimes are tried will have plenty of stories to tell as to how so-called ‘strong men’ who have been involved in crimes begs for mercy. Many of them pay huge sums to their lawyers to ensure that they would be kept out of jail.

If thuggery has gone to the extent of being a scourge or a serious social problem it only means that the thugs have lost their fear of the law. It means that thugs have got the upper hand in the struggle over those who represent the law.

The strength of the thugs does not lie in their muscles, it lies in their connections. The connections matter only when the law enforcers are afraid of those connections. In times when the spirit of defiance and boldness is strong in the law enforcers and when they dare to do their duty without “caring a damn” as they say for anyone who opposes them, no amount of connections can help the thugs.

Thus, the problem of thuggery is essentially a political problem. Where thuggery is widespread it means that the government in power has shackled the law enforcers. The government has taken the side of the thugs and communicated a very strong message to the law enforcement agencies that they if they try to go against thuggery they do so at their peril.

That is, in fact, what has happened in Sri Lanka since 1978 in particular, and by now it has increased in epidemic proportions. When President J.R. Jayewardene immediately after his electoral victory gave a few weeks of ‘holiday’ to the police, he passed a very strong message to the law enforcement agencies and to the society at large. That simple message was that from that point on the government will resort to lawlessness when it suits its purposes. That simple message is now a political doctrine that is followed by every government that comes into power. Later the same president used one of his ministers, Cyril Matthew, to take the employees of the state transport services to the opposition meetings to attack them. Similarly during the general strike of 1980 the government used thugs to attack the workers. That tale is a very long one and there are graphic records of this patronage of thugs by the government in power over many decades.

It is this same legacy that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime follows and the influence of thugs has been magnified a thousand-fold. Today it is hard to distinguish an act of the government, which is done lawfully through lawful agencies, and one that is done with the support of the criminal elements.

The problems of the law enforcement agencies are two-fold. If they act independently they get into trouble. There have been reports of death threats even to senior police officers who were involved in investigations into some crimes. And there have been instances when some of them have been killed. On the other hand the law enforcement agencies themselves are so much linked to criminal elements that it is the complainants of the crimes that really get into trouble. Recently, a casino den that enjoyed state patronage was raided by an SSP who is now receiving death threats. In a separate incident it was reported that a DIG warned his officers not to discharge their duties without his express permission. The article stated him as saying, “I am like a snake, even Gota is under my thumb”. The DIG, Anura Senanayake, who is in charge of the Colombo police division sent his warning to all police stations in Colombo.

One could go to the extent of saying that thuggery in Sri Lanka is constitutionally protected. The 18^thAmendment to the Constitution amply illustrates the constitutional protection enjoyed by those who take to thuggery. Even the limited attempt taken up through 17^th Amendment to the Constitution was removed thus empowering the criminal elements that can now go about their business without fear of a law enforcement agency that may be pursuing them. What the 17^th Amendment attempted to do to was overcome the overwhelming problem created by the 1978 Constitution which disabled all the public institutions from performing their duties within the framework of the law. However, the 18^th Amendment reinforced the position under the 1978 Constitution and opened the floodgates for the entering of thugs into all areas of life with state patronage.

The central problem in Sri Lanka regarding thuggery is the state patronage extended to thuggery. That is the very reversal of a rational government. The most basic and primary duty undertaken by a rational government is to protect the people from all types of criminal activities. That is exactly what has been abandoned in Sri Lanka. When President Jayewardene made his famous comment that, each person should look after his own protection, it was a declaration of the abandonment of the most basic and primary duty of the government to uphold the law and hold itself responsible for the protection of the people. It is the same policy that is continuing now.

Even the more honest intellectuals in Sri Lanka do not want to face the magnitude of the crisis of the rule of law in their country. They complain about this or that aspect which comes to the surface but are unwilling to face the most obvious crisis that entangles them in almost everything they try to do. They often boast of their pessimism. However, they do not look into the root causes that give rise to such pessimism.

As long as the absence of the political will to deal with thuggery remains unchallenged thugs will reign despite of the songs being sung about people being the kings and the queens. The Duminda Silva episode exemplifies the royal place that is given to thugs in Sri Lanka.