The thirteenth amendment, the APRC, the President and Fundamental Rights enshrined in the constitution.

"The President during his two years had done everything terrible to damage democracy and good governance in Sri Lanka. He made another major puncture hole when he undermined an effective opposition in the parliament by buying over some opposition members."

(Part 2)

by Rajasingham Jayadevan

The President is directionless and proving to play the terrible Russian Roulette game.

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Russian Roulette:

Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game in which participants place a cartridge in only some—typically one—of the several chambers of a revolver. The cylinder is spun and closed so that the location of the round or rounds are unknown. Participants would then aim the revolver at their own heads and pull the trigger, risking a likely death from the gunshot wound. It was famously portrayed in the 1978 film ‘The Deer Hunter’ as a form of gambling, but the extent of real life gambling based on this activity is unknown.

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(January, 16, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Just after his election as President in November 2005, he took the position (which the writer is privy to) to implement the 13th amendment to the constitution of Sri Lanka brought under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987. He felt by the effective implementation of the 13th amendment, he could infuse some sort of democratic governance in the northern and eastern provinces. He had the real feeling to go through this process, though he did not make any public pronouncement.

Then compulsion made him to appoint an All Party Representative Committee (APRC) to come up with a political proposal to resolve the conflict. Since its formation many things had happened. The President somersaulted from his original position to implement the 13th amendment and rejected all the pressures to discuss its implementation. He put his weight heavily behind the APRC process.

When the APRC was giving the signals that it will come out with an equitable proposal acceptable to all the communities by releasing two independent proposals of the APRC representatives, the President became worried and played a disturbing game by submitting his Party’s very substandard and unacceptable recommendations of district level devolution. This caused a major puncture in the APRC process and its members started to melt down from their stand to consider wide ranging devolution.

In another front, the President promoted his lifeline in the parliament, the JVP, to file a petition in the Supreme Court to de-merge the North and East provinces established under the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987. This is the time the President was in good terms with the Chief Justice Sarath De Silva. Having heard about the way the hearing went on, it can be concluded the Supreme Court put its stamp on the President’s political decision to annul the merger. By this act, the President caused another puncture.

With the mounting pressure from the international community and realizing APRC will be coming out with a serious proposal better than the 13th amendment to the constitution, the President decided to take another major U tern. He approached the APRC to endorse the 13th amendment and have assured them that he will bring in legislations to strengthen the implementation of the existing amendment. By this unilateral action, the President has put the outcome of the APRC in further quandary.

It is now questioned whether the President will commit himself to implement anything more than the 13th amendment to the constitution to be recommended by the APRC. He remains botched and his indecisiveness is helping the extreme JVP and JHC thrive and to extend their own game of Roulette.

The President during his two years had done everything terrible to damage democracy and good governance in Sri Lanka. He made another major puncture hole when he undermined an effective opposition in the parliament by buying over some opposition members. This too brought an effective end to the bi-partisan agreement between the ruling party and the opposition UNP to proceed through a common approach to resolve the Tamil problem amicably.

Having tied with the war mongering parties like JVP and JHU, which his conveniently serving his agenda of not solving the national problem, the President has nowhere to turn now locally. With the heavy international outcry about his governance, the President is showing all the signs that he is the man of India who is prepared to implement the 13th amendment.

India must give sympathetic hearing to the President and support him to fully implement the 13th amendment. Will the President allow the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to come back in the country to underwrite the full implementation of the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord signed in 1987? Can anyone give credence to the President’s claim that he can implement the 13th amendment unilaterally with the help of the JVP and the JHU who are the lifeline for the survival of his government? Will he consider annulment of the Supreme Court decision to break up the merger of the North and East provinces? Will he now support the reunification of the provinces with or without the help of India?

The government that has not implemented the good parts of Chapter 111, ‘Fundamental Rights’ of the constitution and governed the country by heavily relying of its bad parts cannot achieve a lot if it does not change its track by steadily progressing to implement good section of this valuable provision in the constitution. The section 111 of the constitution is provided below in two parts to guide the President to weigh them in an objective manner and implement them.

He must start from implementing the Fundamental Rights provisions before he decides on the 13th amendment to the constitution which is far down the line in the constitution. Effective implementation of ‘Fundamental Rights’ without being only vested with the Supreme Court will pave the way for good governance, accountability and to realize unity in diversity in Sri Lanka.