All those not in favour of 18A; shaddap your face

 " One has to ask why our President who wrested power from Chandrika by fair means or foul, who wiped out terrorism and earned the plaudits of the majority Sri Lankans, China, Russia and India and who now is enjoying the reputation of leading a country known for its dharmista is surrounding himself with goons."

by Pearl Thevanayagam

(September 15, London, Sri Lanka Guardian)Of the 19 amendments to the Sri Lankan Constiution since 1978 the last two were challenged before the Supreme Court and the speaker decided in 2002 these could not be enacted with validity. The 19th amendment is rather a challenging one since it would restrict the President’s power to dissolve parliament after it completes one year and to enable parliament members to vote according to their conscience without being expelled by their political parties. Suffice to say a catapult shot determination by our puppet Supreme Court (directly elected by the President) would see that it never sees the light of day. The 18th amendment is being pushed through with indecent hurry rather like marrying off the eldest daughter nearing 40.

The President, who has found the cream and wants to savour it as long as it takes, would jump through burning hoops to stay in power. Still basking in the glory of ending terrorism and passing on the mantle of covert terrorizing to sycophantic Tamil politicians who were former terrorists and thuggish mavericks from his electorate who helped rig votes and stuff ballot boxes, he is now tampering with our rights to elect our own President with the will of the majority by forcing through an Urgent Bill deemed invalid by the Supreme Court in 2002.

Even the state media organ, The Daily News, has not changed its mast since 1918 but the incumbent Presidents are messing about with our constitution and changing it more frequently than you change underwear.

Now don’t get me wrong. I was only allowed to take my O/Ls three times which I did and finally made it to the A/Ls. But our legal luminaries are doing their equivalent of my O/Ls 19 times. Why could not they have got it right in three attempts at the most.

As secretary to a fledgling journalists association I too helped draft a constitution and know first-hand the difference between drafting a constitution and implementing it once it is in place. With 200 journalists from 40 countries election day is always a mayhem. After we had prepared ballot boxes and agreed on secret ballot the management committee decided to vote by show of hands. When you scratched your head your vote was counted.

OK, we are not in the same league as our revered Sri Lankan constitution but then we are also attempting a semblance of democracy and equal opportunities in the UK amidst members who speak Swahili, Pashto, Serbo-Croatian, English, French, Arabic, Urdu, Nepalese, Hindi, Tamil and Sinhalese and for the majority English is not even their distant cousin.

Now I am studying the debate on the 18th amendment to enlighten my association on the pitfalls of extending the MC’s term and hope to warn them they could go the way of Sri Lanka if they insisted on extending our Nigerian Chairman’s term who when elected gave a speech in which he said that he was the new Barack Obama; meaning he was handed a dysfunctional group and that he had the onerous task of putting it right.

Do allow me to stray here and concentrate on our own constitutional expert. It was the year 1995 and the former VC of the University of Colombo, Prof. G.L.Peiris, was answering questions from the press as the newly elected constitutional minister as well as a fledgling in politics.

He announced with his familiar pregnant pauses between phrases and pursing of his lips, not unlike the late Lakshman Kadirgamar that henceforth press releases would be given in all three languages. I pointed out to him that even the cabinet press briefing announcing this glad tidings is being conducted in Sinhala and English only and what chance did we have there were any competent officials in the Information Department to give us press releases weekly in Tamil.

Alavi Moulana guffawed, G.L. cracked a wan smile and the briefing was interrupted by sumptuous snacks catered by Lanka Oberoi. This ploy is to divert the discussion at hand and is habitually followed by all our politicians. Of course we waited the following week for a Tamil press release and we were still waiting until the last cabinet briefing I attended in 1997.

Amendment Date of Assent Subject matter

First Amendment  -20.11.1978 Dealing with jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal

Second Amendment  -26.02.1979 Dealing with resignations and expulsion of Members of the First Parliament

Third Amendment  -27.08.1982 To enable the President to seek re-election after 4years; vacation of office of President

Fourth Amendment  -23.12.1982 Extension of term of First Parliament

Fifth Amendment  -25.02.1983 To provide for by-election when a vacancy is not filled by the party

Sixth Amendment  -08.08.1983 Prohibition against violation of territorial integrity

Seventh Amendment  - 04.10.1983 Dealing with Commissioners of the High Court and the creation of Kilinochchi District

Eighth Amendment  -06.03.1984 Appointment of President's Counsel

Ninth Amendment - 24.08.1984 Relating to public officers qualified to contest elections

Tenth Amendment  -06.08.1986 To repeal section requiring two-thirds majority for Proclamation under Public Security Ordinance

Eleventh Amendment  -06.05.1987 To provide for a Fiscal for the whole Island; also relating to sittings of the Court of Appeal

Twelfth Amendment (Not enacted)

Thirteenth Amendment  - 14.11.1987 To make Tamil an official language and English a link Language, and for the establishment of Provincial Councils

Fourteenth Amendment  -24.05.1988 Extension of immunity of President; increase of number of Members to 225; validity of Referendum; appointment of Delimitation Commission for the division of electoral districts into zones; proportional representation and the cut-off point to be 1/8th of the total polled; apportionment of the 29 National List Members

Fifteenth Amendment - 17.12.1988 to repeal Article 96A to eliminate zones and to reduce the cut-off point to 1/20th

Sixteenth Amendment  -17.12.1988 to make provision for Sinhala and Tamil to be Languages of Administration and Legislation

Seventeenth Amendment - 03.10.2001 to make provisions for the Constitutional Council and Independent Commissions.

Now this legal beagle is the man behind the much talked about 18th amendment to the constitution which would firmly enthrone our sixth President for life. If he reaches his third term he would be 71 years old Bigen notwithstanding and GL reaching 80. GL forsook integrity when he left the academia for political gains and although he nurtured hopes of becoming the President earlier now he is quite content to be the lap-dog of Presidents.

While the world’s best democracies have youngish leaders such as UK’s David Cameron, US’s Barack Obama and Nicholas Sarkozy in France we are saddled with geriatrics who refuse to inject neither fresh blood nor modern ideas into our already defunct democracy; that is if there is any semblance of such a thing.

One has to ask why our President who wrested power from Chandrika by fair means or foul, who wiped out terrorism and earned the plaudits of the majority Sri Lankans, China, Russia and India and who now is enjoying the reputation of leading a country known for its dharmista is surrounding himself with goons.

The answer my friend is goons do not ask questions and that should do nicely for our President to go his merry way until the country is brought to its knees. Lord Soulbury should be turning in his grave.