Mario Perera, Kadawata

The President according to top Indian sources has promised to go beyond the 13th amendment.

This is what the news article in BBC Sinhala.com said on an earlier date;

President Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier told an Indian television channel that his government is considering “13 amendment plus” in an attempt to resolve grievances of Sri Lanka’s Tamil community.

India said that a high level Sri Lankan delegation visiting India last week has assured Delhi that a solution better than the 13 amendment will be implemented.

“I was assured that it is the intention of the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the proposal which would be an advance on the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution,” Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna was quoted in the ministry website.

Now during his speech in parliament the President said that solution will be home made and not an experimental one based on foreign models. Yet is not the 13th amendment one such, having been pushed down our throats at the point of a gun by Rajiv Gandhi…not to forget the bag of parippu held over our heads.

Dayan Jayatillake our very distinguished and erudite ambassador in Geneva is for the 13th amendment. He very pointedly says that history has given us another chance to forge ahead of other nations, as we once were at the time of independence before goofing it.

Free lance journalist Malinda Seneviratne who writes relevant and interesting articles, is not for it because of its connection with forced Indian involvement of 1987.

The well balanced article by Gus Mathews asks the Tamils to open their eyes to the ground realities of majority aspirations political and religious that cannot be swept under the carpet.

Regarding Indian assertions about the President’s will to implement the 13th amendment even going beyond it, Education Minister Susil Premajayanth told BBC Sandeshaya that the government has no intention of fully implementing the 13 amendment.

The BBC Sinhala.com published another article with the headline: Government ‘stands by13th amendment’; Sri Lankan government has again said that it is committed to implement the 13th amendment to the constitution that provides provision for devolution of power. This utterance comes from the mouth of Anura Priyadharshana Yapa.

Keheliya R ducked the issue by stating that the Government’s priority is the resettlement of the IDP’s and that other matters must be relegated to a later date. And when would that date be one wonders!

So as regards these perspectives, one says that the solution will be a new elaboration, another says the 13th amendment is on, not only in all its force but even beyond…Yet another says it is on but not in all its force, and then comes this declaration; we have not yet thought about it. How’s that?

It is sad to note that one mouth could have so many tongues.

The President has been glorified and enthroned by the monks and people alike and is riding the wave of unprecedented popular support. The phrase ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”monks and people’ is paramount. Would there be the support of the people without that of the monks? We know of pacts that went on the rocks because of opposition from the monks. We know of a great Prime Minister who was assassinated in such a context. Behind the call to rally round the country there is the obvious struggle for survival and reinforcement of entrenched groups, political and religious. Will the president be powerful enough to separate the grain from the chaff? Did he not say and repeat at so many official occasions that his one and only concern was the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Mawbima’? (First the Mawbima, second the Mawbima and third the Mawbima)

Up to what point can the President distance himself from the powerful monk lobby? Up to now he is going hand in hand with them. When he speaks, he always turns towards the monks present and seeks confirmation from them with the now famous ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”ehema netha apey hamuduruwane’.

How would this problem be solved? No one knows as yet, but the day of reckoning is looming ahead, much nearer that what Keheliya R would suggest. The great question which somehow forms the background to the issue is; would we antagonize India (whatever it be with the rest of the world, the Tamil diaspora included…which seems so far away anyway)…by over looking the 13th amendment? It must be remembered that tacit and sometimes even overt support of India was crucial to us to crush the LTTE. The Indian government took its stand in our favour in spite of the looming threat of losing Tamil Nadu at the elections. So it took its risks in our favour. The Indian government walked the tight rope taking chances in our favour. Would our government dare do the same? If it does so, then India becomes a guarantor that nothing evil will befall us being morally bound to uphold our trust.

But once again a nation is identifiable with its government. How would it be if the government changes hands in India? Would the commitment be the same? We know the Tamil Nadu if the thorn in the side of Indian politics as regards Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the fly in the soup, not a normal fly mind you but an outrageously stinking ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”goo messa’ at that. In politics the slogan is not ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”play up play up and play the game’, but ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”play the game to the gallery’.

In the midst of this haze there is one beacon of light to be followed imperatively. That is, if we are to go forward as a nation it must be on the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”wheels of genuine popular consensus’. Otherwise our politics will remain troubled waters with unwanted elements, national and international, throwing nets and other fishing tackle into it to reap their own sordid benefits. Our position today is the same as at decision making time after independence. If thirty years of a gruesome and self destructive was has not taught us anything then nothing ever will. Ultimately the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Mawbima’ must prevail over every other vested interest however powerful it be. In such a context, that of the thrice upheld ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Mawbima’, the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Mawbima’ the President worshipped on returning in triumph from an international session, the question; ehema netha hamuduruwane has no relevance.

Judging from the top news story in Lankaweb this morning the President appears to have taken his stand in the face of internal opposition;
“An angry President yesterday warned Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka not to hinder his efforts to implement 13th Amendment to the Constitution and guarantee devolution of power to the provinces. Now that a 30-year war had been brought to an end, the aspirations of the people of the North and East should be met, he told a group of government ministers at Temple Trees yesterday, according to highly placed sources”.

Acting only in the interest of the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Mawbima’ will abound with everlasting glory for this uncrowned king of Lanka
Mario Perera,
Kadawata