Don’t fool people on a new constitution
Posted on October 12th, 2017

P.S. MAHAWATTE Colombo 05 Courtesy The Island


What we are witnessing today is what the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe could not achieve in 2002/2004. Signing of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with LTTE’s Prabhakaran, without even the knowledge of either President Chandrika Kumaratunga (CBK) or parliament!

PM RW even took over the Defence Ministry with or without the consent of the Commander in Chief, President (CBK).

President Kumaratunga agreed to give the North to Prabhakaran for ten years to rule without an election, which Prabhakaran refused, probably because he had bigger ideas!

article_image

Hence, what made CBK to use her presidential power and dissolve parliament after two years of the UNP government? Was the decision Divine inspired, because the people gave their verdict by defeating the UNP government in 2004 as they did not approve of the CFA and the economic policy, which is more or less the same the yahapalana government is now attempting to pursue!

Fortuitously, RW got his job back as Prime Minister in January 2015 and the first action he took was to, on the pretext of removing Presidential powers, remove the President’s only real power of dissolving parliament after two years! Elephants do not easily forget! The PM is also looking to avoid all possible obstructions by depriving the democratic right of the people of even local elections! He may now be feeling free to continue with what he failed to achieve in 2002/2004!

The question now is do we need a new constitution and why? I can do no better than quote from a long analytical article by Prof. N.A. De S. Amaratunga in The Island of Sept 9, 2017

“The idea that the country needs a new constitution is a construct of the Tamil separatists and opportunist politicians who need the votes to come to power, and the imperialists and the regional hegemonic powers also in this game for geopolitical gains and strategic reasons”.

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka has written several articles in The Island asking the same question “Do we need a new constitution”. So has Neville Ladduwahetty in several of his well reasoned articles pointing out the legal implications quoting chapter and verse!

It is said that you can take a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink it.

What is this reconciliation that this constitution can achieve? From what little I have observed is that the Batticloa Tamils and Muslims do not want to be governed by Jaffna. The upcountry Tamils are of the same view. The government will be causing more problems than achieving reconciliation.

se who are making a song and dance about the Rohingyas today, were completely silent when the LTTE chased out all Muslims from Jaffna with only the clothes they were wearing! It is the people in the South that looked after these unfortunate Muslim families!

What we need today is not a New Constitution but effective action to alleviate the real hardship the people are suffering from. You cannot fool the people with this constitution tomfoolery of reconciliation by juggling with words. We are a 95% literate population. You cannot fool them with oratory at schools and foundation laying functions!

P.S. MAHAWATTE

Colombo 05

One Response to “Don’t fool people on a new constitution”

  1. Ananda-USA Says:

    MUST SEE: Wimal Weerawansa explains the dangers of the New Constitution to the Integrity and Sovereignty of Sri Lanka!

    https://www.youtube.com/embed/joblldNMMWs

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

 

 


Copyright © 2024 LankaWeb.com. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Wordpress