NFF withdraws from constitutional assembly
Posted on July 19th, 2017
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
A letter was handed over to the Speaker of Parliament stating that five members of the National Freedom front (NFF) representing the UPFA will withdraw from the constitutional assembly.
The letter signed by MP’s Wimal Weerawansa, Weerakumara Dissnayake, Jayantha Smaraweera, Udayashantha Gunasekara and Niroshan Premarathna cited ten reasons for the decision.
The parliamentarians said they bowed down to the Mahanayake Theros view that the country did not need a new constitution at the moment and questioned the legality of the process as they alleged the public was neither informed of the assembly’s decisions nor were they a part of it.
The letter also said the government and the President did not have the mandate to establish, maintain and implement the decisions of such an assembly, while the Joint Opposition did not have the mandate to be a part of it.
Discussions of the six sub committees appointed by the assembly not being revealed to the media and the opposition allegedly not being allowed to express its views during these meetings, in addition to the lack of faith that the process would result in a constitution accepted by all parties were other reasons cited by the group.
July 19th, 2017 at 1:30 pm
Let the Joint Opposition follow suit, and WITHDRAW from this so-called CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY in which they are trying to mount an ANTHATTUWA crafted by SEPARATIST MINORITIES on our Motherland!
We, the PATRIOTS of Lanka SIMPLY DON’T TRUST this Yamapalanaya to DO ANYTHING that affects the SURVIVAL of our Motherland in the long term!
There is ONE THING and ONE THING ONLY that we support: the IMMEDIATE OUSTER of the INCOMPETENT PARA-GATHI ROOKADA PAL-HORA WADA-BARI DESHA-DROHI government!
The EARLIER this GOVT is OUSTED, the BETTER IT WILL BE for the country!
July 19th, 2017 at 1:44 pm
EXCELLENT NFF and WW to leave these FEDERALISTS.
JO should know people are watching them. By remaining in the CON-STITUTION ASSEMBLY, JO is becoming PART of the FEDERAL CON-STITUTION.
Shame on JO!
July 19th, 2017 at 1:56 pm
RECONCILIATION AND RACISM
A former Tamil Tiger terrorist CHILD SOLDIER kid Velu Skandarasa asks his mother, “Amma, what’s the difference
between Reconciliation and Racism?”
Mother (wearing Pottu) – “Pillai, Reconciliation is when Singhala modaya taxpayers work hard every day, in the middle east, garment factories, etc. so that we can get all our benefits, aspirations and fix our grievances, you know, like free housing, free health care, free education, colonize Kalompu, Kandy, Negompu, Panathurai, army camps, navy camps, etc. and money to build Mahaveer monuments and kovils everywhere, political solutions, more welfare payments than Singhala pensioners get. That’s Reconciliation. Sariyaa?”
“But Amma, don’t the Singhala taxpayers get angry about that?”
“Appah! Sure they do. That’s what we call Racism.”
July 19th, 2017 at 5:25 pm
Ananda I canot understand why the JO is not following the NFF. This is a means to stop the Yahapaalanaya from writing a new Constituition the last we should allow them to do. The reason for this knee wobbling of JO is discouraging. JO should give a reason for this stupidity.
July 19th, 2017 at 6:11 pm
Agree with Charles. It is particularly true after the Maha Sangha statement. The Maha Sangha made it very clear we don’t need any new constitution. Why does the JO still remain in the Assembly and even in some committees regarding the new constitution?
JO doesn’t want to lose minority votes (in their view). In reality, they have no minority votes to lose.
We can see each political group gearing up for the forthcoming PC elections and the 2019 presidential election.
July 19th, 2017 at 6:20 pm
Is desperate & anti-People Yahap bargaining with the JO ??? !!
If so, on what is subject being bargained on ?
July 20th, 2017 at 12:19 am
Agree with Dilrook..
The JO has NO MINORITY VOTES to lose.
The JO only has Sinhala Buddhist MAJORITY VOTES to lose!
WAKE UP JO!
July 20th, 2017 at 1:02 am
I think WW is getting frustrated with Lokka again. I remember when in governement he protested with Sobhitha Thero. I can’t imagine JO ‘waking up’ unless Gota has the leadership. JO has gone with the wind of re-con-silli-ation.
July 20th, 2017 at 6:46 pm
Where is the solidarity ? Where is the lokka ? JO silenece make dogs bark. Maha Sangha already said they are against it. Where is the solidarity with Sangha ? Are you Buddhistst or are you Islam / Catholic / Hindu ?
ජානිපෙ කළේ ළදරු වැඩක්‌
ජවිපෙ නායක අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක
අජිත් අලහකෝන්
ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථා සම්පාදක මණ්‌ඩලයෙන් ජාතික නිදහස්‌ පෙරමුණේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් පස්‌ දෙනා ඉවත්වීම එතරම් සැලකිල්ලට ලක්‌කළ යුතු නැතැයි විපක්‌ෂයේ ප්‍රධාන සංවිධායක සහ ජවිපෙ නායක අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මහතා ඊයේ (20 දා) ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.
“ගෙදරක ඉන්න කුඩා දරුවන් වැඩිහිටියන්ගේ අවධානය නැති වුණාම සෙල්ලම් බඩු පොළොවේ ගහනවා. ජානිපෙත් කළේ හරියට ඒ වගේ වැඩක්‌….” යෑයි ඊයේ පැවැති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවේදී දිසානායක මහතා කීවේය.
බලය බෙදීම පිළිබඳ මෙතෙක්‌ අවසන් එකඟතාවකට ඇවිත් නෑ. බුද්ධාගමට, රටේ ඒකීය භාවය පිළිබඳ වගන්ති ගැන කිසිදු සාකච්ඡාවක්‌ නැහැ. ඒවා ස්‌ථිර දේවල්. සාකච්ඡා කළ යුතු නෑ. අලුත් ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවකට ජනමත විචාරණයක්‌ අවශ්‍යයි. ඒ නිසා කුමන පක්‌ෂයක්‌ අකැමැති වුණත් ව්‍යවස්‌ථාව ජනතාව ඉදිරියේ විභාග වෙනවාමයි” යෑයිද දිසානායක මහතා කීවේය.
July 21st, 2017 at 2:04 am
After an emergency meeting today of the JO, MR said to TV news reporters that the STRATEGY agreed upon by the constituent parties of the JO was for the NFF led by Wimal to leave the Constitutional Assembly immediately to create a deficit in its full complement of 225, while the remainder of the JO opposes the New Constitution from within the Constitutional Assembly.
MR also said that he expects as many as 17 SLFP MPS to leave the Govt soon and that as many as HALF of the UNP MP’S may also DEFECT from GOVT ranks.
The last statement sounds like wishful thinking, but let us HOPE FOR THE BEST!
July 21st, 2017 at 3:19 am
Senerath seems right. Mahinda’s explanation does not make sense. There is no need for everyone to agree to the constitution in an assembly. For instance, ITAK left the 1972 constitutional assembly. Nothing happened. The new constitution went ahead. UNP voted against it from within. Nothing changed.
Wimal questioned why the JO doesn’t make the Maha Sangha statement its policy about 2 weeks before leaving the JO. Maha Sangha made it clear Sri Lanka does not need a new constitution. JO has rejected the Maha Sangha position along with other parties.
Wimal seems to know exactly how voters behave having contested and won the most difficult district for his brand of politics. Mahinda on the other hand contested essentially Sinhala only rural districts. A piece of cake for him. As a result Mahinda is not exposed to difficult situations.
It is best if Mahinda takes advice from Wimal instead of people like Dayan.
Despite various media reports about strange bedfellows, the only real outcome so far is the NFF leaving the JO. If TNA does not join the JO in voting, UNP is safe. That alone is sufficient for the UNP to survive.