Austin Fernando  I refer to the article written by Mr. C Wijeyawickrema (CW) in Lankaweb, in response to my article that appeared in the Island newspaper on the last Xmas Day. CW says that he had two purposes in responding; one, to reply to the contents of my article; and second, to give an alternative […]

C. Wijeayawickrema November 27, 2020 Secretary,Expert Committee (EC) to draft a new constitutionColombo. Dear Sir/Madam, Topic 2(h) – Decentralization – Jana Sabha I wish to submit this summary of the proposal sent by me a few days ago. Several readers who saw a printed version of it in a popular website (Lankaweb), suggested that I […]

Stanley Gunaratne  There was a time when our Parliament was filled with statesmen and women. Honourable members with integrity, vision and integrity. Whose oratory was full of class, wit and wisdom which any legislative chamber in the world would consider it an honour to bear witness to.  Sadly today, this once august chamber is full […]

Stanley Gunaratne  The current 1978 Constitution’s “Equality” clauses are meaningless since they are superseded by 600+ personal laws thanks to Article 16 overriding Article 12.  Article 16 currently permits any personal laws made by Parliament before, or after 1978 to override the Constitution! This flies in the face of equality. The best Constitution we had […]

Stanley Gunaratne  1. Abolition of Indo Lanka Accord. Adoption of a Foreign Policy of Balance to counter regional players. Adoption of a “Total Defence” policy based on Psychological, Social, Economic, Civil, Digital and Military Defence. The following two sections should be included in a future constitution and national policy: A lesson in history: 2. It […]

THAWALAMA DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION Puselahena Estate, Kindelpitiya, Millewa. 1st November 2020. The Secretary,Experts Committee to draft a new constitution,Room 32 (Block 02) BMICH,Bauddhaloka Mawatha,Colombo 7, Dear Sir, A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR THE ISLAND NATION OF SINHALE Heeding to a request that has been made to the Public by the Experts Committee appointed by the government to […]

Lt Col. A.S.Amarasekera (Retd.)Puselahena Estate, Kindelpitiya, Millewa. 6th November 2020. The Secretary,Experts Committee to draft a new constitution,Room 32 (Block 02) BMICH,Bauddhaloka Mawatha,Colombo 7, Dear Sir, Why political power should be decentralized and not devolved The observations made by me first as a military officer and subsequently as the Director of Operations of the Thawalama […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Third Reading of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution has been passed with amendment with a two-thirds majority. A total of 156 voted in favour of the constitutional amendment while 65 MPs voted against. The Second Reading of the 20th Amendment was also passed in Parliament with a two-thirds majority, this evening. […]

Courtesy Adaderana Clause 17 of the draft bill of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which calls for removing the barrier on dual citizenship was passed in the Parliament with a majority of 93 votes a short while ago. Out of the 213 Members of Parliament who were present at the parliamentary sitting, 157 had […]

Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror The sole objective of the 20th Amendment is to safeguard the unitary status of the country and to ensure the nation’s security, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told Parliament yesterday. Speaking during the debate on the 20th Amendment Prime Minister Rajapaksa said the 19th Amendment to the […]

By M. Lakshhman Wickramasinghe In the public discussion about the merits and demerits of the 19th or 20th Amendments the most vital national issue, it seems, has not received high recognition that it deserves. Our two thousand plus years of history and the unfortunate developments that took place in the post- Independent era have  taught […]

Courtesy Hiru News Justice Minister Ali Sabry states that the Government has decided to withdraw clauses 05 & 22 of the proposed 20th amendment to the constitution which were directed by the Supreme Court to be passed through a referendum.

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Government today reiterated that it would make several changes to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution at the committee stage including an amendment to allow citizens to challenge the President’s action by filling Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions. Education Minister Professor G.L. Peiris said the President’s immunity was constricted […]

මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශය: තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ වෘත්තීයවේදීන්ගේ සංසදය

Stanley Gunaratne  After Sarath Weerasekera finally stating what patriots have long stated regarding the Indo Lanka Accord (in stark contrast to the “India first” mantra foolishly and treacherously stated by other members within the government),  I share part 2 in the hope that citizens will call for an urgent correction of our nation’s laws. This […]

Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister The opposition has been trying to propagate the idea that the Auditor General’s powers would be reduced by the proposed 20th  Amendment. It’s seldom that the Constitutional provisions regarding the Auditor General comes to the attention of the public. This has made it easier for the opposition to propagate various falsehoods […]

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය  විසි වන සංශෝධනයෙන් විගණකාධිපතිවරයාගේ බලතල කප්පාදු වෙන බවට විපක්‍ෂය විසින් සමාජය තුළ දුර්මතයක් ඇති කිරීමට උත්සාහ කරමින් සිටි. විගණකාධිපතිවරයා සම්බන්ධ ව්‍යවස්ථාමය ප්‍රතිපාදන ජනතාවගේ අවධානයට යොමු වන්නේ කළාතුරකිනි. එම නිසා මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් දුර්මත ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම විපක්‍ෂයට පහසු කාර්යක් වී ඇත. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පවත්නා ප්‍රධානම දුර්මතය වන්නේ 19 වෙනි සංශෝධනයෙන් විගණන කොමිසමක් […]

by Rohana R. Wasala ‘At least since Rousseau’s Social Contract and the end of the divine right of kings, the state has been seen as party to a contract with the people – a contract to guarantee or supply the necessary order in society. Without the state’s soldiers, police and the apparatus of control, we […]

Janaki Chandraratna I like to thank Mr. C. A. Chandraperuma for his article ‘Closure Scrutiny of Criticisms Against 20A’, Sunday Island, 20th Sept. 2020, for clarifying some of the controversies relating to 20th Amendment. In fact much of the unwanted speculation and criticisms could have been avoided if the Govt., had informed at least the […]

By Raj Gonsalkorale Sri Lanka’s debt to GDP ratio is expected to be more than 90% this year, and Moody’s have downgraded Sri Lanka’s sovereign credit rating by two notches, saying the South Asian nation would be hard-pressed to secure funding to service its huge foreign debt. Sri Lanka was pushed down from “B2” (high […]

Palitha Mapatuna Paradoxically, the contention in some quarters seems to be that  restoration of the authority of the president to that held prior to the 19th amendment to the constitution would now amount to an infringement of the sovereignty of the people.  In any case, the president is directly elected by the country and, as such, […]

Lt Col. Anil Amarasekera (Retd.) Mr. K M B Kotakadeniya (Senior D.I.G. Retd.) Co-Presidents – National Joint Committee Mr. Kalinga Indratissa PCThe President Bar Association of Sri Lanka,Hulftsdrop Street,Colombo 12. Dear Sir, Facilitating the Introduction of Urgent Bills through the 20th Amendment to the Constitution The Government has presented to Parliament an amendment to the […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island The 20th Amendment (20A) to the Constitution has become a topic of spirited debate and discussion. Much of it is generated by misunderstanding the true intent of 20A. It should not be a durable amendment to the Constitution. Instead, it should be temporary, until a comprehensive new Constitution is […]

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය 20 වෙනි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය අධ්‍යයනය කිරීමට පත් කළ කමිටුව විසින් අදාළ වාර්තාව අද 2020.09.15 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය  මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට භාර දෙන ලදී. කැබිනට් අමාත්‍යවරුන්, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරුන් හා පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගෙන් සැදුම්ලත් අදාළ කමිටුවේ සභාපතිත්වය දරනු ලැබුවේ කැබිනට් අමාත්‍ය මහාචාර්ය ජී.එල්. පීරිස් මහතාය. විසි වෙනි සංශෝධනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් කළ අධ්‍යයනයේදී හඳුනාගත් අලුතින් […]

By P. K. Balachandran/Daily Express Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Among the main reasons is opposition within the ruling party and alliance Colombo, September 14: The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP) decision to revisit the draft 20thAmendment (20A) to the Constitution follows multiple dissensions over it both within the party and its alliance. Although the draft 20A […]

Courtesy Adaderana The committee appointed to study and review the draft bill of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution handed over its report to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees today (15).  The nine-member committee comprised of Cabinet Ministers, State Ministers and MPs is chaired by Minister of Education Professor G.L. Peiris.  The committee […]

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror The committee chaired by Minister of Education Professor G. L. Peiris which was appointed to look into the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, will study it in depth before making recommendations, Minister Peiris today said. Cabinet ministers Udaya Gammanpila, Ali Sabry, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Wimal Weerawansa and State […]

Courtesy Adaderana Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken steps to appoint a committee comprising of parliamentary representatives to study the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. The committee comprising of Cabinet Ministers, State Ministers, and Members of Parliament will be chaired by Ministers of Education Prof. G. L. Peiris. Cabinet Ministers Udaya Gammanpila, Ali Sabry, Nimal […]

Courtesy Hiru News The Chief Secretary of the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagari Dharma Maha Sangha Sabha Ven. Prof. Kotapitiye Rahula Thero stated that constitutional amendments are essential for decisions to be taken by one leader. This was during a discussion with Minister Prof. GL Peiris on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution and a new […]

Lt Col. Anil Amarasekera (Retd.)Mr. K. M. B. Kotakadeniya (Retd. Senior DIG) Co-Presidents National Joint Commission The National Joint Committee wish to salute the principled stand taken by Honourable Sarath Weerasekera Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Authorities, that he is against the Provincial Council system and would endeavor its abolition. We hail the Honourable […]