{"id":106323,"date":"2020-09-06T15:39:23","date_gmt":"2020-09-06T22:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106323"},"modified":"2020-09-06T15:40:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T22:40:38","slug":"statement-of-the-national-joint-committee-on-the-proposed-20th-amendment-and-the-urgent-need-to-repeal-the-13th-and-16th-amendments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/06\/statement-of-the-national-joint-committee-on-the-proposed-20th-amendment-and-the-urgent-need-to-repeal-the-13th-and-16th-amendments\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement of the National Joint Committee on the Proposed 20th Amendment and the Urgent Need to Repeal the 13th and 16th Amendments"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Joint Committee <\/u><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The National Joint Committee wish to salute\nthe principled stand taken by Honourable Sarath Weerasekera Minister of\nProvincial Councils and Local Authorities, that he is against the Provincial\nCouncil system and would endeavor its abolition. We hail the Honourable Prime\nMinister\u2019s bold decision to advise the President under the existing provisions\nof the Constitution to appoint Honorable Sarath Weerasekera for this office,\nwhen it was public knowledge that Mr. Weerasekera was always against the\nthirteenth amendment and the Provincial Council system introduced by this\namendment. We believe that entrusting both Provincial Councils and Local\nAuthorities in one ministry is not an accident but a step that can facilitate\nto restructure the Provincial Council System and empower the Local Authorities.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have always opposed the thirteenth\namendment and call for its abolition even now, however if that is not favored\nat this moment, the existing Provincial Council system should be at least\nrestructured. Thus, it is the duty of the Minister of Provincial Councils and\nLocal Governments to dismantle the existing Provincial Council system and\nempower the Local Authorities so that the Provincial Councils if at all could\nconsist of representatives from the Local Authorities. The Minister should\nensure that elections for Provincial Councils are done away with completely. It\nwould be a tremendous waste of public resources to conduct elections and spend\nlarge sums of money to pay for salaries and grant benefits to members of the\nProvincial Councils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provincial Councils have been an utter\nwaste of resources of the state with nine boards of Ministers entrusted with\nexecutive power in addition to the Cabinet of Ministers at the center. We see\nno justifiable reason to have ten Ministers of health, one in the center and\nnine in the provinces. The same applies in the field of education with ten\nMinisters of education. Provincial Councils have been used by politicians of\nboth sides of the political divide to nurture their sons and daughters, nieces\nand nephews and to be a practicing ground for them to enter Parliament, and\ntake their place when their parents, uncles and aunts retire from politics. It\nis repulsive that a section of the Government have orchestrated a campaign\nagainst Honourable Weerasekera to achieve their petty personal desires. It is\nunfortunate, that a spouse of a Cabinet Minister too has joined this selfish\ncampaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abolition of the Provincial Council\nsystem presently existing would be in line with the President\u2019s policy; One\nCounty-One Law. The existing system with legislative power vested in the\nProvincial Councils would run counter to this very policy of the President.\nUnder the thirteenth amendment, not only that, Provincial Council could enact\nlegislation that would be effective over Central Government legislation, but the\nParliament would not be in a position to amend or repeal Provincial Council\nlegislation without two third support in Parliament. It is necessary that we\nrestore supremacy of Parliament. Even if a Provincial Council is vested with\nsuch legislative power, the Parliament should be in a position to amend or\nrepeal such legislation with a simple majority. Vesting Provincial Councils\nwith police and land powers is a threat to national security and the very existence\nof the structure of the state. Even to date the provisions pertaining to the\namalgamation of provinces exist. The National Joint Committee strongly urge the\nGovernment to rectify these misplaced clauses in the Constitution when enacting\nthe proposed twentieth amendment, without waiting till a new Constitution is\ndrafted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it is the view of the Government that\nthe abolition of the nineteenth amendment is so urgent we see no justifiable\nreason why it should not forthwith repeal the thirteenth and the sixteenth\namendments and the proportional representation system of elections presently\nexisting, in as much as the Government came into power with a mandate to\nrectify these errors. The National Joint Committee is astonished at the\ndecision of the Government to amend Article 53 of the Constitution which\nmandatorily requires Ministers to take the oath against supporting and\npromoting a separate state,     (i.e the 7th Schedule introduced by the sixth\namendment) and by restricting it to the original oath prescribed in the fourth\nschedule. Article 61D of the proposed amendment too require the public officers\nto take the fourth schedule oath that existed in the original Constitution and\nnot the oath prescribed in the seventh schedule introduced by the sixth amendment.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not in favor of repealing the\nprovisions which bar dual citizens from being Members of Parliament and the\nremoval of the ceiling placed on the number of Ministers. We see that there is\nan attempt to accommodate extremists who are citizens of other countries in\nParliament and in the Cabinet without taking the required oath under the sixth\namendment. We do not expect a Government that came into power with the\nnationalist vote just a few weeks ago to act in this manner. We are also\nagainst the abolition of the National Procurement Commission which can lead to\ncorruption. We are supportive of the abolition of objectionable provisions in\nthe nineteenth amendment but regret that provisions of the eighteenth amendment\nand certain provisions that existed prior to the nineteenth amendment are being\nreintroduced to the Constitution by the twentieth amendment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We consider that the introduction of the\nprovisions relating to enactment of urgent bills within 24 hours which was\nmisused by all previous governments should not be incorporated in the twentieth\namendment. The structure introduced by both the eighteenth amendment and the\nproposed twentieth amendment without the safeguards of checks and balances is\nan unwise move. Whilst we have the utmost confidence in the President and would\nnot doubt for a moment that he would abuse power, our experiences with the past\ncompel us to urge the Government to have sufficient checks and balances whilst\nempowering the President to manage his administration. We favour the\nrestoration of the powers of the President including his right to select his\nMinisters and administrators including Members of these numerous Commissions\nestablished by law. However it is our considered view that all appointments\nshould be approved by Parliament. We see no danger in such an exercise as no\nPresident can function without the support of Parliament. Although we were\nagainst the dubious constitutional council, it does not mean that we support\nthe elimination of checks and balances from the Constitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also note with regret that the\ngovernment intends to appoint an Ambassador to the Republic of India with\ncabinet status. We do not consider this as a prudent move especially in view of\nthe conduct of the proposed appointee in the past. Placing Sri Lanka\u2019s\nAmbassadors on par with a Cabinet Minister will undermine the authority of the\nforeign minister and other officials that would represent Sri Lanka overseas.\nAdopting a policy to favour India in preference to other states is totally\nunacceptable. Therefore we urge the government to reconsider the twentieth\namendment and these misplaced decisions relating to external affairs of Sri\nLanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lt Col. Anil Amarasekera (Retd.)\u00a0
Mr. K. M. B. Kotakadeniya (Retd. Senior DIG)
Co-Presidents National Joint Commission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Joint Committee 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 Prime Minister\u2019s bold decision to advise the President under the existing provisions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-constitution","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}