{"id":110319,"date":"2021-01-02T14:38:15","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T21:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110319"},"modified":"2021-01-02T14:38:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T21:38:15","slug":"reply-to-c-wijeyawickremas-attempts-to-exhume-the-provincial-council-cadaver-a-reply-to-mr-austin-fernando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/02\/reply-to-c-wijeyawickremas-attempts-to-exhume-the-provincial-council-cadaver-a-reply-to-mr-austin-fernando\/","title":{"rendered":"Reply to C. Wijeyawickrema\u2019s \u201cAttempts to exhume the provincial council cadaver: a reply to Mr. Austin Fernando\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin Fernando<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

 I refer to the article written by Mr. C Wijeyawickrema\n(CW) in Lankaweb, in response to my article that appeared in the Island\nnewspaper on the last Xmas Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CW says that he had two purposes in responding; one, to reply to\nthe contents of my article; and second, to give an alternative proposal for\nconsideration of the Romesh de Silva Committee. The second objective is\npersonal to the writer and the Committee and I have no comments on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Since I have had no deals with Chandrika- GL- Neelan and\nJayampathy Combo (though I knew them and know the living three closely), I need\nnot comment on the paragraph titled \u2018Austin and Orumittanadu.\u2019 The only point\nis I gathered information on 1997 from the Constitution Reforms published by\nthe Chandrika Government, and a Draft Bill submitted to the Parliament in 2000.\nBoth were not titled Orumittanadu draft constitution\u201d as CW identifies. I\naccept official tags and not gossip tags! The difference in reference prevents\nme from responding content-wise. But I reiterate that vistas of devolution have\nbeen expanded by these proposed reforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I presume that the incumbent PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and\nseveral incumbent senior Ministers like GL Pieris, Nimal Siripala de Silva,\nChamal Rajapaksa, Susil Prem Jayanth were approving these Reforms then.\nTherefore, by his writing, CW makes them sinners of the so-called Orumittanadu\ndraft Constitution.\u201d I disagree because they love Sri Lanka as much as I\ndo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The section titled \u2018Secret map of the Package Deal\u2019 is a\ncritique of Chandrika Kumaratunga regime and not me, and hence I need not\nrespond. In the quoted article what I tried was to remind some developments on\ndevolution that must be reviewed, if revising. I have read these two documents\nand do not find any changes to create a \u2018Malayanadu\u2019 or buried \u2018P-Tom’ or\n‘ISGA.\u2019  Hence, I observe an unexplainable compounded confusion in CW. CW\nforgets that P-Tom and ISGA were later proposals (2003) and should not be mixed\nwith 1997\/ 2000 proposed Reforms, to which I refer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier I have published another article (https:\/\/island.lk\/crisscrossing-13a-abolition\/<\/a>)\nwhere I have mentioned commitments made by PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ministers GL\nPieris, Basil Rajapaksa, PM Manmohan Singh, PM Modi, Minister SM Krishna, and\npointed out the issues endorsed by such commitments. It was to show the\ncomplexity of the issue in question. I reiterate I have no interest in PCs or\ntheir elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The section \u2018You cannot legislate against geography\u2019 has no\nrelevance to my article and I refrain from commenting. I have only to say that\ndigesting what CW has presented is certainly swimming against the current,\nfearing drowning. The only commonality we can quote is that both of us have our\nroots in Panadura! As he has said In Buddhism, no two persons are the same\u201d\nand it is no wonder our thinking befits his philosophical judgment,\nirrespective of roots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The section \u2018Non-majoritarian devolution trap\u2019 does not point\nout any reference to me and hence I ignore commenting. Even his reference to my\nrespected teacher Prof Gerald Pieris\u2019s article relating to federalism does not\nmake any similarity to my thinking, as I have not proposed federalism. Since he\nhas mentioned Prof Pieris, I may mention that he has informed me he disagreed\nwith my thinking, and I informed him that it was great to agree to disagree. I\nmention this to motivate CW to become great by emulating Prof. Pieris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The section Meaningful devolution-empowerment of people\u201d\nhas no relevance to my article contents and hence is ignored. The section\nDecentralization or empowerment of people\u201d also has no relevance to the\ncontents of my article. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were several options tried like Gam Sabhawas, Town\nCouncils, Urban Councils, District Development Councils, and Provincial\nCouncils. All these have their good and bad, and ugly too, which I know by\nbeing involved in the administration of all these and seen how Panchayats\nfunction too. Maybe, CW has the same experience. No constitutional change since\ninception to 2020\u2019s 20th<\/sup> Amendment, excepting 17th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup>\nhad the empowerment of people as the objective. Others have empowered\npoliticians of all hues. Many predict that this will be the result of the\ncurrent exercise too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only worthy information shared by CW is regarding the\npotential threat to security where he says, if Muslim corona body-burning\nissue becomes another July 1983, American warships are ready to land marines\u201d.\nNow I understand why he has copied his article to Secretary Defence. This is a\nmatter worthy of being discussed at the National Security Council to which CW\nshould be invited to prove his case since it jeopardizes national security-\ni.e., the threat of the US invading Sri Lanka! Over to you respected Secretary\nDefence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a lighter vein, I have a quip with regards to CW\u2019s gold mine\ngifted by Rajiv Gandhi\u201d. Some Jaffna\u2019s sophisticated think that PCs are the\nelusive golden deer that tricked Rama in the Ramayana!\u201d Let CW learn from\nRamayana and even to agree to disagree!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The section titled Montesquieu standing on his head\u201d and Part B\nof his article does not deal with my article and as I understand contains his\npropositions. Anyway, I have the right to agree or disagree but he has the\nright to present, though the learned writer probably presumes that we should\nnot even present some argument, against his whim and fancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is saying that his article is in reply to mine, but one is at\na loss to find such replying! I have seen a Sinhala article that had been\npurportedly written by CW quoting some events regarding me while giving his\ninterpretation, without having knowledge, understanding, and capacity to digest\nthe background under which we had to respond as public officers. Sugar-coated\nlittle knowledge is poison to wisdom! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndo not wish to waste my time responding to him any further. Best wishes to CW\nfor the New Year 2021 whose ‘talent’ may be harnessed by the Romesh de Silva\nCommittee, if worthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/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-110319","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\/110319","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=110319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}