{"id":82543,"date":"2018-10-29T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=82543"},"modified":"2018-10-29T13:38:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T20:38:20","slug":"the-priorities-for-the-mahinda-rajapaksa-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/10\/29\/the-priorities-for-the-mahinda-rajapaksa-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"THE PRIORITIES FOR THE MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA ADMINISTRATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA, <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

29th<\/sup> October 2018 <\/strong><\/p>\n

The change of government on 26th<\/sup> October 2018 has put an end to the prospect of a new Constitution being brought or changes made to the existing one so as to lay the foundation for a future secession of the Northern and Eastern Provinces by way of a referendum endorsed by the international community.\u00a0 This is what the Tamil Separatists were hoping for all along, and now they are back to square one.<\/p>\n

However, the Sinhalayo<\/em> cannot take the stroke of luck that has come their way for granted.\u00a0 They must take full advantage of this chance and put an end to the Tamil Separatists once and for all, that is to say, put an end to the ideological, intellectual, political and financial institutions that sustain Tamil Separatism both within Sri Lanka and abroad.\u00a0 If not, it\u2019ll be only a matter of time, and very short time at that, before the Separatists start undermining MR and the new Administration, and with the help of the international community, destroy it.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, I give below some of the legal means that I think the new Administration should use, or encourage the Sinhalayo<\/em> to use, in order to start putting the Tamil Separatists out of business.\u00a0 I will first discuss what I think should be done within Sri Lanka and then turn to what should be done internationally.<\/p>\n

A. International Measures<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Quickly produce a document that sets out the Government\u2019s position regarding the allegations or war crimes and other crimes being leveled by certain countries and also the UNHRC against Sri Lanka.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The effort by Sri Lanka\u2019s enemies including the Tamil Diaspora to undermine and delegitimize the new Administration has already started, and predictably one of its main components is the effort to revive the claim that MR and those around him are criminals and that the international community has a duty to hold them accountable in order to save the rest of Sri Lanka especially the minorities.<\/p>\n

    So, it is imperative that the Administration establish its position in respect of the various allegations of war crimes as well as human rights violations.\u00a0 This necessarily entails that the Government establish its stance in regard to resolution 30\/1 of October 2015.\u00a0 Both positions must be put in writing and then given to our allies such as Russia, China, Pakistan and so on, and their views and suggestions obtained as to any changes that should be made to the document.<\/p>\n

    The Government should then get an undertaking from these allies that they will back the Government in front of the international community, especially in forums such as the UNHRC, to defend the Government\u2019s position.\u00a0 Once this agreement is obtained, the document should be conveyed to the international community in a formal way.<\/p>\n

    The Government should then tell the Western nations that are always criticizing Sri Lanka, that although various individuals or NGO\u2019s in those countries are free to make allegations against Sri Lanka, the Governments of those countries have obligations under international law to follow prescribed procedures when making allegations against\u00a0 another country.\u00a0 The Government should insist that they honor those obligations, which involve, at a minimum, giving the accused a chance to officially respond to the allegations in question before taking against them.<\/p>\n

    The Government should also inform those countries that it will pursue whatever remedial measures may be available under international law, including at the International Court of Justice, if countries interfere in Sri Lanka\u2019s internal affairs in violation of the aforesaid obligations.\u00a0 The Government should be prepared to follow through on that threat.<\/p>\n

    B. Domestic Measures<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Action under the 6th<\/sup> Amendment to the Constitution<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      In my view, the 6th<\/sup> Amendment to the Constitution is the most powerful tool available at the moment to combat the Tamil Separatists within Sri Lanka.\u00a0 The 6th<\/sup> Amendment offers options for the Government as well as for ordinary citizens to take action against the Separatists.\u00a0 Section 3 of the Amendment permits the Government to prosecute persons it considers to be advocating the establishment of a separate State within Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

      Section 4 of the Amendment permits any person to take before the Supreme Court a political party, group or organization that the petitioner considers has an intention of setting up a separate State within Sri Lanka.\u00a0 If the petitioner can prove his claims, the Court will grant a Declaration that the impugned organization is separatist, which can lead among other things to proscription of the organization.<\/p>\n

      Unfortunately, neither of these options has been used very much\u00a0 To the best of my knowledge, Section 3 has only recently been used by the Government to try and prosecute Vijayakala for allegedly saying that she wished Prabakaran and the LTTE would return.\u00a0 Vijayakala is \u2018small fry.\u2019\u00a0 The big fish are the folks such as Sampanthan and Viggy.\u00a0 Some way or other must be found to invoke Section 3 of the 6th<\/sup> Amendment against these two.<\/p>\n

      For instance, it is a sure bet that, in the last week of November, Viggy and his acolytes will again try to celebrate their miserable \u2018Mahaveer Day.\u2019 This time they\u2019ll go all out in order to take advantage of the international attention that will be focused on Sri Lanka on account of the change of Government.<\/p>\n

      The Government should make it absolutely clear that it will not tolerate any attempts by Tamils or anyone else in his country to commemorate the LTTE or in any way, directly or indirectly, to perpetuate the ideology and the goals espoused by the LTTE.\u00a0 So, the Government should make sure to haul Viggy and his lot before the Court of Appeal under Section 3 of the 6th<\/sup> Amendment if they so much as lift a finger to\u00a0 commemorate the LTTE,\u00a0 and if found guilty, make sure that they get the maximum penalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA, 29th October 2018 The change of government on 26th October 2018 has put an end to the prospect of a new Constitution being brought or changes made to the existing one so as to lay the foundation for a future secession of the Northern and Eastern Provinces by way of a referendum endorsed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dharshan-weerasekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82543","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=82543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}