If 13A is strengthened, country will be offered on a platter to Eelamists

President of the National Patriotic Movement, Dr.Gunadasa Amarasekera says by becoming the co-sponsor of the detrimental Geneva Resolution, Sri Lanka has burned its boats.

In an interview with the Sunday Observer he said, if the 13th Amendment, a piece of illegal legislation pushed down our throats by India, is strengthened by giving police powers, scrapping the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the National Security Act, we will be offering the country on a platter to the Eelamists.

by Manjula Fernando

Q: What is your take on the government's announcement that they are ready to strengthen the 13th Amendment to make way for a political settlement?

A:I must state this before commenting on anything else. This is an illegal piece of legislation, not properly passed by Parliament or the Supreme Court. It was pushed down our throat by India.

To have this piece of 'illegal' legislation in our Constitution is a shame. Justice Wanasundera has commented in a lengthy report which he submitted in 2010, that at the earliest opportunity the government must get rid of the 13th Amendment. I don't think there is any point in trying to revive this illegal piece of legislation.

At one point Justice Wanasundera says, "if Parliament wishes to review this matter it can pass a declaratory law invalidating these Bills. If the Speaker were to give his certificate, this would foreclose the issue and constitute a final disposal to prevent any future agitation in this matter."

"The effect of the action proposed above would be to declare and render the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Councils Bills null and void and to excise them from the Constitution so that Parliament would now be enabled to write on a clean slate."

Q: In the Resolution co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, it says that the Government must allow Provincial Councils to operate effectively, taking necessary constitutional measures. Your comments?

A:The ultimate purpose of the 13th Amendment was to destabilize the country through power devolution. They proposed the Indian federal model. Is it suitable for Sri Lanka? This country is smaller than even a single state of India. Within four hours, we can reach any part of this country, North or South. The other point is the Indian federal states are based on language, a situation we don't see here. More than half of the Tamils live outside the North and the East.

We have been dilly dallying with the 13th Amendment for the past so many years, arguing about police and land powers and other issues. What has been the result? The ostentatious response was that, this will solve the ethnic issue. Will it?

Provincial Councils have now become a white elephant draining all the resources. It gives a place to village thugs and gangsters. After the 13th Amendment, Prabhakaran became more powerful. Through experience we know it has been an absolute failure.

Q: What if we project it to the future ?

A:If we project it to the future, the Resolution says implement it completely. We have agreed to that. We are going to change the Constitution and transfer powers of the President to Parliament. So far what prevented the division of the country is the absolute power vested in the President. When Vardaraja Perumal wanted to unilaterally establish Eelam, President Ranasinghe Premadasa used the National Security Act to take over Provincial Councils. Once we change the Constitution and make the President a symbolic president, there is no way of preventing it.

If we give them police powers it will be a stepping stone for them to set up a separate State. The Resolution also calls for the abolition of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the National Security Act. If we do that we will be offering this country on a platter to the Eelamists.

Q: The Resolution says the PTA and the National Security Act can be replaced with something suitable?

A:That's a good question. As I said, this country is smaller than one Indian state. We can strengthen the centre. At the same time if you think the centre doesn't represent the minorities and those at the periphery, we can strengthen their representation in the centre. There can be a Deputy President. What a small country needs is to have power at the centre, but that can be decentralized. This is something we have done effectively through the Village Council (Gam Sabha) system in our history. Even the British rulers made use of this system until the Sinhala rulers scrapped it in 1948. I think this is a better solution. The centre should be strong and it should be representative. There should decentralisation of power not devolution of power.

Q: We have already become a co-sponsor of the Resolution, can we backtrack from our commitment now?

A:That is true. But ultimately all this will have to be implemented through Parliament. They can pass anything in Geneva. Whatever it is, a simple majority or a two-thirds majority, it has to go through Parliament. We must see that this is not passed in Parliament. The whole Geneva Resolution is suicidal. There is no difference whatsoever as the UN Human Rights High Commissioner, Prince Hussain proposed a mechanism and the American/Sri Lanka conspired proposal. In the first paragraph of the Resolution it starts off by saying we accept Prince Hussain's report.

Q: Can we still rely on our friends in the Human Rights body?

A: Since Sri Lanka has co-sponsored the Resolution if the Security Council proposes to take the security forces personnel before The Hague, even our friends such as China, Russia, Pakistan and others, will not be able to defend Sri Lanka. This is a master plan hatched by the West against Sri Lanka. We have burned our boats.

This has nothing to do with human rights, this is geopolitics. World powers are scared of China and they want to neutralize the China effect in the Indian Ocean. For that we are essential,US Secretary of State John Kerry said during his recent Sri Lanka visit.