- Says P’ment has no role to play in 13A implementation
President and National Policies Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe expecting the Parliament’s support for the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution is futile and an act aimed at deceiving the people, claimed Opposition Parliamentarian Prof. G.L. Peiris.
Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo yesterday (7), he claimed that Wickremesinghe is to address the Parliament tomorrow (9), seeking the Parliament’s support to implement the 13th Amendment. “The President is to address the Parliament on 9 August about the 13th Amendment. We heard that he intends to say that he is determined to implement all clauses of the 13th Amendment except for police powers. His ambition is to obtain the Parliament’s support for that programme.”
Claiming that the Parliament has no role to play with regard to the implementation of the 13th Amendment, he attributed President Wickremesinghe’s efforts to a “meaningless” programme. “This is an eyesore. The Parliament has no role to play in this regard, and it can do nothing about it. The 13th Amendment is part of the Constitution. Therefore, the Parliament does not have a mandate to decide whether or not to implement the Constitution. The Constitution is the country’s supreme law, and the 13th Amendment is a very important part of it. The Executive inquiring from the Parliament about it is completely useless.”
Emphasising that the country’s three main administrative pillars, the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary are bound to implement the Constitution, Prof. Peiris said that Wickremesinghe’s move is a stunt aimed at misleading the people. “We clearly see this as a delusion. The President knows very well that there is nothing that the Parliament can say or do about this. So, why is he trying to do this? That is because there is an ulterior motive. What is it? There are so many burning issues in the country. The people are between life and death. The objective of this programme is to suppress those problems.”
Wickremesinghe, on 18 July, assured Tamil MPs that the 13th Amendment would be fully implemented, without police powers, to the Provincial Councils (PCs). However, the Tamil National Alliance, on the same day, “categorically rejected” the President’s offer to implement it without police powers, terming the proposal for development and power devolution “another hollow promise”.
On 29 July, 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed between then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and then-Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene which stated the devolution of powers to the provinces. On 14 November 1987, the Parliament passed the 13th Amendment and the PCs Act, No. 42 of 1987 to establish the PCs. The Amendment created PCs in Sri Lanka, enabling Sinhala and Tamil to be national languages while preserving English as the link language.