{"id":59649,"date":"2012-11-10T19:16:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T19:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=59649"},"modified":"2012-11-14T07:35:16","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T07:35:16","slug":"a-response-to-laksiri-fernando-how-about-a-third-republican-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-response-to-laksiri-fernando-how-about-a-third-republican-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"A Response To Laksiri Fernando: How About A Third Republican Constitution?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malinda+Seneviratne&amp;x=10&amp;y=5\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44732\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/expatriate-tamils-and-the-dimensions-of-culpability\/malinda\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-44732\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44732\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-44732\" title=\"Malinda\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-44732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I read with interest <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Laksiri+Fernando&amp;x=6&amp;y=8\">Laksiri Fernando<\/a><\/span>\u2019s avuncular response (<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/devolution-talk-a-response-to-malinda-seneviratne\/\">\u2018Devolution Talk\u2019<\/a><\/span>) to a comment on the 13<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/devolution-talk-and-devolution-talkers\/\">I had written<\/a><\/span> a few weeks ago.\u00a0 He\u2019s asked me to ponder the 17<sup>th<\/sup> and 18<sup>th<\/sup> \u2018syndrome\u2019 of the Rajapaksa administration.\u00a0 So, first things first, I will respond to this suggestion.<\/p>\n<p>I have written dozens of articles on the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=17th+Amendment&amp;x=11&amp;y=6\">17<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment<\/a><\/span>, from the time it was passed in 2001, pointing out its errors and lacunae and suggesting corrective measures.\u00a0 As for the 18<sup>th<\/sup>, my objections were recorded in the Daily News as well as other newspapers I wrote for at the time.\u00a0 So the \u2018political past\u2019 that he talks of is as much an imagination-figment as the idea as \u2018pondering\u2019 is \u2018difficult\u2019 for me. \u00a0I put it down to ignorance, which of course is no crime.<\/p>\n<p>Fernando believes that the abrogation of the 13<sup>th<\/sup> would spell disaster for Sri Lanka\u2019s external relations.\u00a0 I believe otherwise.\u00a0 He believes that the 13<sup>th<\/sup> \u2018appears\u2019 as imposition due to inept legal drafters.\u00a0 \u2018Appears\u2019, he says and it astounds me.\u00a0 India thrust it down our throats and JR conveniently ignored Supreme Court directive with respect to the referendum clause.\u00a0 The document was only part read before the vote was taken in Parliament.\u00a0 Fernando also ignores the fact that the 13<sup>th<\/sup> sought to resolve a problem that had nothing to do with territory.<\/p>\n<p>I have written extensively on the \u2018white elephant\u2019 element of the 13<sup>th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Two thirds of monies allocated for the Provincial Councils go to maintain them, for instance.\u00a0 The logic of multiple economic centers in regions that are extremely unequal in terms of resource endowment rebels against devolution.\u00a0 And if devolution is taken to its logical conclusion, we could have the Western Province (which contributes close to two-thirds of GNP) asking why it should subsidize Uva (for example).\u00a0 A lot of regional ills can be dealt with by expanding administrative decentralization and does not require power devolution.<\/p>\n<p>Fernando wants me to admit that my perspective on the subject has little to do with the weaknesses of the present system.\u00a0 There is nothing to \u2018admit\u2019.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been clear about it.\u00a0 I oppose the 13<sup>th<\/sup> for multiple reasons, the economic \u2018logic\u2019 (or rather lack of logic) being but one element of my opposition.\u00a0 The only logical way to devolve would be in accordance to a model where provincial lines are re-demarcated so as to correct for anomalies in resource endowment.\u00a0 I\u2019ve spelled this out many times.<\/p>\n<p>It is a pity that Fernando hangs on to sarcasm and doesn\u2019t get it either.\u00a0 Indeed he confuses my objections to his <em>gonibilla<\/em> posturing regarding the international community with contentions about the 13<sup>th<\/sup> .\u00a0 Sad.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, Fernando is not wrong when he says, \u2018The main detractors of proper development, stability and people\u2019s sovereignty, if those are the concerns, are within the country and within the ruling clique itself\u2019. \u00a0He could also add the UNP, the JVP and many anti-regime thinkers who are slaves to development paradigm even as they object to its executors.\u00a0 The whines about the 17<sup>th<\/sup> and 18<sup>th<\/sup> come from those who have a sorry track record when it comes to democracy and freedom and Fernando strangely doesn\u2019t seem to notice this.<\/p>\n<p>Fernando misses the political implications of horizontal democratization via devolution in a cartography that is nonsensical and pandering to secessionist myth-makers.\u00a0\u00a0 It is natural for someone who has blindly accepted the Eelamist position on devolution to be happy about current demarcations.\u00a0 He won\u2019t use \u2018white-drawn\u2019, he says.\u00a0 It\u2019s white-drawn and brown-accepted.\u00a0 That\u2019s a brown sahib thing, but Fernando is perhaps not schooled enough in cultural and social politics to understand such things or how the affirmation of a colonial error when cuffed to land-grab logic of myth-mongering communalists necessarily exacerbate problem and postpone resolution.<\/p>\n<p>I am happy that Fernando has put it down in black and white that there\u2019s no connection between Tamil grievances and territory-based solution.\u00a0 Yes, it is unfortunate that elections for the Northern Provincial Council have not yet been held.\u00a0 The excuses offered are thin.\u00a0 Elections need to be held.\u00a0 It won\u2019t erase the errors of the 13<sup>th<\/sup>, but there is (as I have said many times) danger in refusing the implement constitutional provisions (even if they are erroneous) or being selective in implementation.\u00a0 What is required is the abrogation of the 13<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>What is required, over and above that, given all the problems of the 13<sup>th<\/sup>, the hope and flaws of the 17<sup>th<\/sup> , it\u2019s nullification by the 18<sup>th<\/sup> , all of which have separately and together turned an already anti-citizen document (the 1978 Constitution) into a made-to-make-and-entrench-dictatorship, not to mention widespread agitation about the Proportional Representation system and decades long calls for doing away with the Executive Presidency, is for a new constitution.<\/p>\n<p><em>*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nation.lk\/\">The Nation<\/a>\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.malindawords.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a>\u00a0.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":44732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[2133,1383,1934,3713,5946],"class_list":["post-59649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","tag-current-debate-on-devolution-sri-lanka","tag-devolution","tag-devolution-debate-sri-lanka","tag-devolution-of-power-in-sri-lanka","tag-sinhala-nationalists-on-devolution-in-sri-lanka"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the 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