{"id":91808,"date":"2013-06-16T00:12:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T18:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=91808"},"modified":"2013-06-20T12:03:23","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T06:33:23","slug":"now-it-is-thirteen-minus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/","title":{"rendered":"Now, It Is Thirteen Minus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>By <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Kamal+Nissanka&amp;x=10&amp;y=6\">Kamal Nissanka<\/a><\/span> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_65833\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/impeachment-and-international-obligations\/kamal-nissanka-colombo-telegraph\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-65833\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65833\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-65833\" title=\"Kamal Nissanka Colombo Telegraph\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-65833\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamal Nissanka<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Initial post war reconciliation expectations are now totally failed In <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sri+Lanka&amp;x=11&amp;y=3\">Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span> as the attempts are taking to dilute the powers of the provincial councils in the eve of the northern provincial council election. Thus national question that was manifested in the Sri Lankan political landscape since early 1920\u2019s will be remained in continuity. Historically, the issue was further aggravated with the introduction of electoral methods in the early legislative councils and later with introduction of universal franchise under the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Donoughmore&amp;x=13&amp;y=3\">Donoughmore<\/a><\/span> system. In the course of time Sri Lankan national question\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0was transformed into a power sharing issue. \u00a0Since then number of popular proposals such as Fifty- Fifty of G.G.Ponnambalam, BC Pact, DC Pact, Rajive Gandhi- J.R.Jayawardene Pact (<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Indo-Lanka+Accord&amp;x=8&amp;y=3\">Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987<\/a><\/span>) were introduced to cope with the problem. There were other attempts too in the form of constitutional reforms .Our two major constitutional attempts in 1972 and 1978 faced lots of criticism during last 35 years as both these constitutions failed to incorporate the minorities into the bodypolitc. Next major change, the Provincial Council (PC) system triggered by Indian intervention lasted for nearly quarter century is now under criticism and a debate had been evolved as to the suitability of provincial council system.<\/p>\n<p>The major actor in Tamil politics, until May 2009 was the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=LTTE&amp;x=9&amp;y=4\">LTTE<\/a><\/span>) which opposed the PC system and their aim was to create a separate Tamil speaking mini state within the island of Sri Lanka. One school of thought that opposed the creation of a mini state advocated a centralized administration opposing all types of devolution. Their view was that any devolution to North would ultimately lead to a separation.\u00a0 Another school of thought that opposed the separatist agenda of the Tamils advocated the defeat of the LTTE and thereafter to introduce a power sharing package. A third school of thought that emerged in the\u00a0 hay day of LTTE war advocated that it was an unwinnable war and the best is to have a power sharing package as taking LTTE as the sole representative of Tamil community in Sri Lanka. In the midst of these arguments and debates the PC system survived \u00a0in the South but people were not happy\u00a0 about this political authority\u00a0 as it had become a\u00a0 method \u00a0of wielding power\u00a0 by \u00a0the same people\u00a0 who are enjoyed \u00a0power in the centre.\u00a0 Close relatives of leading politicians were promoted to stand for provincial councils making it a political extended family. However this situation arose as a result of the district propositional electoral system that included a preference system.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=6&amp;y=4\">Mahinda Rajapakse<\/a><\/span> administration that\u00a0\u00a0 came to power in 2005 \u00a0appointed Prof <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Tissa+Vitarana&amp;x=11&amp;y=4\">Tissa Vitarana<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to look into the\u00a0 matter of power sharing \u00a0but in the course of time President himself lost interest and then suddenly found the solution to the issue lies in the in the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=13th+Amendment&amp;x=12&amp;y=6\">13<sup>th<\/sup> amendment<\/a><\/span>\u00a0itself\u00a0 and wanted to activate the 13<sup>th<\/sup> amendment in full \u00a0length.<\/p>\n<p>The nature of the debate in the post war situation is different because on the one hand India, EU and USA are pushing for a political solution to the national problem in the form of constitutional reform. President is said to have been agreed to 13+ with Indian authorities at one stage.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand the political elements who advocate a solution through economic development deny the theory of power sharing to the North and East. They in fact want to revoke the 13 th amendment which was a brain child of India.\u00a0 Moderates advocate that in the post war period if a true mechanism of power sharing is introduced that would bring lasting peace to Sri Lanka.\u00a0 Another factor is the growing <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Tamil+Diaspora&amp;x=10&amp;y=1\">Diaspora<\/a><\/span> that is able to influence western governments and UN agencies openly.<\/p>\n<p>By every means the recent introduction to dilute the 13<sup>th<\/sup> amendment is a 13 minus. (13- ). Some of the amendments such as need of the consent of majority provincial councils to introduce legislation to some subjects affecting provincial councils are a step in the re-centralization program. It would further enhance the hands of the President as he could manipulate the provincial council system through the political authority and as a leader of a party.<\/p>\n<p>The first north east provincial council was a disaster owing to many reasons. Ultimate result of indo- Lanka accord was the creation of seven provincial councils to Sinhalese dominated provinces. As the government is determined to dilute the powers of provincial councils the reconciliation agenda will be severely affected. If the present administration wants to revoke the 13th amendment without introducing a power sharing package to the north and east it would definitely invite for greater troubles to the island nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":65833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Now, It Is Thirteen Minus  - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Now, It Is Thirteen Minus  - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-15T18:42:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-06-20T06:33:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"219\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"264\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/\",\"name\":\"Now, It Is Thirteen Minus - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-15T18:42:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-20T06:33:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"width\":\"219\",\"height\":\"264\",\"caption\":\"Kamal Nissanka\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Now, It Is Thirteen Minus\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Now, It Is Thirteen Minus  - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Now, It Is Thirteen Minus  - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-06-15T18:42:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-06-20T06:33:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":219,"height":264,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/","name":"Now, It Is Thirteen Minus - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","datePublished":"2013-06-15T18:42:08+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-20T06:33:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","width":"219","height":"264","caption":"Kamal Nissanka"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/now-it-is-thirteen-minus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Now, It Is Thirteen Minus"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Kamal-Nissanka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91808"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91843,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91808\/revisions\/91843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}