{"id":96343,"date":"2013-07-21T00:05:31","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T18:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=96343"},"modified":"2013-07-24T02:31:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T21:01:01","slug":"the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Thirteen. Thirteen Plus. Thirteen Minus. That\u2019s the talk in the politico-ideological streets. It is almost like a rudimentary arithmetic problem.\u00a0 In July 1987 Sri Lanka may have been plus or minus or average compared to other members in the community of nations.\u00a0 Wherever the country may have stood, it was dragged in the negative direction by the Indo-Lanka Accord<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Did the Indo-Lanka Accord deliver on \u2018peace\u2019? No.\u00a0 Did India, as it pledged, subdue all military groups including the LTTE<\/a><\/span>? No.\u00a0 Indeed, India in effect reneged on the deal more than twenty years ago.<\/p>\n

A bloody conflict that was about to be ended, was given a lease of life.\u00a0 It lived on for 22 years more.\u00a0 Took 100,000 lives or more. The Accord precipitated a bloody insurrection that took 60,000 lives.\u00a0 If even 1% of the dead were \u2018smart\u2019, we are talking about a monumental loss of invaluable human resources.\u00a0 That\u2019s the genesis of the HR crisis Sri Lanka faces right now. All in the minus column.<\/p>\n

Sovereignty.\u00a0 India inserted clauses to subvert Sri Lanka\u2019s right to commerce with other nations on matters of security. The accord sought to concretize random boundary lines in terms of a homeland claim that has no basis in terms of history, archaeological record or demography, effectively helping turn myth into fact. Drop that in the minus column.<\/p>\n

Legality.\u00a0 The bill was presented in part to Parliament.\u00a0 A 9-member bench of the Supreme Court could not conclude on constitutionality. They were divided 4-4. It took a Chief Justice (who happened to be a Tamil) to interpret the opinion of the 9th<\/sup> member in favor of \u2018constitutional\u2019.\u00a0 The Provincial Council bill was passed immediately after the Indo-Lanka Accord was passed, as though father and son were birthed together.\u00a0 Minus that!<\/p>\n

Truth and lie. It was not about Tamil grievances\/aspirations. Rajiv Gandhi bragged about Bhutanization.\u00a0 IPKF high-ups said it was a victory to stump Tamil parties and get Trinco and not Jaffna as the capital of the North-East.\u00a0 It was about Indian foreign policy prerogatives.<\/p>\n

The \u2018ground reality\u2019 was said to warrant the sating of a militant group.\u00a0 The majority objected.\u00a0 The militants were not sated. In fact the LTTE rejected the 13th<\/sup> Amendment<\/a><\/span>, of course for reasons that were different to the objections put forward by certain Sinhala groups.\u00a0\u00a0 In any event, it rebelled against popular sentiment. The only beneficiaries were fledgling politicians who saw in it stepping stones to further careers.\u00a0 Positive for them, negative for the voter.<\/p>\n

We can also minus national dignity.\u00a0 We can minus other things verbally agreed upon, but that\u2019s conjecture.\u00a0 The bottom line is that the Indo-Lanka Accord took Sri Lanka in the wrong direction with the multiple factors at play determining the speed and length of that journey.\u00a0 The logical thing, in terms of recovering the recoverable, is to scrap the 13th<\/sup> forthwith.<\/p>\n

How?\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s a thing called a \u2018geo-political reality\u2019, thrown at us by the likes of Dayan Jayatilleka to say that India\u2019s endorsement is a must and therefore it is the Indian \u2018frame\u2019 within which we seek \u2018progress\u2019.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lie that was exposed in May 2009.\u00a0 There is a geo-political reality of course, but what is thrown around is an inflated version of the beast.\u00a0 In other words an ad and a pernicious one at that; full of exaggerated claims.<\/p>\n

The \u2018how not\u2019 is easier to answer.\u00a0 The wrong way is to do what some bikkhus in Ampara at a meeting held to champion the 13th<\/sup> Amendment.\u00a0 What has to be understood is that ideological battle was won by those who oppose the 13th<\/sup>.\u00a0 The logic is with them.\u00a0 Those who were defeated opted to go with \u2018the boys\u2019, directly or indirectly.\u00a0 That can happen again, but each time it will end in the Nandikadaal Lagoon, metaphorically or literally.<\/p>\n

The \u2018how\u2019 of it is not very clear, but if lessons have to be learned, we can pick from Prabhakaran<\/a><\/span> and his God Father Chelvanayagam.\u00a0 Prabhakaran was defeated only after the military apparatus learned Prabhakaran\u2019s language.\u00a0 Chelvanayakam said \u2018little now, more later\u2019. The lesson is, \u2018less now\u2019 and \u2018even lesser later\u2019, no, not in terms of righting wrong (devolution is but one proposal and an erroneous one, but full and equal citizenship rights cannot be compromised), but in getting us some ways in the \u2018plus\u2019 direction after the big-minus of July 1987. In other words, a gradual erasing of the 13th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

There are other ways of employing logic.\u00a0 The logical \u2018end\u2019 of the devolution argument is the Grama Rajya<\/a><\/span>, or devolving to the smallest possible unit. Propose it and no one can object, and objection means obstinacy and non-interest in resolution.\u00a0 Another would be to say, \u2018since sovereignty, especially in circumstances far afield from July 1987, is non-negotiable, the coastal belt (including of course a 10 mile wide strip of land all around the island) and Trincomalee have to be taken off the equation of \u201cpower sharing\u201d\u2019.\u00a0 Will India agree?\u00a0 If not, why not? Stumped, one would think.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":93503,"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-96343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment - 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\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-20T18:35:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-23T21:01:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"329\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"367\" \/>\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\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/\",\"name\":\"The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-20T18:35:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-23T21:01:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\",\"width\":\"329\",\"height\":\"367\",\"caption\":\"Malinda Seneviratne\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment\"}]},{\"@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":"The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment - 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\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-07-20T18:35:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-07-23T21:01:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":329,"height":367,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.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\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/","name":"The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-20T18:35:31+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-23T21:01:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","width":"329","height":"367","caption":"Malinda Seneviratne"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-pluses-and-minuses-of-the-13th-amendment\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment"}]},{"@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\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96343","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=96343"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96353,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96343\/revisions\/96353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}