Taking ownership of the 13th Amendment 

President Ranil Wickremesinghe undertook a long overdue visit to India last week. Despite having visited the United Kingdom three times in his official capacity as President within the last year which has resulted in little diplomatic or economic benefit for the country, it is welcomed that the President has finally turned his attention to the most vital bilateral relationship for Sri Lanka. 

It comes, ironically on the same week as the anniversaries of the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom and the 1987 Indo-Lanka peace accord, both history defining events that occurred under the watch of J.R. Jayewardene, the maternal uncle of the current president.

While it is admirable and somewhat comforting that President Wickremesinghe seems to be gravitating towards JRJ’s international relations playbook, rebuilding relations with Japan and oscillating towards the more democratic nations within the international arena, it would be advisable to be guided by the former President’s failures, and in particular his disastrous miscalculations in handling of relations with India which resulted in devastating consequences for the country.

The Jayewardene Government’s inability to offer a meaningful solution to the national problem which required sharing power amongst the different ethnic communities in the island, and its attempt to play global and regional superpowers against each other, manifested into a full-blown civil war which destabilised the country and ruined the economy. It also allowed India to be a guarantor of peace in Sri Lanka and the custodian of the rights of the Tamil community. The Indo-Lanka Peace Accord which was imposed at the risk of military intervention remains to this day the only tangible solution offered to the Tamil community to address their longstanding grievances.

Rather than build on the 13th Amendment that was implemented because of the Indo-Lanka accord, successive governments have failed to offer a meaningful resolution to the national question. Despite countless attempts at constitutional amendments, multi-party conferences and receiving mandates at numerous elections, there has not been any progress in this regard. In fact, the powers devolved through the 13th Amendment to the provincial councils have been diluted throughout the years.

The provincial councils established through the amendment have become yet another institution of inefficient bureaucracy and source of wastage and corruption. Yet, they remain a necessary layer of devolution and power sharing that offers, even psychologically if not practically, a sense of ownership to the communities which have been alienated from governance of the country.

It is in this context that it is both ironic and tragic that a foreign nation needs to raise the issue of the aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka as done last week during the meeting between President Wickremesinghe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Sri Lankan President was urged to fulfil Colombo’s long-pending commitment to implement the 13th Amendment and conduct provincial council elections.

The fact that the present administration cannot even offer the “full implementation” of the 13th Amendment shows the lack of political commitment and urgency to resolve this long overdue issue. The Tamil National Alliance, the largest political entity representing the interests of the Tamil community, last week categorically rejected President Wickremesinghe’s offer to implement the 13th Amendment without police powers, calling it yet another hollow promise.

President Wickremesinghe has a unique opportunity to correct the many wrongs committed by the Sri Lankan State against its minority communities. The full implementation of the 13th Amendment with the relevant powers devolved to the provinces should not even be negotiated but be the very minimum expression of the constitution and the starting point for a meaningful sharing of power with all the communities living in Sri Lanka.