Attempt to revise 13A: Govt. making a mountain out of a molehill, says UNP

• Tissa A says President has full powers to dissolve councils that pose threat to Lanka’s territorial integrity

• Charges that Govt. is attempting to take aracist approach to the issue

• Explains SC would not have approved 13A in 1987 if it threatened Sri Lanka’s sovereignty

By Dharisha Bastians

The main opposition United National Party yesterday debunked the Government’s scare tactics over the dangers of the merger clause in the 13th Amendment, saying the Executive President was vested with all powers to dissolve the council if it attempted to threaten the country’s territorial integrity.

UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told a news conference yesterday that the Government’s proposals to dilute the 13th Amendment were an eyewash since there was no threat to the Central Government’s authority from the provincial councils under the current constitutional framework.

“When the North East Chief Minister Vartharajah Perumal raised an Eelam Flag in Trincomalee, President Ranasinghe Premadasa simply dissolved the council. The matter ended there, so why this fuss now?” Attanayake asked.

Attanayake charged that if the provincial councils threatened Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the 13th amendment would have been a violation of the Constitution. “If that was the case, the Supreme Court would not have found that the amendment drafted under the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 was constitutionally sound when the amendment was put before that Court before enactment,” the UNP General Secretary explained.  He urged the Government to refrain from adopting a racist approach to the issue.  “If the majority of those living in the north are Tamils, they have every right to be represented by a provincial administration of their own. The people of the hill country have the same right, as do those of the south and the west and the east,” Attanayake said.  He said the Government was so concerned about the merger clause because it was in no way certain it enjoyed the support of the Muslims in the east, if a referendum was taken on the merger of the

north and east.