Wimal slams cabinet colleagues for blocking 13A dilution
Tuesday, 17 September 2013 00:53
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NFF Leader and Minister says TNA is trying to show international community that election results are a mandate for self-rule in the North
Minister Wimal Weerawansa slammed his cabinet colleagues and members of the Old Left yesterday for standing in the Government’s way when it tried to reduce the powers of the Provincial Councils before elections in the North.
Addressing a press briefing yesterday Weerawansa said that if the TNA used the Northern Provincial Council election results as a referendum for separatism given what the party’s manifesto lays out, those cabinet ministers who blocked the dilution of the 13th Amendment would have to take responsibility for pushing the country towards renewed conflict.
“The TNA’s election manifesto makes it clear that the objective is to show the results of this poll as a referendum for self-rule,” Weerawansa said. He said that those cabinet ministers who were paying homage at the Indian High Commission while being in the Government would have to answer if the TNA abused its power and it resulted in another war.
The Minister warned that there was a massive operation planned to take powers granted to the council through the constitution to set up a separate administration in the north.
“No other main party has unveiled special manifesto for the other two provincial elections, but the TNA has a manifesto for the North,” the Minister said. He explained that by embarking on a collision course with the Government by trying to enforce its manifesto, the TNA’s final objective was to prove to the international community that the Tamils needed self-government and a separate state. This was why the Tamil party was seeking a two-thirds majority in the Council at the election, he explained. “Even Madam Pillay arrived here to help them to achieve that objective,” Weerawansa said, reading from excerpts in the Tamil language press regarding her statements. “Navi Pillay, Wigneswaran, even Sampanthan, they don’t care; they are too old to worry about the fact that they are pushing another generation into conflict” said the Minister. If the International Community was planning to look at the Northern election as a referendum it was only fair they took the Central and North Western results to be referendums too, Weerawansa said.
“If a northern referendum is a mandate for separatism, the results of other provinces will be referendum mandates against separatism,” the Minister said. (DB)
