Wimal takes centre-stage on 13A

On Monday, Vap Full Moon Poya Day, Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa paid a visit to the chief prelates of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters in Kandy. Leading the call for the repeal of the 13th Amendment, Weerawansa sought the counsel of the prelates on the issue.

Chief Prelate of the Malwatte Chapter Ven. Thibbottuwe Sri Siddhartha Sumanga Thero proved quicker on the draw. He said that while the Government was mulling the repeal of the 13th Amendment, measures should also be taken to abolish the executive presidential system. Slightly taken aback, Weerawansa replied that the scrapping of the executive presidency was also on the cards, but argued that the presidential system could not be scrapped as long as the provincial councils were in place.

Weerawansa made the argument that if the presidency was to be abolished, power must be concentrated in the centre and to abolish the executive presidency while the provincial council system was still in place would be a major threat to the country. “We must first take power back to the centre in order to abolish the presidency,” Weerawansa told the Malwatte Prelate.

The strange logic of Weerawansa’s argument and the dangers it poses to achieving a final political settlement based on power sharing notwithstanding, the Minister is all set to file action in Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the 13th Amendment. Weerawansa’s application will likely argue that a referendum is not necessary to repeal 13A because it was not enacted with a referendum and therefore a two-thirds majority in Parliament should be sufficient to abolish the provincial council system. Some legal analysts point out however that many provincial council elections have been held since 1987 and votes have been cast to set up councils in the provinces, indicating the popular approval for the system.

When UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced the setting up of a Panel of Experts to study accountability issues in the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war in July 2010, the former firebrand Marxist revolutionary turned Government Minister erected a platform, hoisted placards and banners in front of the UN headquarters in Colombo and commenced a hunger strike until, he claimed, the UN Chief’s decision was reversed. Three days after his widely televised hunger strike began, the Minister abandoned the fast, but not before he was revived in front of the UN building by a tender President Mahinda Rajapaksa who offered him his first drink of water in 72 hours.

Wimal Weerawansa certainly puts on a good show. He also has the advantage of being an ally of the Government but ideology is sufficiently ‘fringe’ to adopt positions that an increasingly right wing Government cannot overtly support, because of certain political realities on the ground. Hopping mad about the UN’s Panel of Experts, the Government could not officially react except through diplomatic channels. Weerawansa has no such compulsions and must play to his ultra-nationalistic support base. And so the effigy burning and foreigner-bashing is often entrusted to him.

Minister Weerawansa is an ever-willing actor in the dangerous game of proxy the Rajapaksa Administration so often plays with the international community and the UN, as the currently unfolding 13th Amendment saga aptly demonstrates. With Weerawansa and his allies including Elle Gunawansa Thera and other hardliners available to take the lead on the 13th Amendment issue, the Government can remain in the background, offering covert support while making public noises about having no intention to repeal the amendment and do away with the provincial council system.

In any event, observers note that the threat of abolishing 13A could just be a knee jerk reaction to increasing anger on the part of the administration about the blockades placed by the judiciary on getting the controversial Divi Neguma legislation enacted. Supremely unconcerned though the regime often seems to be with external threat and influence, it seems unimaginable, for the moment at least, that it would put its relationship with New Delhi on the line over its inability to get its way on Divi Neguma. With regard to its position on 13A, the Government is facing major challenges from within its coalition, with the SLMC, EPDP and other minority parties including the LSSP and the Communist Party already expressing strong sentiments opposing the regime’s plans.

Minister of Public Management Reforms and son of late Gamini Dissanayake also voiced his opinion on the 13th Amendment issue during an event held to commemorate his father last Thursday. Addressing the crowd, which included Ministers Basil Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena, Dissanayake claimed that Gamini Dissanayake had died to protect the 13th Amendment and it must not be repealed.

“The SLFP holds this position. I have clarified this with both my left and my right,” Dissanayake said, pointing to Minister Rajapaksa and Minister Sirisena in the audience. Several UNP members hailed Dissanayake’s sentiments, with one member telling the Minister that he felt for the first time that Navin Dissanayake was a chip off the old block.