The Future Of The Country Has Begun With The 19A

By Savitri Goonesekere –June 25, 2015

Prof. Savitri Goonesekere

Excellencies of the diplomatic community, Mr Abeykoon, Secretary to the President, officials of the Presidential Secretariat, ladies and gentleman,

It may sound as if I am repeating what has already been said when I say that I share the sentiments expressed by both Mr. Dhanapala and Prof. Munasinghe. To me, as a citizen, the 19th Amendment brings new beginnings. I say that because, sometimes we suffer in this country from a collective sense of amnesia. We also know that this country has many good laws. But our problem is that even when we have the law in the books and we do not implement it. However when we look at the 1978 constitution we note the fact that law was not in place because we had many restriction on the democratic process and it was a law that needed to be changed. It was distressing to see the debate on the 19th amendment and I think that is why I said we have a collective sense of amnesia, because we know as citizens what happened and how the constitution is interpreted and particularly through the 18th amendment how we saw how a government which had come into power with massive peoples power eventually dismantled democracy. It was distressing to see in parliament what should have gone through with absolute consensus, as an opportunity for democracy had to be negotiated in a process that in my view, undermined some of the opportunities for Constitution making. As a lawyer I have to say that the 19th amendment is a reflection of new beginnings, but as a lawyer I want something more, I want for this country fundamental constitutional change and constitution making because that is a challenge of a country that has emerged from a period of armed conflict. That has been the experience of nations. A new constitution in a participatory consultative environment which is not top down, can address the need to heal wounds, and to really make for fresh beginnings. And I certainly hope therefore, as a citizen of this country, every single party that is seeking our votes will come forward with an agenda of complete constitutional reform. Having said that I also recognize the difficulties of doing that in the kind of adversarial political environment that we have. And it is therefore in that context that we have to see the 19th amendment, as Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala said, as creating the opportunities for democratic culture and for addressing the democratic deficit that we have seen in this country. It is that context that I would like to make a few comments to add to what has been said by the other speakers.                             Read More