Shifting gears

Editorial-June 29, 2013

The cynics will no doubt attribute the shifting of old left (or dead left as some would have it) gears over the forthcoming changes to the 13th amendment as inevitable. Whatever the political history of the parties they represent, the left leaders cannot get themselves elected to parliament today and must depend on the grace a favour of the SLFP and its all powerful leader for the national list places they occupy in the legislature and the consequential benefits of ministerial office. Alternatively, they must fight an election on the UPFA ticket rather than under their own party banners to get elected. So whatever noises they made, discussions with master strategist Mahinda Rajapaksa have reportedly led to these dissident elements within the government falling in line. It is yet unclear whether they were able to extract any concessions if a compromise had in fact been worked out. If this is so, they have not been talking about it.

The argument that diluting 13A which has long been in our constitution, though unimplemented in many aspects, conferred powers on the incumbent provincial councils that are now going to be denied to the Northern PC to be elected in September is irrefutable. The government has not been able to or even tried to counter this beyond saying that although the law provided for it, no PC has enjoyed police and land powers up to now. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, no doubt with an Indian precedent in mind, has often gone public with the remark that conceding police powers could prevent him from going to his own village. That could only happen if an opposition party with its chief minister controls the Southern PC, something that is certainly not foreseeable in the short term. But the strength and popularity of the government today is not what it was when it swept all PC elections and took control of the various provinces.

There is no getting away from the fact that 13A was imposed by India on Sri Lanka through the Indo – Lanka Agreement of 1987. It was modeled on the center – states relationships in India with the Indians asserting that the provincial councils here will have no less than the Indian states vis-à-vis devolved powers. Given that most Indian states, both geographically and population-wise, are quite different to the provinces of Sri Lanka and some are in fact bigger than the whole of Sri Lanka, that comparison was as irrelevant then as now. Sadly, with Sri Lanka fighting two insurgencies in the north and south at that time, we neither had the will nor the ability to resist India when the Indian state, with a barely concealed threat of military intervention, had effectively prevented our military from finishing off the LTTE at Vadamarachchi. There was little or no input from Sri Lanka into the hurriedly concluded pact that was signed when the country was virtually on fire. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s belief that India’s strong arm tactics had brought Prabhakaran to heel was a woeful misjudgment. We need not labour the fact that India was unable to honour her obligations, notably of disarming the LTTE, under the Indo – Lanka Agreement.

While all this is true, outside the political parties and activists there is no real interest in the country about amending or not amending 13A. Certainly the vast majority of the Lankan people do not wish to see or will stand for any future division of the country. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, despite its membership of the government and ministries and other offices conferred on it, feels that any dilution of 13A would affect the minorities including the Muslims. That accounts for its current position and the talks it has been having with the TNA. While recent discussions between the SLMC and the UNP which it has time and again backed and then given the karapincha treatment has ostensibly been to discuss the green party’s recently publicized constitutional proposals. There is no doubt that the current political situation, principally government’s intentions over 13A, would have also been on the agenda.

It was reported yesterday that Minister Basil Rajapaksa will leave for India this week as the president’s special envoy to brief the Indians on the current political situation here. Though India voted against us in Geneva last time round, she has been undoubtedly helpful with regard to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting due to be held here in November. The government has been working hard to ensure that this meeting is not shifted elsewhere as some powerful members of the grouping wished. While that no longer seems to be a risk, India’s support for CHOGM to be held in Colombo has been invaluable. Given all the loose talk about 13 plus in recent Indo – Lankan talks at the highest and lesser levels, Rajapaksa will have his work cut out to explain Colombo’s current stance. Given domestic political compulsions including an election next year, the Tamil Nadu factor must necessarily be factored into India’s position. There is not even a remote possibility of India using strong arm tactics as in 1987 in trying to impose her will on Sri Lanka at this point of time. But good relations with India must always remain a cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy and there must be a fine balance of economic and political considerations in this regard.

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe went on recent record saying that restoring good governance via 17A which was repealed is more important than toppling the government – a subject on which he was harping not long ago. Let us not forget that 17A was unanimously adopted by parliament although incumbent governments, past and present, have paid little heed to restoring standards of governance that keep eroding by the day. Good governance will certainly find resonance with the people although the president may wonder whether there is any point in his holding office as the country’s chief executive if he cannot transfer the OIC of the Tangalle police station.