13 A: Prez accused of abusing GR’s mandate

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Dissident SLPP National List MP Gevindu Cumaratunga has accused President Ranil Wickremesinghe of blatantly abusing ousted predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s mandate.The lawmaker questioned UNP leader Wickremesinghe’s recent declaration in Jaffna regarding the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, enacted in 1988, at the behest of India.

MP Cumaratunga yesterday (12) told The Island that he raised the issue in Parliament early this week, close on the heels of President Wickremesinghe’s high profile visit to Jaffna.

The MP, with an impeccable patriotic pedigree, said that those who voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Nov 2019 presidential election and gave the SLPP a nearly 2/3 majority at the parliamentary election, the following year, endorsed the country’s unitary status. The Parliament elected Wickremesinghe to complete the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s five-year term, Cumaratunga said.

Addressing a gathering in Jaffna, President Wickremesinghe urged all provinces to utilize the powers within the 13th Amendment to achieve development. President Wickremesinghe declared that time was opportune to utilize the 13th Amendment.

Referring to a recent statement made by the Director General of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) Deepthi Lamahewa, MP Cumaratunga said that the official who had been always supportive of devolution of power to the regions criticized the Provincial Councils for hindering post-war national reconciliation process.

MP Cumaratunga, in his address to Parliament, quoted Lamahewa as having said that Provincial Councils were an obstacle to reconciliation process.

At the onset, lawmaker Cumaratunga pointed out that seven lawmakers, representing the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), voted against the ONUR Bill on January 09 even though the new law was meant to appease the Tamil speaking community. Parliament passed the Bill with 48 MPs (SLPP 45+SLPP dissidents 2 +SJB dissident 1) whereas seven opposed and 169 skipped the vote.

Commending Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, for the spearheading role he played in enacting new laws, ONUR and new Hydrography Bills, MP Cumaratunga said that they owed an explanation why the Tamil voted against the Bill at its Second Reading.

MP Cumaratunga said that if Tamil parties felt that particular Bill required amendments, they could have followed proper procedure to do so at the Committee Stage. Instead, they voted against the Bill.

TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan aka Pilleyan (Batticaloa District), formerly of the LTTE, voted for the Bill. Lawmaker Cumaratunga was not present in Parliament at the time of voting.

Ahead of the Committee Stage, lawmaker Cumaratunga told Parliament that when the Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on Reconciliation and National Unity examined the ONUR Bill on January 02, 2024, he proposed that the appointment of members to the ONUR office should be subjected to the approval of the Constitutional Council. MP Cumaratunga proposed that those who had been proposed by the Justice Minister and appointed by the President should be subjected to CC’s approval.

However, the Chairman of the SOC on Reconciliation and National Unity MP Dilan Perera hadn’t presented his colleague’s proposal at the Committee Stage, therefore, it was not accommodated. MP Cumaratunga said that when he inquired from the Secretary to the SOC about the status of his proposal he was told the Secretary to the Justice Ministry had been duly informed in this regard.

MP Cumaratunga appreciated President Wickremesinghe, during his recent visit to Jaffna, giving ear to Jaffna-based civil society activist Arun Siddharthan, who wants to unite the races to fight the country’s problems, Lawmaker Cumaratunga, who is also the leader of the Yuthukama civil society group, flayed the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils for failing to re-open at least one of the Sinhala schools that had been closed down during the war. The MP said that their failure to do so, 15 years after the end of the conflict, couldn’t be justified under any circumstances.