The Political Column

12th March 1999

Talks productive and talks destructive

By our Political Correspondent

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Moral degradation has become a core issue in Sri Lankan society amidst rapidly deteriorating social standards in every sphere.

Be it politics or otherwise, there is a sharp decline in values. Regrettably it has reached alarming proportions in the political arena.

As representatives of the people and persons who set the nation's agenda for development, parliamentarians and ministers need to be cautious when dealing with matters relating to parliament as well as courts of law.

Public figures are under oath to protect and safeguard the constitution and provisions. Today's politicians show little respect for the constitution they have pledged to uphold.

Minister S. B. Dissanayake's recent remarks about closing down parliament and courts could be a simple matter of free expression for Mr. Dissanayake and other politicians. But people view such utterances seriously since they see parliament and judiciary as two important organs of the government that could not be dispensed with.

Parliament enacts laws and controls public finance while courts interpret legislation passed by the legislature. The Independence of judiciary is entrenched in our system of government for more than ten decades and any move to tamper with it can not go unchallenged. There have been a few instances where politicians had tried to interfere with the administration of justice. During the 1970-77 United Front government of which the SLFP was the main constituent party, there were moves to control the judiciary.

Mr. Dissanayake said parliament and courts would be closed down if the government was unable to get a two-thirds majority to pass the proposed constitution.

Mr. Dissanayake has apparently put his foot in the mouth by these utterances. He may not have realised that the very existence of the executive presidency depends on parliament which controls public finance, including the budget for the presidency. Under these circumstances, one wonders whether Mr. Dissanayake was calling for a system that borders on anarchy or despotism.

If Minister Dissanayake's utterances represent the government's views, then the people would have to take a serious note of it. But fortunately for the PA, Minister G.L. Peiris gave an assurance in parliament that the government had no plans to close down parliament or courts. But regardless of these assurances, Minister Dissanayake on two other occasions made similar remarks. When the opposition sought clarification, once again, Prof. Peiris disassociated the government's position from Minister Dissanayake's remarks.

Some analysts believe that Minister Dissanayake would not have made such remarks without the sanction of the government. They say his remarks could be a feeler by the government to see what the people's reaction would be if it resorts to such action in its efforts to implement the proposed constitution aimed at ending the war. The President, however, has dismissed Minister Dissanayake's utterances as a load of rubbish. These denials put a question mark over Mr. Dissanayke as to where he stands in the government.

In the meantime, the government controlled Daily News has gone a step further to justify Mr. Dissanayake's remarks. Supported by views expressed by ministers in this regard, the Daily News opined that Mr. Dissanayake was exercising his democratic right as a citizen.

Minister Mangala Samaraweera who had been keeping a low profile since the presidential elections, was one such minister who came forward to the rescue of Mr. Dissanayake. In Minister Samaraweera's view, Mr. Dissanayake had not done anything wrong.

"I see the statement of Minister S.B. Dissanayake as one which clarifies the importance of the necessity to prevent the loss of young lives in this country owing to the ongoing war. What all of us in this country should give priority is to end the war and to provide a solution to the ethnic problem. If anyone were to seek narrow political gain by opposing this national priority, it is our duty to rise up against such moves. The people have given a mandate to our government to rise up in this manner and I, too, believe that the time has now come to do so. To usher in peace, we must relegate all other things to a secondary position," Mr. Samaraweera said.

Among others who backed Minster Dissanayake were Minister Mahinda Wijesekera and Deputy Minister Dilan Perera.

It is important at this juncture to examine a few things uttered by Deputy Minister Dilan Perera. He said that in 1978 President J.R. Jayewardene had the constitution approved by dissolving the Supreme Court. Is this correct? A close study of the recent history will show that the Supreme Court was dissolved only after the new constitution came into force paving the way to the appointment of new Supreme Court bench under the new constitution.

Mr. Perera has made another statement which may be factually inaccurate, when he said that President Jayewardene locked the doors of the chambers of the judges while they were on their way to the bench. He had 12 judges sent home. But what actually happened was that the judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal failed to take the oath under the 6th Amendment to the Constitution under the given time-frame, and they ceased to be judges. However, President Jayewardene later reappointed all of them.

Whatever the stance these politicians take in defence of their colleague, the Supreme Court has appointed a three-judge committee to probe Mr. Dissanayake's remarks and determine whether it constituted contempt of court.

Meanwhile, at the UNP working committee meeting last week, it was decided once again to take disciplinary action against the rebel parliamentarians and provincial council members. UNP legal expert K.N. Choksy said fresh disciplinary action would be taken against the rebels on two counts — failing to adhere to the Whip and voting with the UNP at the budget debate as well as the extension of the emergency and their refusal to quit their cabinet portfolios.

Former Speaker and UNP top-rung member M.H. Mohamed charged that the party did not handle the Supreme Court case properly. He said the UNP failed even to attach the relevant documents including the minutes of the meeting of the working committee to substantiate its stand.

However, Mr. Mohamed's argument was countered by Mr. Choksy who said the judgment concerning the rebels was based not on merit but on technicalities associated with the case and the UNP was not stopped from taking any further action. Eventually, there the working committee approved fresh actions against the rebel members.

Thereafter, the question of the abolition of the executive presidency was taken up. Mr. Choksy said that as the party was studying the government's proposed constitution, the abolition of the executive presidency could be taken up at the talks with President Kumaratunga on Thursday.

But Rohitha Bogollagama held a different view. He said while the talks on the constitutional reforms should include the abolition of the executive presidency, the party should launch a campaign as proposed by Ronnie de Mel to make the people aware of this important matter.

"Mr. de Mel's proposal received immense response from the media and it was vital at this stage, therefore, that the intelligentsia of the country be tapped to generate public opinion within a short time," Mr. Bogollagama said.

His views were endorsed by Mr. de Mel who said this campaign could also consolidate the party position.

Thereafter UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe moved to appoint a special committee to work out a programme on the UNP's proposal. The committee included Mr. de Mel, Tyronne Fernando, Mr. Bogollagama and Mahinda Samarasinghe.

UNP chairman Karu Jayasuriya briefed the working committee members on the International Democratic Union meeting at the Hilton. Mr. de Mel cautioned the UNP for closely associating with this organisation which brings together democratic parties from several countries.

He said that in the western world, conservative parties were being confined to the opposition and cited several examples. He observed that even in Britain, it would be difficult for the Conservatives to make a comeback.

In another development the UNP rebels have now formed a group called "Centre for Democratic Action." The centre has been housed in a building at De Alwis Place behind Ladies College. The chairman of the centre is Wijeyapala Mendis while Stanley Kalpage has been appointed a director. Susil Moonesinghe, a staunch member of this group, has provided the centre with all the furniture and necessary facilities.

The main objective of this group — said to be an initiative of Sarath Amunugama — is to democratise the political party system in Sri Lanka. According to Dr. Amunugama, the group will hold seminars, discussions and lectures on reforms in the party system in Sri Lanka. But some observers said the group was more concerned about changing the UNP constitution, which they see as top-heavy, than bringing about reforms at macro level.

The rebel members will call for a relaxation of provisions in the UNP constitution to curtail the leader's powers and enable its party's executive committee to choose its leadership.

In the meantime, it is believed that another group in the UNP is rallying round Rukman Senanayake and urging him to take the UNP leadership.

The UNP remains a somewhat troubled party especially when general elections are due somewhere in September or October.

Meanwhile the long awaited talks between President Kumaratunga and Mr. Wickremesinghe aimed at resolving the ethnic crisis took place at Temple Trees on Thursday morning.

At the very outset Mr. Wickremesinghe raised objections to the covering of the event by the Information Department and the state television Rupavahini to the exclusion of others. He said the media should not be allowed to cover the proceedings, saying that a joint statement on the talks could be issued at the end of the day.

The two leaders also agreed not to give further information to the media on the grounds that too much media exposure would complicate matters with different groups commenting on these matters differently.

Thereafter, both parties discussed the agenda and the dates to meet again. Both Ms. Kumaratunga and Mr. Wickremesinghe agreed to meet once again on March 19. Both leaders agreed that the discussions should be based on the 1997 proposals presented by the government and the proposals submitted to the select committee by the UNP.

The President said the UNP proposals could be included along with those of the Tamil parties and a document acceptable to all parties could be worked out.

She said: "I believe we have been given a mandate by the people to do what we are going to do now. In the euphoria of victory at the presidential election, we could have gone ahead without the consensus of anybody. But our government and parties attempted to commence a new culture of politics of governance without conflictual governance and to achieve consensual governance.

"We, therefore, decided to discuss among ourselves the 1997 draft constitution about which you all know, because there are certain areas which needed to be completed. We willfully left out some areas without working on the details. We hoped that at the select committee stage, we could complete them and come to an agreement. So it was left like that."

Mr. Wickremesinghe said this meeting certainly was an important one as it was aimed at trying to achieve consensus between the two major parties and bringing the North-East conflict to an end.

"From time to time, these proposals have been expressed by political parties, by the government and from time to time legislation is passed which has been amended or even repealed. This is why in 1994 when the present government moved for an appointment of a select committee on the constitution, we in the UNP agreed. While we went further in 1997, the two parties agreed that the cornerstone of any lasting solution or so requires a bi-partisan approach," he said.

The PA delegations comprised President Kumaratunga, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Dharmasiri Senanayake, D.M. Jayaratne, G.L. Peiris, Batty Weerakoon and M.H.M. Ashraff while the UNP delegation was led by Ranil Wickremesinghe and comprised Karu Jayasuriya, Gamini Atukorale, Ronnie de Mel and K.N. Choksy.

The two delegations went through some first four chapters and the amendments effected to them. They also agreed to meet at least thrice this month and are scheduled to conclude their talks before the end of April.

Prior to the talks, the UNP had a meeting to discuss what it was going to present at the meeting. Members of the UNP delegation, W.J.M. Lokubandara and Tyronne Fernando participated at this meeting.

There, Mr. Fernando said it would be better if the two parties issued a joint communiqué on the matters they agreed upon without allowing the state media to distort facts.

It was based on this opinion that the UNP objected to the presence of the state media at the talks. Accordingly, the two delegations nominated Minister G. L. Peiris and K. N. Choksy to draft the joint communiqué.

Now it appears that these two parties have agreed to arrive at a common consensus on this most important problem.

One person that cannot be forgotten at this juncture is the late A.C.S. Hameed, who rendered a great service to bring about a solution to the ethnic problem.

He toiled to bring the two major parties together to the negotiating table. Though Mr. Hameed is no more, his efforts have paid dividends. Buddhist monks representing all three Nikayas participated in an all-night pirith ceremony and an alms-giving to invoke blessings on Mr. Hameed at the Bauddha Mandiraya at Katugastota.

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