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The meeting of political parties called last week by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss the way forward vis-a-vis the implementation of the 13th Amendment ended without any conclusion being reached.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe himself would not have expected to actually reach a conclusion but rather to sound out the different political parties on what their respective perspectives were on
the devolving of land and police powers.

The latter objective was achieved to a great extent with the views expressed by participants shedding sufficient light on the matter to understand their thinking. 

What seemed clear from what was explicitly stated as well as reading between the lines of those who did not articulate specific positions is that the political formations are divided with regard to implementing the 13th Amendment in full.

There were also welcome signs that the different parties were willing to attend and articulate their positions rather than simply boycott the meeting. Here the National Peoples Power (NPP) which has earned public respect for taking up specific positions on current issues as well as articulating reasons for the same missed out on the opportunity to do so by not attending the meeting.

In contrast Messrs Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Dulles Alahaperuma despite being wary of the President’s intentions in calling the meeting not only attended the meeting but politely articulated their suspicions.

In a welcome move Wimal Weerawansa went further and presented a written document containing his party’s position regarding the subject although it has not yet been released to the people.

The position of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is not too difficult to figure out from what the party’s General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam has told the meeting. He said that there must have been some reason for previous Presidents not implementing the 13th Amendment in full and that this had to be probed. But he stopped short of saying what his reading of the reasons was.

This was followed up the following day at a media conference called by the SLPP where Parliamentarian Dr. Ranjith Bandara questioned what the need was for the 13th Amendment to be implemented at this time. Considering the two statements of the two Parliamentarians together with the fact that they are close associates of the SLPP’s de facto Leader Basil Rajapaksa, it may be fair to assume that the SLPP will not support the full implementation of the 13th Amendment at this time.

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya’s (SJB) stand was that elections to the Provincial councils should be held but the party’s General Secretary Ranjith Bandara did not expressly or impliedly express opposition to the devolving of Police and land powers.

Former President Maithripala Sirisena in his capacity as Leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) did not express opposition to the full implementation of the 13th Amendment either and said whatever powers were devolved would benefit Provincial councils in all parts of the country.

Striking a positive and mature note Parliamentarian Anura Yapa told the meeting that no one should approach the problem with a suspicious or negative mind set.

The Tamil political parties were divided on the issue of whether the elections to Provincial councils should precede or be held simultaneously with the devolving of Police and land powers, with Dr C V Wigneswaran seemingly not stressing the importance of elections in the way the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) did. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam like the NPP, stayed away from the meeting.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe told Party Leaders he could only present an agreed formula for Parliament to decide as he has only one vote in the legislature. If the President is keen to implement more powers under the 13th Amendment he may have to adopt a different strategy.

Since the support of the SLPP can be ruled out after what Sagara Kariyawasam said last week, he will have to look to the SJB and TNA in the main for support in Parliament together with some of the progressive elements among the SLPP dissidents.

He will therefore have to initiate negotiations with these two parties and arrive at an acceptable consensus to be presented to the next All-Party meeting in a month’s time. These negotiations will have to be done away from the cameras if they are to have any chance of success.

If this cannot be done it is best that the task be left to the next Parliament and President Ranil Wickremesinghe devotes his energies to the economy which by itself is a formidable task.

(javidyusuf@gmail.com)