President Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing Parliament yesterday (9), introduced his plans for the 13th Amendment and devolution of power, urging a comprehensive review of his proposals. He invited fellow parliamentarians to share their thoughts, as the ultimate decision about the role and future of Provincial Councils lies solely within the Parliament’s jurisdiction.
He emphasised the necessity to implement the 13th Amendment in a way that suits the nation’s growth and future. He also revealed his plans to revise Provincial Council laws and introduce new ones with the consent of Parliament.
Proposed changes include adopting the District Proportional System for Voting, enabling Members of Parliament to join Provincial Council elections, and increasing women’s representation to 25 per cent or higher. He further stressed that to achieve this required a consensus among all Parliament Members through comprehensive and open-minded deliberations.
The debate on the relevance and productivity of having Provincial Councils in the name of solving the ‘national problem’ has been debated ever since it was proposed and ‘forced on’ us some three decades ago.
Sri Lanka has attempted to devolve power in many ways with successive governments initially seeking to realise decentralisation of administration through the existing administrative system by adding development functions to the role of the Government Agents and Assistant Government Agents. Accordingly, the Divisional Development Councils were introduced in 1971 and several other innovations were introduced including district political authority (1973), decentralised capital budget (1974), district minister system (1978), district development councils (1981), and Provincial Councils (1988). The first four modes were motivated by party political ideas and developed domestically, whereas the Provincial Council system was influenced by the Indian Government as a mode of solving internal conflict which was on-going at that time.
The main stimulus for the establishment of Provincial Councils was the devolution of political and administrative authority to subnational level to address Tamil interests, especially in the North and the East. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution and Provincial Councils Act of, 1987 were passed. These laws brought radical changes to the centralised form of governance and the Provincial Councils became the second tier of the administrative structure of Sri Lanka.
The Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) dominated in the North-East Provincial Council. However, the N-E Provincial Council had a short life. It was dissolved in 1990 and then operated by public officials for many years. Until 2007, there were seven elected Provincial Councils with 380 members — Central (58), Western (104), Southern (55), North Central (33), North Western (52), Uva (34), and Sabaragamuwa (44). The North and East Provinces, which were merged by the Indo-Lanka Accord on 29 July 1987, were demerged by a Supreme Court judgement in October 2006. Its administration continued under two Governors from January 2007. After the liberation of the Eastern Province from the LTTE, PC elections were held in May 2008 and the Eastern Provincial Council was set up with 37 members. In 2009, the LTTE was defeated by the government and Provincial Council for the Northern Province was established through PC election in 2010.
While having PCs as a mode of power devolution could be considered as a wise move at the time, over the years it has proven less productive and a waste of money. The political, social and economic changes that took place over the years may have reduced the importance of having such a system. This, might be the reason why India which has always been sentimental and adamant about implementing the 13th Amendment in its full form did not in fact bring it at least to the discussion table this time, when President Wickremesinghe went for bilateral talks.
The Central Government can easily carry out policy making in all areas and under strict guidelines, public officials could maintain and manage services taking into consideration the varying requirements of the demography. At a juncture when the country is struggling financially, it would be farsighted to eliminate all these layers of costly bureaucracy and work with the basics.