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Claiming that President Ranil Wickremesinghe is enjoying power based on the mandate given by the people to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) stated that the former has no moral right to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was not implemented by all his predecessors from J.R. Jayewardene to Rajapaksa.

During a meeting with Parliamentarians representing the Tamil community on Tuesday (18), Wickremesinghe had said that the 13th Amendment would be implemented with full powers, except for those related to the Police, subject to agreement among political parties in the Parliament.

Speaking to The Daily Morning on the matter, SLPP General Secretary MP and attorney Sagara Kariyawasam said: “Former Presidents Jayewardene, who forcibly introduced the 13th Amendment, Ranasinghe Premadasa and D.B. Wijetunga, both of whom supported it in the Parliament, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who came to power with a strong opinion that power should be decentralised, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Maithripala Sirisena who came to power with the support of Tamil and Muslim political parties did not implement the 13th Amendment, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa did not do it either. There must have been a serious reason such as via intelligence reports for them to not have implemented it. Therefore, Wickremesinghe should first reveal that reason to the people, and get the intelligence agencies or other relevant authorities to see if that reason is still there.”

He also said that Wickremesinghe is enjoying power that was given by the people to Gotabaya Rajapaksa to strengthen national security, and not to decentralise power. “It is not for the devolution of power that the people gave power to us (the SLPP). When the country was in an unstable situation due to bombings (Easter Sunday terror attacks of 21 April 2019), Gotabaya Rajapaksa pledged to ensure national security and 6.9 million people voted for him, and gave us a two thirds power in the Parliament. So, no one can go against the people’s expectation. That is why we say that Wickremesinghe has no moral right to do this. If he needs, he can call an election and tell the people that he would implement the 13th Amendment. If the people like it, they will bring him to power, and then he can do it. We have informed Wickremesinghe of this.” Speaking further, Kariyawasam said that the SLPP is not a Party that is of the view that power should remain centralised, but that it would however not endorse a move to decentralise power based on nationalities, religions or languages. “We are not against the devolution of power. However, we are against the devolution of power based on nationalities, religions and languages. That is very adverse for a country. Power devolution should be done in a way that is beneficial for all communities and the country. It should be aimed at the progress of the country, and not that of a particular community.”

Wickremesinghe on Tuesday assured the Tamil MPs that the 13th Amendment would be fully implemented, without Police powers, in the Provincial Councils (PCs). However, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on the same day “categorically rejected” the President’s offer to implement the 13th Amendment without Police powers, terming the proposal for power devolution, “another hollow promise”.

On 29 July 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed between the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Jayewardene which provided for the devolution of powers to the provinces. On 14 November 1987, the Parliament passed the 13th Amendment and the PCs Act, No. 42 of 1987 to establish PCs. The Amendment aims at creating PCs and enabling Sinhalese and Tamil as the national languages while preserving English as the link language.

The Catholic church said yesterday (28 February) that Colombo Archbishop His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has met Catholic Church Head His Holiness Pope Francis yesterday, where the discussions were due to have been focused on the Sri Lankan Catholic people’s struggle for justice, following the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

“We have exhausted all options within Sri Lanka to find justice. Now, we are discussing all avenues through which we can find justice internationally. Our last remaining solution was to seek assistance from the international community. This is not because we do not love our country. The Archbishop is meeting the Pope after two years and he is especially focusing on informing him that we need help from the international community to seek justice for the victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks,” National Catholic Social Communication Centre Director Rev. Cyril Gamini Fernando said at a press conference held yesterday.

Responding to media queries on whether the Archbishop is due to travel to the US, following his meeting with the Pope, Rev. Fernando said that the Archbishop’s plans after the visit to the Vatican cannot be officially announced yet.

“In our path to seeking justice from the international community, Sri Lanka may face sanctions. The Government and the relevant authorities should have thought about that in the past three years. If they had done what was required, which is to implement the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday terror attacks, nobody would have needed to get help internationally. The fact that justice has not yet been served is a Sri Lankan problem. People from all religions and communities and foreigners died in the attacks,” he added.

Archbishop Ranjith said last month that they were currently exploring the possibility of reaching out to the international community, including the UN, to seek justice for the said terror attacks. In an online meeting held recently, the Archbishop pointed out that they, as the Catholic church, have links all over the world, and that they would also try to influence some pertinent and powerful countries that are in contact with the church. In addition, he said that in case they would be reaching out to the international community, such efforts would also be supported by his fellow cardinals around the world.

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches (St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, and Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury hotels in Colombo (Cinnamon Grand Colombo, The Kingsbury Colombo, and Shangri-La Colombo) were targeted in a series of co-ordinated suicide bombings. Later that day, another two bomb explosions took place at a house in Dematagoda and the Tropical Inn Lodge in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people excluding the bombers were killed in the bombings, including about 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured.