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NJC reminds President of the separatist tactic: ‘little now more later’

Published

3 years ago

2023/03/4

The National Joint Committee (NJC), on Thursday, wrote to President Ranil Wickremesinghe cautioning him against the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.The letter, signed by Lt Col (Ret.) Anil Amarasekera, Co-President of NJC, said the full implementation of the 13th Amendment would amount to opening a Pandora’s Box.

Given below are excerpts of the letter: “The Indo-Lanka accord, signed on 27th July, 1987, that was forced on Sri Lanka by India, through gunboat diplomacy, is illegal, according to articles 51 and 52 of the Vienna Convention on the law of Treaties. India also failed to implement some of the provisions therein, such as disarming the terrorists, and, as such, the Indo-Lanka Accord can be considered as repudiated. Therefore, do you consider the 13th Amendment, enacted on 14th November, 1987, in accordance with the Indo-Lanka Accord, to have any validity?

“The English meaning of decentralization and devolution of power seem very similar when looked at superficially. However, the important fact that needs to be realized, when it comes to the governing power of a country, is that decentralization amounts to the transfer of that power, from the central government, to a local authorit, be it a region, a province or a district, while devolution is, on the other hand, the removal of central government power and handing that power over to a region, a province or a district. Therefore, decentralized power, if misused by a region, a province or a district, could be recalled by the central government, while devolved power cannot be recalled by the central government, if misused by a region, a province or a district. Taking into consideration the difficulty, or virtual impossibility, for a central government to recall devolved power to a region, a province, or a district, let us consider the possible repercussions of such an eventuality in this country, with several simple examples.

“Firstly, let us consider irrigation, which is the life blood of the farming community in the northern and eastern provinces. Once this subject is devolved to a province, if the provincial administration fails to maintain the reservoirs (Wewas), and irrigation canals, in the Sinhala villages, there is nothing the central government can do to help the Sinhala cultivators in distress. The only alternative left for them would be to leave those villages, in the northern and eastern provinces, and migrate to some other province.

“Secondly, let us consider the subject of health. Once this subject is devolved to a province, if the provincial administration fails to provide adequate funds to maintain the rural hospital buildings, serving the Sinhala community, or fails to provide adequate doctors, nurses and other staff, or even medical supplies, to rural hospitals in their area, the Sinhala villagers will have no other alternative left other than to leave the province and to migrate to some other province where these facilities are available.

“Thirdly, let us consider the subject of education. Once this subject is devolved to a province, if the provincial administration fails to appoint the teachers needed to schools in Sinhala villages and also does not allocate adequate funds to maintain and repair school buildings in the Sinhala villages, there is nothing that the central government can do in this regard. The Sinhala population will therefore leave the province and migrate to some other province where good education facilities are available for their children.

“These are only three simple examples that I have provided to bring to your attention the danger of devolving power to the provinces. However, the situation would be the same with regard to distribution of electricity, repair of roads, purchase of agricultural produce and many other such subjects, if there is devolution of power to a province, where the Sinhala population is a minority. Therefore, while devolution will only hasten the division of the country by creating administrative avenues to encourage the migration of the Sinhala population, from the northern and eastern provinces of the country, to other provinces, decentralization of power will not encourage such action as these powers can be withdrawn by the central government, if found to be misused by any provincial council.

“C.V. Wigneswaran, MP, said recently that the full implementation of the 13th Amendment is good but that he will not look back until a federal constitution is promulgated. He is trying to apply Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam’s policy of ‘little now more later’ with an intention to first federate a unitary state, through the full implementation of the 13th Amendment. The federated state will subsequently be divided to establish Eelam, which is the final objective of the separatists. If Wigneswaran, and likeminded separatists, succeed to achieve during peace what they failed to achieve through three decades of war, all the sweat, blood, tears and toil expended by the security forces, sometimes even by sacrificing their very life and limb to defeat the separatists, would have been in vain.

“This ‘little now later’ policy has been applied with great success by racist Tamil politicians since independence. They first succeeded in making Tamil, a language of the minority community, an official language, in par with Sinhala, which is the language of the majority community in this country. Tamil, incidentally, is not an official language, even in India, where the majority of the Tamil population live in this world. Through the enactment of the controversial 13th Amendment, the racist Tamil politicians succeeded in devolving much of political and administrative power to the northern and eastern provinces that can be utilised to create an exodus of the minority Sinhala population, from these two provinces, as pointed out previously in this letter.

“Through the enactment of the 16th Amendment, these racist Tamil politicians succeeded in making Tamil the language of administration in the northern and eastern provinces, for the maintenance of public records and transactions of all business by public institutions. The majority Sinhala population, not being racists, had little or no objection while such discriminatory legislation was enacted for political expediency, but can the Sinhala majority continue to allow this ‘little now more later’ policy to continue?

Therefore, in the interest of the Sinhala minority that is living in the northern and eastern provinces, the NJC kindly request you to promulgate a new Constitution for which the majority of the people in this country gave a mandate both at the last presidential and general elections so that the people living in any part of this country are not discriminated, based on their ethnic, caste or religious identity.”

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CIABOC probe: CC under pressure to ask Speaker to step down as Chairman

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/9

Thilina Walpola

Dayasiri questions legitimacy of appointments made by Council

The Constitutional Council (CC) should ask its head, Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne, to step down temporarily pending an investigation by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) into a complaint lodged by sacked Deputy Secretary General of Parliament Chaminda Kularatne, SJB MP Dayasiri Jayasekera has said.

Former Minister Jayasekera said so in response to The Island queries pertaining to Kularatne’s recent complaint to the CIABOC.

Jayasekera pointed out that the CC, which is responsible for key appointments, couldn’t afford to have a person under CIABOC investigation as its head. “We have never experienced a similar situation since the establishment of the CC in 2000,” the Kurunegala District lawmaker said.

Parliament introduced CC under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. It was abolished in 2010, reinstated in 2015 through the 19th Amendment, then replaced by a Parliamentary Council in 2020, and reintroduced via the 21st Amendment in October 2022.

MP Jayasekera said that the NPP government had turned a blind eye to his recent request made in Parliament for the Speaker to step down. He said that subsequently he had discussed the issue with other MPs and they were of the view that Dr. Wickramaratne’s continuation as the Chairman of the CC undermined the integrity of the council.

A parliamentary committee headed by Dr. Wickramaratne sacked Kularatne on January 23 over alleged irregularities pertaining to his appointment as Deputy Secretary General of Parliament and Chief of Staff. Kularatne lodged the complaint with the CIABOC on 2 February.

Austin Fernando, Professor Wasantha Seneviratne and Ranjith Ariyaratne were appointed as non-Members of Parliament to the CC on 23 January, the day Parliament sacked Kularatne.

MP Jayasekera said that the CC should discuss the issue with the Speaker. Political parties represented in parliament should intervene to ensure that the controversy over the Speaker’s conduct didn’t undermine the apex body.

The CC consists of Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya (Ex-officio), Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne (Ex-officio), Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa (Ex-officio), one MP appointed by the President (Bimal Rathnayake), five persons appointed by the President, upon being nominated as follows: one MP nominated by agreement of the majority of the Members of Parliament representing the Government (Aboobucker Athambawa, M.P), one MP nominated by agreement of the majority of the MPs of the political party or independent group to which the Leader of the Opposition belongs—Ajith P. Perera—and three persons nominated by the Speaker by agreement of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition—Austin Fernando, Professor Wasantha Seneviratne and Ranjith Ariyaratne—and one MP nominated by agreement of the MPs other than those representing the Government and those belonging to the political party or independent group to which the Leader of the Opposition belongs, and appointed by the President (Sivagnanam Shritharan, M.P).

The CC recommend nominations to the President for the appointment of Chairpersons and Members of Election Commission, Public Service Commission, National Police Commission, Audit Service Commission, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, Finance Commission, Delimitation Commission and National Procurement Commission.

Jayasekera asked how Dr. Wickramaratne could continue as CC head as appointments to CIABOC, too, are made by the 10-member body.

The CC also approve/disapprove recommendations by the President for the appointment Chief Justice and the Judges of the Supreme Court, President and the Judges of the Court of Appeal, Members of the Judicial Service Commission, other than the Chairman, Attorney-General, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Auditor-General, Inspector-General of Police, Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman) and Secretary General of Parliament.

MP Jayasekera said that it would be really interesting to see the response of the newly appointed civil society members to the developing situation. The SJBer pointed out that the recent appointment of Samudika Jayaratne, a Senior Deputy Auditor General as the Auditor General was made after Kularatne moved the CIABOC against the Speaker.

The JVP and NPP, having preached other political parties of transparency, couldn’t pretend the Speaker’s issue was not serious. Dr. Wickramaratne was appointed Speaker in Dec 2024 after Asoka Ranwala had to step down after being exposed for making false higher education qualifications.

by Shamindra Ferdinando

News

Auditor General urged to probe coal scam

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/9

Thilina Walpola

The Electricity Consumers’ Association (ECA) Friday (6) called on newly appointed Auditor General Samudika Jayarathne to begin her tenure by launching an investigation into the controversial coal procurement deal, which has drawn widespread public criticism.

Addressing a media briefing in Marandagahamula, Gampaha, ECA Secretary, Sanjeewa Dhammika, said the probe should be conducted independently. The appointment of a new Auditor General, following a vacancy of nearly six to seven months, was a crucial step in restoring the effectiveness of the state audit system, he said, extending congratulations to Jayarathne.

Dhammika urged the Auditor General to carry out a swift, independent investigation into the questionable coal procurement deals, alleging that they had caused significant economic and environmental harm to the country.

He called for the findings of such an investigation to be disclosed to the public as a priority.

He also called for an immediate audit of Lanka Transformer Ltd, which has faced severe criticism from the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE). Dhammika said the audit should reveal details of alleged irregularities, identify those responsible, and disclose any misuse of public funds.

Noting that the government held a substantial share in Lanka Transformer Ltd, he stressed that the matter constituted a direct responsibility of the State.

“The audit system should not function to provide political protection, but to safeguard public funds,” Dhammika said, adding that the Association expected the new Auditor General to uphold this principle.

By Anuradha Hiripitiyage

News

First-ever monkey holding centre to be set up in Matale

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/9

Thilina Walpola

A 150-hectare site near the Kalu Ganga Reservoir in Matale District has been earmarked for Sri Lanka’s first-ever holding centre for Toque Macaques, the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) announced.

The centre will feature water, food, and security facilities, providing a safe environment to manage macaques that cause damage in nearby communities. The Matale District Development Committee has approved the project, following a recommendation from the DWC.

Wildlife Range Officer Chamath Lakshman Perera told the Committee that similar holding centres operate in several countries, including Malaysia. A total of Rs. 283.87 million has been allocated for the project.

Under the plan, macaques causing destruction will be captured and relocated to the centre. Population control measures will include fitting loops on female monkeys to prevent breeding. The facility will be secured to ensure the animals cannot escape back into the wild.

Officials said the site has sufficient natural food sources, but additional supplies will be provided if necessary. Each macaque is expected to require around 70 grams of food per day.

The project aims to balance wildlife conservation with community protection, offering a model for managing human-macaque conflicts in the country, Perera said.

by Nimal Gunathilake