The Two Constitutions Of Sri Lanka
Is the 13th Amendment: coming, going or gone? It is the question about which Sri Lankans are beating out their brains out and so are the Indians. Has Mahinda Rajapaksa accepted the 13th Amendment and will he implement it or he has decided—as we Sri Lankans say— to ‘quietly forget about it’?
Mahinda Rajapaksa meets S. M. Krishna
Who is lying?
Did he tell Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna when he visited Sri Lanka in January that the 13th Amendment Plus would be implemented or did Krishna make it all up when he said at press Conference that Rajapaksa agreed to implement the 13th Amendment? Or did Rajapaksa play and Indian rope- trick on the Indian Foreign Minister? Did Rajapaksa tell Sushima Swaraj the Leader of the Lok Sabha (Lower House) who led a delegation of Indian MPs to Lanka that the 13th Amendment Plus would be implemented or was the honourable Leader of the Opposition of the Lok Sabha lying? Or was our leader lying? But whether the 13th Amendment is implemented or not it has been enacted into the Sri Lanka Constitution for a near 25 years and been there all the while. So what happens to the 13th Amendment?
No constitutional expert could provide u s with an answer and we sought the wisdom of a veteran of Law College who had long years.
‘My dear Serendipitous you appear to be clueless. Little wonder, you can’t even get to a ‘hoo’ distance close to Temple Trees. Only the Law College veterans who were there for many years know what is happening in the kitchen cabinet, he said.
On paying his ‘fee’ of a few generous Scotch and soda at the Water Hole he unbuttoned the secret.
The two constitutions
It is true that the 13th Amendment has been enacted; it is in the constitution and HE, his brothers, sons, family members, first cousins, distance cousins and all who are in government positions have all sworn to abide by the constitution. Therefore the 13th Amendment is accepted.
But it is also true that the 13th Amendment is not a accepted the Expert decalred with the triumphant smile of a genius revealing a hidden truth and went on.
Under the Rajapaksa rule the constitution has evolved not only visibly but invisibly. You see that an Unwritten Constitution has been in operation for sometime.
How could it be?
This is unheard of, we declared. Come, come Serendipitous. Haven’t you heard of the British Constitution which is unwritten. Now if the British can have one why can’t we have two—one written and the other unwritten? We are not going to follow the beaten track of those Western imperialist tutors, Jennings, Erskine May and all that.
So what happens to the 13th Amendment?
The veteran continued: It is there and not there. The written constitution has it and when Rajapaksa swears to Indians about the 13th Amendment he is telling the truth. When he denies or stays silent with the local media he is also telling the truth because the unwritten constitution does not have it.
The expert continued: It is a difficult concept for pre Rajapaksa era constitutionalists to understand. If you know the Quantum Theory of Matter you may be able to grasp the Rajapaksa principle. The behaviour of an electron can be explained considering it to be a form of matter. It can also be explained as a wave of energy but the exact position of and electron cannot be determined.
An analogy would be like that of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus’s theory of constant flux: You can’t step into the same river twice because the water keeps flowing.
Adey, Adey this is real Mahinda Chintanaya. Like Einstein’s E= MC2 (M=Mahinda; C=Chintanaya), we chipped in. But what is the legal basis for having two constitutions?
Dual Constitutions
The Sovereignty of the People. The 13th Amendment is there in the written constitution of J. R. Jayawardene which he claimed was enacted on a mandate given by a stupendous majority in 1977.Never mind if Rajiv Gandhi forced the amendment down his throat but let’s admit that it is in the written constitution.
The Rajapaksa Mandate is different. He too got a massive majority. And if he accepts the 13th Amendment he will lose that massive majority. Therefore under the Unwritten Constitution he can’t accept that amendment.
So why can’t he say that the 13th Amendment won’t be implemented? My dear Serendipitous, as Kautilya and his counterpart the Italian Machiavelli said: Politics is the art of the possible. Remember what happened recently at Geneva?
So by what constitution will Rajapaksa govern or the rest of his term or for ever?
Most of the time by the Unwritten Constitution. But that will not be with the consent of the masses.
My dear fellow for the past two years the Unwritten Constitution has been in operation and you think the masses knew it? The hard reality is that the masses are asses.
Come on, the 13+ or minus or just 13 is not the first example. Recall the SInhala Only and Tamil Also in 1956? But while the first was enacted by main legislation the second was to to be implemented by secondary gazette notiification as and when it pelased the Minister in charge of the Oficial Language Act! Nothing happened until 1971 when under the first Republican constitution Tamil was also made an official language as language medium of administtration between Taml people and the government. This was reiterated in the 1987 Presidential constitution when English was also added as third official language, as was the case prior to 1956 under first Independence constitution! Tamil is still languishing as medium of communication with Tamil speaking people even in the north and east, 56 years after the first move! Meanwhile the war against terrorism (depending on who has been terrorising whom ?) has reduced the Tamil population by a million!!!
What happned to the use of Tamil language is happening to the 13 whatever under the Jayewardene/ Rajapakse constitutions with PTA in place. Machiavelli must feel quite pleased.
If there is no will, there is no way. India is yet learning.
13 is an unlucky number. We should abandon it.
Hay Gamini,
Forget that mind boggling theoretical physics and Einstein. Every Simple Simon knows that neither Sinhalese nor Tamils ever asked for 13A. It is India that rammed it down old JRJ throat in 1977 saying it’s the solution to all undefined but so-called Tamil grievances.
However, neither LTTE nor the leading Tamil party, TULF meaning TNA, the LTTE proxy accepted 13A. So, JRJ couldn’t implement it in the North or East. But true to his word, the old fox rammed it down our throat here in the south. And today, it is a white elephant to Simple Simons but beneficial to corrupt politicians. As everyone knows, JVP and LTTE used it to set the whole country on fire for years.
LTTE even killed 1250 javans of IPKF because they tried to enforce 13A. And later LTTE blasted the Indian PM, Rajiv to take revenge for trying to force 13A upon them. Consequently, 13A was never implemented in the North for all those years.
As a superficial solution, President Premadasa asked IPKF to leave Sri Lanka soil in 1990. But from then on LTTE continued killing Sri Lankans at various theatres, levels, chapters and phases till May18th 2009.
It is not 13A or peace agreements but eradication of LTTE that brought peace to Sri Lanka since separatist Tamils declared war on Sri Lanka at Waddukkodai on My14, 1976. So, just abolish 13A and agreement with India to cement peace that prevails in the country today.
May be the constitution should also empower arrack swilling, bribe taking, spent-up journalists from ‘big’ families (credited with introducing such great journalistic ‘talen’ as D. Sivaram to tap telephones (calls to order a ‘budget’ taxi, take soda for a drink and pillow talk).
Boot licking mangy dogs at TSL will be herded soon.
The profile (your nuts!)