THE ABC OF AMENDING THE AMENDMENT

The proposed amendments to the 13th Amendment have raised a Babel of voices, quite predictably. However the basic questions remain open - there are many including the Defence Secretary who are stiffly opposed to the grant of police powers to the NPC (Northern Provincial Council) or any PC, for very good reasons. He is responsible for security and the sustenance of the hard won peace. It is hard for anybody to argue with someone who has a responsibility that is this onerous.

However, the criticisms that are being made about the proposed amendments are (a) from the usual culprits and (b) as expected, not substantiated.

There is for instance the contention that the proposed legislation is being hurried through Parliament sans the 'consultative process' that such legislative measures should be accompanied with. To think that anybody would say this about the 13th Amendment that was made into law without so much as a by your leave from Sri Lankan legislators themselves, is rather astounding. So, it seems, what was the result of a shotgun arrangement, stage managed from outside our shores, should now be subject to intense democratic scrutiny?

However, it could be said that this objection is confined to the procedural. What of substance per se? Two provinces cannot be merged, and this would be by law. There is hardly any debate on this any more after the Supreme Court unequivocally passed judgment de-merging the North and the East.

That issue has been legally settled. What is the grouse now when what's legally settled is being constitutionally reinforced? The other issue which has been visited and revisited by the punditry is the matter of legislation and the free passage of laws that come under the provincial list, so called. A majority of provinces will now have to give consent to the passage of such legislation and not all of them.

There can be absolutely no argument on this, considering some of the mistaken notions people seem to entertain on the interpretation of matters that come under the purview of the provinces. Writers have pointed out that erroneous interpretations were made about what comes under the provincial list in matters pertaining to Bills that was passed into law recently - the Divi Neguma for example.

The details aside, ideologically there is a massive problem in contemplating possibly, a Provincial Council of people that have advocated openly for secession. For instance, writers keep pointing to the fact that the membership of the TNA argued against the 13th Amendment consistently saying it is not adequate in terms of power devolution.

If the stewardship of the Northern Province goes to elements that in this way made a thinly veiled argument for secession, how would the Defence Secretary for instance justify THAT to his troops which waged an epic battle sacrificing lives and limbs, to rid the country of secessionists?

This is why there is a building sense of anxiety about the 13th Amendment and what it would entail for the country after a hard fought war. The overwhelming sense among majority and minority alike is that a Provincial Council should contribute to progress and that it should not be a retrogressive step that in the name of empowering a community, in fact takes away from their own sense of security and post war well being.

Power sharing and devolution is not an imperative when there is an overwhelming sense that it could further burden a regional population with the burdens of a new arrangement that only a coterie of vested interests want.

This is why Arun Tambimuttu the SLFP organizer for Batticaloa states that the 13th Amendment has caused more problems that it has solved. He in fact goes to the extent of saying that it has given rise to vexed issues, and asks for its repeal. There isn't any way that his view could be taken to be less important than those of some political scientists who are neither Tamil or from the relevant 'political location' i.e.: the North and the East where Sri Lanka's alleged 'national question' is proximately situated.