Addressing Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s first parliamentary address since the parliamentary elections, the Hindu urged the government to “not undo democratic gains or roll back devolution in the Constitution”.

Noting the historic two-third majority of the SLPP during the parliamentary election, the Hindu states that there “is indeed a mandate for constitutional change”; however, the question whether the reforms will “strengthen democratic institutions or weaken them”.

 

19^th Amendment

The residents of Mathagal, Jaffna protested and expressed strong objection against Sri Lankan land surveyors' attempts to legalise the navy occupation of a privately owned strip of land, last week.

Tensions were high as locals gathered and expressed their firm opposition over the Sri Lankan navy’s attempt to seize privately owned land of a local Tamil man to expand a naval base. A large number of police and navy personnel were deployed to the area, causing the land surveyors to leave. Later on Friday, police removed protestors and journalists at the scene.

<p>Thirty five institutions were brought under the purview of the Defence Ministry and Internal Security, Home Affairs and Disaster Management State Ministry by a Gazette Notification issued earlier this month.&nbsp;</p> <p>The Ministry of Defence's offical website <a href="http://www.defence.lk/Article/view_article/2158">reported </a>that the Department of Archaeology is amongst the many institutions brought under the purview of the Defence Ministry, forming part of a series of moves to militarise the activities of the state.&nbsp;</p>

Sri Lankan army commander and accused war criminal, Shavendra Silva, has been appointed to the National Sports Council by Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa. 

Silva's appointment to the Council follows Sri Lanka's pattern of increasing militarisation of state institutions which has taken place since Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed office in November 2019. Silva remains banned from travelling to the US over rights abuses which took place during the military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils. 

Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) leader, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, gave a powerful speech in which he insisted that Tamil rights and the Tamil nation must be recognised; as well as arguing that “sovereignty can never be a defence in the face of serious accusations of war crimes”. 

This remark came during parliamentary debates on the government’s policy statement presented by Sri Lankan President and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa. 

Eight motor cell explosives were found buried in the ground in Vavuniya and recovered by Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) officials, yesterday. 

The explosives were discovered whilst there was land reconstruction work going on in the Kanagarayankulam area of Vavuniya, when locals spotted the suspicious items on the ground. The Kanagarayankulam police were informed of the discovery. Local police and STF officials came and recovered 8 motor cell explosives which were found as undetonated.

^{Photograph:  Facebook - MP Manusha Nanayakkara}

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) parliamentarian, Manusha Nanayakkara, demanded Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to retract parts of The leader of the Thamizh Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) and parliamentarian C.V. Wigneswaran’s speech, yesterday. 

The leader of the Thamizh Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) and former Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C. V. Wigneswaran urged the Sri Lankan government to “shed the false historical perspectives of the past” and insisted that the rights of the people in the North-East needs to be recognised as they “are entitled to the right of self-determination”.

Wigneswaran also stated that “we have a very powerful government now” and that there was “a similar government during the regime… [of] the 1983 Pogrom,” during his first parliamentary speech last week.

People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka (PEARL) expressed “grave concerns” about the results of the Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election in fortifying Sri Lanka Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s “increasingly autocratic and ethnocratic regime”.

In a statement released earlier this month, PEARL raised fears of how the Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party successfully securing a two-thirds majority victory with an “openly Sinhala-Buddhist ethnonationalist platform” will be allowed to make constitutional changes to the 19^th Amendment.

Sri Lanka’s newly appointed cabinet ministers are to appoint a five-member committee to effectively repeal the 19^th amendment, which limits the powers of the presidency, and replace it with a proposed 20^th amendment.

According to co-cabinet spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, despite the amendments, some of its “salient features” will be retained. This includes the two five-year term limit imposed on the president. The cabinet also claimed that the Right to Information (RTI) Act will also be protected.