- Graduating to
mediation
The law requires that
the new Constitution has to be approved by a
two-thirds majority of Parliament and a simple
majority of the electorate of Sri Lanka. Until
those momentous votes are taken, the devolution
proposals remain proposals which can be approved
or rejected and not the holy writ they are made
out to be. To thrust mediators into the scene,
before Parliament and the populace vote on this
momentous issue, would therefore pre-empt the
sovereign right of Parliament and people to
decide on their own Constitution and instead
confront them with a fait accomplit.Foreign mediators, politicians prepared
to bend over backwards to appease, NGOs and
ruthless terrorists would take upon themselves a
task which only Parliament and the people are
empowered to decide. (full text)
- The
week that was
Govt.
outnumbered, but there was no motion to vote on
Ranil intent on doing
something special on the government's fourth
anniversary summoned a group of his party men to
his Cambridge Place office. Chief Opposition Whip
W. J. M. Loku Bandara, Dharmadasa Banda, Tyronne
Fernando, John Amaratunga and H. M. Azwer had
been invited for the meeting, but Loku Bandara
could not make it, because he had left for
Kataragama.Ranil
explained the purpose of the meeting. Last year,
on the third anniversary of the government, a
number of UNP MPs hurled charges against the
government and walked out of the chamber. A
special statement on behalf of the party was made
by then Chief Whip Wijayapala Mendis. (full text)
- Jeyalalitha
threatens to rock the boat over Cauvery water
scheme
The sharing of the
waters of some of India's major rivers has been
the cause of serious disputes among the
respective riparian states, internationally as
well as within India. For some time after
partition distribution of the waters of the Indus
river basin rankled as one of the great issues
dividing Pakistan and India.After several years of imaginative
mediation by the World Bank, the Indus Waters
Treaty was signed in 1960, declaring the common
interest of Indian and Pakistan in the optimum
development of the rivers in the lndus basin.
Eugene Black then president of the World Bank
called it a 'billion-dollar investment in peace'.
(full
text)
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- L
E G A L W A T C H
Child
Protection: Clarifying the issues
The recent case in
which an Army sergeant was sentenced to seven
years rigorous imprisonment for possessing
indecent photographs of a young child, serves to
highlight some of the positive features as well
as a point of controversy surrounding the recent
strengthening of the laws against child abuse.The start of the legislative reform
process dates back to Act No.22 of 1995 which
introduced a series of measures for the
protection of women and children which,
incidentally, were the first amendments to this
country’s century-old Penal Code. (full text)
- Postponement of PC
polls
Country
before party says Prof. Peiris
The newly appointed
SLFP organiser for Colombo East, Minister of
Justice, Constitutional Affairs and Ethnic
Affairs, National Integration and Deputy Minister
of Finance, Prof. G. L. Peiris believes that the
sheet anchor of a politician should be the
popular mandate. An
exemplary university don and academic of
international fame for 26 years, who entered
active politics in 1994, he says that he made an
appropriate decision when he decided to face the
hustings at the grassroots level.
"I’m happy and proud
to work with a group like that," Prof.
Peiris says about his electorate, "because
of the maturity that they showed in ample measure
with regard to the procedures and practices of
democracy. (full
text)
- A
Personal Note
NM flushed out
‘black money’
In their years in power, while
N. M. both managed the national budget with a
prudence not seen before or since and used it as
an instrument towards giving direction to
economic development, and Colvin began the long
haul of rehabilitating, modernising and
diversifying the plantation industries that had
been run down under private sector management,
Leslie introduced the principle of
‘democratic centralism’, on which the
LSSP managed itself, to the management of the
transport sector through worker participation.
(Anil’s contribution to the development of
the road transport system will continue to be
remembered with gratitude by commuters throughout
the island). (full text)
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