Archive for Constitutional Reform
May 11, 2008 at 8:41 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Human Rights, Politics | by raja
Economic sanctions have been used for foreign policy objectives since the time of Ancient Greece.
The idea that economic sanctions might be an alternative to the use of force received attention after the First World War, largely owing to President Woodrow Wilson’s advocacy. Since World War II, Economic sanctions have been employed to promote democracy and human rights, to end civil war, to stop drug trafficking, to fight terrorism, to combat weapons proliferation, and to promote nuclear disarmament. Since the creation of the United Nations in 1945, the Security Council has imposed sanctions in fifteen cases: Southern Rhodesia (1966), South Africa (1977), Iraq (1990), former Yugoslavia (1991), Liberia (1992), Libya (1992), Somalia (1992), Angola (1993), Haiti (1993), Rwanda (1994), Sudan (1996), …
April 12, 2008 at 7:01 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by Publius
The constitutional reform debate in Sri Lanka is in a particularly enervated state as we approach the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, with a government in power that displays that bizarre concoction of procrustean infantilism that so characterised the Jayewardene and Premadasa attitudes to constitutional government and democracy: its thinking juvenile, its methods menacing. This has, in turn, lent a degree of respectability to secessionism it would not otherwise enjoy in world opinion. In fact, the supremacist ethno-nationalism which is at the ideological core of this government, and the simple-minded and unreflective obstinacy with which its dictates are pursued, raises a question that is at the heart of the liberal theory on self-determination and secession, but which Sri Lankan liberals, …
March 30, 2008 at 11:46 am · Categories: Batticaloa, Constitutional Reform, English, Peace and Conflict | by sam
This video clip contains a brief interview with A.L Thavam – Chairperson of Akkaraipattu Pradeshiya Saba (local government).
It is presented here as is, without analysis or comment.
Summary of the interview.
- Feels that Batticoloa election was successful because of the lack of incidents, and says therefore Government has been successful in liberating the Eastern Province.
- Acknowledges there may have been ‘little incidents’ but says these do not carry significance when the bigger picture is considered.
- Says that if the people did not want to vote, they could have made a mark on the ballot paper and submitted it – in effect, just pretended to vote. But says the number of these …
March 25, 2008 at 8:09 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Politics | by raja
The history of democracy is a history of evolution. In Britain the King was the Head of the Executive. There was the legal principle that ‘the king can do no wrong’. It was a Royal Prerogative to appoint Ministers and officials and dismiss them at his will and pleasure. But Parliament got the King to agree to the principle of ‘no taxation without representation’.
But what if the tax revenue was wasted by the King and his Court? That would be unfair by the people. But Parliament could not punish the King for such misdeeds. So Parliament hit upon the principle that although the King had an absolute privilege to appoint his officials Parliament could hold them accountable for financial misdemeanors …
March 3, 2008 at 4:22 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Politics | by groundviews
Rohan Edrisinha
It is pertinent at this moment to examine why even now the 17th Amendment to the Constitution is not implemented.
The media has reported that President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe during their meeting this week that he could not move forward in this regard because a parliamentary select committee is looking into deficiencies in the 17th Amendment. This is not a valid excuse because the 17th Amendment is part of our Constitution, it is already law. It is acceptable if a select committee wants to improve on the 17th Amendment but you must apply and implement the law as it is, and then if necessary improve it later. Everyone agrees that there are weaknesses in our Presidential …
February 22, 2008 at 6:39 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by groundviews
Fashionable as any aspiring theoreticians, writer Publius with above article once again takes on a contemporary and important topic, yet with wider pseudo interpositions and an assumed role of political advisory.
Following is a very short response.
Those who know me will bear witness that I am neither an Eelamist nor a separatist. I envisage and endeavour for a normative multination democracy where the Thamil nation, legally, constitutionally and normatively will restore its nationhood with or without a state because all nations does not need to own a state (Taylor 1992,2004) ,but every nation needs to live in its fullest freedom including the right to self determination. (Connor 1990, 2002)
The core of the argument forwarded by Publius is encapsulated
‘’…A …
February 15, 2008 at 4:19 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by groundviews
Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne is a President’s Counsel in Sri Lanka and Senior Adviser to Sri Lanka Ministry of Constitutional Affairs & National Integration.
See more at Vikalpa Video.
February 12, 2008 at 9:04 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by groundviews
Excerpt:
In any conflict resolution exercise the main focus should be the pursuit of a political settlement. However, the APRC or the GoSL do not seem to have any urgency or seriousness of purpose. It has chosen to gamble on a military victory rather than meaningful power sharing as its formula for peace. The government’s only priority this year will be waging war in which one will be forced to become a patriot or a traitor following the Bush Doctrine. The LTTE itself never gave up its campaign in the pursuit of its maximalist demand of separation through violence. Both Sinhala and Tamil nationalisms in Sri Lanka and in the expatriate community suffer from the weakness of the exclusion of the …
February 3, 2008 at 7:01 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by groundviews
Rohan Edrisinha
University of Colombo
Centre for Policy Alternatives
“It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem” G.K Chesterton, The Point of a Pin
The damp squib of an incoherent, vague and poorly crafted two page document that finally emerged from the All Party Representative Committee highlights two important and worrying lessons. First, it seems that in the area of constitutional reform in general, Sri Lanka is moving backwards rather than forwards. The two page document is clearly Thirteenth Amendment MINUS. Second, in the area of governance, it appears that the major party in the ruling coalition, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and some of its coalition partners, the LSSP and the Communist Party, despite the …
February 1, 2008 at 6:51 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, English, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics | by Publius
As the major military onslaught against the LTTE gathers pace to the accompaniment of increasingly jingoistic rhetoric of ruling party politicians, bureaucrats and military top brass, Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka finds itself at a critical crossroads. What may or may not happen in the battlefield this year is still a matter of conjecture, in spite of the bellicose rhetoric of both parties. Faced with the military resolve of the State and the seeming apathy of the international community in respect of any form of intervention, what is also clear, however, is that Tamil nationalism appears to be running out of ideas at the political level. The paucity of political ideas and their articulation in constitutional and legal claims to …
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