Saturday, 6 July 2013 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
In a historic move President Mahinda Rajapaksa has signed the proclamation setting in motion the first provincial council election ever to be held in the North. This raises fresh expectations for an intense campaign and a strong battle over the 13th Amendment.
Since elections are now more or less finalised for September, talk on the important aspect of power devolution, demilitarisation, human rights, investigations on disappearances and abductions or even a broad pledge of security for the Tamil people of the North will take centre stage. Free and fair elections will be the order of the day as debate over the 13th Amendment intensifies.
In recent months the Government has ramped up the rhetoric on the 13th Amendment and even though there are indications that rolling back land and police powers will happen post-November due to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the groundwork will be laid well in advance.
Implementation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), high security zones and even resolving the sensitive land-grabbing issues ahead of the elections will be the main battlegrounds for the ruling party. Issues that the Government pushed into the shadows such as investigation of human rights abuses are unlikely to stay that way.
Perhaps the first indication of this is the CID arresting 12 Special Task Force members on suspicion for having allegedly murdered five Tamil students in 2006. This sudden interest in the high-profile incident, which has been ignored for seven years by the Government despite repeated calls by the international community for accountability, could be a pre-election overture to the Tamil community to show that here is a Government that cares enough to find justice for their grievances.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), with the support of India, will no doubt enter the fray with all fists swinging, especially if the Government does move ahead with its plans to dilute the 13th Amendment, as is becoming increasingly evident. Moderates around the world watch the battle with interested eyes to see if the preparation by the Sri Lankan Government to run-roughshod over all its previous promises and possibly lay the foundations for a fresh conflict further down the line by suppressing a political solution will actually become reality.
With the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) essentially in the bag for the Government, there is increasing evidence that even India’s interests in power devolution may lose steam further down the road. President Mahinda Rajapaksa underscored this point by telling a top Indian delegation last month that a political solution cannot be a “Rajapaksa-Sampanthan deal” and had pushed the discussion away from the 13th Amendment towards a PSC forum.
The fact that this statement comes after the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the UNP refused to join the PSC is important. It appears that the Government’s intention is to push ahead with the PSC regardless and if it cannot get the TNA on board, then undermine the importance of the main Tamil party’s participation.
Yet the announcement of the elections opens up new possibilities for accountability and could make inroads, even temporarily, to righting some of the wrongs that were committed during the long years of war. It is a ray of hope that many will cling to.
