{"id":79880,"date":"2022-10-15T00:45:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-15T04:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=79880"},"modified":"2022-10-15T23:41:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T03:41:29","slug":"ranil-wickremesinghe-is-our-president-but-he-will-have-to-bear-the-shame-of-defeat-if-he-does-not-accept-our-proposals-and-rushes-the-22nd-amendment-through-with-justice-minister-wijeyadasa-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=79880","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRanil Wickremesinghe is our President but he will have to bear the shame of defeat if he does not accept our proposals and rushes the 22nd amendment through with Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.\u201d Threatens SLPP Gen Secy Sagara Kariyawasam"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy Damith Wickramasekara<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fate of the Constitution\u2019s 22nd Amendment (22A) hangs in the balance with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) laying down two \u201cmandatory\u201d conditions to ensure its passage\u2014including a clause to make members of independent Commissions accountable for their actions.<\/p>\n

The SLPP also wants the clause prohibiting dual citizens from holding membership in Parliament removed, General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam told the Sunday Times. <\/p>\n

A party delegation will meet President Ranil Wickremesinghe next week to convey its demands \u201cfor the final time\u201d. The 22A is unlikely to be passed without SLPP support.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The dual citizenship clause was inserted to target Basil Rajapaksa, SLPP National Organiser and former Finance Minister, he said. The party would not vote for an amendment that targets \u201cspecific individuals.\u201d Mr Rajapaksa is a dual Sri Lankan and US national.
\nThe party has also raised concerns over what it calls the lack of accountability of members appointed to the independent commissions by the Constitutional Council (CC).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had issues with some of the actions taken by certain members of the Election Commission and the Police Commission under the previous 19th Amendment,\u201d Mr Kariyawasam said. \u201cNo action could be taken against them, whatever they did. In the present draft, too, Commission members have no accountability. Their actions cannot be challenged. This is extremely disadvantageous to a Government and must be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SLPP would not support 22A if these demands were not met, he insisted. \u201cRanil Wickremesinghe is our President but we will tell him plainly that he will have to bear the shame of defeat if he does not accept our proposals and rushes the amendment through with Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.\u201d<\/p>\n

A defiant Minister Rajapakshe said, however, that the dual citizenship clause would remain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe harm done by dual citizens to this country is worse than in any other country,\u201d he asserted. \u201cBasil Rajapaksa signed an agreement to hand over the country\u2019s energy security to a third party after deceiving Cabinet. Former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran was responsible for causing billions of losses to the country. They can go back to their own countries, but it is the people here who have to pay for their misdeeds,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n

He said he was also not prepared to entertain amendments that compromised the independence of the Commissions. \u201cWe will only consider amendments that are justifiable. If anyone wants to vote against 22A, let them. The people will then see which MPs are prepared to aid and abet wrongdoers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Damith Wickramasekara The fate of the Constitution\u2019s 22nd Amendment (22A) hangs in the balance with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) laying down two \u201cmandatory\u201d conditions to ensure its passage\u2014including a clause to make members of independent Commissions accountable for their actions. The SLPP also wants the clause prohibiting dual citizens from holding membership …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘\u201cRanil Wickremesinghe is our President but he will have to bear the shame of defeat if he does not accept our proposals and rushes the 22nd amendment through with Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.\u201d Threatens SLPP Gen Secy Sagara Kariyawasam’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79881,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79880\/revisions\/79881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}