by Sahan Tennekoon in The Morning, July 24, 2023
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) will not participate the in the planned all-party conference this week (26) to discuss the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the party said yesterday (23), claiming that the efforts taken by the incumbent Government will not bear fruit as it is a move to deceive people.
The all-party conference is to be convened by President Ranil Wickremesinghe following his visit to India, where Indian Premier Modi expressed his expectations about solving issues of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.
Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (23), NPP Parliamentarian (MP) Vijitha Herath said that it (NPP) will not support any action taken by the Government to implement the 13th Amendment, charging the Government has good intention to resolve the problems of minority community, and are preparing instead of deceiving people in order to get their votes in a future election.
He also said that the President and the government has already failed in keeping their promises to address the issues of minorities, even though Wickremasinghe promised to give a solution to these matters by last February.
Responding to a question by The Daily Morning, General Secretary of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Ranjith Maddumabandara, confirm its participation to the all-party conference, however the issues which they hope to raise at the conference will be discussed at the joint opposition meeting which is to be taken place today (24).
Meanwhile the General Secretary of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and independent MP Dayasiri Jayasekara said that the SLFP is to attend the meeting taking it as a crucial matter and hope to support any measure taken by the Government with a true intention to resolve the minority issues.
However, Jayasekara also said that the issues that they hope to raise at the meeting will be discussed once the SLFP Chairman, Former President and independent MP Maithripala Sirisena who is currently overseas to attend a conference, returns to Sri Lanka.
When contacted by The Daily Morning, Freedom People’s Congress (FPC) leader and independent MP Dullas Alahapperuma said that since they were not invited to previous meetings held to discuss this matter, they will not be hopeful that they will be invited to this meeting too. He said that the FPC has not been invited to any all-party conference so far.
However he said that a final decision about their participation will be reached after the joint opposition meeting which is to be held today (24). Alahapperuma said that they hope to support any effort to provide the Tamil communities with solutions for their problems, if the Government is ready to take their support.
Alahapperuma noted that if the President really wanted to show his intentions to solve minority issues, he must first call for and fund the Provincial Council polls, which was withheld by (Wickremesinghe) him. Attempts to contact the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) about their participation at the conference and what support they were willing to extend, proved futile.
However, recently the General Secretary of the SLPP said that the President has no moral right to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was not implemented by all his predecessors from J.R. Jayewardene, and reminded President Ranil Wickremesinghe he was enjoying the support of an office, based on the mandate given by the people to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. https://www.themorning.lk/articles/Qy3QsDNkApIGIzFkdi6a
