New Constitution shouldn’t undermine war victory: Gota
Posted on September 7th, 2017
Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror
A new Constitution or Parliament shouldn’t be allowed to reverse the victories which were accomplished by uniting the country after defeating terrorism, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said.
Speaking at the launch of ‘Eliya’ (light) Forum in Colombo on Wednesday, Mr. Rajapaksa said people fear that the accomplished victories would be scraped by bringing in a new Constitution.
This is why experts coming from different fields decided to create the ‘Eliya’ to enlighten the public about the new Constitution. We want to inform the people that the new Constitution should not be brought in,” he said.
He admitted that there were shortcomings of the current Constitution but said the motives behind the introduction of a new Constitution were dreadful.
The same group which collected funds for the LTTE and supplied weapons to them, are today attempting to achieve what they couldn’t accomplish from terrorism. The new Constitution is a necessity of separatist Tamil politicians and international organisations which attempted to hinder the war against the LTTE,” he said.
He said they have no faith in the government which is attempting to introduce the new Constitution.
We saw how the government assured army leaders that the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) would not be set up. However, it was established later on. The government always said it would protect war heroes but today a large number of soldiers had been imprisoned,” Mr. Rajapaksa charged.
Ven. (Prof.) Medagoda Abhayatissa Thera, Rev. Fr. Wimal Thirimanna, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Sarath Weerasekara, Thamara Kunanayagam, Manohara de Silva PC, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Rushdi Habeeb and Dr. Seetha Arambepola also addressed the forum.
Members of clergy, a number of politicians, including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, artistes, academics and professionals attended the event.
September 7th, 2017 at 10:12 pm
We appreciate Gota’s stand against the new Confederated Constitution. However, going by some other key speakers it is clear that Gota has now come to Federalism (the lesser of the two evils). However, there is forgotten Unitary status that has no takers!
Federalism, etc. Chelva dreamt of (“a little now, more later” – the “bus halt” strategy) has very strange takers today. It is impossible to find a Unitarist (someone denouncing federalism) today in politics. This is a definite victory for Tamil Eelamists which will reaffirm their belief Sinhala people can be won over for federalism, etc.
It means there is a political vacuum to be filled by those who unconditionally stand for Unitary Status (oppose 13A) and denounce federalism of all sorts.
War victory was undermined when Parabhakaran was replaced by Vigneswaran. The latter was elected thanks to the 13A which was drafted by India and LTTE in 1986-87 and imposed on Lanka. LTTE though lost the war achieved part of its claims via 13A.
September 7th, 2017 at 10:24 pm
I agree 100% with Dilrook.
In summary, war heroes have been betrayed and replaced by Federalists with a ‘Deshapremi’ lable.