The amendment aims at, among other things, curtailing the power of the Executive President to dissolve parliament after it completes one year. Under the proposed amendment, the President will be required to seek the advice of the Prime Minister and the Speaker before taking a decision to dissolve Parliament.

The PA's opposition to this provision has made the passage of the bill through parliament a difficult task for the UNF government headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, because the bill should be passed with a two thirds majority. In other words, without the PA support, the bill is doomed.

The UNF is thus in a dilemma. It sees the president's power to dissolve parliament as a sword of Damocles over its head. It believes that unless it strips the President of this power, it will be forced to work in accordance with the President's instructions.
The only alternative is to submit an impeachment motion signed by not less than half the total number of Parliamentarians. Such a motion will prevent the President from dissolving Parliament. But for how long? Indefinitely, say UNPers, because the constitution does not stipulate a time frame within which the motion should be dealt with.

The impeachment option is gaining currency in the face of opposition to the 18th amendment from the SLMC, a constituent party in the UNF. On Monday, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe met SLMC leader and Minister Rauff Hakeem to discuss the issues involved at length. Mr. Hakeem expressed his reservations about certain provisions which allow MPs to cross over.

The PA does not oppose this provision because it would be advantageous to the PA as well when its stars are on the rise. But smaller parties such as the SLMC and the CWC believe the move threatens even their very existence in mainstream politics. Their fear is quite understandable because if the amendment is passed, major parties would be in a position to entice members of smaller parties to cross over, thus making small parties puppets or powerless pawns in national politics.

Under the 1978 Constitution, the power small parties, especially ethnic parties, wield is so great that certain groups representing the majority community criticised it as not being in proportion to their real strength. No minority group would ever part with this privilege bestowed upon them by the 1978 Constitution which eliminated, to some extent, the tyranny of the majority and ensured the participation of everybody in the government.

At the meeting with the Prime Minister, though Mr. Hakeem expressed concern over this particular provision, his main emphasis was on the provision which aims at clipping the wings of the President. Mr. Hakeem told the Premier that antagonising the President and the PA at this juncture would not augur well for the peace initiative. "Any amendment which emanates from the peace negotiations should have the co-operation and support of the PA too," Mr. Hakeem said.

The SLMC leader was also alive to the LTTE fears that President Chandrika Kumaratunga could stand on the way of the peace process. Striking a positive note, the Prime Minister told Mr. Hakeem he would discuss the proposed bill with the President before it was presented in Parliament. Meanwhile, some UNPers are confident that they would be able to muster adequate support from the opposition for the amendment.

Besides this, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is keen to rope in opposition parties for the proposed peace talks with the LTTE. The PA may not participate in the peace talks scheduled to be held some time in June in Thailand since it believes the government has to come up with a plausible solution to the crisis. The UNP held a similar view when in the opposition.

SLFP top runger Anura Bandaranaike is reported to have said that the SLFP/PA should not support the peace process if the UNP tried to curtail the President's powers. The PA's contention is that these powers were enshrined in the constitution by the UNP and asks if these powers are good for UNP presidents how can they be bad for PA presidents.

Political analysts are of the view that these two parties should resolve their problems first and arrive at a common understanding in a bid to tackle the much more delicate ethnic issue. The Prime Minster's efforts in this regard are commendable but the UNF should not rub the President on the wrong side too much if it is to win her co-operation for the peace process.

However, the double standards adopted by the President have baffled the UNP and others who are actively engaged in the peace process. The President while advocating a negotiated settlement for the peace process at international forums contradicts her position at home. The letter sent by SLFP Secretary General Maithripala Sirisena to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe bears ample testimony to this.

Whatever it is, the need of the hour is to resolve the North-East problem as fast as possible. The PA appears to be worried over the government's move to set up an interim administration for the North-East before making some progress in the peace negotiations. It believes that the government should get a commitment from the LTTE that it will act democratically when the interim administration is set up.

It is said that the LTTE wants to dominate the interim administration, but the government wants other political entities in the North-East also to take part in the administration. This may lead to a stalemate situation when the government and the LTTE sit down for talks.

While the government was striving hard to begin the proposed talks and create a conducive environment for hard talks, the Indian government extended the ban on the LTTE by another two years. Analysts say the Indian ban would not affect the peace process here.

However, what is more alarming is the LTTE's attitudes. It appears that the LTTE is dragging its feet on the proposed talks - the excuse being that the government had failed to accomplish its obligations under the ceasefire agreement.

The LTTE is of the view that the government is deliberately delaying the process by not taking a decision to lift the ban on the group. The LTTE is adamant that the government lift the ban before the talks. Thus the prospects for June talks appear to be gloomy.

For the first time since the UNF was elected to office, the government came under heavy fire from the pro-LTTE Tamil Guardian, a London based newspaper. Its editorial on Wednesday said the ceasefire was being violated by the Sri Lankan army which had begun extending its security network and imposing new restrictions on civilian, movement while the Police Special Task Force was accused of similar action in the Eastern province.

It said the Navy was harassing fishermen and imposing restrictions on their movement, and accused the Air Force of carrying out extensive low level surveillance in the Wanni area. It also accused Prime Minister Wickremesinghe of joining in the Sinhala nationalist bandwagon, vowing not to recognise the Tamil homeland and promising to place plans for an interim administration for Tamil areas before the Sinhala people for approval.

The Tamil Guardian line of thinking clearly shows that the LTTE is trying to put the blame on the government if the peace initiative runs into problems. All this shows that there are numerous problems to be addressed on the proposed peace initiatives.

This is not the only issue that is adding pressure on the Premier. Squabbles in the party are also worrying the Prime Minister. It was only last Tuesday that Minister Arumugam Thondaman dropped a bombshell when he opposed the commissioning of the upper Kotmale hydro-power project. Mr. Thondaman requested Minister Karu Jayasuriya to immediately suspend the decision to start the project. He threatened to hoist black flags and sabotage the foundation laying ceremony scheduled for Monday though the Ceylon Electricity Board has already finalised arrangements and sent out invitation cards for the Japanese-funded project.

Mr. Thondaman's protest was an offshoot of a long-standing dispute with Minister P. Chandrasekeran and Deputy Minister Naveen Dissanayake. Mr. Thondaman claims that he is the leader of the estate sector, much to the dismay of others. Mr. Chandrasekaran's bodyguards also had a standoff with Mr. Thondaman's security officers this week when the motorcades of the two estate leaders travelled on the same road. The matter was solved when Mr. Chandrasekaran gave in.

Though Mr. Chandrasekaran conceded the road battle he would not concede the battle for estate leadership, analysts said. At the very beginning of this Kotmale dispute, Mr. Chandrasekaran also backed Mr. Thondaman's claims but when Prime Minister Wickremesinghe inquired as to why he was joining Mr. Thondaman, he withdrew his support.

Mr. Thondaman's main grievance is that though he is the estate sector leader, applications for jobs at the Kotmale project were distributed by Mr. Dissanayake who is the son-in-law of Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya. Apparently the talks Mr. Thondaman had with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrama had yielded little result. The Kotmale ceremony has now been postponed on the pretext of elections to the Ambagamuwa Pradeshiya Sabha on the same day.

Mr. Thondaman also seeks enhanced compensation for the displaced persons due to the upper Kotmale Hydro power project. For Premier Wickremesinghe, though these are a headache, they have not gone out of hand.

The Premier also met a delegation representing the Emirates Airlines at Temple Trees to discuss the SriLankan Airline deal negotiated by the previous government.
Though on the first day, the Emirates delegation was firm and wanted to stick to its claims, it later softened its stance and agreed to another round of discussions. It is now likely that there could be several amendments included in the original agreement.
In another development, the government is to make inquiries about 88 state owned vehicles allegedly used in election work during the previous regime.

A list prepared by government members included vehicles belonging to the Sri Lanka Telecom, the Bureau of Investments, the Colombo Port and several other ministries.
Minister Ravi Karunanayake has already brought this to the notice of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe who said that a proper inquiry should be held into the matter and appropriate action taken.

In his ministry alone, Minister Karunanayake alleged 15 vehicles had been used for PA's election work. He said he had directed the ministry secretary to submit a report.
Minister Karunanayake is also in the process of retrieving 288 acres of prime land in Kotte that had been sold for a song by the previous regime to its cronies. Though the actual value stands at Rs. 500,000 a perch the said land to set up a golf course was sold at Rs. 13,000 a perch.

The Minister had already communicated with the relevant authorities who have asked the firm involved in the golf project to pay the money due to the state. Interior Minister John Amaratunga in the meantime is planning to call for explanation from the Inspector General of Police and other senior police officers for their failure to initiate action against Presidential Security Division officers who had allegedly committed several criminal activities during the past regime.

PSD's ex director Nihal Karunaratne who is being questioned on various misdeeds of the past regime is in the process of revealing details of most of these incidents including the attack on the journalists and the famous singing duo Rukantha and Chandralekha.

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