The 22nd Amendment: The Battle begins, Round 1 to AKD

 By Kassapa

A legal and propaganda battle of epic proportions, the toughest the National Peoples’ Power (NPP) government will probably has had to contend with yet, looms ahead with the 22nd Amendment being tabled in Parliament. The clock is now ticking. Those opposing it now have fourteen days to challenge the Bill which envisages increasing the retirement ages of judges. Petitions against it, we are told, will be aplenty.

The first round of the debate over the amendment was played out last week, between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) when a delegation from the latter met the former for a discussion. Partisan analysts will cling on to their views but most independent observers scored the discussion heavily in favour of the President.

In doing so, Dissanayake may have convinced many of those who approached the issue with an open mind that he was doing the right thing. In fact, the question many asked was why the President didn’t reach out to the public with this explanation earlier. It could have stopped the BASL and opposition parties in their tracks at the outset itself.

Five members of the 20-member BASL delegation were allowed to speak. This included legal academic Savithri Gunasekera. They all focused on one theme: that the amendments were rushed, created the impression that a section of the judiciary was being favoured and thereby impinged on the independence of the judiciary. The solution offered by the BASL was that the 22nd Amendment should be put to the people to vote at a referendum, since judges should not sit in judgment on matters concerning themselves.

At the outset itself, Dissanayake had a bone to pick with the BASL. The lawyers’ association had issued a statement on the morning of the discussion, strongly stating their position. Dissanayake lashed out at this saying it wasn’t courteous to do so. “I attended the discussion in good faith and with an open mind but the BASL doesn’t seem to be doing that. I disagree with this action” Dissanayake said bluntly.