The prez deserves the chance to run again. It is up to the people to decide whether he gets another term or not. Give another few hours or so and the 18 amendment will see the light of day and all this bellyaching will have been for didly squat.

@Sohan,

Sonal may be a caricature and quite possibly a troll, but even as such does flag the question as to why so few people around Sri Lanka are agitating against such a harmful amendment. I know of no protest movement – spontaneous of party political in nature – outside of Colombo against the 18th amendment. When I was asked this question in the morning by BBC Radio, I put it down to the general apathy in our country, which has more voters than it has citizens.

A timeline of duplicity: Promises to abolish the Executive Presidency records Susil Premajayantha as saying “75% of the people in rural areas are not worried about the Executive Presidency or the 17th Amendment”. This applies to the 18th amendment as well. With mainstream media still fearful of robustly interrogating the implications of the 18th amendment for what they might have to face once it is passed, a supine opposition facing an enduring crisis in its leadership, NGOs that have never really galvanised public opinion, much less sustained public support and with politicians who are opportunistic and with a marked lack of principled politics, one can argue that the President merely uses what is fundamentally a dysfunctional democracy for parochial gain. Hence for example the genuine belief on the streets, and outside fora such as this, that the 18th amendment will actually hold, inter alia, the President more accountable to Parliament and that elections henceforth can actually be conducted in a free and fair manner.

This is why I appreciated very much reading Resisting the Loss of Citizenship in Sri Lanka, for simple actions citizens can take against this government long after the furore (or is it führer?!) over the 18th amendment has passed.

Sanjana Hattotuwa

lovin’ this…!