While appreciating the submission of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution in Parliament, the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) said it is the responsibility of the people’s representatives to ensure it is adopted unanimously.
NMSJ Chairman Karu Jayasuriya said they consider it as a positive step taken to update the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
He said in a statement that It also must be noted that the step should be taken by all who value democracy on September 6 to do away with the attempts to retain a number of crucial powers of the executive presidency as included in the previous draft .
“We highly appreciate the submission of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution to the Parliament which will revoke the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which paved the way for a dictatorial government by severely distorting the democratic governance traditions of Sri Lanka,” he said.
“As the National Movement for Social Justice, we express our gratitude to the President, the Minister of Justice and the Government for standing up for such democratic reforms. It is our expectation that when the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution is debated in parliament on September 6, all the members of parliament will stand on the side of the people. We also hope that the amendment can be adopted unanimously after the debate on it. The foremost responsibility of the people’s representatives in this country is to create a country where future generations can live happily by working to ensure democracy and the betterment of the people,” the statement added.
“In order to fulfil that responsibility, we must focus our attention on the political and economic reforms that must be carried out. This is why we had to fight against the 20th Amendment to the Constitution brought by the previous government and struggle to have it withdrawn. That is why we continue to advocate for social and political transformations including economic reforms that should be carried out for the good of the country. At the same time, the other important point that we emphasise is that although the government is working towards admirable political changes such as the introduction of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which is praised by not only by Sri Lankan’s respecting democratic values but also the civilised world, we as an organisation do not agree with certain measures taken by the government through the use of emergency powers.
We do not condone the harassment of trade union leaders and activists of the peaceful struggle who have made great sacrifices for democracy under any circumstance. We are greatly saddened by these incidents. We are also deeply concerned about reports of what could be considered as abductions. Such events cause both national and internationally negative effects on the country.
We therefore believe that the honourable President must pay personal attention to these matters,” the statement further said.
