Mano Ganesan: ‘We are against the very spirit of the 20th Amendment’

All opposition parties including the Tamil National Alliance are united in their stand against the Sri Lankan government’s attempts to bring in controversial changes to the constitution via the 20th Amendment, said Colombo district MP Mano Ganesan.

“This is 18-plus. But our alternative proposal will be 19-plus,” said Ganesan, leader of Tamil Progressive Alliance and a key partner of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), during a live English TV show on Friday night.

Ganesan explained that the 18th Amendment, which entered the statute books in 2010, gave what he termed as draconian powers to the then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa (current prime minister) but the government that took office in 2015 reversed those changes by bringing in the 19th Amendment.

Ganesan, who was a prominent Cabinet minister in the government of Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2015-2019, also voiced concern that the 20th amendment could be worse than the 18th amendment in suppressing people’s civil liberties.

“We are against the very spirit of the 20th Amendment,” he said, adding that the people who voted for the current government were now going through a “cultural and political shock.”