The Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka issued a statement this week condemning what it described as the “unholy, manipulative” amendment of the country’s Constitution.
The prelates said the introduction of the amendment to the Constitution was done “despite the promise made by the president and the government before and after the elections.”
The bishops said the formulation of a new Constitution for the country “is put on the back burner with the adoption of the 20th Amendment.”
They said that the basic law of the land “is being exploited beyond its limit to the detriment of the well-being of the country.”
The Church leaders’ statement was signed by Bishop J. Winston S. Fernando, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka.
The statement called for the government to stop the introduction of a “one country, one law” concept of the nation.
The bishops expressed their “deep concern about the erosion of the democratic principles and values in our country.”
“No one would oppose the ‘one country, one law’ objective in governance provided it stems as a corollary of the Constitution of the country,” read the prelates’ statement.
“But to appoint by a special gazette a Presidential Task Force comprising hand-picked individuals from outside without any reference to the democratically elected legislature is unacceptable,” it added.
“The parliamentary process has been ignored in a matter of such grave concern,” said the Church leaders.
The bishops also said that leaving out the Tamils, the Hindus, and the Catholics and Christians, to study the implementation of the proposed “one country, one law” concept “makes no sense.”
Through a special gazetter, Sri Lankan President Cotabaya Rajapaksa appointed a 13-member task force, headed by a hardline Buddhist monk known for his anti-Muslim stance, to establish the “one country, one law” concept.
The task force, which has been entrusted with the drafting of a law for the implementation of the “one country, one law” concept, has four Muslim scholars as members but no representation has been allowed for the minority Tamils.
