SLFP asks Wigneswaran to withdraw statements

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) today while condemning Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran’s ‘Eluga Thamil’ campaign, asked him to withdraw the statements made by him and called on the TNA to take disciplinary action regarding the matter.

Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva who is also a Senior Vice President of the SLFP said that statements made by Mr. Wigneswaran have made them rethink about the powers that should be devolved to the Chief Ministers. “In the concept of devolution of power we have to think about what sort of situations that would arise if this sort of Chief Ministers come. My personal opinion is that we have to give thought to these when formulating a new constitution,” he said.

Mr. Wigneswaran led the 'Rise up Tamils' protest held last Saturday in Jaffna.

Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva told the weekly SLFP news briefing that Mr. Wigneswaran had overstepped his mandate as Chief Minister to incite ethnic tension and thus empower the extremists in the North and the South.

“He must not make this kind of remarks which will inflame extremists in the North agitating for a separate state and those in the South who are attempting to create a fear psychosis among the people about the resurgence of LTTE separatism in the country. This government will not tolerate these,” he said.

The minister who is also a senior deputy president of the SLFP said his party urged Mr. Wigneswaran to withdraw these remarks and urged the TNA to take disciplinary action against Mr. Wigneswaran and urged TNA leader R. Sampanthan to make a statement on the damage caused to reconciliation and inter communal harmony.

"The SLFP has committed itself to protect the victory secured in 2009 and the peace which dawned thereafter," he said. “This political drama being enacted by Wigneswaran to collect a few points and satisfy LTTE sympathizers goes against the government's reconciliation efforts. I don’t understand why a man of his calibre who retired as a Supreme Court judge and appointed Chief Minister providing ethnically destructive weapons to extremists in the North and South. In the wake of these damaging utterances, the pro-LTTE website Tamil Net’ has said that both President Maithripala Sirisena and D.S. Senanayaka were both doing the same thing by attempting to resettle Sinhala people in the North and East.

“We as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party will never allow any attempt to divide the country or bring in a Federal Constitution. The President has also said that he would not allow foreign judges to hold probes in Sri Lanka,” the minister said.

Commenting on various reports regarding a new constitution he said the Constitutional Council (CC) has not even started to draft the new Constitution.

The minister said six Parliamentary Sub Committees must first hand over their reports with recommendations to the CC and only then would the drafting process begin and thereafter Cabinet approval had to be obtained and the draft submitted to the Supreme Court for its determination. The draft Constitution would have to be approved with a 2/3 majority in Parliament and if necessary be approved by the people at a referendum.

"The final say on the new Constitution lies with the people and without majority approval, the whole exercise will be in vain and there will not be any new Constitution. The new Constitution has no shape or form and is still in the fetus stage," he emphasized. (Chaturanga Pradeep and Sandun Jayasekera)

Pix by Damith Wickramasinghe