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Splitting hairs in an island

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29 September 2017 01:48 am - 0     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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Ethnicity dominates all other issues in Constitution-making

The report which is to be debated in Parliament next month as a basis for the new Constitution suggests no changes in the nature of the State

Issues such as executive Presidency, method of appointment of the Prime Minister, determination of the number of Parliament members, had been touched upon by the report have been eclipsed by the sensitive ethnic matters

Devolution of power would not change as the two main political parties have endorsed the concept, and the unit of the devolution would also be the same, the province

The description of the nature of the Sri Lankan State that had been proposed in the interim report of the Steering Committee set up under the Constitutional Assembly is interesting. 

The report presented in Parliament on September 21 by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who is also the Chairman of the Constitutional Assembly suggests “Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is a free, sovereign and independent Republic which is an aekiya rajyaya/orumiththa nadu, consisting of the institutions of the Centre and of the Provinces which shall exercise power as laid down in the Constitution.”


“Unitary State”, the English term hitherto used to describe the nature of the Sri Lankan State, had been omitted in the report. 


Even in the English text of the report one Sinhala term and one Tamil term with an oblique stroke in between had been used instead, as shown above. 
The report gives reasons for the omission of the thus far used English term.


“The President, while speaking on the Resolution to set up the Constitutional Council, stated that whilst people in the South were fearful of the word “federal”, people in the North were fearful of the word “Unitary”. 

The make or break factor in this process would be the ability of the government as well as the moderate Tamil leadership to counter the extremist propaganda, which sometimes might deviate the process from the real issues that have to be addressed for a long lasting Constitution


A Constitution is not a document that people should fear. The classical definition of the English term ‘Unitary State’ has undergone change. In the United Kingdom, it is now possible for Northern Ireland and Scotland to move away from the union. Therefore the English term “unitary state” will not be appropriate for Sri Lanka.”


This explanation clearly points to the fact that attempts have been made to find terms to describe the nature of the Sri Lankan State in all three national languages in order to pacify the extremists in the North and the South. 


Sinhalese nationalists have been stressing that the term aekiya rajyaya should be retained while the Tamil nationalists have been against the Tamil term “otrai atchi” which has been translated into English as unitary state.


The report suggests maintaining further the Sinhala term “aekiya rajyaya” so that the Sinhala extremists could be satisfied. However, the hitherto used Tamil term “otraiy atchi,” which is always translated as “unitary state,” has been suggested to be changed as “orumiththa nadu,” which can be roughly translated as united or uniform country. Interestingly there is no considerable opposition from the general Tamil public so far against this new description of the nature of the Sri Lankan State, except from Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V.Wigneswaran. 


Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Rajavarothiam Sampanthan had said that it was a great achievement for them to get the term “otrai atchi” changed as “orumiththa Nadu.”


If Mr. Sampanthan could convince the Tamil community in the coming days that replacing the term “otrai atchi” with “orumiththa Nadu” is an achievement, the balance struck by those who drafted the interim report of the Steering Committee could be considered as successful in this regard. It would be a win-win situation for the government and the Tamil leaders.


The moot point here is that whatever the term used in any of the three national languages, the nature of the Sri Lankan State is not going to change under the proposed new Constitution as well, whatever the extremists of either side of the ethnic divide say. 


The report which is to be debated in Parliament next month as a basis for the new Constitution suggests no changes in the nature of the State. It would be a Republic “consisting of the institutions of the Centre and of the Provinces which shall exercise power as laid down in the Constitution” as the case is now.


In fact, despite the whole Parliament having converted to a Constitutional Assembly to draft a “new Constitution”, what is going to be drafted, according to the report, is not a “new” Constitution. It suggests to retain, almost all the major features of the current Constitution. 


Devolution of power would not change as the two main political parties have endorsed the concept, and the unit of the devolution would also be the same, the province. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has not opposed the concept either. As mentioned above the country would be the same, without undergoing any changes in the nature of the State, despite different terms being considered for the description of it.


Since the Tamil and Muslim political parties have agreed to accept the foremost place being given in the Constitution to Buddhism, provided the rights of the followers of other religions are protected with a non-discrimination clause, the place given to Buddhism would not be altered. The report has not made any suggestion on the executive presidency, the foremost pledge by President Maithripala Sirisena during the last Presidential election, as it was the driving force that compelled him to leave the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime in November, 2014. 


According to the report, “The National Capital and the Seat of the Government shall be the City of Colombo” which is what practically, the case is now.


Other proposals include increasing the number of seats in Parliament from 225 to 233 and a mixed electoral system and ensuring a certain percentage of women members which, if enacted, would not be a major change. Therefore, the new Constitution proposed in the interim report of the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly is not going to be totally new. And the opposition by certain groups to the promulgation of a new Constitution is meaningless.


Interestingly, the report was largely a document containing ethnically-sensitive issues and one would wonder whether constitution-making is nothing other than handling ethnically-sensitive matters. It deals with devolving power to the provincial councils, merger of provinces, unitary state and federalism, giving foremost place to Buddhism and creating a second chamber. And the arguments for and against the report by politicians and the media in the North and the South are also based mainly on ethnic lines.


Issues such as executive Presidency, method of appointment of the Prime Minister, determination of the number of Parliament members, number of members of Cabinet and “National Capital and the seat of the Government” that had been touched upon by the report have been eclipsed by the sensitive ethnic matters and are being ignored by many people except for the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Leader of the JVP Anura Kumara Dissanayake in response to the report said that his party would support the Constitution-making process on the aspect of making democratic reforms which cannot be achieved while maintaining the executive presidency.


NFF leader Wimal Weerawansa has taken the lead in the South to portray the Constitution in the making as a federal strategy that would lead to the separation of the country. One of his Tamil counterparts, Chief Minister Wigneswaran had stated the report strengthens the Sinhalese, Buddhist hegemony, while claiming that nauseating wordplay had been used to hoodwink the people in order to retain the unitary state. Leader of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Suresh Premachandran, without implicit reference to the soft and wait and see attitude of TNA leader Sampanthan, had stated that the report was a strategy by the Sinhalese to hoodwink Tamils, using the Tamils themselves.


Both sides recall the sacrifices by the people of their communities and sensationalise the issue, in order to justify their stances. While Weerawansa claims that the sacrifices of 27,000 soldiers who laid down their lives in the war had gone to waste, Wigneswaran states that the struggle by his community for its rights for the past 70 years had been demeaned. However, the make or break factor in this process would be the ability of the government as well as the moderate Tamil leadership to counter the extremist propaganda, which sometimes might deviate the process from the real issues that have to be addressed for a long-lasting Constitution.


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