Strange proposals and broken promises: Constitutional reform in Sri Lanka
Repost This ArticleWe last featured Rohan Edrisinha in February, just after the Presidential election on 26th January. Rohan, who lectures at the Law Faculty, University of Colombo and also a Director at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, at the time flagged serious concerns over the implementation of the 13th and 17th Amendments, as well as the tragic irrelevance of the APRC in the process of constitutional reform.
These are also issues flagged in this video, where Rohan expresses his impatience with ideas such as the post of an Executive Prime Minister, which he notes is not just confusing, but dangerous to boot since it actually enhances the powers of the President. Lamenting the inability of the UNP to come up with any viable constitutional reform proposals, Rohan also flags the dilemma of Tamil political parties in parliament and the future of power-sharing in Sri Lanka. The ‘final report’ of the APRC, first published on Groundviews, is also discussed.
Rohan ends on a thought-provoking note, suggesting that many within government are privately frustrated with the concentration of so much power and control in the hands of the Rajapaksa triumvirate.
There is not a ‘Rajapaksa triumvirate’ but a ‘Rajapaksa qudriumvirate!’ Remember there are 4 brothers. Did you forget the brother who is speaker of the house?
Dear Dr. Edrisinha,
I think you and Sanjana addressed the key issue near the beginning- that all these discussions about constitutional reform have not involved the people- although it is unfortunate that you did not explore this key issue save where you briefly acknowledged your inability to convince people the benefits of federalism.
The unfortunate truth is that federalism sunk from being unsupported to unacceptable among the electorate after the liberal constitutionalists (although I might think twice about labeling ISGA Thamilmaran a “liberal”) jumped on the peace bandwagon and rather foolishly linked constitutional reform with the deeply flawed “peace process” with the LTTE. This was demonstrated by the naive excitement over Balasingham’s hastily-retracted statement at Oslo that exposed a profound ignorance of the LTTE and its leader’s vision.
Another mistake that the Colombo liberals and their Western hangers-on have made can be found in their analysis of the “root cause.” Yes the root of Sinhala-Tamil problems in general (from the 1950s) might have been political but the root of the war was systematic violence directed against the Tamils in the 1970s-80s, mostly though not entirely attributed to the UNP government. There appears to be an assumption by the liberals that this vaguely-conceived “political solution” will somehow reverse all of the brutality of the last 30 years or even serve as a first step, without even a cursory consideration how such a “solution” would work in real life. The liberals really have to move beyond this ivory tower approach to “conflict resolution” and pay more attention to history than social science or legal studies.
Rohan is amongst the very few people among the academics in Sri Lanka who come out so boldly on governance issues in the country. Undoubtedly the present Government of Sri Lanka is so drunk with power that it fails to understand the priorities in post-war Sri Lanka and does not even remember the promises it made during the war. The successful conclusion of the war should have been followed immediately by dealing with the causes of the war to prevent the recurrence of such a thing in the future. Instead the government is busy fortifying the country to deal with any possible threats from inside and outside. The large sums of money spent on the military today could be easily saved if the government put forward the much talked of political solution and dealt with the issues that lead to discontent among the Tamils. No amount of fortification can deter such a thing happening in the future if the causes for the discontent are allowed to continue.
At some stage the President himself had talked of the 13th Amendment plus as a possible solution to the problem of power sharing . All that is forgotten now and they are busy trying to get the proposed amendments to the constitution passed by hook or by crook to enable the President and his dynasty to continue to be in power to rule the country according to their whims and fancies.
As Rohan rightly said, constitution making should not be done secretly and by the politicians alone. The academics, constitutional experts and the people themselves should be made a party to the process. One of the reasons put forward for some of the defects in the 17th Amendment was that it was passed in a hurry without a proper consultation about the provisions at all levels. The same is going to be said about the constitution if the proposed amendments are passed.
The only silver lining is that, as Rohan said in his concluding remark, many in the Cabinet and the Parliament are conscious of the dangers of the proposed amendments and are unhappy about some of its provisions. Let us hope that they will rise to the occasion and take meaningful steps to make the President sober so that he would realize the need to shelve the proposed amendments and concentrate more on the promises he made both to the nation and the world at large that he would put forward a political solution to deal with the problems of the Tamils of Sri Lanka, in particular and the minorities in general, as soon as the war is concluded. If, as he said then, war is no answer to the problem, building the military might of Sri Lanka too is no answer to the problems that led to the war in our country. That would only be an indicator of the oppression of the people in those parts of the country. It is hoped that this realization will dawn on the President before it is too late.
The statements made by Rohan on what needs to be done urgently with regard to these matters are commendable.
Jaffna peninsula will soon be ”disappeared” by patronage governance:
Jaffna: Environmental damage endorsed by government minister
I appeal to you to bring the following to the urgent attention of appropriate authorities:
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=32368
Indiscriminate sand excavation in Vadmaraadchi causes seepage of seawater, 8 August 2010:
Sri Lanka Department of Geological Survey & Mine Bureau (GSMB) officials who arrived in Jaffna to conduct a survey in Vadamaraadchi East where indiscriminate excavation of sand causes seepage of sea water had to stop their work due to interference by Sri Lanka minister Douglas Devananda, leader of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), sources in Vadamaraadchi said.
Wijepala,
The roots of the conflict go back to the Sinhala Only Bill even though the violence in the 1970′s and 1980′s may have added to it.
The Sinhala Tamil problem is also a racial one. We need legislation to counter racism.
Dear niranjan;
” The roots of the conflict go back to the Sinhala Only Bill….”
It really goes further back. Please explore.
Thanks!
Dear wijayapala;
I think I can quite agree with your ideas above.
Thanks!
Hi niranjan
Thank you for replying. I wish some of these civil society types would do a better job replying to messages sent to them. In their inability to engage with average people, they are no different than the politicians!
“The roots of the conflict go back to the Sinhala Only Bill even though the violence in the 1970′s and 1980′s may have added to it.”
I agree that the roots of the current conflict go back to Sinhala Only, but the violence of 1970s and 80s brought a new dimension that led to war. As a result of the war that concluded last year, we have to worry about many other things like IDPs, hidden landmines, psychological trauma etc that we did not have before the war.
The argument I am trying to make is that whatever we believe, we should avoid resorting to violence to accomplish our goals.
Dear yapa,
Thank you. It is good to see that we agree on this issue, even though I have very different views of Tamils in SL.