3.Prof Savitri Goonewsrdene’s very valid comments on constitutional reforms,eg her comment on the inflated composition of ministries.

All the religions suggest love for all the people by choice and actions. A person does not become a Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Muslim because the parents belonged to it, but he becomes one, only by practicing its spiritual principles.

SL is a democracy. ALL are equal. No group of people is superior. Apartheid South Africa, used the terms “Blacks”and “Whites” in the constitution for more than 40 years. For the past 68 years, the terms “Minority” and “Majority” were used in the constitution of SL.

It is absolutely wrong to constitutionally group people to get political, economic and religious dvantage over another people. This is constitutional discriminattion.

Let us not fool ourselves and the world. Let us humbly accept in the consttution, our shortcomings, and our desire to overcome them.

1.”….Nevertheless in the light of later happenings I now think it is a pity that the Commission did not also recommend the entrenchment in the constitution of guarantees of fundamental rights, on the lines enacted in the constitutions of India, Pakistan, Malaya , Nigeria and elsewhere….Nevertheless the reconciliation of Tamils and Sinhalese will depend not on constitutional guarantees but on the goodwill, common sense and humanity of the Government in power and the people who elect it….” – Viscount Soulbury in his Forward to the book, Ceylon: A Divided Nation by B.H.Farmer(1963)

2.”……….. Trust and Confidence Building
There are many factors to which we should give our attention in this connection, for without confidence and trust that their rights will be upheld and guaranteed without fear or favour, there cannot be contentment and harmony, especially among minorities whose confidence in law and order needs to be built on firm foundations.To achieve this there are some essential prerequisites among which are:
1. A Constitution which shields all citizens from abuse of power and authority and guarantees them against any denial or erosion of their rights;
2. The freedom of information and complete transparency,of government.
I have selected these two. There are many more we can we could add to this list. …………..”
– Submission to LLRC by Justice C.G.Weeramantry, 29 November 2010, https://www.scribd.com/doc/127226195/Sri-Lanka-Justice-Weeramantry-to-Lessons-Learnt-and-Reconciliation-Commission (groundviews, pl allow the weblink as there is a great deal our citizens can learn from the whole submission)

CEYLON : A DIVIDED NATION, B H Farmer(1963): ”…… The truth, unpalatable though it may be to some, is simply that nobody unacceptable to the present second wave of resurgent, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism has any chance of constitutional power in contemporary Ceylon. ……… Ceylon is indeed a divided nation. …… But need it have been as violent as it was? *Constitutional safeguards might conceivably have done something to control the violence of the communal dispute; though, since the Senanayake Government found a way of disenfranchising the Indian Tamils, one is left to wonder what value other safeguards might have had in the event and in the Ceylon setting. ……… Ceylon, possibly, was less fortunate than India where the alliance between Nehru and Gandhi contrived to subsume in one powerful movement the traditional and forward-looking nationalism.”