Sri Lankan Prime Minister has presented an interim report on the drafting of a new Constitution.
Why a new Constitution?
The Tamil community in Sri Lanka has long been concerned of the discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.
The TNA (Tamil National Alliance) has been demanding a federal solution to address the political aspirations of the Tamil community.
The 13th Amendment in 1987 to the 1978 Constitution was the first time when power sharing arrangements between the Centre and the Provinces were made.
This, being without total consensus, successive governments have come up with improved proposals to bring a final resolution to the issue.
The recent report is that of an all party steering committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, on formulating the Constitution in Parliament.
What are the highlights?
The report envisages an undivided and indivisible country, with the province as the unit for devolution of power.
It introduces the concept of ‘subsidiarity’.
Under this, function that can be performed by the lowest tier of government should be vested in it.
The report also provides for the creation of a second parliamentary chamber representing the provinces.
The report commits that the controversial terms ‘unitary’ and ‘federal’ be avoided.
Instead, Sinhala and Tamil terms that suggest an undivided country be used to describe the republic.
Besides, the electoral system solely based on proportional representation is proposed to be changed.
A mixed method under which 60% of parliamentary members to be elected under the first-past-the-post system is to be introduced.
Complying to earlier demands, the interim report aims at abolishing the executive presidency.
The government has promised that the pre-eminent status given to Buddhism will remain as such; an assurance that may help overcome opposition from the majority.
What is the way forward?
While the interim report is a significant step, there is a possibility that the whole process could be derailed by the extremists.
Demands from some opposing factions for retaining the state’s unitary character and the feature of executive presidency are getting stronger.
On the other hand, the TNA had taken the unprecedented position that they would agree with the contents of the interim report.
It is for the government to ensure that the reforms are materialised, to resolve Sri Lanka's long drawn controversial issue.
