25-01-2008

Sri Lanka's devolution proposal gets slammed

Colombo, Jan 25 (IANS) Sri Lanka's main opposition and dominant Tamil party have denounced a proposal by a panel suggesting devolution of powers to provinces as a 'deception' and a 'farce'.

Lakshman Kiriella, a leading member of the United National Party (UNP), said that the proposal by the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) was only made to the liking of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

'The APRC did not consider recommending the full implementation of the 13th amendment (of the constitution) before the president requested it to do so,' he pointed out.

The 13th amendment came into being after India and Sri Lanka signed a pact in 1987 under which New Delhi urged Colombo to devolve powers to provinces in a bid to placate the restive minorities, Tamils included.

It is no secret that President Rajapaksa had wanted the existing constitutional arrangement for devolution to the provinces to be fully implemented first, before going for a more elaborate and drastic change. The president asked the APRC to suggest ways of doing justice to the existing arrangement, as stated in the 13th amendment and the Provincial Councils Act.

The pro-Tamil Tigers Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest Tamil grouping in parliament, also dubbed the APRC recommendation to stick to the 13th amendment as a 'farce'.

Mavai Senathirajah, a senior TNA MP, told IANS that Rajapaksa had arm-twisted the APRC to submit a report suggesting the implementation of the existing 13th amendment of the constitution and not go beyond it.

'The idea was to create confusion in the political sphere and buy time. Otherwise, what was the need to make the APRC do this, when it was well on its way to drafting a new (quasi federal) devolution package?' Senathirajah asked.

'It was meant to satisfy the JVP (Sinhalese Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) and the JHU (Sinhalese nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya),' he said.

The minority Tamils have been fighting for regional autonomy for the past 60 years, saying the majority Sinhalese community dominates the Sri Lankan political system.

By talking of implementing the 13th amendment, the president was trying to 'hoodwink' India, Senathirajah charged.

He alleged that Rajapaksa would not implement even the 13th amendment. 'Ours had been a history of broken promises.'

He said he was disappointed with India for coming out in support of the APRC proposal, especially since it envisaged separate provincial councils for the northern and the eastern provinces. 'The TNA will take up the matter with the Indian authorities.'

Earlier, pro-government Tamil parties like the TULF, PLOTE and EPRLF-P said the APRC proposal could only be a 'first step' and that a final solution to the ethnic issue would have to be a federal constitution.

Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) president V. Anandasangaree said: 'The 13th amendment of 1987 was a treatment for ulcer. But 20 years down the line, the ulcer has become cancer. We now need a medicine for cancer, not ulcer.'

Source-Yahoo news