23-01-2008

Sri Lanka devolution panel to suggest only administrative changes

Colombo, Jan 23 (IANS) The report of the Sri Lankan panel on devolution of powers, which is to be submitted to President Mahinda Rajapaksa Wednesday, will suggest only 'administrative changes' and avoid recommending any 'structural alterations' in the country's constitution.

'What we are going to submit this evening is entirely within the existing constitution,' Prof Tissa Vitharana, chairperson of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) on devolution, told IANS.

'However, at the same time, we will give the president a separate report on our search for an entirely new constitution with a new system of devolution,' Vitharana added.

'The APRC would recommend administrative arrangements to fully implement the 13th amendment of 1987,' said the leader of the Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP), Douglas Devananda.

Asked to spell out the details, he said that, mostly importantly, there was a recommendation to set up a political system in the Tamil-speaking northern and eastern provinces.

'The committee has recommended the institution of an interim political administration in the northern province, and the holding of elections for a new council in the eastern province,' Devananda said.

The provincial councils system, which the 13th amendment had introduced in the country in 1987, had not worked in the north and east.

The combined northeast provincial council was dismissed in 1990, and since then, there has been no provincial council in that part of the country.

'The absence of a provincial council had prevented the emergence of a local political leadership in the north and east. This is one of the major lacunae in the existing political system,' Devananda pointed out.

Militant extremist groups like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had filled the vacuum and prevented moderate groups from emerging.

'The panel's recommendation will create a political leadership that will fill the vacuum,' Devananda reasoned.

A member of the panel, from another minority party, who did not want to be identified, said that there was a recommendation that 'de facto' power over a number of subjects be transferred to the provinces and 'undue' central interference in provincial administration be stopped.

'The central government now uses the concurrent list to arrogate to itself a lot of power, and further marginalize the provinces. The panel has suggested that this be stopped and the centre should act in a more restrained manner,' the member said.

'We are hopeful that the president will accept the recommendations because he has the will. Previous governments had no will. President Rajapaksa has publicly said a number of times that he wants to implement the 13th amendment fully,' Devananda said.

But everyone, including Rajapaksa, recognises that the 13th amendment is not the final solution for the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, which is all about power sharing.

'What is going to be given today is only an interim report, a report on an interim arrangement. It is only a starter,' Devananda said.

Clearly indicating that he had a long term, larger view on the matter of devolution, Rajapaksa said Tuesday that he would negotiate with all communities - Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and Sinhalese - and all political parties to find an answer to their political demands.

Rajapaksa said that the era of exclusive negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was over.

'We do not recognise the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil people,' he asserted.

'All communities have political demands which have to be addressed,' the president said, opening the door for the APRC to go ahead with its mandated task of working out a new constitution with a news system of devolution, albeit within a unitary system.

The APRC's short report would be placed before the Sri Lankan cabinet later in the evening for an 'on the spot' decision, a cabinet minister said.

Source-IANS