Representatives of the alliance formed by six Tamil and Muslim political parties met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat on Monday morning, where the President restated the government’s position that the Constitution should be reformed and the executive presidency abolished.
The talks covered the introduction of a comprehensive new Constitution, the holding of Provincial Council elections and the problems surrounding their conduct, and concerns affecting the Northern and Eastern Provinces and the Malayagam — Hill Country Tamil — community, the President’s Media Division said in a statement carried by the Daily Mirror. Provincial Council elections featured prominently.
The meeting delivers on a request the alliance made in late July, when leaders of the six parties gathered at the Parliament Complex and said they would seek talks with the head of state on their shared demands. The grouping brings together the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the Ceylon Workers’ Congress, the Tamil Progressive Alliance, the All Ceylon Makkal Congress and the Democratic Tamil National Alliance, which agreed a common platform in mid-July.
Constitution should not be rushed, Sumanthiran says
ITAK General Secretary M.A. Sumanthiran said drafting a new Constitution was not a task that could be undertaken hastily, and that the process should be approached as a broad national dialogue capable of addressing the concerns of the country’s diverse communities.
A new Constitution should not be introduced unilaterally by a single party, as was the case with those of 1948, 1972 and 1978, he said.
President Dissanayake said a Parliamentary Selection Committee had been appointed to examine matters relating to the conduct of elections, and that he expected to engage with it on the issues that had arisen. On constitutional reform, he said that rather than pursuing a hastily drafted amendment, the priority at this stage was to build a new national consensus.
The government had laid the foundation for a country in which people act together as Sri Lankans rather than pursuing the interests of their respective ethnic communities, the President said, adding that the country had remained free of ethnic unrest during his government’s tenure. He said his vision was for a system of governance clearly accountable to Parliament.
Land for estate workers
The meeting also discussed the government’s proposal to grant estate workers and estate staff legal ownership of 10-perch plots of land for residential use, as part of efforts to improve living standards in the Malayagam community.
V. Radhakrishnan of the Tamil Progressive Alliance said he was hopeful the government would succeed in implementing the measure.
The abolition of the executive presidency has been a recurring pledge across Sri Lankan administrations since the office was created under the 1978 Constitution, and formed part of the National People’s Power election manifesto.
