By Dr. Asoka Bandarage, Nov. 20, 2016 Significant efforts have been taken towards reconciliation and integration of the Tamil minority in the Sri Lankan political system since the defeat of the LTTE (terrorists) in May 2009. However, the Tamil separatist movement has not been halted. It is pursuing a separate state through political means, demanding […]

මනෝඡ් අබයදීර දිවයින  ඉඩම්, පොලිස්‌ සහ මුදල් පිළිබඳ පූර්ණ බලතල පළාත් සභා සඳහා ලබාදීමටත් පළාත් සභා විසුරුවා හැරීමේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට දැනට ඇති බලතල සීමා කිරීමටත් නව ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවට යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. මෙම යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත්තේ නව ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථාව පිළිබඳ යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම සඳහා පත්කළ උපකමිටු හයෙන් එකක්‌ වන මධ්‍ය පරිධිය සබඳතා පිළිබඳ උප කමිටුව […]

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි රංජිත් සොයිසා මාධ්‍ය ප‍්‍රකාශක ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගෝලීය සංසදය වෙනුවෙන් 20 න ොවැම්බර් 2016 ශ‍්‍රී ලාංකීය ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ මධ්‍යම පර්යන්ත සබඳතා විනාශ කිරීමට ඉලක්ක කරගෙන ඇති යෝජිත නව ව්‍යවස්ථාව ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීම. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී අදහස් දැක් වූ පරිදි 2016 මැයි මස දී මුණ ගැසුණු සාමාජිකයින් 11 දෙනාගේ කමිටුව අවසන් වශයෙන් අගෝස්තු මස 27 වන දින […]

Global Sri Lankan Forum REJECT the proposals for a New Constitution on the Centre-Periphery relations aimed at destroying the Democratic, socialist Republic OF SRI LANKA. The proposals now submitted by the committee of 11 members having first met in May 2016, and finally on 27th Aug. rejects the NATIONAL WILL as expressed by the Parliament […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror PHU General Secretary and MP Udaya Gammanpila yesterday claimed there would be a risk to the unitary nature of Sri Lanka because of the intervention of federal experts in the proposed new constitution based on the resolution approved in Parliament on March 9. Mr. Gammanpila said the proposals in sub-committee report […]

W.A.De Silva Courtesy The Daily Mirror We have experienced during the past regime of former President, that absolute power vested in Executive Presidency has caused opportunity for absolute corruption and abuse of power. As a result many critics have pointed out that abolition of Executive Presidency is absolutely necessary in the process of the formation […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island November 6, 2016, 12:00 pm The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) on behalf of the Sri Lankan Tamils resident overseas has called for the creation of an ‘Autonomous Tamil Region’ (ATR) in a re-merged Northern and Eastern Province to address their grievances. The two provinces comprise eight administrative districts. The GTF […]

මනෝඡ් අබයදීර උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින ඉඩම්, පොලිස්‌ සහ මුදල් පිළිබඳ පූර්ණ බලතල පළාත් සභා සඳහා ලබාදීමටත් පළාත් සභා විසුරුවා හැරීමේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට දැනට ඇති බලතල සීමා කිරීමටත් නව ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවට යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. මෙම යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත්තේ නව ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථාව පිළිබඳ යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම සඳහා පත්කළ උපකමිටු හයෙන් එකක්‌ වන මධ්‍ය පරිධිය සබඳතා පිළිබඳ උප […]

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA In this installment, I focus on Chapter VI of the constitution, Directive Principles of State Policy.  I shall briefly explain what they are, and what in my view is wrong with them legally as well as practically. WHAT ARE DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES? Directive principles are principles intended to guide the State when making policy.  […]

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA Continuing my discussion of the idiocies in the Sri Lanka Constitution, in this article I focus on the concept, ‘Sovereignty is in the People’ enshrined in Article 3, purportedly the source from which the constitution draws its legal and moral authority. I shall briefly discuss what I see as the logical contradiction at […]

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today At a seminar organized by young professionals, “Geneva and You”,Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke observes that Sri Lanka is in a perpetual cyclical pattern. First, we prepare, learn from our mistakes and achieve a significant victory that could change the course. Yet, we are unable to maintain our victory. The third phase […]

Chairman, Sri Lankan Solidarity Movement 07th October, 2016 Dear Sir, Many persons, especially Sinhala Buddhists and the Sinhala people are having very strong reservations about the drawing up of a new constitution. There are widespread fears that a federal constitution will be brought in surreptitiously with a ‘unitary’ label to hoodwink the Sinhala Buddhists and the […]

by M.L.WICKRAMASINGHE Courtesy The Island A dialogue on unitary and federal systems of government has already begun albeit among a woefully inadequate number of citizens. This article is an attempt at contributing to an informed dialogue on federalism by presenting the implications of international experiences and research findings on federalism for Sri Lanka. It would be […]

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA In a series of articles, as time permits, I shall discuss some of the idiocies in the present Sri Lanka constitution, because, as far as I’m aware, what little there is of discussion on constitutional matters in the media at present is entirely focused on the purported need to reform the executive presidency, […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින 27/09/216  * ස්‌වයංපාලනය දෙනු. * සෛවරී පෙඩරල් පාලනයක්‌ අවශ්‍යයි. * ජාත්‍යන්තර හයිබ්‍රිඩ් යාන්ත්‍රණයක්‌ අවශ්‍යයි. * යාපනයේදී කළ ප්‍රකාශ පිළිකුලෙන් හෙලා දකිනවා. – රජය රජය සංහිඳියාව ගැන කටයුතු කරන අවස්‌ථාවේ උතුරු මහ ඇමැති විග්නේෂ්වරන් දෙමල පිබිදීම නමින් බෙදුම්වාදී මෙහෙයුමක්‌ දියත් කර ඇත. උතුරේ බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්‌ථාන ස්‌ථාපිත කිරීම අත්හිටුවනු සහ සිංහල ජනතාව පදිංචිකරවීම නතර […]

Courtesy Adaderana September 25, 2016  11:24 am  There is no need to draft a new Constitution, the Government can amend the existing one instead, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says. The observation was made while speaking at an event held in Udadumbara. I’m of the view that a new Constitution should not be drafted, instead they can […]

Janaki Chandraratna  Constitutional Reforms is the hot topic of the day. The government is fast tracking this agenda to be in line with the timeline prescribed by UNCHR, as constitutional reforms are considered to be imperative to implement the Geneva resolution. Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his last visit to Sri […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty By issuing a timely statement, the National Joint Committee (NJC) has informed the public that the SLFP segment of the Joint Opposition in Parliament has in their proposals to the Steering Committee on the proposed Constitution, incorporated the removal of the Concurrent List in the 13th Amendment.  For this the country owes […]

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy  Ceylon Today President Maithripala Sirisena recently said if former President Mahinda Rajapaksa won his third term or had the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Prabakaran survived Eelam War IV, then achieving lasting peace is not possible. It is an interesting observation on three counts. One is that though the former President […]

වෛද්‍ය කේ. එම්. වසන්ත බණ්‌ඩාර උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින බෙදුම්වාදී යුද්ධයේ තීරණාත්මක අවධියක්‌ වූ 2008 සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේදී “සිංහල හ`ඩ” සංවිධානය හරහා පේරාදෙණිය විද්‍යාර්ථීන් පිරිසක්‌ විසින් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කළ “දෙමළ ඊළාම් නිජබිම ප්‍රශ්නය” නැමති පොත් පිංච ම`ගින් යුද්ධයේ දාර්ශනික පදනමට ප්‍රබල බුද්ධිමය ප්‍රහාරයක්‌ එල්ල කරන්නට යෙදුනි. එම කෘතිය ම`ගින් මහා වංශය සම`ග සැසඳීමේදී ඉතා දුප්පත් ඉතිහාස මූලාශ්‍රයක්‌ වූ […]

Senaka Weeraratna In the light of the proposed changes to the Constitution of Sri Lanka now under consideration and growing accusations of contrived attempts via the proposed new Article 33 to neutralize the applicability of Article 9 in the Constitution that imposes a mandatory duty on the State to give to Buddhism the foremost place […]

Courtesy Ceylon Today From the wig to the Veshti (the traditional, usually snow white Tamil attire, oft mispronounced as Vetti/Verti), Northern Province Governor Canagasabhapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran (fondly Wiggy to newspaper Editors and journalists for reasons of brevity) these days, does not seem to know from which orifice he is shooting! Whether it is from his […]

Adaderana September 18, 2016  02:40 pm The Government is eyeing to hold a referendum with respect of the proposed Constitution, National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa says. He pointed out that the Government is planing to hold the referendum in the beginning of next year, instead of holding the proposed Local Government polls. The observation was […]

 Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror  In the wake of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga calling for a Federal and Quasi-Secular Constitution for Sri Lanka, the joint opposition (JO) said it was totally opposed to ‘Federalism’ as a means to resolving the national question. JO parliamentary group leader Dinesh Gunawardane said yesterday they met to discuss the […]

Dadaderana  ඩාලි පාරේ බෝඩ් ලෑල්ලක් ඇති ගොඩනැඟිල්ලක තනතුරු ලබාගැනීමෙන් පසු අනිත් අය කපා හැර කටයුතු කරගෙන යද්දී බණ්ඩාරනායක මහතාගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති සහිත පක්ෂය රැක ගැනීමට කටයුතු කරන්නේ අප විසින් බව හිටපු ජනපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පවසයි. ශ්‍රීලනිපය අද ඉන්නේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සමග බවත්, මේ නිසා සැබෑ බණ්ඩාරනායක ප්‍රතිපත්තිය රැක ගැනීමට අපට සිදුව ඇති බවත්, ඒ මහතා […]

By Dr. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA What Mr. Sampanthan did not say in Matara recently was as important as what he did say. What he said was as follows: …This Constitution is going to be framed one with the framework of a united, undivided and indivisible Sri Lanka…We do not want this country to be divided. But the […]

Sri Lankan Solidarity Movement The Members of Parliament representing the SLFP in the Joint Opposition, JO have submitted to the Steering Committee headed by the Prime Minister, their proposals for the proposed new Constitution, which inter alia includes a proposal to remove the existing controversial Concurrent List in the 13thAmendment as a measure Appropriate” to […]

Sponsored by the Inter-Religious Peace Foundation:  Preamble: We have been split apart and torn asunder with hateful division, having to endure a brutal, protracted war simply because we have not found the way to embrace each other in solidarity, infused with a liberating humanity, to share and nurture this beloved Land and coexist peacefully as a […]

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA I have heard it suggested in certain circles that there will be no referendum on the constitution, i.e. that Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremasignhe will see to it that the constitution passes into law just by action in Parliament.  In my view, the said suggestion is wrong.  There will be a referendum. What […]

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA Since Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe command a 2/3 majority in Parliament, technically, they don’t need the JO in order to pass the constitution in Parliament.  If, however, the JO votes against the constitution, it will destroy the credibility of that document, and make it unfit to become the law of the land.  […]