{"id":110084,"date":"2020-12-25T17:46:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-26T00:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110084"},"modified":"2020-12-25T17:46:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T00:46:41","slug":"sjb-proposal-to-adopt-constitution-made-by-yahapalana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/25\/sjb-proposal-to-adopt-constitution-made-by-yahapalana\/","title":{"rendered":"SJB proposal to adopt Constitution made by ‘yahapalana’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga\u00a0\u00a0 PhD, DSc\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

One of the leaders of the Samagi Jana\nBalavegaya has proposed that the present government, instead of wasting time\nover drafting a new Constitution and trying to reinvent the wheel. should adopt\nthe draft Constitution that the ‘yahapalana’ government put together which, he\nsays, could not be taken forward as the government was dissolved in a coup\nhatched by the opposition. The ‘yahapalana’ government was engaged in the game\nof appearing to bring forth a brand new constitution with features included\nmainly to appease the minorities and western countries. People remember the\nplay of words they resorted to with hybrid type of new language being created\nwhich described the nature of the state as ekeeya\/irimittanadu\u201d, a combination\nof a Sinhala word and a Tamil word to hoodwink both Sinhalese and Tamil\ncommunities. Imagine having Tamil words in the Sinhala version of the\nConstitution of the country. UNP\/SJB has still not realized that one of the\nreasons why they lost all the elections was this type of duplicitous evil deeds\nthey attempted to deceive the people. Remember what they did to get the\nelections postponed !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the ‘yahapalana’ government took upon\nthemselves to make a new constitution for the country, they had not asked in\ntheir election manifesto or campaign a mandate from the people to do that.\nObviously they were doing the bidding of the Tamil separatists and Western\npowers who had helped them to come to power. UNHRC Resolution 30\/1 which had\nbeen cosponsored by ‘yahapalana’ \ngovernment had recomended a new constitution to address the aspirations\nof all communities. No wonder it was going to be as close to a federal\nconstitution as possible. It was unitary by name only and even that only in the\nSinhala version of the constitution. In a constitution with devolved powers the\nstrength of the link between the centre and the periphery determines whether or\nnot a country is federal. The existing Constitution barely escapes being\nlabeled as federal by virtue of the control the president has over the governor\nand the delegated executive powers the latter has within the province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The constitution that was proposed by the\n‘yahapalana’ government dismantles all the links between the centre and the\nperiphery. The executive powers of the governor are transferred to a board of\nministers of the provincial council. These powers are delegated to the governor\nby the president and therefore under his control. In this sense the governor is\nthe representative of the president in the provincial council.  Sovereignty of the people is reposed in the\npresident by the  people’s franchise and\ntherefore he must have executive authority over the whole country. If on the\nother hand his powers are irrevocably transferred to other units of power the\nsingle sovereignty would be non-existent. Such an arrangement would be federal\nirrespective of whatever terminology is used to describe it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further the constitution constructed by\n‘yahapalana’  proposes to devolve to the\nprovinces all powers and functions that can be carried out at the level of\nprovince on the basis of the principle of \nSubsidiarity\u201d. It is on a similar conceptual framework that the\nseparatists have been agitating for an independent state in the Northern and\nEastern provinces since 1972. Subsidiarity in the constitution and political\nsphere is defined as the principle that a central authority should have a\nsubsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a\nmore local level\u201d. It is obvious that this principle would have implications on\nthe single sovereignty as it erodes the executive power at the centre and is\nmore suitable for federal states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The yahapalana constitution proposed the\nestablishment of a second chamber with wide powers, composed of provincial\nrepresentatives. The parliament will not be able to legislate national policies\nand standards unless the second chamber consents. For instance the parliament\nwill not be able to approve the construction of a dam across a river in a\ncertain province if  a PC located  downstream does not consent which could\neasily happen as the latter may hold the view, whether right or wrong, that it\nwould be deprived of an adequate supply of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 13th<\/sup> Amendment which brought\nin devolution of power had utilized three \nlists to separate the powers into three categories, one which was the\nconcern of the central government, two which mentioned the powers devolved to\nthe PCs and three, the concurrent list, which contained the powers to be\nconsidered by both the government and the PCs. ‘Yahapalana’ constitution\nproposes to transfer all the powers in the Concurrent list to the provincial\ncouncils. In addition certain matters coming under the central government eg\nstate land is to be transferred to the PCs. In such an arrangement it will be\nalmost impossible for the central government to take over any land. Further the\nGovernor of the PC is made into a figure head who cannot communicate with the\ncentre even in an emergency.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time given to the governors and the\npresident to either assent or go to courts regarding any act passed by the PCs\nis just two weeks. If they fail to respond the act becomes law by default. In\nIndia the central government has powers to veto decisions of state governments\nbut in Sri Lanka even now the president cannot veto acts passed by PCs and if\nthe ‘yahapalana’ constitution is adopted PCs would have powers to pass laws\ninimical to the rest of the country and the president or the central government\nwill not be able to do anything about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another controversial feature in the\n‘yahapalana’ constitution is the electoral system. The proportional system that\nhas been suggested ensures disproportionate representation of minority\ncommunities and it also includes multi-member electorates in the North giving\nit greater representation. These electoral policies could enable the minorities\nto hold the upper-hand in the government affairs and render the majority less\npowerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once these powers are devolved and  become part of the law of the country the\nparliament cannot change them even by a 2\/3rd<\/sup>  majority unless all the PCs agree ! If this\nis not ethnic federalism what is? It is relevant to state here that ethnic\nfederalism has failed everywhere it has been tried (Liam D Anderson, 2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga   PhD, DSc \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga\u00a0\u00a0 PhD, DSc\u00a0 One of the leaders of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya has proposed that the present government, instead of wasting time over drafting a new Constitution and trying to reinvent the wheel. should adopt the draft Constitution that the ‘yahapalana’ government put together which, he says, could not be taken forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-n-a-de-s-amaratunga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}