{"id":55690,"date":"2016-06-18T21:28:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T03:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=55690"},"modified":"2016-06-17T14:00:23","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T21:00:23","slug":"constitutional-reform-dismantling-the-few-remaining-buddhist-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/06\/18\/constitutional-reform-dismantling-the-few-remaining-buddhist-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cConstitutional Reform\u201d- Dismantling the few remaining Buddhist countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramanie de Zoysa<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The so-called \u2018yahapalanaya\u2019 government appointed a Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reform (PRCCR\u201d) in January this year with the mandate of researching public opinion in Sri Lanka on constitutional reform and to prepare a report and recommendations that can be pushed through the parliament and the constitution changed. The move was entirely to satisfy the whims of yahapalanaya\u2019s handlers from the LTTE Diaspora, the West and India. The masters have decided that the Sri Lankan constitution is not conducive to peace and harmony between the races and that there is a need for democracy in Sri Lanka to be \u2018strengthened\u2019- and the yahapalana coolie obliges.<\/p>\n

PRCCR was given a very short time frame (initially 3 months, which was generously extended by Prime Minister Wickremasinghe by another month upon request) to complete the task; the PRCCR report itself admits that the time frame given for the task was extremely inadequate.<\/p>\n

Why was such short time frame given? What is the mighty hurry? Was that by design to exclude the majority Sinhala who would not have the wherewithal to be fronting up to Committees and making political submissions compared to aggressive minority organisations and individuals who are politically well organised and are ready to go at a moment\u2019s notice? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that the report of the PRCCR is out, replete with recommendations that are ready to be \u2018debated\u2019 \u00a0(aka \u2018pushed through\u2019) a parliament full of rogues who are well known to sell their vote for \u2018favours\u2019, the stage is set to get rid of the Sri Lankan constitution to make way for the constitution that the LTTE fought for.<\/p>\n

This is as crafty as Wickremasinghe gets. The 29 time loser is ready for his revenge on a nation that continuously rejected him. So, what really is happening to Sri Lanka? Whose opinions are the PRCCR report (and hence the recommendations) based on? Who is changing our constitution?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this regard, PRCCR report makes an amazing claim. The claim is that it is seen that a considerable representation of people throughout Sri Lanka are for:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u2026\u2026.<\/li>\n
  2. Democratisation of the polity by strengthening institutions for people\u2019s active participation in governance and political life by devolving the power to the provincial and local government level <\/u><\/strong>\u2026..<\/li>\n
  3. National reconciliation as an urgent task. There were divergent views as to how it could be achieved. Among these one view was that constitutional reform should focus on meaningful devolution of power <\/u><\/strong>\u2026\u2026..\u201d (emphasis mine)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This is a statement that demands the attention of people of Sri Lanka- especially in light of the fact that over the last 30 years the majority people in this country- namely the common Sinhala parents- sent their sons and daughters to the war front to defend the unitary status and the sovereignty of this island against an enemy who demanded power devolution \/ cessation. Some of those young people paid with their lives and limb to militarily defend the unitary status of Sri Lanka!<\/p>\n

    How does one reconcile PRCCR\u2019s claim that it found this \u2018considerable<\/strong> representation of people throughout Sri Lanka\u2019 <\/strong>who demand devolution of power with the reality that Sri Lankans fought for 30 years to defend the sovereignty of the country? Where does the PRCCR get its \u2018considerable representation of people throughout Sri Lanka\u2019 <\/strong>that gives it the mandate to change the constitution to devolve power to the periphery and weaken the centre? The sweeping statement that a considerable representation of PEOPLE throughout Sri Lanka are clamouring for the weakening of the central government in order to provide power and self-governance to the provinces, several of which that have been hijacked and quite successfully ethnically cleansed by aggressive minorities, is ridden with dishonesty and mass deception.<\/p>\n

    The claim is however useful-<\/strong> it offers a clear insight into the hatchet job that Ranil Wickremesinghe is perpetrating on Sri Lanka. The claim says volumes on the agenda and the terms of reference of the hand-picked committee.<\/p>\n

    I noted with interest that the report says that there were divergent views on how to achieve national reconciliation\u201d but the only view\u201d the committee liked and cared enough to quote was the view\u201d that it (national reconciliation) should be achieved via meaningful devolution of power<\/strong>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 This, to me, is powerfully indicative of the agenda of the committee.<\/p>\n

    As recorded in an appendix to the report, 3655 persons\/ organisations have made submissions before the committee. There were nearly 500 respondents from Colombo and between 40 and 170 respondents from other districts. Naturally, from the ethnically cleansed districts in the North and East there was no Sinhala voice. For instance, Batticoloa had 3, Tincomalee 12 and Vauniya 0 Sinhala respondents.\u00a0 There was a disproportionate number of Tamil and Muslim NGOs and individuals from all other districts too. Of the 3655 respondents, there were 580 respondents that did not represent any of the districts in Sri Lanka but made representations either in a private capacity or as NGOs\/ INGOs. Some names in this last category are persons\/ entities that are domiciled overseas but have an intimate connection with Sri Lanka but the majority can only be the assumed to be the global Tamil interjectors and Muslim NGOs putting undue weight on the process under various names.<\/p>\n

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with anyone interested in Sri Lanka making their voices heard through this process.\u00a0 But, can the PRCCR claim that those who gave their views on what they want from the Sri Lankan constitution consists of a \u00a0considerable representation of people throughout Sri Lanka?<\/strong> It is most undemocratic and in fact uncivilized to change the constitution to root out any references to Sinhala and Buddhism with the mandate given by 3655 people out of 20 million.<\/p>\n

    In short, what has happened is that all the NGOs, INGOs peddling Global Tamil aspirations and are internationally funded to interfere in Sri Lanka together with extremist Muslim groups have come forward to rid the Sinhala-ness and the Buddhist-ness out of Sri Lanka.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Not that any of these civilities is going to worry Wickremesinghe, Chandrika Bandaranayaka or the President himself.\u00a0 The first two are doing what they failed to do through the 2002 ceasefire agreement and PTOMS respectively, while the third is just happy to occupy the position and its perks that he knows won\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

    continued……<\/p>\n

    Ramanie de Zoysa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ramanie de Zoysa The so-called \u2018yahapalanaya\u2019 government appointed a Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reform (PRCCR\u201d) in January this year with the mandate of researching public opinion in Sri Lanka on constitutional reform and to prepare a report and recommendations that can be pushed through the parliament and the constitution changed. The move was entirely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ramanie-de-zoysa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55690","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=55690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}