{"id":62918,"date":"2017-01-31T22:59:20","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T04:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=62918"},"modified":"2017-01-31T15:35:29","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T22:35:29","slug":"a-welcome-contribution-to-stimulating-public-dialogue-on-constitutional-change-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/01\/31\/a-welcome-contribution-to-stimulating-public-dialogue-on-constitutional-change-process\/","title":{"rendered":"A welcome Contribution to Stimulating Public Dialogue on Constitutional change process"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Review of the Sinhala Language Book on \u2018Separatist Strategies and Constitutional Amendments\u2019 by Manohara R De Silva<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

January 29, 2017, 12:26 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

by M.L.Wickramasinghe\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

President\u2019s Counsel Manohara R de Silva\u2019s book of the above theme written in Sinhala is a timely publication that would stimulate public dialogue on the ongoing constitutional drafting process and contents. The original Sinhala title is \u2018Bedumvadinge Upayamarga Ha Vyavastha Sanshodana\u2019. Persons who normally use English for their communication, but in addition possess even a moderate knowledge of Sinhala, would certainly profit by reading this book as it contains invaluable information on Constitutional concepts as well as an analysis of key recommendations proffered by the six sub-committees of the current Constituent Assembly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The launch ceremony was held a few days ago, and was attended by many Nayaka Theros, clergy, and laity. The SLFI Auditorium where the ceremony was held was overflowing. Many were standing at the back as well as outside in the lobby indicating the topicality of the publication and the value placed by discriminating public on initiatives aimed at educating the public on issues of national importance. Such unprecedented (large) audience present for an event such as a book launch at SLFI was not only due to topicality of the subject. It was also a deep and silent acknowledgment of the professional reputation and the integrity of the writer and his scholarly knowledge on Constitutional Law. It would also have been a tribute to his enduring legal struggle to preserve the integrity of the State of Sri Lanka, while protecting the fundamental rights of all segments of citizens of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The book identifies two strategies used by groups with separatist tendencies. (i) armed conflict and (ii) attempts at manipulating and choreographing drafting of constitutions and laws. The book focuses on the second strategy.<\/p>\n

It covers such conceptual areas as people\u2019s sovereignty, unitary system of governance, federal system of governance, national security, land powers, law and order (police) powers, financial powers etc. The author uses his deep legal knowledge about these concepts in writing the book. But the beauty of the book lies in author\u2019s ability and willingness to explain these concepts in non-technical (non-jargon) simple language and easy to read (non-convoluted) style of writing. Therefore, the reader need not be a person with a legal background or an expert in Sinhala to read and understand the content of this book. What is required of the reader to benefit from the book is common sense and a general understanding of contemporary issues of national significance.<\/p>\n

The book has 14 chapters. Although the author has not divided the book into distinct parts, for analytical purposes, the book can be divided into three parts. The first two chapters could be grouped as Part 1. Chapter one presents a summary of historical development of separatist ideas linked to post Independence constitutional development in Sri Lanka. Chapter two discusses principles and concepts such as sovereignty, unitary system and federal system.<\/p>\n

Chapters three to 11 can be considered as Part 2. Chapters three, five, and six analyze the impact of the 13th Amendment, as well as the 17th and the 19th Amendments with regard to introduction of federal features into the Constitution(13A) and the weakening of executive powers of the President \/Central Government (17A & 19A). Chapter four includes a brilliant analysis on the federalization objectives underpinning the aborted 2000 draft Constitution. Chapters seven to 11 are devoted to a discussion on the significance of concepts of national security, police, land and financial powers in different types of Constitutional arrangements and the potential impact that some of these arrangements would have on the integrity of the State of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Chapters 12 to 14 which can be considered as the last, but the most important part of the book, discusses the ongoing processes currently adopted to change the Constitution, the suggested recommendations of the six sub-committees of the present Constitutional Assembly, and their potential impact on the future course and stability of the country. Lastly, Chapter 14 identifies those constitutional principles and provisions with potentially negative consequences for the stability of the State of Sri Lanka, and analyses in detail the reason for their negativity and unsuitability for Sri Lanka. Through this chapter the author invites people to focus on the said inappropriate provisions, review and understand the negative impact of these on the country.<\/p>\n

Some of the inappropriate issues, tactics, and provisions identified by President\u2019s Counsel Manohara de Silva in his book (with a request that people should scrutinize these issues deeply) are presented below in summary form.<\/p>\n

These are: The prospect of drafting a federal styled constitution under a unitary name (label); abolishing the Concurrent List and transferring those subjects to the Provincial List; removing the executive powers of the Provincial Governor; removing the right of the Central Government to decide on national policy in all subjects; giving police powers to provinces; establishing a constitutional court outside of the formal judicial structure; specifying that a designated ratio of central government revenue should be disbursed to the provincial councils; bringing the district and divisional administrations of the Central Government under respective provincial councils; giving land powers to the provincial councils etc.(For a complete List of issues and comprehensive analysis of each issue, the reader may refer to the above-mentioned book published by Visidunu Publishers).<\/p>\n

(The writer is an ex-journalist, communication researcher, and a retired Officer of the International Civil Service.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Review of the Sinhala Language Book on \u2018Separatist Strategies and Constitutional Amendments\u2019 by Manohara R De Silva January 29, 2017, 12:26 pm by M.L.Wickramasinghe\u00a0Courtesy The Island President\u2019s Counsel Manohara R de Silva\u2019s book of the above theme written in Sinhala is a timely publication that would stimulate public dialogue on the ongoing constitutional drafting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62918","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=62918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}