{"id":71106,"date":"2017-10-27T16:07:11","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T23:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=71106"},"modified":"2017-10-27T16:08:24","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T23:08:24","slug":"help-to-safeguard-the-unity-sovereignty-territorial-integrity-and-buddhist-heritage-of-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/10\/27\/help-to-safeguard-the-unity-sovereignty-territorial-integrity-and-buddhist-heritage-of-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Help to Safeguard the Unity, Sovereignty, Territorial Integrity and Buddhist Heritage of Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Mahinda Gunasekera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A new Constitution has been drafted and is being presented in parliament on October 30, 2017 for three days of debate and adoption which would lead to the formation of a federal state, and even the ultimate break-up of the country as sought by the Tamil separatists at an early date in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>The present Sri Lankan government came to power with a mandate to abolish the Executive Presidency and reform the electoral system, but had no mandate to introduce a new constitution or change the structure of governance from a unitary to a federal state. This is an attempt to satisfy Clause 16 of the UNHRC Resolution proposed by the US and UK which was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka in Geneva on October 1, 2015, which calls on the government to devolve power to the peripheral units based on the controversial 13<sup>th<\/sup> Amemdment imposed on us by India in 1987.<\/p>\n<p>There has been a lack of transparency in the constitution making process with little information available to the public from the Consultative Committee headed by NGO representatives and the Parliamentary Steering Committee headed by TNA, MP M.A. Sumanthiran and Jayampathy Wickramaratne, MP, a known federalist.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer\"><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">3<\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">60 with Manohara De Silva ( 09-10-2017 )<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"360 with Manohara De Silva  ( 09-10-2017 )\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sEnjXP520_g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The draft is vague and elusive, with mere mention of a National List which will protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity without providing an itemized list of subjects to be administered by the Centre. It sets up a new Constitutional Court not envisaged by 13A, outside the purview of the Supreme Court, for arbitrating disputes between the Centre and Provinces. The rulings of the Constitutional Court shall be conclusive and final. Three tiers of government, namely, Central Government, Province and Local Authorities are identified, with the local authorities being brought almost entirely under the Province. The Concurrent List of subjects shared by the Centre and Provinces has been scrapped, and the Centre will not have authority to override statutes passed by Provinces on matters in the Provincial List. It advocates the abolition of the Executive Presidency and the election of the President by Parliament. This undermines the authority of the President to intervene promptly on issues affecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity as his decisions are subject to Parliamentary approval and judicial review.<\/p>\n<p>The Northern and Eastern Provinces are to form a single Provincial Council even though the Supreme Court demerged the temporary merger as unconstitutional, illegal and invalid in October 2006. The Governor of the Province has been reduced to a nominal status thereby reducing the authority held by the Center.\u00a0 Land required for national projects has to be sought from the Provincial authorities, and any disputes will be reviewed by a National Land Commission with equal representation of the Centre and Provinces, with appeals to be decided on by the Constitutional Courts. Development projects could be delayed due to prolonged arbitration\/litigation.<\/p>\n<h3>Pathikada 12.10.2017<\/h3>\n<p>http:\/\/www.col3hd.net\/pathikada-12-10-2017\/115899<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0dbb\u0da7\u0da7 \u0d85\u0dbd\u0dd4\u0dad\u0dca \u0dc0\u0dca\u200d\u0dba\u0dc0\u0dc3\u0dca\u0dae\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0d9a\u0dca \u0d95\u0db1\u0daf?\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I_QP8Hl5pBw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The words being used in the proposed constitution to describe the structure of governance is totally deceitful, as the very word \u2018unitary\u2019 has been deleted from the English version, and therein substituted with the Sinhala and Tamil words \u2018Aekiya\/Orumiththa Nadu\u2019, which is redundant, especially as the English word \u2018unitary\u2019 has a well defined meaning, understood and accepted by the public. Aekiya is a Sinhala word coined to mean unitary, whereas the new Tamil word \u2018Orumiththa Nadu\u2019 means \u2018joined together\u2019 or \u2018united\u2019 and not the same as \u2018unitary\u2019 earlier represented by the Tamil word \u2018ottriachchi\u2019 as\u00a0 contained in the national constitution since 1972. This is a fraudulent attempt to cheat the public by making the Sinhalese think there is no change, while at the same time it is a foolish move to try and please the Tamils who seek a federal structure as an interim measure prior to separation.<\/p>\n<p>The wording contained in the proposed constitution does not confer the same recognition given to Buddhism as bestowed in the previous national constitutions per Chapter II, Article 9, which allows the foremost place and at the same time enjoins the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, despite such assurances given by both the President and Prime Minister. Buddhism has held the foremost place for over 2,300 years while accommodating all other religious beliefs and practices that arrived later. Since the acceptance of the Buddhist Teachings by King Devanampiyatissa and his subjects and establishment of the Buddha Sasana, the sublime philosophy which highlighted mental development and inner peace, heralded a unique civilization that gave an impetus to advancements in the arts, architecture, hydraulic system to harness water, social customs and values, that has enriched the lives of the island\u2019s people. Even today, with over 70 percent of the population being adherents of Buddhism, the constitution grants all citizens the freedom to adopt, practice in private or in public, and teach any religion of their choice per Articles 10 and 14(1)(e). The leader of the Tamil National Alliance who is also the leader of the opposition and the Cardinal heading the Catholic Church have publicly stated that they have no objection to the retention of these Articles allowing the foremost place to Buddhism as already granted. Contrary to assurances by the head of state, the responsibility entrusted to the state to protect and foster Buddhism has been watered down by removing the word state, and instead providing that \u2018Sri Lanka\u2019 would \u2018protect and foster Buddhism\u2019, thereby making it vague by not fixing responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>There is a serious threat to the unitary status, territorial integrity and Buddhist heritage of our motherland which would be drastically changed if the draft constitution is adopted with the required 2\/3<sup>rd<\/sup> majority in parliament, which is aimed at pleasing the TNA and the rump of the LTTE resident overseas who seek a federal system, and the major western powers who seek to downgrade the Buddhist influence and create divisions among the resident population that would lead to a break-up of the island nation. <strong>We need to support the NATIONAL JOINT COMMITTEE (NJC) headed by Dr. Anula Wijesundera and Lt. Col. Anil Amarasekera, with Manohara de Silva, PC, Dr. Hema Goonatilake, Dr. T.L. Gunaruwan, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera, Gamini Gunawardena former DIG, Dr. Ranjini Ratnapala and others taking the lead to campaign against this unwanted constitution. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>You could direct your contribution to Mrs. Badra de Zoysa at \u2026\u2026\u2026. Huntingwood Drive, Scarborough, ON \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026. to be remitted to the NJC\u2019s bank account number <\/strong>0040 6000 0757 in the Narahenpita Branch of the Sampath Bank for educating the public and taking up a court challenge if necessary. Your kind cooperation and prompt contribution to safeguarding our motherland will be greatly appreciated.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely, <strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer\"><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mahinda Gunasekera A new Constitution has been drafted and is being presented in parliament on October 30, 2017 for three days of debate and adoption which would lead to the formation of a federal state, and even the ultimate break-up of the country as sought by the Tamil separatists at an early date in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-constitution","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71106","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=71106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}