{"id":94859,"date":"2019-11-06T12:19:06","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T19:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94859"},"modified":"2019-11-06T12:19:06","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T19:19:06","slug":"unp-presidential-candidates-stand-on-the-unitary-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/06\/unp-presidential-candidates-stand-on-the-unitary-state\/","title":{"rendered":"UNP presidential candidate\u2019s stand on the Unitary State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mahinda Rajapaksa Leader of the Opposition<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The chapter on constitutional reform in the\nmanifesto of the UNP presidential candidate contains provisions to replace the\nunitary state with a formulation that describes Sri Lanka as an \u2018undivided and\nindivisible\u2019 state. This is accompanied by the pledge that governmental power\nwill be devolved to the provinces to the \u2018maximum extent possible\u2019. Identical\nprovisions can be seen in the draft constitution tabled in Parliament by the\nPrime Minister in January this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNP manifesto also contains provisions\nto expand the powers and functions of the provincial councils, to set up a\nsecond chamber in Parliament made up of provincial council representatives in\norder to curb the powers of Parliament, to allow the provincial units to raise\nfunds independently, to place district and divisional secretaries under the\nprovincial councils and to create a Constitutional Court which will adjudicate\nin disputes between the center and the provincial units. Like the draft\nconstitution, the UNP presidential election manifesto also aims to turn Sri\nLanka into a loose federation of virtually independent provincial units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft constitution sought to describe\nSri Lanka as an \u2018ekeeya rajya\u2019 in Sinhala and as an  \u2018orumiththa nadu\u2019 in Tamil while carefully\nrefraining from using the English phrase \u2018unitary state\u2019 which has specific\nconstitutional connotations. Thus the label of a unitary state would have\nremained in Sinhala while in Tamil and English Sri Lanka would no longer be\nrecognized as a unitary state. A similar deviousness is to be seen in the UNP\npresidential election manifesto. Though great care has been taken to avoid\nusing phrases like ekeeya rajaya or unitary state, it has a reference in\nSinhala to \u2018maubime ekeeyathwaya\u2019 which translates into English as \u2018the unity\nof the motherland\u2019. The phrase \u2018maubime ekeeyathwaya\u2019 has no constitutional\nvalue but it can be used to misleadingly suggest to Sinhala readers that the\nmanifesto seeks to uphold the unitary state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran has\nrejected such devious and dishonest attempts play around with words to convey\ndifferent meanings to different persons. Significantly, the UNP manifesto has\nrefused to use even the Sinhala phrase \u2018ekeeya rajya\u2019 that had been conceded\nearlier in the PM\u2019s draft constitution to assuage Sinhala sentiments. There is\na clearly apparent hardening of the federalist position in the UNP manifesto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal arrangement will never work in this country\nbecause the majority of ethnic Tamils live outside the northern and eastern provinces\nand the vast majority of the Muslims live outside the east. Any attempt to\nimpose a federal system on a country with such a demographic pattern, will be\nfraught with serious consequences. Even the British colonial rulers never\nsought to dismantle the unitary state. The Donoughmore and Soulbury Commissions\nexpressly rejected federalism.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNP manifesto with its toxic constitutional\nprovisions was presented with much fanfare to the Venerable Mahanayake and\nAnunayake Theras in order to deceive both the Maha Sangha and the general\npublic. This is the first time that a mainline political party has included in\nan election manifesto provisions to dismantle the unitary state and to create a\nfederal state in its place. Therefore this is a matter that needs to be taken\nvery seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of the contents of the manifesto that has\nalready been released, I earnestly request the Venenerable Mahanayake Theras of\nthe Three Nikayas to obtain from the UNP candidate, a written pledge to uphold\nthe unitary state, to oppose federalism and to oppose all the proposals\ncontained in the draft constitution tabled in Parliament by the Prime Minister\nearlier this year.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader of the Opposition<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mahinda Rajapaksa Leader of the Opposition The chapter on constitutional reform in the manifesto of the UNP presidential candidate contains provisions to replace the unitary state with a formulation that describes Sri Lanka as an \u2018undivided and indivisible\u2019 state. This is accompanied by the pledge that governmental power will be devolved to the provinces to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mahinda-rajapaksa","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94859","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=94859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}