by Easwaran Rutnam
Hassan Ali
Muslims are maintaining the push for a separate Muslim Provincial Council (PC) as the Constitutional Assembly discusses a new Constitution for the country.
The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the main Muslim party in Sri Lanka is leading the campaign for a separate Muslim administrative unit in line with the policies of the late M. H. M. Ashraff, the founder of the SLMC.
SLMC General Secretary Hassan Ali told The Sunday Leader that Muslim civil society groups met in Ampara last week to discuss the way forward for the Muslim community in Sri Lanka.
He said that he was happy to see Muslims uniting for one cause, and that is to ensure the identity of the Sri Lankan Muslims is protected.
“The late Mr. Ashraff had proposed that the Muslim community must be considered as an equal stakeholder in Sri Lanka, be recognised as a separate ethnic community and be given a separate provincial council,” he said.
He said the proposed Muslim administered provincial council should be carved out from the Muslim majority local authorities in the Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Manner districts.
Hassan Ali said the three districts must be merged with three coastal districts comprising three electorates, namely Pottuvil, Samanthurai and Kalmunai.
“The present eastern province is not what we had soon after independence. The demography and even the geography has changed. Several portions of land have been annexed from adjoining districts. All this must be considered when you draft a new Constitution,” he asserted.
The SLMC General Secretary also noted that after 1978 there is now a Constitutional Assembly and when there is a Constitutional Assembly there is no point in talking about amending the existing Constitution.
The first sitting of the Constitutional Assembly was held in April in the Parliament Chamber.
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya presided over the first sitting of the Assembly and at the first sitting of the Constitutional Assembly seven Deputy Chairmen were elected to preside over the Assembly meetings in the absence of the chairman.
A Steering Committee consisting of twenty one (21) members were also appointed and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was unanimously appointed as the Chairman of the Steering Committee.
“Amendments can be made at any time with a 2/3 majority. You don’t need a Constitutional Assembly for that. When there is a Constitutional Assembly it is better to go for a new Constitution. All the proposed amendments can be put together and a new solid Constitution can be created,” Hassan Ali said.
He said that the SLMC is also firmly of the view that the Presidential system must be in place with limited powers as opposed to Executive powers.
Hassan Ali said the SLMC is closely watching the developments at the Constitutional Assembly and will discuss its proposals at a later date.
Devolving powers
The push for a separate Muslim administrative unit was not accepted with open arms when it was first proposed.
There was a fear it will lead to a separate Muslim state similar to the push for a separate Tamil state which led to the ethnic conflict.
Dr. Asanga Welikala, a Lecturer in Public Law at the School of Law, at the University of Edinburgh, and the Associate Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law, in a Working Paper on Constitutional Reform titled ‘THE SRI LANKAN CONCEPTION OF THE UNITARY STATE: THEORY, PRACTICE, AND HISTORY’ published by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), notes that at the heart of the current constitutional reform process is the question of devolution and what to do about the entrenched principle of the unitary state.
Welikala notes that common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena’s manifesto for the January 2015 presidential election did not deal with the question of devolution, focusing instead on reforms to the executive.
“The manifesto of the United National Front for Good Governance for the August 2015 parliamentary election promised the ‘devolution of power while preserving the unitary status of the country,’ without offering any further detail.
It seems to be the case that the current government wishes to build upon the Thirteenth Amendment in offering a further measure of devolution in the proposed new constitution, but that it feels the time is not ripe for interfering with the unitary state principle. This concern may stem from the requirement that the new Constitution must not only secure a two-thirds majority in the Constitutional Assembly and Parliament but also the consent of the people at a referendum. While the strict legal requirement is only for a simple majority voting in favour in the referendum for the new constitution to be adopted, it would be politically crucial for the legitimacy and durability of the new Constitution that it is supported by a substantial majority of the whole country, and that there are majorities in favour within all ethnic communities,” he said.
The Working Paper further notes that it seems to be the government’s calculation that the support of the Sinhalese would only be forthcoming if the new constitution preserves the unitary state principle.
Virtually all the Tamil parties, on the other hand, have argued that, while the unity of the state must and can be guaranteed in the new Constitution through express provisions to that effect, the unitary state is inimical to proper power-sharing and must therefore be removed from any fair Sri Lankan constitutional settlement.