WORLD AFFAIRS

A new package

The main political formations of Sri Lanka have reached a historic consensus on a new constitutional document. But its passage in Parliament depends on the Tamil parties and the resolution of some outstanding issues raised by the United National Party.

NIRUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN
in Colombo

IT was by far the single most important development in the political history of Sri Lanka since the Liam Fox Agreement of 1997. But whereas the Fox agreement was an abstract promise of bipartisan cooperation in the unpredictable future, the June 30 agree ment between the ruling People's Alliance (P.A.) coalition and the Opposition United National Party (UNP) is more concrete and has yielded a document that could, with some alterations, be soon adopted as country's new Constitution. The proposals for cons titutional reforms that have been agreed upon include a broad framework for the devolution of powers to the Tamil-dominated northeastern Sri Lanka.

SRIYANTHA WALPOLA
President Chandrika Kumaratunga and United National Party leader Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Never before have the leaders of the two political groupings sat together and thrashed out any issue of national concern, let alone the most emotive of them all - namely, the sharing of power with the Tamil minority. Indeed, the history of the ethnic con flict in the island-nation is replete with instances of trashed proposals for power-sharing by successive governments that easily succumbed to political pressure mounted on them by the main Opposition party.

Winding up the deliberations President Chandrika Kumara-tunga said: "I believe that perhaps for the first time in independent Sri Lanka, we have together succeeded in achieving a historic feat, which is that all parties representing the people in Parliam ent have been able to come together to discuss one of the country's most important and most pressing problems. And we did not stop there. We have been able to bring to a close successfully, the whole process in agreement."

The UNP too shared the sentiment. Ranil Wickremasinghe, its leader, said in his vote of thanks at the end of the discussion: "Just as we argue with each other, just as we will make accusations against each other, the least is in a moment of crisis, it is possible for various political forces and groups to grapple with urgent issues. We, those of us around this table, have proved that we can do so... All of us in the UNP are dedicated to end the war... to bring in peace, to preserve the unity of Sri Lank a and to devolve power, we are prepared to walk that extra distance."

The media hailed the agreement as a "historic" event. The Daily Mirror called it the "beginning of a new era of consensual politics, the manifestation of a realisation that enough damage to the nation had been done through a regime of unprincipled system of party politics in this country."

However, the draft document is unacceptable to the mainstream Tamil political parties, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Tamil Eelam L iberation Organisation (TELO). These parties are represented in Parliament and their support could be crucial for the passage of the constitutional reforms bill.

At a meeting with Chandrika Kumara-tunga, the TULF alleged that the new proposals were a watered down version of the 1995 devolution package. More specifically, the TULF and the other Tamil parties oppose the three most important aspects of the devolutio n proposals: the unit of devolution, the structure of the Sri Lankan state, and the control over state land.

The draft agreement on the unit of devolution could be plausibly interpreted as a postponement of the decision to delink the northern and eastern provinces. It envisages the setting up of an interim council to govern a merged northeast for a period not e xceeding five years. At the end of this period, a referendum is to be held in the eastern province to decide the issue of the merger. The very idea of such a referendum is anathema to the Tamil parties. They consider the northeast as the Tamil homeland a nd the demand for its merger "non-negotiable". The eastern province now has a significant Muslim and Sinhala populations, and in a referendum it is expected that they will vote to delink the two provinces. The Tamil parties argue that as the non-Tamils i n the east, especially the Sinhalese, were grafted on to the land in "colonisation" schemes, they have no real right to decide the issue of merger.

Moreover, the referendum comes with a crafty rider: if, after the specified period, conditions do not exist to conduct a referendum, the two provinces would automatically stand delinked. The Tamil parties consider this to be as threatening as a referendu m, if not more. "How can we accept this formulation? We have told the President in no uncertain terms that the integrity of the Tamil-speaking territory is something on which we can never compromise," said TULF secretary-general and senior parliamentaria n R. Sampanthan.

The Tamil parties also want the control of state land to be vested clearly with the regions, because they believe that this is the only way to protect the "homeland" from further "colonisation" by the Sinhalese.

As for the structure of the state, the present formulation that Sri Lanka is a republic comprising a centre and regions is seen by the Tamil parties as a dilution of the 1995 promise to make Sri Lanka a "union of regions".

The President has indicated that whether or not the Tamil parties agree to the proposals, she is determined to present them before Parliament. The government wants to have the package passed by the House before its term ends on August 24.

This will prove more complicated than it sounds. Despite the overall agreement, some outstanding issues remain to be sorted out between the P.A. and the UNP and if these are not resolved, the UNP support for the package may not be forthcoming.

First of all, there is disagreement on the form in which the document is to be presented. While the government wants to enshrine it as the new Constitution, the UNP wants it to be tabled as a White Paper that will form the basis for negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Chandrika Kumaratunga reiterated in July that she was open to talks with the Tamil Tigers, but the LTTE is believed to have told the peace negotiators from Norway, who are trying to facilitate a dialogue, that talks are not possible as long as the fate o f Jaffna hangs in the balance.

Further, for the government, the draft proposals have to form the basis for talks, but Anton Balasingham, the LTTE ideologue currently in London, has dismissed them as falling far short of Tamil aspirations.

The main issue that could provide the UNP a reasonable excuse to break off from the whole process is the government's insistence that it will retain the Executive Presidency until 2005 as a transitional measure. This is despite the fact that under the ne w Constitution it is the Prime Minister who will wield executive authority.

The government's argument is that a strong presidency is required as long as the war continues. And as the LTTE has rejected the proposals, it is quite certain that an immediate end to the war is not likely. This is unacceptable to the UNP. "We have poin ted out that the working of such a Constitution may not be possible," said K.N. Choksy, parliamentarian and the ever-understated legal brain of the Opposition party.

Quite apart from all this is the question mark that hangs over a referendum if it is held after the dissolution of Parliament. The UNP has said a referendum held after the dissolution of Parliament will not be legally binding for the next Parliament. The government has said it will seek the Supreme Court's direction in this matter.

While the UNP can take satisfaction that it has successfully forced the government to climb down on several concessions made in the original 1995 proposals, Ranil Wickremasinghe still has to contend with the task of selling even this diluted package to h is party members. In recent times, there have been a number of defections by senior UNP members to the P.A. fold. The first week of July saw former Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel switching allegiance. The defections were thought to be the first step in a contingency plan drawn up by Chandrika Kumaratunga in the event of a UNP refusal to back the package in Parliament. The government needs 16 more MPs for the "aye" vote. If the UNP will not provide them, Kumaratunga is determined to get them.

With so many loose ends to be tied up, it promises to be a long haul for all concerned, and both Kumaratunga and Wickremasinghe seemed only too aware of the realities when they sounded a cautionary note at the end of the consultations.

"I dare say we have much more to do before we present this to Parliament. And we have even more to do once it is presented to parliament to ensure that it is implemented effectively...," the President said.

Said Wickremasinghe: "There is much more to be done. The journey is not yet over."

Those words could prove to more prophetic than intended.