President Ranil Wickremesinghe stated at the all party conference held on Tuesday (13) to resolve the national ethnic question that in January 2023, he will hold discussions with Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya leader Sajith Premadasa regarding the devolution of power and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution based on the seven related Commission reports in the past and the report on Constitutional reforms submitted by a committee led by President’s Counsel (PC) Dr. Romesh De Silva.
President Wickremesinghe emphasised that all political parties should come to an agreement to provide a solution to the ethnic problem by the time of the upcoming 75th independence celebration. “We must all come together to solve the problem in this country. Whether it is called an ethnic problem or something else is not important. We want to provide solutions to these problems. All the political parties came together to find a solution for this and reached an agreement in Parliament. This party leaders meeting was called today for that purpose,” he added.
He further said: “Members of the North have discussed the national issue of the country today. This question can be discussed under two parts. The first is the process of compensating for the missing and locating them. There are many problems that need to be solved regarding the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act (PTA), and regarding land. The second is the arrangement required to do legal work related to the devolution of power”. In this regard, Minister of Foreign Affairs M.U.M. Ali Sabry PC and Minister of Justice, Prisons Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe PC are jointly implementing a special programme, President Wickremesinghe said. “Accordingly, we hope to provide a report on the missing persons and political prisoners. After that we can talk about devolution,” he added.
The report of the Commission headed by Supreme Court Justice A.H.M.D. Nawaz to review past human rights related commissions’ and committees’ reports will be printed in about a week. The report includes a number of proposals. “We are also considering the suggestions in previous reports”.
President Wickremesinghe said that several issues have been raised about lands in the North. The relevant Advisor, the Secretary to the Ministry of Lands and the Chief of Defence Staff hope to come to a solution together with the representatives of the people in those areas. Currently, there has been progress here. “As the discussions progress, ideas can be learned. That is why this conference was called to learn the views of all the parties. I suggest that we should come to a solution on this,” he added.
President Wickremesinghe also pointed out: “As we celebrate the 75th independence day, we need to move forward as one nation. The nation has doubts that it will go to war again. Tamil Parliamentarians say that they have given up war. That’s why we have to discuss and solve this problem from one platform,” he further added.
Meanwhile, Ali Sabry PC said that discussions of the Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Switzerland, and international discussions about Sri Lanka are mainly carried out under two factors. “We have taken into consideration the reports of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, the Justice Udalagama Commission and the Judge Paranagama Commission. All those reports have indicated that solutions could be provided for the incidents that happened in the country, but that these solutions cannot be provided under the mechanism of a foreign country. Accordingly, we had promised to provide solutions for this under a local mechanism, but it has not been implemented,” he added.
According to the President, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed the Justice Nawaz Commission. What was done by that Commission was to prepare the necessary programme to provide solutions for this by incorporating the suggestions of previous commissions.
“We have a responsibility to bring this mechanism in,” he added.
He further said that even the security forces have expressed their interest in bringing this mechanism forward. The security forces say that some units have been branded differently. A situation has arisen where some divisions cannot even go for United Nations operations. They expect to prove their innocence, and if something suspicious has happened, they expect the law to be enforced. “However, we have not been able to follow such a procedure to date. We think that these can be solved through a local mechanism. You can get solutions for this through a Truth Commission. We have discussed this with South Africa as well. It is very good for the North and the South to solve this problem. We will present a Cabinet paper for this. A former Ambassador has been appointed as the Director General of the relevant committee. This is expected to bring many good proposals by uniting all the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims living abroad. As the Government, we hope to provide facilities for that,” he explained.
Premadasa meanwhile said that unity is important even for the economic development of a country. “Differences of caste and religion in politics should not be used since people of different communities are living equally in this country. We have to remove such people from politics. We can bring about reconciliation by way of removing such differences and we have to get rid of racism or else we would not be able to create a new world for the future. Everyone should have the feeling that all communities are treated equally and that we can solve all these issues by way of a home grown solution. As we have commenced this programme, we have to ensure that it continues. Hence, we all have to unite to make this all party conference a success”.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) and Opposition Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila warned yesterday that the introduction of a federal system, or even discussions regarding such, will cause disruption to the peace and harmony that is prevalent now.
Addressing the media in Colombo, he stated further that this will also cause disastrous effects to the economy which is on the path to recovery.
“In this crisis situation, co-operation and peace amongst the whole population is cruicial. A federal system can be identified as the most determinant and leading fact in terms of causing division among communities in Sri Lanka. We have experienced since 1967, that as soon as such suggestions are brought forward, society becomes alarmed and provoked while the society gets divided into two factions. So, amidst an acute economic crisis, this can be seen as creating a futile problem which would make it even more difficult to find solutions to the more pressing economic concerns. I do not know why the Government is unable to understand this,” said Gammanpila.
Emphasising the importance of maintaining peace and harmony among all ethnic groups at present, he stated that even the introduction of the topic in major forums will cause adverse effects on the country and its economy. “Right now, there is an almost unprecedented level of harmony between all ethnic groups in the country, without any clashes or disagreements. However, the introduction of such a federal system may cause the disruption of this peace and harmony among different ethnic groups. Our stance and belief is that the introduction of a federal system is increasingly damaging to a country which is trying to emerge from an economic crisis,” he said.
Issuing a statement yesterday, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said that President Wickremesinghe is slated to brief the Cabinet of Ministers in February on the progress of the decisions taken at the all-party conference to resolve major issues in the reconciliation process.
President Wickremesinghe recently called for an all party conference during the 2023 Budget debates to resolve the ethnic issue.