Features
Constitutional changes in Sri Lanka
by Nihal Seneviratne
In recent times much attention has been focused on the subject of constitutional changes in the press and other media. During the last presidential election which Gotabaya Rajapaksa won comfortably he asked the people to give him a two third majority to abolish the 19th Amendment of the Constitution as well as draft an entirely new Constitution replacing the 1978 constitution of the late J.R. Jayewardene.
The people gave him this mandate. Since Independence this country has had the benefit of three constitutions viz. the Soulbury Constitutions, the Colvin Constitution of 1972 and the 1978 Constitution of JRJ now amended 20 times. It may be relevant and useful to retrace the different steps taken to have these three constitutions introduced to become the supreme law of the land. Such a review follows.
The Soulbury Constitution
Let us go back to 1945-46 when UK won the Second World War. At the general elections that followed, the Labour Party won a majority and chose their leader, Clement Atlee, to head the new government. By then the UK govt. was well aware of the numorous representations made by Sinhala Nationalist Leaders, starting with D. S. Senanayake, calling for Independence from the British. It was in this context that the UK Govt. appointed a Commission Headed by Lord Soulbury and consisting of Sir Fredrick Rees and FG Burrows to visit Ceylon to inquire into the Independence demand and report their views to London.
D. S. Senanayake and Governor Andrew Caldecott were in contact with the Colonial Office in London. They informed D. S. Senanayake that they had no draftsman available to undertake the work of drafting a Constitution as it was soon after the war and they were still recovering. The Legal Secretary was of Ceylon at the time was D. B. Nihill who had been instructed by the Colonial Office to draft a new constitution and prepare a draft of the Order-in-Council.
Soon after D. S. Senanayake had asked for a team from the Legal Draftsmen to study and work on the documents already in circulations viz the Board of Ministers draft prepared by Sir Ivor Jennings, the report of the Soulbury Commission and the White Paper embodying the decisions of the UK Govt. There was also available correspondence between the Governor and the Secretary of State for the Colonies which had already been published as a Sessional Paper.
Soon after a team from the Legal Draftsman Dept. headed by P.C. Villavarayan, the Legal Drftsman. H. N. G. Fernando and B. P. Pieris as Asst. Secretaries were entrusted the task of preparing the two Orders- in-Council. This was approved by Nihill and Drayton and shown to D. S. Senanayake. The two
Constitution Orders-in-Council approved by Her Majesty in Council became the law and was published in the Gazette soon after the House of Commons passed the Independence Act and the Soulbury Commission Report, as amended, became the Ceylon Constitution of 1948.
The 1972 Constitution
In May 1970 after the General Election where Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike and her SLFP, together with their allies were elected to power, Mrs. Bandaranaike assumed duties as Prime Minister – the world’s first woman to hold that office ahead of leaders like Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi who took office much later Mrs. Bandranaike formed a Socialist government together with the LSSP and CP. Among the Minister in her Cabinet was Dr. N. M. Perera, as Minister of Finance, Dr. Colvin R de Silva as Minister of Plantations and Constitutional Affairs, Leslie Goonenawardene as Minister of Communications and Pieter Keuneman as Minister of Housing and Construction.
Dr. Colvin R de Silva was given the task of framing a new constitution. He expressed his desire to have no connection with the Soulbury Constitution which he felt was foisted on us by the British and was going to frame an entirely new Constitution. On July 11, 1970, the PM issued a communication convening the first session of the Constituent Assembly. The resolution in the legislature read: “We the Members of the House of Representative do truly resolve and constitute, declare and proclaim ourselves as the Constituent Assembly of the people of Sri Lanka for the purpose of adopting and establishing a Constitution ……to be a free and independent Sovereign Republic…… deriving its authority from the people of Sri Lanka and not from the power and authority created by the British Crown and the Parliament of the UK… for carrying out the said mandate under the presidency of Stanley Tillakaratne and to consider the proposals introduced by the Minister of Constitutional Affairs.
The Members of the House of Representatives under Speaker Stanley Tilakeratne decided to sit in the morning session as the House of Representatives and in the afternoon sit as members of the Constituent Assembly. Dr. Colvin R de Silva had persuaded Walter Jayawadena, an eminent Queens Counsel in the UK, to function as Secretary to the Constituent Assembly with Sam Wijesinha and myself as Assistant Secretaries. The committee met 47 times from 1970 to 1972 and the 1972 constitution was established on May 22, 1972.
The 1978 constitution
After J. R. Jayewardene’s victory at the 1977 General Election where he received an unexpected five sixth majority, he appointed a Select Committee of the House on June 22, 1978 with representation from the Government and Opposition. The Motion to establish this Select Committee was moved by R. Premadasa and the Chairman of the Select Committee was J. R. Jayewardene. They held 15 meetings before its report was presented to Parliament and passed, making J. R. Jayawardene the first Executive Head of Government, a position held by the Prime Minister for a long period. Thus was established the Constitution of 1978.
A new Constitution for Sri Lanka in 2021
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa faced a Parliamentary Elections in August which he won comfortably.
During the election he promised the repeal of the 19th Amendment and also promised to introduce a new Constitution. The 20th Amendment to the present Constitution was passed very recently.
It was later announced that the President had appointed a nine-member team of eminent lawyers headed by Romesh de Silva PC, to prepare and draft a new constitution to replace the 1978 constitution in its entirety. This team of lawyers made a public announcement calling for representations and memorandums to be submitted to the committee, I believe by November 30.
These eminent lawyers would sift through the representations and memorandums received and prepare a draft report which is expected to be submitted to the President. The President is expected to submit the report and draft to the Speaker and the Speaker would submit this report and thereafter appoint a Select Committee comprising members from both Government and Opposition.
The Select Committee following the usual established procedure would invite representations from the public and would study all these memorandums and submit the report back to Parliament with their recommendation. It would deliberate at length, studying all the representation made and submit its final report to Parliament.
Thereafter a new Bill containing the new draft constitution would be gazetted and thereafter be taken up for debate in Parliament. After the gazetting the public would be given the opportunity to petition the Supreme Court regarding any inconsistencies in the Bill. Thereafter the Bill, with the recommendation of the Supreme Court, will be placed before Parliament. If the Supreme Court determines that the Bill would require a two third majority along with a Referendum this should be followed. Finally the draft Constitution would be placed before Parliament for the first, second and third readings and thereafter certified by the Speaker to make it the law of the land.
Features
An ethos of consultation is necessary
by Jehan Perera
The new government’s approach to major national issues appears to be one of caution and of continuing in the direction set by its predecessor. This is most clearly visible in its adherence to the IMF agreement and its strict conditions. The government has also retained key officials dealing with the economy despite having subjected them to criticism in the run-up to the presidential election. The government has also adopted the same cautious approach with regard to the most immediate international challenge it faced in the form of the UNHRC Resolution 50/1, which came up for decision in Geneva last week. The government adopted the same policy as practised by its two predecessor governments headed by presidents Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe, though it framed its rejection of the resolution in more conciliatory language.
Critics of the government have sought to point out that it is reaping the benefits of the policies introduced by the previous government which lost its popularity due to taking those very decisions. However, the caution is likely to continue till the general elections take place on November 14. This has been beneficial to the country’s economic and social stability and is not to be caviled at. There was considerable concern expressed by business leaders in the country and also the IMF and international community that the economy was on a knife edge and could plunge into a negative state if there was a change of government. This may explain the very positive initiatives taken by the government to ensure that there was no post-election violence. These included the president’s call that the people were not to celebrate his victory in the traditional manner by cooking and partaking of milk rice and lighting fire crackers. Such actions in the past led to violence, destroyed innocent lives and harmed the country’s reputation and attractiveness to foreign investors.
The government strategy to perform well in the forthcoming general election and win a majority of parliamentary seats is based on consolidating its success, and good reputation gained, at the presidential election. At the general election the government will be seeking a positive vote of confidence from a larger group of voters who will be approving of their first two months in power. The vast majority of the voters who made up the 42 percent who voted for President Anura Kumara Dissanayake did so in the form of a protest vote. They saw no benefit to them in voting on traditional lines while those they voted for would enjoy the best the country had to offer. They were rejecting the other candidates whom they saw as offering little or nothing new in terms of either development policy or cleaning up the corruption that has become part and parcel of a system. This time around, however, the government expects a positive vote which is likely to occur in most parts of the country.
MINDS MEET
It was noteworthy that the president did not obtain the majority of votes in those parts of the country in which the ethnic and religious minorities predominate. This may be on account of the fact that for the past five decades since it was formed, the JVP, which is the mother party of the NPP did not support the aspirations of the ethnic and religious minorities, but shared the general view of the ethnic and religious majority about the threat posed by them to the country’s unity and sovereignty due to their demands. During the presidential election campaign, President Dissanayake recognised the harm these old attitudes had done. He gave speeches that demonstrated a perfect understanding of the discriminatory practices in the past in relation to the minorities. He empathised with their sufferings and pledged to make a genuine effort to solve their problems.
After the first three weeks of the new government’s performance the ethnic and religious minorities appear to be reassured that the NPP is not the JVP they once knew. During a recent visit to the east, and meeting with the Tamil and Muslim civil society, religious clergy and academics there, the impression was of a meeting of minds that encompassed the entire country. The desire for “system change” and for “new faces” is universal. Accompanying this was an antipathy towards the traditional political parties of the north and east, and of the politicians whom they had elected time and again but who had failed to deliver the results that would improve their lives.
At the present time there is no counterpart to the NPP in the areas in which the ethnic and religious minorities predominate. It is therefore likely that many of them will want to vote for the NPP at the forthcoming general elections just like their fellow citizens who belong to the ethnic and religious majority. The fact that nothing controversial has happened to rock the boat or sink the economy in the past three weeks would strengthen their willingness to opt for the new political party and for new leaders. Just as in the rest of the country, there appears to be a popular mood in favour of rejecting those who have not delivered positive results for the past seven decades and to welcome the new. However, NPP could have been more realistic in selection of candidates. Those who have been loyal to the party, but are little known to the voting public, may not necessarily be the ones that the people have confidence in.
LIMITED CONSULTATION
There were concerns in this vein expressed in the east that need to be kept in mind. Limited consultations appear to have taken place with regard to the choice of candidates that the NPP has put forward for election. The candidates appear to have been selected in an exclusive rather than an inclusive manner by the party hierarchy. This may not be a problem in the areas where the JVP has traditionally obtained votes and had their membership which has been visible and known to the people in those areas. However, in areas in which the ethnic and religious minorities predominate, the JVP members are less well known and less visible. This may call for a more intense process of consultation with the larger civil society to identify those candidates who have served the people well and obtained recognition from them.
If the above is the first challenge that the government needs to address, the second is for the government to express its commitment to the devolution of power which is an article of faith to the ethnic and religious minorities, as well as to the international community. In his election manifesto and speeches President Dissanayake pledged to implement the 13th Amendment to the constitution. In any democracy, it is the majority that governs. Where ethnic and religious identities come into play, there will be permanent majorities and permanent minorities that the electoral system cannot make equal. It is only through devolution of power to provincial governments that are elected by local majorities that minorities can feel a sense of inclusion.
A three phase programme is recommended in this regard by civil society members in the east. The first would be the immediate implementation of the 13th Amendment, even with their limited and restricted powers, by conducting the provincial council elections without further delay. Second would be to restore to the 13th Amendment those powers that have not yet been devolved though in the constitution or that have been chipped away deliberately or through neglect. Third would be to improve the scheme of devolution in the comprehensive constitutional reform programme that the government has pledged to undertake. Quite apart from facilitating development by recognizing that different regions have different economic needs and opportunities the principle of devolution also pays heed to the wise words of the great Norwegian peace scholar, Prof. Johan Galtung, who said in Sri Lanka during the time of the LTTE war, “We prefer to be ruled by our own kind even if they are a little unkind.” The process of consultation on these and other matters needs to commence sooner rather than later.
Features
Education and the luxury of hope
by Shamala Kumar
This article is based on a talk on transformative policies for education delivered at the Centre for Women’s Research on October 9th, 2024.
The problem
With government change and cautious hope in the air, I thought I would allow myself to dream, to hope for a different world, in the way we view education. First, however, I begin with some hard questions about practicalities that are vital to the welfare of our students and teachers and to the functioning of the educational system as a whole: why is it that food insecurities among students remain unaddressed in the midst of this crisis? Why was reintroducing the school midday meal programme delayed so long? Where are the initiatives to curtail rising self-harm among students?
When we began working as the Kuppi Collective, COVID had struck, and we were teaching online to students we could not see and whose many problems we could not know. As even asking after students who never joined on zoom caused pushback, we continued to teach, not quite fully ourselves, alienated as we were; not teaching really, instead only “performing” our material and disregarding, for the most part, the death and destruction around us.
Things have not changed much since, because even today, in post-COVID times, we teach with little regard to the students who must skip meals and cope silently with unspeakable worries during this economic crisis. We do not speak of the deaths of Palestinians, the ruins that once were Palestinian universities or violence in our society. Our education remains abstract and disconnected from reality.
As governments have done little to address the crises in education, families have had to shoulder the bulk of the burden of providing a decent education. In accessing education, parents fight to get their children to a “good” school. This alone confirms that there are educational disparities, with some schools unable to provide even basic facilities and others seemingly serving as passports to the highest echelons of society. Parents struggle to meet mounting educational costs, to cope when welfare programmes have forsaken them, or to educate students with disabilities.
A dream
Can we expect more from education? We must change for the better, but what does that actually mean? I would like education to be transformative of our own aspirations and our social structures, as it, too, transforms to respond to us and our needs. My dream begins by framing educational spaces as instruments, institutions and manifestations of social justice, where scholarship helps build institutions, communities, and processes that further the principles of democracy, simultaneously recognising the fact that universities are capable of both reinforcing existing power structures and changing them. This is a political endeavour and begins with understanding the politics of difference, of social hierarchies, inequalities and social fault lines. Its politics must be liberatory and unifying in the sense that it forges relationships that strengthen solidarity.
Access to education must be a central concern in any transformative effort, and questions such as who has access to what and for what purpose and conversely who is left out and why, must be addressed. When access is classed, gendered or denied to those marginalized or when education reinforces existing structures of power that further marginalize those already made vulnerable, transformative education cannot happen.
Therefore, this dream begins with a commitment to free education. During the preceding funding-starved years, universities have evolved into commercial enterprises, seeking “generated funds” to replace state funds. This has had a cost, with staff spending less time on research and core teaching functions, engaging in market-friendly activities, such as trendy-sounding certificate courses that generate money that are often not designed to be transformative. Most disturbing, however, are efforts to expand fee-levying degree programmes throughout the system without regard to how impoverished Sri Lankans have become and how inaccessible such programmes would be for so many.
A truly free university must foster safe spaces to ask questions that challenge the dysfunctionalities of our society and the system that maintains that dysfunctionality. Asking uncomfortable questions about social concerns require spaces where scholars truly dare to think and speak. Highly structured universities in which teachers have to demonstrate they have achieved measurable learning outcomes, and publication points for research, and where students must cram their time into inflexible timetables and heavy workloads seem alien to such questioning.
Education must strive to be free of violence, ranging from the violence of ragging and bullying to the violence of being excluded from alienating content. For instance, a teacher who depicts a dagoba as integral to village life in their lectures, ignores religious plurality and makes other types of villages less legitimate. Education must also strive to be equally aspirational and meaningful for all students, providing students with the possibilities of a “good life,” no matter who they are and what that life may look like.
Finally, education must include strong social sciences and humanities programmes to provide the scholar/student with the language to recognise unjust social structures that the present focus on technology-oriented training does not provide. These subject streams must be made richer and become more than simply places to house students when governments fail to spend on science streams. Even if the humanities require less equipment, they do need the personalised attention of good teachers capable of guiding students to articulate their realities and those of their communities, critically.
Where do we begin?
While we tend to see the bad in our education system, there is actually a lot to be happy about. Recently, the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Education, in responding to the National Educational Policy Framework (NEPF, 2023), stated that education policy must recognize: free education as a fundamental principle, education as a fundamental right; equity and justice as overarching norms in education and; that education is only effective when students have their basic needs fulfilled. This statement holds promise.
We must also recognise the vestiges of a strong system of education that exists in the country. A well-established network of schools, universities, training institutes, and funding systems provide a strong structure. Public funding of education has meant that there is some independence for schools and universities to build a better system, to ask difficult questions, and to demand something better.
The Aragalaya brought with it calls for consultation with the people. During the 2012 FUTA million signatures campaign, the nuanced and rich responses of people who informed us of what afflicts education, attests that reforms must start with hearing people’s concerns. I believe fashioning a transformative system of education must begin with a consultative process that can achieve a broad consensus. Such an effort would increase the public’s trust in our educational institutions and may suggest that the government is serving the people, rather than thwarting their aspirations.
As we strive for reform, we must also question assumptions driving the reform proposals of the past few decades. For instance, is the present push to narrowly focus on technology and jobs serving us well? Is quality assurance and standardization helping or reducing the role of students and teachers in education? Is it always possible to measure outcomes? How, for instance, can the excitement of exploring thrilling ideas or the awesomeness of beauty, and the humanness of solidarity be measured? Can corporate management principles that reduce teachers to “knowledge workers” who simply teach and do research to achieve management targets, help us fashion the universities of our dreams?
I believe these reform efforts are misguided and lack perspective. I suggest, simply, that we step back and ask important questions of what we want from education, honestly and thoughtfully, and learn from other countries that have experimented with the types of reforms that our past governments have proposed. Unfortunately, current education reforms are driven by external funders; true reforms will require that the state diverts its own funds to education rather than rely on others.
Settling for greatness in troubled times
For too long, we, the public, have talked and felt only helplessness about education in this country. Some of the blame resides in a concerted effort by powerful actors to drill into us that we cannot afford the luxury of hope or that we are not entitled to want more or to claim what that “more’ looks like. There are alternatives though. During these troubled times, our crises could be viewed as opportunities to come to grips with the deeply dysfunctional aspects of our society and build on what we already have. I hope we can step back, revisit problems, and aspire for greatness in our education system. But we must dream. I propose that we articulate a clear vision and bravely fashion a policy of education that can help us strive to achieve it.
(Shamala Kumar teaches at the University of Peradeniya)
Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchie)
Features
Stars to brighten up Special Forces’ scene
They did it for us when the going was tough and now, I would say, it’s our turn to rally round and support them, and I’m referring, of course, to the Sri Lanka Army Special Forces.
The bravery, skills and dedication of the Special Forces have contributed significantly in safeguarding our nation and, in doing so, they have made enormous contributions.
As we all know, many made the supreme sacrifice, while several others are wounded and partially disabled…now retired and unemployed.
The Special Forces Veterans’ Association (SFVA) was established for the welfare of these war veterans…to provide them with financial aid, health and medical support, assistance at funerals, scholarships to their children, etc.
To raise the necessary funds for this purpose, the SFVA is working on a charity concert, featuring some of the big names in the music scene here.
‘Ballad of the Warriors’ will be held on Saturday, 9th November, at the Bishop’s College Auditorium and will feature Yohani, Sohan, Judy, Clifford Richards, Umara, J-Pal and Kamal Addararachchi, with Sumedha Mirihana handling the evening’s proceedings as compere.
This would be the ideal opportunity of music lovers here to see Yohani live in action, right here, on stage.
According to reports coming my way, Yohani will be singing her super hit ‘Manike Mage Hithe,’ as well as another of her catchy songs ‘Halmasse.’
‘Halmasse’, incidentally, was put together by Rajiv Sebastian – the lyrics, music and arrangement – and it has a kind of an infectious beat which is sure to get the audience swinging away.
Yohani will be doing four songs, ‘Manike Mage Hithe,’ ‘Halmasse’ and two English songs, I’m told.
The featured artistes at ‘Ballad of the Warriors’ will all be doing four songs each, backed by six professional musicians who are generally involved in studio recordings.
The Army Band, too, will be featured in a very special segment.
Tickets are being snapped up pretty fast as this concert is for a very worthy cause and featuring a stellar line-up of stars as well.
You can make your choice where tickets are concerned: Rs. 10,000 (50% sold), Rs. 7,500, Rs. 5,000, Rs. 3,000 (sold out) and Rs. 1,500 (balcony).
You need to contact J-Pal/Nissanka on 0779919937/0771329216.
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