In the throes of political reform
"The outcome of the presidential and parliamentary elections of last year represents significant democratic gains that Sri Lanka can ill-afford to fritter away.” File photo shows Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with President Maithripala Sirisena in Colombo.
K. Venkataramanan-January 6, 2016
As Sri Lanka begins a complicated and cumbersome process of writing a new Constitution, it must recover a Westminster-style parliamentary system and have safeguards for minorities
Writing about constitutional change in Sri Lanka is like watching a video that does not have a pause button. If the viewing is interrupted for some reason, it has to be watched from the beginning again. Each time there is a pause in the ceaseless quest for ethnic and national unity in the island nation, one has to go back to where it all began: how much devolution for Tamils will lead to an acceptable resolution of the ethnic question? And, more pertinently, will this be yet another missed opportunity?