New Constitution & Resolving Ethnic Conflict
M.K. Shivajilingam
The Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka have been struggling for their political rights for about 70 years without any solution to their grievances. More than two-hundred thousand people have been killed in the struggle. In order to achieve permanent peace in the island, it is essential that the Tamils’ grievances are addressed and resolved. A strong flawless unassailable political system of equal treatment, opportunity, and power to all its peoples, will ensure a permanent, sustainable, and peaceful solution to the long conflict in the country. To achieve this, a credible, trustworthy, and honorable process is an absolute necessity; hence, a process with the involvement, assistance, and assurance from India, USA, EU, and the UN is important and required.
The following items shall be considered towards achieving a durable resolution to the ethnic conflict:
1 Process and Modality for Political Solution
- A negotiating process between the Sinhalese and Tamil leaders mediated by India, USA, EU along with the UN, must be initiated towards finding a political solution. The mediating parties can function as witnesses and guarantors to the implementation of the solution.
- A new constitution that offers each region the utmost autonomy, shall be implemented that can ensure all its peoples equal-treatment, equal-opportunity, and equal-power without any preferential treatment to any specific people.
- The Tamil people shall continue to have the right to self-determination. At the end of 5 years from the Agreement or at any time, the Tamil people shall be entitled to a UN monitored Referendum should the Govt. of Sri Lanka fail to implement the agreement, or the Tamil people consider it to be necessary to conduct the Referendum to determine their political future.
2 Framework for the Constitution of Union of Sri Lanka
The proposed system of government shall be sharing of power between the Central and the States, and called “Union of Sri Lanka”. The power shall be devolved to the greatest extent possible, and that unless and otherwise explicitly delegated, all powers shall rest with the States. The Union of Sri Lanka shall be a con-federal structure. The Union shall consist of autonomous sovereign States and a confederate unit (“Federal Unit”).
