The GTF Submission Is An Agenda For Failure
By Dinesh Dodamgoda –November 14, 2016
Dinesh Dodamgoda
The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) published its submission for a new constitution last week. The submission contains counterproductive power-sharing suggestions, hypocrite statements, and an agenda for failure.
The Submission
The submission calls for institutional arrangements of inclusive decision making, partitioned decision making and predetermined decision making. Inclusive decision making mechanisms that the GFT proposes aim to share state power by including the Tamil speaking people’s will in the government by guaranteeing participation of representatives of elites from the Tamil speaking people in the making of governmental decisions. This aim is to be achieved through mandates that guarantee allocated positions in the institutions of governance (legislative, administrative, judicial and armed forces).
Partitioned decision making mechanisms demand for mandates to create a Tamil speaking ethno-linguistic region in the Northern and Eastern provinces, namely “Autonomous Tamil Region” or ATR with administrative autonomy, appropriate legislative power and the executive powers exercised by the Cabinet of Ministers. Hence the GTF implies a call for a ‘separate regional parliament’ for the Northern and the Eastern provinces.
Predetermined decision making mechanisms are to include mandates for prohibited decisions and an extraordinary amendment procedure to amend the constitutional provisions. The GTF calls for ‘vetoes’ as it suggests that the constitutionally guaranteed structures and functions of the government and the centre cannot be altered without the consent of the ATR body.
According to the above discussed decision making arrangements proposed by the GTF, the organisation wants an ethnofederal state on the basis of institutional arrangements under a power-sharing agreement. Therefore, the strategy that the GTF proposes to build sustainable peace and democracy in Sri Lanka is power-sharing.
Power-Sharing Provisions
The GTF included provisions in their submission for central power-sharing, territorial power-sharing, military power-sharing and economic power-sharing. Under the basis that the GTF named as Shared Rule, the organisation suggests to establish a second chamber to make regional/provincial representation as a mechanism to share power at the centre. In a form of government of Parliamentary democracy, a second chamber will establish a bicameral legislature in Sri Lanka. The ATR proposed by the GTF will send representatives to the proposed second chamber and the criteria for representation will be ethnicity. Hence the representatives will position themselves on the Tamil ethnic line at the centre in controlling legislative, executive, and judicial powers in the state.
In terms of territorial power sharing the GTF proposes to establish an Autonomous Tamil Region with an indication to establish a regional parliament for the Northern and Eastern provinces. Hence the GTF considers territory as a proxy for ethnicity. Furthermore, the GTF’s submission suggests to share military power as a right of the Tamil people by guaranteeing the right to due representation of the Tamil people in the armed forces. Moreover, the GTF demands to give the ATR the widest possible power to restructure the economy in respect of the public and private sectors. Hence they demand economic power-sharing provisions as well. In their suggestions, the GTF requests to make provisions to share national revenue between the central and the ATR governments, in addition to the regional generation revenue by ATR.
