Lankan expats alarmed by creeping federalism 

by Harischandra Gunaratna-December 23, 2016, 10:21 pm

Sri Lankan expatriates have decided to stand up against what they alleged as creeping in of federalism through constitutional reforms.

"We have noticed the signs of federalism being ushered in on the pretext of introducing a new Constitution. The report by the Committee on Centre and Periphery of the steering committee of the Constitutional Assembly is nothing but a blueprint of federalism," Coordinator of the newly formed Global Sri Lankan Forum Nuwan Wellanthudawa said.

Addressing a news conference held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo on Thursday, Wellanthuduwa said: "We observe that the proposals being made by the committee on Center and Periphery are in line with the Thimpu principles. We had a discussion with President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday and pointed that out to him. He told us in no uncertain terms that he too did not agree with the recommendations of the Centre Periphery Committee and pledged that the content of the report would not

be included in the new Constitution to be made. We have decided to lobby Sri Lankans living all over the world against the latest threat to the unitary status of Sri Lanka.

"We also pointed out to the President that he had not received a mandate to effect constitutional amendments through referendums.

He pledged so in the Section 2 of his election manifesto on which people have elected him. We are not against any political party but are sure that last year’s regime change would help the separatist forces. We will not allow that to happen. That is why we have started a campaign under the theme: ‘The freedom achieved is in danger’. We expect to hold campaigns both in Sri Lanka and abroad to defeat sinister moves against the motherland."

He said the GSLF would not leave any room for whoever in power to undermine the country’s unitary status and sovereignty.

Senior ex-co members of the GSLF Ajantha Premaratne (Dubai), Nihal Mendis (Italy), Vijith Wickramasinghe (Dubai), Wasantha Keerthiratne (Italy), Mahesh Peiris (France), Upali Hemachandra (Japan), Lakshman Barnes (Monaco) and Arjuna Payagala (UK) also addressed the press.