‘I just want to survive’: Syrian refugees in Lebanon weather storm after storm

Amid flooding, sewage, freezing temperatures and snow, refugees living in tented settlements have no prospect of conditions improving

A boy helps mop up water after the storm that devastated the refugee settlement in Qob Elias, Lebanon (MEE/Victoria Yan)

Victoria Yan

Wednesday 16 January 2019

QOB ELIAS, Lebanon - When storm Norma wreaked havoc on Lebanon last week, Mahmoud, a Syrian refugee who has lived in a tented settlement with his wife and children for the past five-and-a-half years, tried to stabilise his home as best he could.

But with no concrete to cover the earth around him, the rain quickly flooded his living space and the adjacent toilet. Sewage mixed with mud made for a toxic combination, leaving all the members of Mahmoud’s family, as well as their neighbours, sick.

“There was water everywhere and very little we could do about it,” the 36-year-old told Middle East Eye on Saturday afternoon, two days before a second storm was expected to hit.

“The blankets and mattresses we use to sleep on still aren’t dry yet and we’re going to have to face more rain, wind and the cold.”

Syrians living in shoddy conditions in Lebanon have faced an onslaught of blistering winds and snow, causing tents to collapse altogether (MEE/Victoria Yan)

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the storm had severe consequences on about 11,000 Syrian refugees.

Those living in shoddy conditions at higher altitudes faced an onslaught of blistering winds and snow, causing tents to collapse altogether. In north Lebanon’s Minniyeh, an eight-year-old Syrian girl was killed. Across the Bekaa, where the majority of Syrian refugees in Lebanon live, heavy rain caused massive flooding.

But as the Syrian crisis continues, refugees in Lebanon have borne the brunt of extreme winter weather for nearly a decade with no improvement in their living conditions.

Amid fears in Lebanon that the Syrian refugees will remain in the country permanently, displaced Syrians living in tented settlements are not allowed to build with robust materials here.

Refugees living in tented settlements are not allowed to build with robust materials, says UNHCR (MEE/Victoria Yan)

“There are a number of reasons why refugees and humanitarian organisations helping them cannot build stronger living structures,” Mireille Girard, UNHCR's representative in Lebanon, told Middle East Eye.

"We have been advocating to be able to use more robust elements for shelters rather than just plastic sheets and wood. We are clarifying to all concerned parties that improved structures do not mean permanent ones; they are still temporary. They just help better prevent and protect people during harsh weather conditions."

Nonetheless, for Mahmoud and many like him, remaining in Lebanon and surviving a harsh winter without adequate supplies is not a choice.

“There is nothing for my family and me to go back to. We're from a town near Idlib. Our house has been razed to the ground. We would rather endure the cold and the storms [in Lebanon] than go and face death [in Syria],” he said.

Yasser Hurrat, a refugee, stands in front of the muddy, water-logged settlement after the storm (MEE/Victoria Yan)

Half a kilometre away, 34-year-old Yasser Hurrat helped others re-build drainage systems for the upcoming storm. The ground, still muddy from the rainfall and people’s movements, showed no signs of drying up.

As the leader of an informal tented settlement of about 200 people, known as a shawish, Hurrat is responsible for organising the small community and communicating with the landlord from whom the refugees rent their piece of land.

“Some of the children were moved to a school in Bar Elias for a night, but almost everyone stayed to protect their own belongings and drain their houses of water," Hurrat said.

Wasel Khodor was among the refugees who stayed behind.

The 46-year-old rounded up his three sons, the eldest no more than 11, and expressed his pride that they all worked through dawn to keep their tent together.

Wasel Khodor, with his three sons, said that they all worked through dawn to keep their tent together (MEE/Victoria Yan)

According to UNHCR, the most vulnerable refugees were offered temporary places to stay outside the camps, but not everyone agreed to relocate.

“All of our things are here,” Khodor told Middle East Eye, about why the family stayed put despite the weather.

Storm Miriam, which peaked on Tuesday night, has kept humanitarian organisations busy, their staff distributing dry blankets, clothing, and relocating those willing to move. On Tuesday evening, Lebanon’s Education Minister Marwan Hamade announced the closure of schools the following day.

Like Mahmoud, Hurrat is from the Idlib area, while Khodor grew up near Aleppo.

Neither can fathom returning to Syria for now, and as desolate as conditions are in Lebanon, they say that at least they’ve been able to create their own "community".

Yasser Hurrat's aunt Fatima, left, and his mother, Myriam, with two younger children (MEE/Victoria Yan)

According to the UN refugee agency, about 88 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are eager to return home, leaving Hurrat, Mahmoud and Khodor in a minority.

While UNHCR has not pushed them to go back due to ongoing instability in Syria, the Lebanese government has strongly advocated and facilitated their return.

In the fall, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon's General Security, told Reuters news agency that about 50,000 Syrian refugees had returned to their home country.

The fate of many of these refugees, however, is unclear as humanitarian organisations are unable to operate with ease under the government of Bashar al-Assad and the continued war.

"This is the reality we are facing, and I just want to survive, do what’s best for my family," Khodor said.

Global tensions holding back climate change fight, says WEF

World Economic Forum chief Børge Brende wants ‘coordinated, concerted action’ among world’s powers to halt climate change Photograph: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images

Larry ElliottEconomics editor-Wed 16 Jan 2019 09.00 GMT

Growing tension between the world’s major powers is the most urgent global risk and makes it harder to mobilise collective action to tackle climate change, according to a report prepared for next week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The WEF’s annual global risks report found that a year of extreme weather-related events meant environmental issues topped the list of concerns in a survey of around 1,000 experts and decision-makers.

But with Donald Trump announcing protectionist measures aimed at Chinaand the European Union in 2018, the report said the international cooperation needed to limit further global warming was breaking down.

“Global risks are intensifying but the collective will to tackle them appears to be lacking. Instead, divisions are hardening,” the report said, noting that nine out of 10 people polled said they expected relations between the leading powers to worsen in 2019.

“The world’s move into a new phase of strongly state-centred politics, noted in last year’s Global Risks Report, continued throughout 2018.”

The global economy slowed in the second-half of 2018 and the report said activity this year would be held back by growing geo-economic tensions, with 88% of respondents expecting further erosion of multilateral trading rules and agreements.

Børge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, said: “With global trade and economic growth at risk in 2019, there is a more urgent need than ever to renew the architecture of international cooperation.”

“We simply do not have the gunpowder to deal with the kind of slowdown that current dynamics might lead us towards. What we need now is coordinated, concerted action to sustain growth and to tackle the grave threats facing our world today,” he said.

Environmental risks continued to dominate the risks report, although there were also long-term concerns about the dangers posed by cybersecurity breaches in the years ahead.

The report tracks five environmental risks: biodiversity loss, extreme weather events, failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation, man-made disasters, and natural disasters. All five are thought to be in the high-impact, high-likelihood category.

The risks report is a collaboration between the WEF, the Zurich Insurance Group and the professional services firm Marsh & McLennan.

Alison Martin, group chief risk officer at Zurich Insurance Group, said: “2018 was sadly a year of historic wildfires, continued heavy flooding and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is no surprise that in 2019, environmental risks once again dominate the list of major concerns. So, too, does the growing likelihood of environmental policy failure or a lack of timely policy implementation.”

Martin said a significant increase in infrastructure was needed to effectively respond to climate change in order to adapt to the new environment and transition to a low-carbon economy.

She added: “By 2040, the investment gap in global infrastructure is forecast to reach $18tn against a projected requirement of $97tn. Against this backdrop, we strongly recommend that businesses develop a climate resilience adaptation strategy and act on it now.”

Trump’s “America First” agenda has involved pulling the US out of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement, the introduction of tariffs on imports into the US, the announcement that American troops are being pulled out of Syriaand the decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

The risks report said: “Reconfiguring the relations of deeply integrated countries is fraught with potential risks, and trade and investment relations among many of the world’s powers were difficult during 2018.

“Against this backdrop, it is likely to become more difficult to make collective progress on other global challenges – from protecting the environment to responding to the ethical challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.”

Breast cancer risk test 'game changer'

 

15 January 2019

Experts have developed a potentially "game-changing" test to predict a woman's risk of breast cancer.

It combines information on family history and hundreds of genetic markers with other factors, such as weight, to give the most comprehensive assessment possible, says Cancer Research UK.

The test is not yet routinely available on the NHS - some GPs and specialists are trialling it first.

It is part of a push to spot cancers earlier through tailored screening.

Women at high risk could be given preventative treatments or offered more checks, say the researchers.

Nearly 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. A large proportion of the cases occur in women who have risk factors.

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Prof Antonis Antoniou, lead researcher at the University of Cambridge, said: "This is the first time that anyone has combined so many elements into one breast cancer prediction tool.

"It could be a game changer for breast cancer because now we can identify large numbers of women with different levels of risk - not just women who are at high risk.

"This should help doctors to tailor the care they provide depending on their patients' level of risk.

"For example, some women may need additional appointments with their doctor to discuss screening or prevention options and others may just need advice on their lifestyle and diet.

"We hope this means more people can be diagnosed early and survive their disease for longer but more research and trials are needed before we will fully understand how this could be used."

The Breast Cancer Now charity called it a "promising step" but cautioned that more research was needed to develop and test the tool before it could begin to change NHS practice.

"In the meantime, we'd encourage anyone who is concerned about their breast cancer risk to speak to their GP," spokeswoman Eluned Hughes said.

"While there are some factors that we can't change, there are steps everyone can take to reduce their risk of breast cancer, such as exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight and drinking less alcohol."

The test, which also assess ovarian cancer risk, is described in the journal Genetics in Medicine.

Workers’ lives dark as the tea kettle

A girl, carrying a basket full of water collected from another house, smiles for the camera
Pix by Piyumi Fonseka

2019-01-15

I was holding onto the wall while taking off my shoes to enter another house of a tea estate worker, Jeyarani, in Nuwara Eliya. A piece of cement suddenly broke off from the wall, I was holding onto. 

There were many gaping cracks on the walls of Jeyarani’s house. Her attempt to cover the bigger cracks with cow dung seemed to be merely a temporary solution.   

Jeyarani is Tamil, and is married to a Buddhist. Her house possessing a leaking roof, comprising corrugated iron sheets, and weakened and cracked walls doesn’t provide safe shelter for her husband, their two young daughters and son and herself. Their house is not capable of protecting them from inclement weather. Poor sanitation facilities, the absence of piped water and proper toilet facilities double their difficulties.

Even after living for nearly two centuries in Sri Lanka since their arrival from South India, during the British colonial time, Indian origin tea estate workers still live in a poor condition trapped in an unchanged socio-economic structure of life.

Delving into the living conditions of estate workers one quickly finds out that the level of income plays a vital role. Majority of the estate sector workers are not paid a sufficient living wage that meets their basic requirements.

Congested houses

The Daily mirror witnessed that most of the traditional line rooms of tea estate workers-which are usually 10X10 feet in size, still have the same conditions that existed many decades ago. Very few line rooms have been upgraded or reconstructed by the estate or the workers.

In almost all the line rooms the Daily mirror visited, it was eminent that the father, mother, adult sons, daughters, grandparents and married members of the families live as if tightly packed into a tea sachet. The space within the tiny line rooms is used for sleeping, eating, living and all other purposes.

Jeyarani said the married families living together in one house, face severe difficulties every day. “Men, women, young daughters and young sons all live in one room. These daughters cannot even change their clothes inside the house,” she said.

There are seven members in Sinnathambi’s family living in a house measuring just  10×10 feet. Fifty-four-year old Sinnathambi is a worker at Badulla Wewessa Tea Estate.

“We face various difficulties in living in this tiny space. Along with our children and grandchildren, there are a total of seven people living in our house. Some people are capable of upgrading their line rooms with the permission of the estate owners, but we struggle to meet even the daily needs,” he complained.

Some people are capable of upgrading their line rooms with the permission of the estate owners, but we struggle to meet even the daily needs

-Sinnathambi

---

Many houses do not have electricity. They do not have adequate latrine facilities. Most of the latrines aren’t properly maintained.
“My neighbours and we share the same available latrines,” Sinnathambi said.

There is no space between two line rooms because a single wall divides two houses. Several married families live sandwiched as a result.
He said, “politicians visit our houses before every election and make promises to reconstruct them. We are fooled and vote for them. After winning the elections, they forget the promises made to us”.

However, there was a little progress in the infrastructure facilities of some houses. Housing upgrading programmes have been conducted by the Government and NGOs from time to time. Upgrading of the houses saw improvements being made to kitchens and roofs; the latter taking the form of re-roofing. Despite some traditional line rooms having being slightly developed, overcrowding still remains a significant problem for their residents.

Deprived of land and rights

The ownership of the line rooms or land is not given to the family occupying the residence although they live here for generations. Kamalaraj, a tea estate worker in Walapane said that the estate authorities deny them the fundamental right to own a land. He also said that their community is always under threat of eviction by the estate owners.

M.P. Baskaran (60), another tea estate worker from a Walapane, said that although he has been serving the estate during his entire life and living in the provided line room since birth, he owns neither the house nor the land.

We are in a situation where we cannot think of escaping from this poverty or at least taking our children out of this pathetic lifestyle

-M.P.Baskaran

“There is nothing in my name. We earn money and spend it for the daily needs. We are in a situation where we cannot think of escaping from this poverty or at least taking our children out of this pathetic lifestyle.

There are several families living in the same house. Imagine the difficulties they have of facing every single day. They have no place to go. All of them have to live together amid hardships because they have no option,” Baskaran said.

Indebted for generations 

Recent studies have shown that compared to other sectors in Sri Lanka the estate sector has an increasing rate of debt and thereby negative saving. These questions arise because the estate sector people can never save any money since their monthly expenditure exceeds their monthly household income.

“Our expenses always exceed the income. Therefore, even though we want, we cannot save any money for our children’s futures,” female tea estate worker B. Sumathi said.

The very unhealthy financial situation of many estate workers has pushed them towards indebtedness. Sumathi told us that this situation is common with almost all the estate sector workers, making them indebted for generations.

“We have bank accounts not for saving purposes. We get our salaries through those bank accounts. So, we use them just for transaction purposes,” Sumathi said.

Heavy spending on alcohol 

Another factor that the Daily mirror unearthed during this tour was over-expenditure when purchasing alcohol with regard to males in the estate sector families. This situation is the same in almost every house we visited.

Kamalaraj, a breadwinner of a family of eight, from Nuwara Eliya said that every morning he was unbale to start work at the estate without consuming alcohol. According to him, despite his poor financial condition, drinking alcohol is a daily and a compulsory habit among male estate workers.

Contributions to Trade Unions 

There are around five main trade unions operating in the estates. At a time when the expenditure for food, health, education, transport and clothes is questioning whether the basic needs of estate workers are fulfilled, compared to other ordinary workers, every tea estate worker is supposed to pay Rs.150 per month as the contribution to the trade union the individual is a member of. Even the Ceylon Teachers’ Union, one of the main trade unions in the country, charges only Rs.20 per month from every member.

Estate worker Ranjan (43) from Walapane criticised the estate trade unions for charging Rs.150 from their salaries every month.

“How unfair and inhumane it is to snatch such an amount of money from our monthly salaries and not do anything for our betterment? We cannot avoid that payment. By collecting Rs.150 from each and every worker, these trade unions are making millions of money every month. Do they spend that money to do anything for us? No,” Ranjan said. 

Social discrimination

The social status, recognition and respect of estate workers are considered to be based on their living space; which is the line room. The line room residents who were interviewed revealed that they get lower social recognition compared to others if they revealed their line room identity.

“I think it is all in the minds of other people. We are discriminated against when we tell them where we live. We have been branded as layme ayo (Tamils in line rooms). When we visit a Government institution the officials refuse to help us and instead ask us to go to the estate owners because we belong to them,” the estate worker Jeyarani lamented.

Stagnant lives 

According to the opinion of sociologist Prof. Siri Hettige, there are two main reasons as to why the living conditions of tea estate workers are stagnant.

“Either plantation companies make huge profits and they neglect the tea workers or the tea industry as a whole is on the brink, decreasing the turnover of plantation owners,” he said.

Prof. Hettige was of the view that the lack of investment on research in the tea plantation sector, despite having a dedicated research institute centre for tea, is one of the main reasons for a probable downturn in the industry.

He said having not made technological improvements that could have increased productivity have also contributed to the decline experienced in the Sri Lankan tea industry. “Due to the above reasons, estate owners might not be making huge profits to distribute to the workers.” he said. 

However, he said that the issues faced by the estate workers should not be confined to the companies. “The solution requires a joint effort by both the Government and the companies,” he added. 

He suggested that similar to the Government’s Samurdhi programme for low-income households, a programme should be introduced to eliminate the extreme poverty level experienced by tea estate workers.

---

 

Either estate companies make huge profits and they neglect the tea workers or the tea industry as a whole is on the brink, decreasing the turnover of plantation owners

- Prof. Siri Hettige

Better living conditions impact productivity 

A research done by Ajantha Kalyanaratne, senior lecturer in Economics at Sri Jayawardanepura University, has revealed that productivity of a tea estate worker living in an improved house is up by 150%, a figure higher than that of a worker living in a traditional line room which is more vulnerable to health issues. 

As Dr. Kalyanarathna’s research findings stated that improving the living conditions of tea estate workers would benefit both workers and the companies. 

In spite of the harsh reality they face, there was a smile on every worker’s face. These tea plantation workers still have dreams and wish to change their lives. Let this article be a stark reminder for the authorities to open their eyes and do the needful. In order to find a solid solution for the workers’ issues, an effective social dialogue should take place involving different parties, including the estate owners, trade unions, workers and the government.

The first article headlined ‘Workers Left out of the Tea Party’ in the series ‘Stories Behind Your Cup of Tea’ covered topics including wage issues, working conditions and occupation safety of tea estate workers. It was published in the  on January 02.

The next article in the series will highlight the difficulties faced by Sri Lankan female tea plantation workers while on the field.

Sri Lanka: All Pain

by Dr D. Chandraratna-Jan 15, 2019

Jan 15, 2019

It will be hard to find any other country among modern nations where the politicians treat citizens with condescension. Partly they deserve such treatment for they elect them time after time knowing very well their DNA makeup and then cry foul when they do not deliver. It is sad but true that we are a battered and bruised nation radiating little hope.

None seems worried that the warning lights are flashing all around us; our public policies on any subject common to nations who lean on science to enrich human life are non-existent. Instead we lean on mystics and shamans to deliver. The most popular public discussions are on whether the Buddha was born in Sri Lanka or the truth behind Ravana’s escapades in the hills. Practically every other aspect is a fiasco. Be it the energy policy, education, economy or national debt there is hardly any worthwhile dialogue for change at the national level.

Business and finance are in disarray and in the opinion of the Prime Minister the economy he built up over three and a half years has crashed in 51 days since the October event. What it suggests to intelligent people is the fragility of the economy to crash due to the lowering of taxes of a few consumer items. We know of no other scam done by Mr Rajapaksa in that time period. But we are used to this kind of rhetoric without facts, figures and trends and as usual they think that masses are asses. In progressive nations when politicians talk of the economy they talk of economic growth or recession in percentage terms, buttressed by statistics on job growth, corporate investment, deficits, debt ratios and the like.

The political culture is fractured as the PM has recently pointed out which was obvious to us from a long time. We also knew that the institutions, which hold our democracy steady, are damaged and broken and public confidence low. There is an entrenched hostility towards the politicians in general.

The politicians are held in such disdain that it is not beyond the realms of possibility that democracy can ever function in this country. If the price is right any local or foreign power can destroy a government for around 10-15 million dollars at the asking prices today. The issue as evidenced in the past few months is whether this kind of political dysfunction is our new norm and more seriously whether we will sink into further malaise. The narrative of political dysfunction is hard to capture.

We cannot see what political parties stand for. As usual they venerate personalities and not policies. None can tell whether they are to the left, centre or right and these ideological terms, which had enormous policy sense in the past, are just political claptrap. The only characteristic that a political analyst can see is how despotic and oligarchic their organizations are and when in action how they end up as one man shows. Public disillusionment with politics is rife. We are really running on borrowed time. And to top it up we keep writing about our pain knowing that it is all in vain.

A sensible analysis cannot discount the possibility of increased volatility in the public sphere in the years ahead. It is not an unlikely event that the hapless poor in poverty who comprise a whopping 60-precent of the population will bear the torment for far too long. For decades the top end of town has neglected their entrenched disadvantage.

The socialists and trickle down liberals alike have no policies that we know of to eliminate this disadvantage although the political rhetoric is on equity and welfare for the poor. Our poor are disadvantaged on two counts, poverty and ethnicity. The identity politics see only their poor but not the other poor. The greater inequality prevalent in the rural poor demands in my opinion greater redistribution as well as increased production in the rural sector. You may talk global economy till cows come home but nothing will succeed if the global is not sensitive to the local. It is about time that our new liberals understood this basic fact.

WAR CRIMES IN SRI LANKA: CALL FOR SANCTIONS & APPLICATION OF UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION

Joint ACPR/PEARL Statement: Alleged War Criminal’s appointment as Chief of Staff to Sri Lankan army confirms lack of political will to address accountability and justice.

14/01/2019

Alleged War Criminal’s appointment as Chief of Staff to Sri Lankan Army confirms lack of political will to address accountability and justice.

(Jaffna/Washington, 14 January 2019) The undersigned organisations strongly condemn the Sri Lankan Government’s decision to appoint Major General Shavendra Silva, an alleged war criminal, as the new Chief of Staff of the Sri Lankan Army. Brigadier Silva as he then was, led the Sri Lankan Army’s 58 Division during the last phase of the armed conflict. He and his unit were named in multiple UN and NGO reports as among the top brass in the Sri Lankan Army to have perpetrated horrific international crimes and mass atrocities against Tamil civilians and combatants. These violations of the laws of war included attacks on known hospitals, systematic torture and sexual violence, summary executions of surrendees, and hundreds of enforced disappearances.

Silva’s appointment is indicative of a deep-rooted lack of political will on the part of the Sri Lankan government to pursue accountability and justice. Sri Lanka has rejected all calls for accountability since the end of the armed conflict in 2009. Although the so-called “unity-government” elected four years ago pledged to embark on a path to national cohesion, including by addressing impunity for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, at the highest levels, the President, Prime Minister and senior ministers consistently vow to protect the security forces from any scrutiny. Furthermore, the current regime has continued former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s strategy of appointing military officials implicated in international crimes to senior positions within the security establishment or diplomatic positions. The appointment of Silva is a continuation of such practice and a clear example of the Sri Lankan government’s absolute failure to initiate meaningful security sector reform and accountability, the two issues about which the Tamil community have been the most concerned about in the post-war context.

Meanwhile, over the last four years, the international community has prematurely rewarded Sri Lanka for superficial actions and broken promises. Such rewards have included the EU’s granting of GSP+ trade concessions and increased military and police cooperation by the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India and other allies. This has emboldened Sri Lanka to continue to flout its commitments, and undermine pledges under the UNHRC Resolution 30/1, which included security sector reform and accountability.

The calls for Sri Lanka to act against alleged war criminals are futile without concurrent action by the international community. We call on the international community to:

• Revisit the OISL report’s recommendations in light of the lack of any serious progress on UNHRC Resolution 30/1 and initiate suitable processes for international judicial accountability;
• Exercise universal jurisdiction to investigate, charge and prosecute Sri Lankan war criminals such as Silva, to send a clear message that impunity won’t be tolerated;
• Place travel bans on those credibly accused of war crimes including Silva; and
• Halt all military/police cooperation until accountability for war crimes has been guaranteed.

Signed

Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (Jaffna)
People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (Washington)

SRI LANKA: HOW NOT TO MAKE A NEW CONSTITUTION.

15/01/2019

The Constitutional Expert Committee’s report, which was tabled in the Sri Lankan parliament on Friday abolishes the powerful Executive Presidency and replaces it by a Westminster style parliamentary system with a powerful Prime Minister and a ceremonial President.

As per the report which can be described as the “draft constitution”, the President will cease to be directly elected by the people and will instead be jointly elected by a bi-cameral legislature comprising a 233 member “Parliament” and a 55 member “Second Chamber”. The President will be elected by a majority of the whole membership of the two Houses.

This will make a huge difference to the moral authority of the President. Presently, the President enjoys an enormous sense of power because he is the only occupant of a high Sri Lankan office who is elected directly by the entire voting population of Sri Lanka. Others come through smaller constituencies (and also through parliament as in the case of the Prime Minister).

Thus, a directly elected President can legitimately claim that he is the quintessential repository of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. An indirectly elected President can make no such claims.

Under the new draft constitution, the President loses his power to choose the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers. He has to appoint as Prime Minister, not anyone who he imagines may have majority support in parliament, but one who indubitably enjoys it. The President will have to appoint ministers only on the Prime Minister’s advice. He will lose the power to allocate departments to ministries without the Prime Minister’s assent.

Unlike now, the President will not be Head of Government, take Ministerial portfolios, and chair the cabinet. He will only be Head of State and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. But every action of his as C-in-C, will be subject to the advice of the PM.

The President will lose the right to dissolve parliament on his own volition. Parliament can be dissolved before its five year term only when the House itself passes a resolution seeking dissolution with a two-third majority of its entire membership.

The Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers cannot be dismissed at will. The PM and cabinet will go only when they lose the confidence of the House in a Vote of No Confidence or when the annual budget gets defeated in the third attempt in the first two years, and in two attempts after two years.

The President will cease to have discretion over the grant of pardon. This function will be exercised by the Prime Minister and a judicial committee and the President will only be rubber-stamping the decisions.

The President can be removed for mental and physical disability by a committee comprising the Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition. He can be removed also by a parliamentary resolution backed by a two-thirds majority in both the Houses.

After the election, the President is expected to sever all links with any political party and function in a non-partisan manner. This is a major departure from the present constitution under which the President can be chairman of his party.

To meet the demand for provincial autonomy, the new constitution vests power over State Land in both the central and the provincial governments with the condition that land use is carried out as per the rules of the National Land Commission. But the commission’s policies should be shaped in consultation with all provincial councils.

The provinces will also have their own police forces headed by officers of the rank of Deputy Inspector General. There will be separate National and Provincial Police Commissions to make appointments, transfers and promotions at the national and at the provincial levels.

The new constitution introduces a Second Chamber to the national legislature. The lower and larger chamber called “parliament” will have 233 members elected for a five-year term. Out of these, 140 will be elected from single-member constituencies and the rest will be elected on a provincial basis.

There will be a Second Chamber of 55 members, for which members will be elected by parliament and the provincial councils. The Second Chamber will be there not to block bills passed by parliament, but to have a second look and give suggestions for improvement. In drafting bills, parliament will be expected to give due consideration to the view expressed by the Second Chamber.

The draft constitution has described Sri Lanka as “Ekiya Rajya” in Sinhala and “Orumittha Nadu” in Tamil which mean a “United Country”. The experts had avoided labeling the constitution as either “unitary” or “federal” given the strong feelings for and against these two concepts.

It has retained the “foremost place” given to Buddhism in the country while guaranteeing freedom to practice other religions. In a departure from other constitutions, it guarantees individual and family privacy and has stated that gender and sexual orientations will not be a bar to public employment.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told parliament while tabling the draft constitution, that what has been made available is only a draft. Members have also been given summaries of all the views expressed in the six sub-committees, he pointed out. He appealed to the members to study the drafts and the views expressed and come to a consensus on each and every aspect of the constitution.

The constitution has a long way to go. It has to be passed by parliament with a two-thirds majority and also put through a referendum.

But opposition to it has already become manifest and loud, with the opposition Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) headed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa openly saying that it is meant to divide Sri Lanka into “nine semi-independent units.” He wanted the draft to be taken up for debate in the forthcoming Presidential and parliamentary elections to know the peoples’ view. Rajapaksa also wanted to know why the ruling United National Party (UNP) is keeping its view a secret.

It is no secret that Rajapaksa is a votary of the Executive Presidency as he believes that it was only because Sri Lanka had an Executive Presidency that his government was able to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 begin massive infrastructural development in 2010.

Although President Sirisana has not spoken on the issue, his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is against the abolition of the Executive Presidency and any further devolution of power to the provinces especially to the Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern Provinces. The draft constitution has been put forward at a time when Sirisena is attempting to fully exploit his position as Executive President to curb the power and influence of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe.

Only the Tamil National Alliance and the other Tamil parties are for devolution and have been clamoring for it. The others had kept promising to amend the constitution to get the votes of Tamils and liberals, but never fulfilled the promise. This has been the case since the 1980s and is likely to be so for the foreseeable future.

Power hungry politicians like a system based on the concentration of power and not diffusion of power. And no Sri Lankan political party depending on the majority Sinhala vote really wants to share power with the minorities on a territorial basis because it sees the seeds of separatism in such a distribution of power.

It is generally agreed that with provincial, Presidential and parliamentary elections due in 2019-2020, no Sinhala-majority political party will want to be associated with the just presented draft constitution. The government of Ranil Wickremesinghe will, in all likelihood, make a pretense of discussing a new constitution and abandon the effort as the first available opportunity.
Originl heading: The making of a new Constitution (newsin.asia)