Wigneswarn repeats his call for call for the self-determination of the Tamil people
The Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran , is again reiterating his call for greater devolution of power to the Tamils’ homeland in the North and East of the Island, asserting that “ the new Constitution should do away with multiple power bases in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The role of the Governor should be Ceremonial; the role of the Government Agent/District Secretary must be subservient to the will of the people of the two Provinces. They should not act as appendages of the Centre but become faithful proponents of the policies and priorities of the people. All constraining legal provisions presently intact must be done away with, in the new Constitution”.
The Chief Minister speaking at the opening ceremony of the newly constructed building complex of the Jaffna District Secretariat this morning in Jaffna said, the new constitution should ensure that a group of people who have certain identities and individuality of their own over a long period of time should be able to govern themselves within their areas of governance without undue interference and intrusion.
Referring to the late President J R Jayawardene’s last interview before death, Wigneswaran said Jayawardene had regrets that he did not consider Federalism and give a Federal Constitution. “Just a few weeks before his demise he had told an interviewer that in hindsight he felt he should have granted a federal constitution to our people. Let me remind his belated remarks at this stage” he said.
The full text of his speech is available below:
It is indeed a happy occasion when an imposing four storied building built for our Government Agent’s Secretariat is being declared open by our indefatigable Prime Minister and amiable Home Minister today. We thank you profusely for facilitating the construction of this building as well as for consenting to be with us to declare open same today.
While welcoming the strengthening of the Government Agents’ office buildings and ensuring the widening of the services to be rendered by his administration, I would like to flag the fact that we are at the threshold of bringing out a new constitution or at least an improved constitution soon. Our Tamil leaders have considerable expectations in that exercise.
Therefore I would like to briefly point out the present predicament of the Provincial Council system. We have three power bases. One is that of the Governor, the other of the Government Agent/District Secretaries and the third of the Provincial Council. The Governor draws his sanction from the Executive President and the Government Agent from the Central Government headed by the Prime Minister.
Even though on paper the Provincial Council is said to represent the power of the people by virtue of their election by the people, our powers and authority are limited or more correctly usurped by others closer to the President and the Central Government. It serves no purpose in conflicting with other power bases when the correction need to come from the top. It is the Law that needs changes.
When the Draft Thirteenth Amendment was presented in 1987 under the Indo Sri Lanka Agreement our leaders Mr.Amirthalingam, Mr.Sivasithamparam and our present leader Mr.Sambandan addressed a letter to the then Indian Prime Minister Mr.Rajiv Gandhi on 28th October 1987 saying that the provisions of the Thirteenth Amendment were woefully inadequate and said the Thirteenth Amendment cannot solve the problems of the Northern and Eastern people. They pointed to the unnecessary strengthening of the Governor’s powers which Professor G.L.Peiris while still a respected Intellectual then, called as the process of giving with the right hand and taking back with the left. He was referring to the undue strengthening of the Governor’s authority derogating such powers from the Provincial Council. Many fears expressed by them then, came to pass in due course. Not only that. The powers of the Provincial Council were further clipped by Act No: 58 of 1992 wherein the Government Agent/District Secretary came under the direction and control of the Centre while earlier they came under the supervision of the Provincial Administration. Even the Chief Secretary of the Provincial Council continued to be beholden to the Centre rather than the periphery.
The powers wielded by the all powerful National Authorities such as the Mahaweli Authority and National Housing Authority and others further intruded into the already sparse powers and authorities wielded by the Provincial Council. Some Departments coming under the Centre positively detract our progress and development. I had occasion recently to complain to your Economic Advisor Mr.Paskaralingam about the unavailability of Earth for the progress of the construction and completion of the Iranaimadu project. Every possible obstacle is placed to thwart the efforts of our Engineers to complete the project before the rains come.
In order to make Democracy work in the Provinces, in order to ensure the healthy devolution of powers to the periphery we need to strengthen the authority of the Provincial Council adequately. After all the right to self determination expressed by the political leaders of the North and East of Sri Lanka from the time of Independence, has not been controverted by any Government so far. The aborted Agreements Bandaranayake – Chelvanayagam Pact, Dudley Senanayake – Chelvanayagam pact, Thimpu Proposals reflected the relevancy of their demands. In fact the Indo Sri Lanka deliberations were started with the idea of granting asymmetrical power sharing to the North and East. By insisting on a Provincial Council system which was not in the shopping list of any of the other Provinces the need to grant adequate powers and authorities to the people of the North and East had been lost sight of or deliberately ignored.
My first request is that the new Constitution should do away with multiple power bases in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The role of the Governor should be Ceremonial, the role of the Government Agent/District Secretary must be subservient to the will of the people of the two Provinces. They should not act as appendages of the Centre but become faithful proponents of the policies and priorities of the people. All constraining legal provisions presently in tact must be done away with, in the new Constitution. It is surprising that a draft of the constitution envisaged has still not been shared with us. The CPA head came over to find out our views. But the final working draft is still to be seen by us.
The powers of National Authorities such as the Mahaweli must be made to conform to the criteria and concerns of the Provincial Government. In short they must respect the power sharing that has taken place and not act arbitrarily and often in direct contravention of the needs, priorities and aspirations of the Provincial People.
The need to do away with the Concurrent list in the Thirteenth Amendment cannot be gainsaid. Often Concurrent Lists have only strengthened the Centre rather than empowered the periphery. Invariably we find the Centre using its Concurrent power unilaterally rather than after discussion and debate. Thus my second request is to delineate the powers of the Centre and the periphery strictly and clearly so that each could look after their areas of influence without undue interference from the other.
It is necessary to stress here the need for a consultative process between the Centre and the Province not at the tailend of a project but right from the beginning. Merely informing the Chief Secretary who is beholden in fact to the Centre though given over by the Centre to function for and on behalf of the Province, would be inadequate. The new constitution should ensure that a group of people who have certain identities and individuality of their own over a long period of time should be able to govern themselves within their areas of governance without undue interference and intrusion.
While closer collaboration between the Centre and the periphery is no doubt our expectation we like to have such collaboration between equals and not between a person fallen into a well and one standing out side on terra firma. I am sure our Prime Minister who has always been conscious of human rights’ considerations and our Home Minister who has always stood for humanism in human affairs will ensure that a proper consultative process among equals would be ensured with the promulgation of the new Constitution.
It is not my intention to make this a complainant’s meeting! But we are the victims of a cruel war. We yearn for justice, fairplay, peace and development. While it is necessary to ensure infrastructure development the need to politically, socially and in many other ways strengthen and empower our people remains the need of the hour. Let us hope our Prime Minister, our Home Minister, Our Minister Swaminathan and others here will strive hard to ensure such strengthening. Today is President Jayawardene’s Birthday. Just a few weeks before his demise he had told an interviewer that in hindsight he felt he should have granted a federal constitution to our people. Let me remind his belated remarks at this stage.
