POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Postponement of Vote Surprises Few

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Aug 8 2001 (IPS) - Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s postponement of this month’s referendum, announced on Tuesday, surprised few people because the vote on a new Constitution had sparked very little interest across this war- battered island.

Except for Kumaratunga and a few Cabinet ministers, many Sri Lankans saw the referendum as a waste of time and money, particularly so on an issue that everyone is agreed upon — the need for a new constitution.

“It was just a waste of time. And, yes, this was one election that no one bothered about. There was hardly any interest,” said Jehan Perera, political analyst and spokesman for the National Peace Council (NPC), a local NGO promoting a peaceful end to the country’s nearly two-decade-old conflict.

“It was not surprising that she called it off,” he remarked.

Indeed, Kumaratunga on Tuesday night said she was bowing to the wishes of the majority in postponing the referendum to Oct. 18.

The president is struggling to hold the government together and prevent it from crumbling since the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) lost its parliamentary majority in July, and was doomed in the face of a no-confidence vote brought by opposition parties in the legislature.

The referendum itself was one of many ploys by Kumaratunga to buy time against moves by the United National Party (UNP)-led opposition to oust the government.

She first allowed a state of emergency — which for years has provided the security forces sufficient powers to tackle Tamil separatist rebels — to lapse, rather than see a vote on its extension in parliament defeated by the opposition.

This was followed by discontinuing a session of parliament as opposition demands for the no-faith vote to be debated grew.

“Every move that she makes is out of desperation and to overcome a crisis, thereby creating another crisis,” said Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, associate editor of the Tamil-language ‘Udayan’ newspaper in the war-torn northern town of Jaffna.

Some senior ministers, including Gamini Lakshman Peiris, a respected academic and minister of constitutional affairs, have been at pains to deny widespread newspaper reports that they are at odds with Kumaratunga over the referendum issue.

Several newspapers reported how Peiris told Kumaratunga at a Cabinet meeting immediately after her decision that the referendum was non-binding and hence was of no use even if there was a majority ‘yes’ vote.

The Cabinet is split over the referendum issue though opposing ministers have been supporting the move at the People’s Alliance campaign rallies.

The president desperately wants to introduce a new constitution and says she is prepared to give up her executive powers with immediate effect if it would solve the problems in the country, including the war with Tamil rebels demanding an independent homeland for their minority Tamil community.

Kumaratunga, speaking to top Buddhist monks last month, said the main opposition UNP backed out of the constitutional reforms process “alleging that I am clinging to the executive presidency until the end of my second term”.

“I am more than willing to surrender the executive presidency for the sake of resolving the country’s burning issues,” she said.

The ruling party led by Kumaratunga swept to power in 1994 with a promise to revise the then 1978 constitution and provide more administrative powers for minority Tamils in areas in the north and east where they are a majority.

She promised to scrap the all-powerful executive presidency and revert to a system where parliament is supreme and has more powers that the president, unlike the present system.

The government has attempted on two occasions, in the past seven years, to bring a new constitution to parliament but the process has been blocked by the UNP and some Tamil political groups. Kumaratunga says the government will implement a new constitution by the end the year but has not divulged details of the proposals.

Speaking to a group of diplomats on Jul. 31, she said the government has sought professional opinion from constitutional experts in the United States, Britain, the United Kingdom and France on ways of introducing a new constitution legally — without the requirement of a two-thirds majority in parliament, which the ruling party does not have.

Government leaders in the past have said the PA was considering a process where a constituent assembly would be formed for the purpose of approving a new constitution by a simple majority.

The political drama has put the Norwegian-led peace process on the Tamil conflict on the backburner, though the war issue surfaced again after the rebels launched stunning attacks last month on a military airbase at Katunayake on the outskirts of the capital, and the adjoining international airport.

Sri Lanka’s business community, worried about falling economic growth, has been dismayed by recent events in the country.

Business leaders have urged the ruling party and the opposition to come together to form a national government, at least for a two- year period, until political and economic stability is restored.

Kumaratunga is meeting a group of business chambers on Thursday to discuss the crisis.

Ceylon Chamber of Commerce chairman Chandra Jayaratne, in a letter to Kumaratunga last week, appealed to her to cancel the referendum and continue with efforts to draft and adopt an amended constitution through a consensus building approach.

Jayaratne said the campaigns leading to the referendum and the process of constitution-making to follow will be nothing “but an extension of the divisive and destructive politics that has virtually destroyed our beloved country in the past few decades”.

Suraj Dandeniya, president of the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA), says people may end up so fed up with the situation and take to the streets to get rid of the politicians.

“Politicians from both sides of the fence have failed us,” he said, adding that his own industry had been adversely affected by last month rebel attacks on the airport.