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| Saturday, 22 May 2004 |
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People - all important in constitution-making by Afreeha Jawad
At the recently held seminar on 'People and the Constitution' held at the Sri Lanka Institute of International Relations, Colombo, the central point to emerge was the constitutional importance given to people. After all, constitutions, theoretically, comprise people's will and aspirations. Human rights specialist Dr. Nihal Jayawickrema said that a constitution's legitimacy flowed from source and content. The 1948 constitution, he explained, reflected popular will unlike the other two home-grown ones. Formulated after extreme public participation he noted its minority accommodativeness. Its multi-member constituencies, the Second Chamber, Independent Public Service and Judicial Commission, and the protective measures given to minorities were seen by Jayawickrema as characteristics that made this constitution far superior to the ones that followed. "It was indeed a social contract," he said. Having no ideological basis, it also lacked economic and social objectives but carried with it democratic governance with the relevant institutional mechanisms being introduced, such as the Cabinet of Ministers headed by a Prime Minister, the separation of powers and a free market not to forget other institutions such as the PSC and JSC that gave the Judiciary and public services total independent in governance and impartiality. Jayawickrema saw relative tranquillity in the country and a stable government as a result of this constitution with a glaring shortcoming being the absence of the Bill of Rights. He also referred to the 1972 constitution as one that led to a unitary state with no provision for the realisation of minority aspirations. Religion was introduced to the constitution and Buddhism given foremost place. The National State Assembly became the supreme instrument of State power. Tamil became the language of translation which Sinhala continued to remain the official language. Jayawickrema thus sequenced how the seeds were sown for majority rule which paved the way for the 1976 Vadukoddai Resolution giving birth to the TULF. "The Tamils' endeavour to separate from the Sinhalese started here," he added. Jayawickrema also described the 1972 Constitution as a politically divisive one. He also pointed out how this Constitution starts off with, "We the people of Sri Lanka." He saw in this a means to legitimize the constitution when people had nothing to do with it. "Both the '72 and '78 Constitutions", he observed, reflected policies of the South while the Northern voice was not heard, not even recognized. A constitution should encapsulate people and not a majority. Normative elements are a must. "The LTTE should also be a party to the Constitution," he said. Colombo University's, Dr. Rohan Edirisinghe observed how the '72 and '78 Constitutions failed to check authoritarianism and emphasized the need for one that does so. Secondly, he said, we need a Constitution that empowers people and not one that empowers people in power - a people friendly, responsive one. Thirdly, the intended Constitution, he said, must be part and parcel of a long-term political solution, thinking on lines of federalism and internal self determination. According to him, the 1972 and 1978 constitutions though with 2/3 majority did not reach out to people. Instead governments made instrumental use of those constitutions in the interest of those governments. He also noted how the '72 Constitution politized the public service and did away with independent institutions. "Executive convenience was the thing of both constitutions. "The inability to have 2/3 majority in Parliament is positive and not negative. While the first past the post system was unfair, PR proportional representation is more representative and equitable," he said. "Going outside the law on an extra constitutional route is dangerous. It happened in 1972 they say, so why not now? This is what the Government asks. Elaborating on the different circumstances, the then UF Government was placed in, unlike the present one in resorting to an extra Constitutional path, Edirisinghe said, at that time there was consensus across the political spectrum - a desire for all parties to break off with British tradition. The UF Government also had genuine doubts whether Section 29 could be changed. If not, it would have had to be taken to the British Parliament. Edirisinghe also warned of the bad precedent being laid. If the present government resorts to extra constitutional methods. He also said that the UNP's position up to now remains unknown on the Constitution and its reforms. "Civil society must compel both the Government and opposition to work together on Constitutional reform. He also supported the African National Congress, that despite its 2/3 majority, it canvassed for greater consensus. "We have to follow this difficult path." ######## The Ritual goes to Jaffna by a correspondent The Ritual, a hard hitting experimental play written and directed by Jehan Aloysius will perform at the Kailasapthy Auditorium of the University of Jaffna May 29 at 4 p.m. Centre Stage Productions will present this performance under the aegis of the Trikone Arts Centre and the Linguistics & English Society of the University of Jaffna. Since it was first performed in Sri Lanka in 2002, The Ritual has been produced at the Colombo British Council, the Peradeniya University, at the StageRite Festival in Bangalore, India as well as at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Lionel Wendt Theatre. All these performances were on invitation as well. The Ritual has also been published and released in India in a compilation of plays titled StageRite Seven First, by Samuel French, the world's largest publisher of plays. What makes The Ritual fascinatingly 'different' is its experimentation with integrating local religio-cultural ritual mask-theatre, such as traditional Kolam and Thovil, with modern secular drama. This relates to the fact that the play, as the title suggests, is immersed in many Sri Lankan 'rituals' relating to marriage, reproduction, dowry-burning, cursing, cooking... and mere survival. The Ritual boasts a cast of prominent personalities from the English theatre such as Tracy Holsinger, Ruhanie Perera and Anushka Pareira, as well as new talent such as Rajiv Ponweera and Leon Arendtsz. ######## Today is World Biodiversity Day - Biodiversity: food, water and health for all by Balakrishna Pisupati, Head, IUCN Regional Biodiversity Programme, Asia Can we name a sector which provides for 40 per cent of world's economy for the past several centuries? What is the most sustainable source providing resources for national development and human well-being? Who will take responsibilities for securing the livelihoods for close a billion rural people? The simple answer to all these question is biodiversity. The variety of life forms - from invisible microbes to largest animals - is known as biodiversity. Biodiversity is found everywhere on this planet. There can be no life without biodiversity. The contribution of biodiversity to economies around the world can be as large as a trillion dollars per year. Loss of biodiversity results in serious reductions in the goods (such as food and medicine) as well as services (clean air and water, nutrient recycling). Biodiversity is the basis for human development in the past and certainly in the future too! It is also the 'life insurance policy for life itself' according to scientists. But what are we doing to protect such valuable resources? Today (22nd of May) we are commemorating 'World Biodiversity Day' to seek global attention on the need to protect and sustainably use the diversity of life. For 2003 the theme has been 'Biodiversity: Food, Water and Health for All', keeping in mind the linkages biodiversity provides for securing sustainable livelihoods of humans, plants and animals on our planet. Of the 6,800,000 species estimated to occur we have known only 1,500,000 since these were the only described or named ones. Of these, we currently use only 80 species which provide 90 percent of calories needed for human survival. All the wild species that occur otherwise continue to exist and withstand the natural pressures and thus contribute to evolution and future efforts of resistance breeding due to their hardiness. Changes in human usage patterns, especially through habitat degradation, invasion of alien species, over-harvesting and pollution resulted in mass extinctions of several species. It has been estimated that 1152 million mammals, 1146 million birds and 1109 million fresh water clams are going extinct each year even now. How to stop these rates of extinction and protect the valuable resources is a question to which several people around the world, including scientists and development planners are seeking answers. Enhancing food, water and health securities requires empowering poor people to gain greater access to assets. Such assets can be human and social (education, knowledge, organisations, health), natural (land, water, forests, biodiversity), technological (information, farm production, processing, marketing), infrastructural (roads, communications, education, housing) and financial (sales, off-farm revenue, investments into livestock, working capital and stored commodities). All these asset categories interact with each other influencing either reduction of insecurity or enhancement of livelihood risks. Let us see how biodiversity contributes to food security at national and household levels and what measures can be put in place for us to continue using these resources for future generations. Food security It is estimated that close to 800 million hungry and malnourished people do not even know where their next meal is coming from. About 11 children under the age of 5 die every minute due to hunger-related causes. As many as 26 percent of the hungry have low calorie intakes that they are unable to work or take care of themselves. The 'hunger' does not only mean lack of food but a set of other issues including lack of nutritionally balanced diets. Issues of chronic hunger as well as hidden hunger that results from lack of nutritionally balanced food are causing serious problems to people and policy-makers to achieve sustainable livelihoods. The 20th century saw impressive declines in the proportion of hungry people in the world (from 37 to 17 percent in the last three decades), even as total population grew nearly six-fold. Taking the year 1960 as the base, the world has certainly been successful in keeping food production ahead of population growth with an overall 24 percent increase per person in the last 40 years. Developing countries performed twice as well, with an overall increase of 50 percent. With the knowledge, experience and institutions developed in recent decades, it has become feasible-and thus morally and politically imperative-to largely eradicate hunger in the 21st century. But the rate of hunger reduction has slowed considerably in the 1990s- only about 39 million additional people got out of hunger between 1990-92 and 1998-2000, a rather poor performance, despite abundance of food and impressive growth in income in the world as a whole. It is not acceptable to have 17 percent of the world's population at the edge of starvation, leading to the physical and mental retardation of the next generation. The Millennium Declaration, adopted in 2000 by all 189 member states of the United Nations, centrally addressed the challenge of poverty reduction, and set an interim goal of reducing the proportion of hungry people by half by the year 2015, from 800 million today - a goal to be met in every country. The Monterrey conference began to examine comprehensively the means to mobilize resources for this and the other Millennium Development Goals. The strategy was defined as an international partnership, whereby improved policies and good governance in developing countries is matched with financial support from the industrialized countries. The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) placed high priority on increasing agricultural production as a major way to overcome hunger in food-deficit countries. In 1997, U.S. consumer spent $33 billion on weight loss products. While obesity is certainly a legitimate concern, most of these products have been found to be ineffective over the long run. Yet the sum spent is far more than the $ 24 billion that FAO has estimated it would cost globally to reduce the most severe under-nutrition, through well-proven methods (FAO 2000). Policy-makers in both developing and developed countries have widely failed to recognize the prevalence and impact of chronic hunger. But recognition of the widening gap between rich and poor is increasing moral awareness and commitment. Food requirements vary through the life cycle and by gender. Malnutrition and low weight gain of a mother during pregnancy translate to inadequate foetal nutrition and low birth weight babies, who are at risk for higher mortality, impaired mental development and increased risk of chronic disease. Having realized the issues and need for addressing them to achieve sustainable national development we need a set of priorities and actions to be put in place at national level. The following are some suggestions in that direction. Integrate anti-hunger reduction strategies into national polices Reducing hunger cannot be achieved as an independent objective. It is essential for other sectoral policies related to infrastructure development, economic development, environment, trade, education and social welfare to be designed and implemented in ways that contribute to an mutually reinforce the hunger reduction agenda. Given that national policies in least developed and developing countries are now enshrined in the Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSPs), the need for multi-sector approaches is finding favour in donor and government development funding and programme design. Promote poverty-reducing, employment generating economic development Analyses are needed to identify those sector policies with the greatest impact on poverty reduction. In China, for example, the largest impacts of government expenditures on poverty reduction between 1978 and 1997 were first education, then rural telecommunications, and agricultural research. |
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