|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, 17 November 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Politics | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
| ISGA proposals: No mandate from N-E people: Liberal Party Liberal Party of Sri Lanka Secretary Kamal Nissanka said to consider the Interim Self Government Authority (ISGA) proposals as basis for future discussions, it needs a mandate from the people of the two provinces. In a release, he said: "The Liberal Party of Sri Lanka is closely watching some of the recent statements made by those in the forefront of peace negotiations in the recent past. LTTE Theoretician Anton Balasingham's recent revelation about the Oslo communique and some of its contents is none other than spitting on the face of the UNP negotiators (and its top rank) and the Liberals advise that any party that will expect to participate in any future negotiations on behalf of the Sri Lankan Government should not come up with public comments without clarifying exact positions on various stands. Though we do not agree with Balasingham's agenda, we must thank him for revealing his true stand and colour on the so-called Oslo communique and the Liberals feel that the LTTE and its Norwegian ally had taken the UNP for a ride at Oslo. The Liberals further state that the aim of the Norwegian was from the inception of the process is to give the widest possible international acceptance to the LTTE. However, looking at recent events, we feel that the Norwegian Foreign Ministry has completely failed at pressurising the Liberal government of Denmark as all the parties in the coalition had a clear stand to call a spade a spade. (In Denmark, Venstre-Liberal Party of Anders Fogh Rasmussens, the Prime Minister of Denmark is the leading party of the minority coalition and the Venstre-Liberal Party is also a leading member of the Liberal International of which the Liberal Party of Sri Lanka is also a member. Further it has some members in the Liberal Group of the European Parliament). Yet, the Liberal Party of Sri Lanka requests the UNP and the SLFP to forget the Oslo 'explorations' as sighted in the Oslo communique and arrive at a consensus to draft a true federal constitution with adequate safeguards to the north and eastern provinces in the name of the democratic Tamil opinion, upholding all the democratic norms prevailing in mature democracies and give it a widest international propaganda to defeat the separatist agendas of the militant Tamil opinion envisaged by the one party autocratic rule of the Interim Self Government Authority (ISGA) proposal. Though Norwegian ally with an LTTE team attempted recently to canvass the ISGA in some of the EU countries for international legitimacy, we people living in the nine provinces in Sri Lanka even do not know the names of the framers of this ISGA document (I think even the Ranil-GL clique of the UNP who does lip service to the ISGA does not know?) The LTTE's attempt to seek European legitimacy for its proposals is a joke, as the ISGA needs to first seek its legitimacy from the people of north and east if possible by way of a referendum. The LTTE has no right to impose a one party rule on the people of north and east without a much-needed mandate from the very people that they hope to govern. If any Sri Lankan government with the concurrence of some illogical European Community governments accepts ISGA on a platter, it must realise that southern provinces of Sri Lanka would be the political asylum of the many Tamil democrats and South Indian criminals would do somersaults in the north and eastern provinces. If the ISGA is to be taken as a base for future discussions, firstly it must be presented to the people of north and eastern provinces for open debate and discussions within a democratic atmosphere and finally set for the approval of the people. Liberals all over the world will never support any constitutional scheme that would hinder the individual rights of each person in a given nation or community." |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
