President to participate in Parliament via legal changes

BY INDEEWARA Thilakarathne

President Mahinda Rajapakse	Minister D.E.W. Gunesekara

VITAL amendments to the Constitution would be brought until such time a new Constitution is drafted by a special committee appointed by the President, Minister of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration D. E. W. Gunesekara said in an interview with Daily News.

He said fundamental changes would be made to the law enabling the President to participate in Parliamentary proceedings and the drafting of the Constitution would take some time depending on the outcome of the talks with the LTTE.

The interview:

Q: What are the priorities of the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration under President Rajapakse's administration?

A: According to the election manifesto and also in terms of the policy statement that President Mahinda Rajapakse made at the ceremonial opening of Parliament, we have suggested that amendments should be made to the Constitution to curtail certain powers of the Executive President in order to enable the President to participate in Parliamentary proceedings.

The second is that President sets up a committee to draft a new Constitution. Thirdly, I think it might be considered as a priority item, to change laws relating to conducting elections and electoral system. This was also mentioned in the election manifesto.

However the drafting of a new Constitution may be delayed depending on a multitude of factors such as commencing peace talks with the LTTE to find a solution to the National Question.

In such a scenario, the outcomes of the talks and fundamental changes that would be made to existing laws would have to be incorporated into the new Constitution. This is why President has decided to bring a primary amendment to the Constitution until drafting a new Constitution.

Q: What are your plans for national integration? Particularly in view of the fact that the Sri Lankan political community is seen as divided.

A:: When we consider national integration, we could not forget the triple policy of the Ministry. Those are, namely, Constitution making, Constitutional Reforms, peace process and national integration. National integration is a long-term process where we finally aim at achieving peace and harmony in the country through the process of interaction and through language.

In this process, highest priority is given to the implementation of provisions in the Constitution relating to the official languages, particularly Tamil as an official language. Currently, Ministry is focusing its attention on implementing Government's official language policy. I have already obtained the authority from the Cabinet for setting up of a National Institute of Language Training.

This institute will produce well-trained professionals such as translators and interpreters and undertake research work. At the moment, there is an imminent crisis looming in the public service, Judiciary and Parliament owing to the dearth of competent translators and interpreters.

Today, we have very few people who have knowledge of Sinhala, Tamil and English and multi-linguals. We do not have professional translators, for instance, to interpret at the Supreme Court. Supreme Court demands very highly professional interpreters and translators.

A: similar situation exists in the Parliament. Once the present official interpreters retire, we will be facing that crisis. In the public service the need for competent translators is felt. Through this National Institute of Language Training, we will embark on a project to churning out highly competent professional translators and interpreters and Government will offer them a higher salary.

A:n interpreter must be a bi-lingual or a tri-lingual and should possess an overall knowledge of all subjects under the sun. For instance, when the budget is being debated in Parliament and the speaker talks on the economy, the interpreter must have, at least, a bare knowledge of economics.

Unless he is able to give a fair interpretation he would give a distorted interpretation of the speech. So this is a highly professional job and now it has come to a crisis point. I have already instructed the Treasury for the allocation of money for the project.

I have also made proposals to bring the Official Languages Commission and Official Languages Department under the purview of the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration. I have made this proposal to President Rajapakse, as functions of these institutions are inter-related.

When those institutions are brought under the Ministry, we will be able to formulate a comprehensive plan for national integration. These steps are very important as language plays a vital role in bringing about unity of the major communities, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims.

Today's situation is a result of a long drawn conflict, which subsequently developed into a war, because of the big communication gap among major communities.

We need to bridge that gap and that can be done only through communication. That is through language. So we should educate Sinhala people in Tamil and Tamils in Sinhala. This is a long-term plan and this is the only way through which we could bring about national unity, communal harmony and peace.

Q: In the event a peace deal is struck between the Government and the LTTE, how would the Government proceed to implement this peace formula?

A:: This is a new Government under a new President and he has a new approach to this National Question. Historically governments failed to bring about even a compromise due to the absence of a Southern consensus.

Whenever the Government comes to some understanding with a representative of the Tamils, it has been demonstrated that the main rival party in the South raises opposition to it and the agreement collapses as a result of this. This has happened since the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact, Dudley Senanayake-Chelvanayagam agreement and Indo Sri Lanka Agreement, Ceasefire, P-TOMS.

So the new President tries to explore the possibility of bring about a consensus in the South before he embarks upon talks with the LTTE or Tamil people.

Q: President Rajapakse said in his policy statement that he would give maximum devolution within the unitary structure? Your comments.

A:: What I feel is that we have been dragging on these conceptual formulations. Theoretical concepts such as unitary, federal, self-determination and homeland have become impediments to talks and finding a solution because when each party tries to stick to these theoretical concepts, no party is able to proceed with talks.

That is why President has said that we should set aside theoretical concepts and commence talks and try to bring about some compromise solution.

For instance, the word unitary first entered the Constitution in 1972 and it was not in the Soulbury Constitution. The Soulbury Constitution can be termed as unitary by a political scientist. Now this mere word has become a problem as people are against changing the word "unitary " in the Constitution.

Therefore, we could not even bring any amendment to the Constitution. This word "unitary " was repeated in 1978 Constitution. If you take the historical evolution into consideration, in today's world, Unitary Constitutions and Federal Constitutions have undergone vast changes.

For instance, the mother Unitary Constitution was the British Constitution and now Britain has four legislatures: Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England and mother Parliament in England. Now unitary Constitutions have undergone so many changes that they have federal features. But anyone could say those Constitutions are unitary in nature.

Some critics says that the Indian Constitution is a Unitary Constitution as the President has unlimited powers to take all the powers delegated to provincial governments within 24 hours. Then it becomes federal when powers are delegated to provincial governments.

Therefore it is called a quasi-federal state. No Constitution in any country has similar features because Constitutions are adapted to historical conditions of a particular country.

In our case the first task we should do is to try to bring about a framework where a formula agreeable to both parties could be adopted to suit our historical conditions. If we stick to those theoretical concepts, we could not even start talks.

So the best thing is work out some arrangement, which is acceptable to all communities. Once you reach an agreement, we have no need to bring the word "unitary" or "federal" into the Constitution.

These terms are used to define and describe a particular Constitution. Political scientists in the universities could debate on the nature of the Constitution but we, legislators, should come to a compromise as to what type of Constitution we should have.

We could not proceed if we stick to those terms "unitary", "federal", "confederation" and Eelam.

Q: What is your opinion of Prabhakaran's Heroes' Day policy statement?

A:: I look at the Heroes' Day statement in this context; Prabhakaran's speech should be assessed in the background of the previous speeches he made since 1989. When analysing all the speeches he made, the statement is positive and not negative. His previous speeches were the worst and this time, it seems that he has taken certain realities into account.

In spite of the many allegations he made in the policy statement, he says that President Mahinda Rajapakse has no theoretical concepts and describes President as a realistic and practical man. And he is asking President Rajapakse to put forward some ideas. He has kept the doors open.

From our point of view, he has made this statement in the context of the present national and international situation.

The LTTE at the moment is isolated internationally and this is why the LTTE did not support Ranil, as they feared he would conspiratorially bring down Americans and might resort to action like what Americans did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A:s Ceasefire Agreement is between two parties, it cannot be amended without the consent of both parties. Until parties agree on possible amendments, the Ceasefire Agreement should be in operation. It is also the Government's position and Prabhakaran did not say that he is against amendments.

Q: A section of the opposition predicted that war would break out as soon as the UPFA Government is formed?

A:: Prior to the election, the same people said that after November 18, with the emergence of Mahinda Rajapakse, as leader, war will break out. They said that war is imminent and so far nothing has happened. Then the same media predicted that with Prabhakaran's statement on heroes day, war will break out.

So the President and the LTTE leader said that they are against war and they do not want to go back to war. These are mere speculations by interested parties.

In the present context war is not possible. The international community is against war; all political parties are against the war. The one thing all agree on is peace.

A:s peace is there, if someone goes for a mandate it is for war not for peace.