{"id":51452,"date":"2017-02-15T18:50:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T23:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=51452"},"modified":"2017-02-15T18:50:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T23:50:39","slug":"govt-will-launch-a-hearts-and-minds-campaign-to-mobilise-support-for-the-new-constitution-announces-chandrika-kumaratunga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=51452","title":{"rendered":"Govt Will Launch a “Hearts and Minds” Campaign to Mobilise Support for the New Constitution Announces Chandrika Kumaratunga"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Government will launch a hearts and minds campaign to win support for a new constitution in the coming months, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The campaign is expected to be modelled along the lines of Kumaratunga\u2019s own Sudu Nelum Movement initiative in 1995, which sought to build bridges between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities and create public awareness about the necessity for power sharing and building an inclusive society. <\/p>\n

Former President Kumaratunga, who heads the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), told Foreign Correspondents this week that such a peace movement was the \u201cmain requirement\u201d to ensure victory at a referendum on a new constitution. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is expected to start very soon, there is going to be a communications strategy for the new constitution,\u201d Kumaratunga explained. <\/p>\n

She insisted that the SLFP ruling in coalition with the UNP was committed to the process to draft a new constitution, despite recent statements by SLFP ministers creating uncertainty. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat people are most worried about is a referendum. That given the general situation at the moment, whether one could win a referendum. The main requirement for that is to do something like the Sudu Nelum movement that we did during my Government,\u201d she emphasised. <\/p>\n

The former President explained that a referendum on a new constitution was a constitutional requirement. She would \u201cerr on the side of optimism\u201d, Kumaratunga said, on whether the Government could be successful at a referendum. \u201cBut the challenges are bigger than they were in my time,\u201d she admitted. <\/p>\n

When she held office as President, there had been no \u201corganised\u201d extreme groups, Kumaratunga noted, pointing to the JHU, the Bodu Bala Sena and the Joint Opposition. \u201cThat has come up only recently. And that is a formidable challenge,\u201d she admitted. <\/p>\n

She also made the case for prioritising the constitution over justice for grave human rights violations committed during the final stages of the war, a perception shared by President Sirisena at several meetings. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you start the war crimes tribunals now, you can be sure there will be no constitution. There will be such an uproar in the country,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe have to prioritise and see what is more important,\u201d Kumaratunga added. <\/p>\n

As Head of ONUR, the former President said she travels often to war-affected regions, where she had found no great clamour for punitive action on war crimes. The priority for war-affected people was development, livelihoods, education and answers about missing people, Kumaratunga said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we should forget about accountability. Obviously someone has to be held responsible. But it doesn\u2019t have to happen immediately,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n

Kumaratunga also insisted that the international community was not insisting that accountability for war crimes happens immediately. \u201cThey are keener on justice for missing persons and the truth commission,\u201d she claimed. \u201cAccountability will have to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Dharisha Bastians The Government will launch a hearts and minds campaign to win support for a new constitution in the coming months, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga said on Tuesday. The campaign is expected to be modelled along the lines of Kumaratunga\u2019s own Sudu Nelum Movement initiative in 1995, which sought to build bridges between …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Govt Will Launch a “Hearts and Minds” Campaign to Mobilise Support for the New Constitution Announces Chandrika Kumaratunga’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51453,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51452\/revisions\/51453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}