{"id":80336,"date":"2022-11-18T00:27:01","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T04:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80336"},"modified":"2022-11-18T19:39:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T23:39:12","slug":"there-is-no-point-in-engaging-with-president-ranil-wickremesinghe-unless-he-openly-commits-to-basing-the-discussion-on-a-federal-constitution-says-tnpf-leader-gajendrakumar-ponnambalam-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80336","title":{"rendered":"There is no point in engaging with President Ranil Wickremesinghe unless he openly commits to basing the discussion on a federal constitution says TNPF Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam MP"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy
\nMeera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reaching out to Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil parties in Parliament on November 10, President Ranil Wickremesinghe invited them for a discussion this week, and pledged to resolve their pending issues before the island nation\u2019s 75 th Independence Day falling on February 4, 2023. However Tamil politicians, who are yet to receive a date for the said meeting, are highly skeptical. <\/p>\n

Many Sri Lankan leaders have in the past promised, and invariably failed, to deliver a political solution to the island\u2019s Tamil national question. Most recently, the Maithripala Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration, in power between 2015 and 2019, attempted to draft a new constitution but did not complete the task, much to the disappointment of Tamils who backed their government. \u201cLet us all get together and make it a point to solve this problem by our 75th anniversary of Independence. We don\u2019t need others to intervene in our country\u2019s matters. We can solve our issues,\u201d Mr. Wickremesinghe told Parliament last week.<\/p>\n

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest grouping of legislators from the north and east, welcomed his call and expressed readiness to \u201cfully cooperate\u201d. TNA Leader and 89-year-old parliamentarian R. Sampanthan, who has been trying to negotiate a constitutional settlement with various Sinhalese leaders for decades, has said that he hopes the President\u2019s pledge is genuine this time. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The southern leadership must be prepared to do away with the unitary constitution, former Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran has said, ahead of the possible meeting with the President. <\/p>\n

Federalism in focus<\/strong><\/p>\n

TNA spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran said despite known differences among Tamil parties, the TNA invited them for a discussion this week, \u201cas we all share the objective of achieving meaningful power devolution under a federal set up\u201d. <\/p>\n

The meeting of Tamil parties did not materialise as planned. \u201cWe are hopeful of holding it,\u201d he said, while raising doubts about President Wickremesinghe\u2019s \u201cseriousness\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sumanthiran said he asked President Wickremesinghe, at the tea party following the Budget on November 14, about the said meeting. \u201cThe President told me that he was coming to Jaffna in January. When I asked him about this week\u2019s meeting that he had announced, he said that if we wanted, we could meet this week. It [his responses] showed there is no seriousness to do anything in earnest,\u201d the Jaffna MP said.<\/p>\n

The need for greater power devolution and a political solution have also been central to Indian engagement in Sri Lanka. In the September session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Indian delegation noted \u201cwith concern the lack of measurable progress\u201d by Sri Lanka on their commitments of a political solution to the ethnic issue. India has consistently urged Sri Lanka to \u201cfully implement\u201d the 13 th Amendment in the Sri Lankan constitution, even though Tamil parties in Sri Lanka frequently point to its inadequacies. <\/p>\n

While sharply critical of the TNA\u2019s positions, Jaffna legislator Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, who leads the Tamil National People\u2019s Front (TNPF), said the TNA\u2019s recent invitation to other Tamil parties for a discussion was welcome, for it put federalism \u201cback on the agenda\u201d. In his view, even if President Wickremesinghe were to convene the meeting, \u201cthere is no point in engaging\u201d unless he openly commits to basing the discussion on a federal constitution.<\/p>\n

Recalling a conversation with the President in parliament, Mr. Ponnambalam said the President \u201cjust rejected federalism\u201d. \u201cSo, what are we going to discuss with him? He simply wants to show the world that his government is legitimate, stable, and that he is talking to all actors. He just needs us to be at the negotiating table,\u201d Mr. Ponnambalam told The Hindu. \u201cIf he [President] is sincere in his pledge to resolve the Tamil question, federalism should be a pre-condition for these talks. He should be open about it, and not lie to the Sinhalese people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Mr. Ponnambalam did not sound upbeat about the President\u2019s invitation to Tamil parties, he is optimistic that the economic and political crisis this year has presented \u201ca real opportunity for Sri Lanka to soul-search\u201d and decisively address the long-pending concerns of Tamils. \u201cPeople of the south feel let down. They see that their leaders fought a war in their name, pursued racist policies in their name\u2026and for the first time since 1948 [year of Sri Lankan Independence] they are calling into question all that they have been told by [Sinhalese] leaders. If we can get our act together now as a country, we can certainly set things right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Reaching out to Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil parties in Parliament on November 10, President Ranil Wickremesinghe invited them for a discussion this week, and pledged to resolve their pending issues before the island nation\u2019s 75 th Independence Day falling on February 4, 2023. However Tamil politicians, who are yet to receive a date …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘There is no point in engaging with President Ranil Wickremesinghe unless he openly commits to basing the discussion on a federal constitution says TNPF Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam MP’ »<\/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\/80336"}],"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=80336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80337,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80336\/revisions\/80337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}