New constitution and communal politics | Daily News

New constitution and communal politics

The proposed new constitution is presently being used by interested parties to whip up communalism once again, what with major elections only months away. The pohottuwites are going full throttle these days in raising fears among the southern electorate of a looming threat of a division of the country and the preeminent status granted to Buddhism in the present constitution. There are also regular visits to Temples by leading lights of the pohottuwa to apprise the Ven. Theras of the dangers posed to the country, through the ‘federal constitution’. Leading Buddhist prelates are being regularly courted by Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa to get them to express their views on the imminent loss of the country’s sovereignty through the proposed new constitution on which the Expert Panel’s report was presented to the Constitutional Assembly on Friday.

What is astonishing is that these views of a federal bogey are being expressed when there is no finality reached on any matter pertaining to the new constitution. In fact what was presented to the CA on Friday was not even a draft constitution but only a set of views of the Expert Panel. Ideas and proposals of all shades are still open for accommodation. Besides, the CA includes members of the Joint Opposition which in itself is ample security that nothing inimical to the country will be incorporated in the proposed new constitution. The fact that no finality has been reached on the final draft is clear going by a suggestion made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that the proposals made by the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) appointed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa on police powers can also be considered along with other proposals when compiling a new constitution. “What the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly presented was proposals submitted by the Experts Committee”, the Premier said during a Thaipongol Programme held at Temple Trees on Sunday. He also told journalists after a meeting with the Most Venerable Ittapana Dhammalankara Thera at the Dharma Vijayaloka Viharaya in Rukamal Gama on Saturday that he is having regular discussions with the Most Ven. Mahanayake Theras on the steps taken to safeguard Buddhism.

Why pray then all this scaremongering about the danger to Buddhism, division of the country and a federal set-up through the proposed new constitution in the backdrop in which even the much reviled TNA front-liner M. A. Sumanthiran has stated that they are ready to accept the concept of the unitary state? On what basis is Mahinda Rajapaksa continuing with his familiar refrain of rata bedanawa when not even a vague outline of the proposed constitution has been put out?

Besides, even to a novice in politics, it will be clear that passage of the new constitution will encounter severe odds, with all likelihood that it will be stillborn. The present Parliament, constituted as it is, will never succeed in mustering the required two thirds majority and in the event of the remote chance at this being possible it will still have to stand the test of a referendum. With the southern electorate being regularly assailed by unfounded bogeys and the majority of the Buddhist clergy weighing in, the proposed new Constitution is all but a dead letter as it stands.

Hence it is clear to the discerning public that the new constitution is being used as a football by the pohottuwites to play their brand of racists politics. We have seen this happen in the runup to all elections in the past. The goni billas are already being paraded. On that last occasion, renegade UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake came out with a document of a so called agreement entered into by the Common Candidate and then Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe with the TNA to merge the North and East and grant Federalism. This was followed by a famous film actress displaying an Eelam map, at media conferences to inform the people the fate that awaits the country in the event of a victory for the Common Candidate.

One can only expect the same refrain to continue until the election period, with the Bikkhu bandwagon adding fuel to the fire. It is a matter for regret, indeed, to witness a mature politician of the calibre of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was twice President of this country, continuing in the same vein as in the past, adopting a policy of win at any cost by recourse to racists politics, never mind the damage done to the ethnic and social fabric of this country at a time the country is making efforts to bury the past and forge reconciliation.

Mercifully, the SLFP has so far acted with responsibility, not resorting to communalize the issue of the new constitution though diverse views are being expressed. To her eternal credit, Chandrika strove hard and succeeded to a great degree in ridding the communalist label that had been attached to the Blues from the ‘Sinhala Only’ days and transformed the party by divesting itself of its inward-looking isolationist outlook. Perhaps this transformation has much to do with the present attitude of the SLFP membership. 


Add new comment