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Dear Mr. President,

Constitutional Reform: Avoid the ‘unitary’ label and facilitate power-sharing consensus in North & East

The deliberations of the All Party Representative Committee to create a new constitutional framework are stuck in controversy over two key matters: (1) whether or not Sri Lanka’ Constitution should be explicitly labelled as ‘Unitary’ and (2) whether or not the Northern and Eastern Provinces should be remerged.

As members of Sri Lanka’s minority communities, we ask of you, as President, to (1) avoid labelling the constitution either as ‘Unitary’ or as ‘Federal,’ and (2) facilitate reaching consensus over power-sharing units for Tamils and Muslims in the Northern and Eastern Provinces instead of isolating them from one another.

Mr. President, you have stated in a recent interview that you will uphold the unitary character of Sri Lanka’s Constitution because you are constrained to act primarily on behalf of the sections of the Sinhala community who voted for you in the 2005 Presidential election. We are both disappointed and disturbed by this assertion.

We are disappointed because your assertion shuts out the opinions of large numbers of Sinhalese voters who have consistently voted for constitutional change involving devolution of powers in every election since 1994, including the 2005 Presidential election and the Local Government elections thereafter.

And we are disturbed because your assertion is also a rejection of your responsibility to serve all Sri Lankans and not just those who voted for you. More important, the assertion alienates the minority communities who want to abide by a Sri Lanka that politically and constitutionally includes them as equal citizens despite their lesser numbers.

The unitary label that was first inserted in the 1972 Constitution has since produced the biggest threat ever to the island’s unity. Even if that threat were to be defeated militarily, persisting with the unitary label will leave the cancer of alienation, which has grown since 1956, forever active among the minority communities.

The All Party Representative Committee, that you established, is the culmination of a process that began in 1994 under an SLFP-led Government to restructure the Sri Lankan State as an indissoluble Union that will include the minority communities as equals and enable power-sharing by all communities. This is your true and primary legacy.

We, the signatories to this letter, plead with you to honour this legacy, show leadership, and create a Constitution without labels, one that will make all the communities of Sri Lanka feel equal participants in working towards peace and prosperity. Thank you.

Signatories,

Prof. Kumar David, Sri Lanka

Mr. Namu Ponnambalam, Canada

This Open Letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse has so far been signed by over seventy activists, academics, writers and clergy from mainly the minority communities. The purpose of the letter is to express the concerns of Sri Lankan Muslims, Tamils and other minorities about the President’s reported insistence that any constitutional reform recommended by the APRC should be within the framework of a unitary constitution. The letter is still in circulation for signatures and will be sent to the President with copies to other political leaders.

19th September 2007