Report on Public Representations on Constitutional Reform
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Report on Public Representations on Constitutional Reform Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reform May 2016 © Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reform, May 2016 (Edited & Updated) Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reform Visumpaya Staple Street Colombo 02 Sri Lanka Acknowledgements As the Chairman I wish to place on record my grateful thanks to all those who took part in the process of carrying out our mandate. Special thanks are due to over two thousand five hundred persons who appeared before us some representing large organizations to make submissions and those who made written representations. It is with deep sense of satisfaction that I place on record my deep gratitude to the Members of the Committee: Mr. S. Winston Pathiraja (Secretary), Mr. Faisz Musthapha, Prof. A. M. Navaratna Bandara, Prof. M. L. A. Cader, Mr. N. Selvakkumaran, Hon. S. Thavarajah, Mr. Kushan D’Alwis, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Dr.Kumudu Kusum Kumara, Mr. Sunil Jayaratne, Dr.Upul Abeyratne, Mr. Themiya L. B. Hurulle, Mr. S. Vijesandiran, Mr. M. Y. M. Faiz, Mrs. M. K. Nadeeka Damayanthi, Ms.Kanthie Ranasinghe, Mr. S. C. C. Elankovan, and Mr. Sirimasiri Hapuarachchiall of whom dedicated themselves to the enormous task of reaching the people all over the country, getting their views and last but not the least studying their submissions and preparing the report in a very short period of time under trying circumstances, with extremely limited resources, at great sacrifice, in an honorary capacity. How the members of the Committee handled this difficult task needs to be recorded. Visiting twenty five districts within a period of six weeks in itself was an achievement. Going through about four thousand oral and written submissions, was a gigantic task but all of us stood together, worked day and night forgetting everything else in life. I wish to place on record my grateful thanks to Mr. Charitha Ratwatte, Mr. Saman Ekanayake, Secretary to the Hon. Prime Minister and his Additional Secretary and Assistant Secretaries for the help given to us to make our task possible. I have to thank the staff at our office at Visumpaya for their dedicated and selfless service to get our mandate fulfilled. I must thank my Secretary Miss. Ranga Jayasundera and her staff (list annexed) who worked tirelessly to get the Visumpaya office moving. iii I also thank UNDP for equipment/supportwith the V-Force. UN Volunteers Sadhani Rajapaksha, Vimukthi Caldera and the team of about sixty V-Force volunteers (list annexed), who helped in summarizing the submissions and preparing the on line data base. I thank Mr. V. K. Nanayakkara for copy editing the report and the Government Printer Mr. Gamini Fonseka for getting the report printed at short notice and for his excellent work. I also wish to thank all the District Secretaries’, officials and staff members of District Secretaries for making arrangement for our sittings at district level, the electronic and print media for their unhesitant support to carry our message regarding Constitutional Reforms to the masses. Last but not the least, I thank Mr. S. Winston Pathiraja our Secretary for handling the management of our process with much dedication. Lal Wijenayake Chairman Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reform 10 May 2016 iv Preface Hon. Chairman and Members of the Constitutional Assembly We were appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers for receiving public representations on constitutional reform to support the constitutional reform process. The mandate was for the Committee to call for and receive written representations from the public and also conduct public sittings in various parts of the country to receive oral representations and submit our final report to the Constitutional Assembly within three months together with our recommendations. At our request, the Hon. Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe was pleased to extend the period of submitting the final report by one month. On a further request made by us the date for submitting the final report was extended to 10th May 2016. The Committee first met on 5th January 2016 and thereafter a series of preliminary meetings were held to plan out the procedures to be adopted to comply with the mandate given to us. Considering the short timeframe to conclude our work and available resources we decided to: 1. Call for and receive written representations from the public on 20 subjects decided by the Committee (list of subjects is annexed). 2. Conduct public sittings in all 25 districts with at least 2 days in each district. 3. Divide the Committee into groups of 4-6 members to sit at parallel sittings in the districts outside Colombo. v 4. Make use of the services of District Secretaries of the districts to publicise the sittings in their respective districts making use of Grama Niladhari officers, so that wide publicity could be given in the said districts. 5. Get the required logistical support for the conduct of sittings through the Office of the District Secretaries. 6. Get proceedings at all district sittings recorded electronically for the purpose of keeping a record of oral representations made in the districts. 7. Receive representations via e-mail ([email protected]) as well as fax messages and other means of communication. 8. Launch a website www.yourconstitution.lk. 9. Get publicity for public sitting in every district by advertising in print media in all languages and as far as possible over the electronic media. 10. Keep the people informed of the working of the Committee through media conferences and discussions over the media. Accordingly, we held public sittings in Colombo District on eight days and all other districts two days per district. At the Committee meeting held on 11th Jan. 2016, committee member Mr. S. Winston Pathiraja was nominated as the Secretary to the Committee. At district sittings where the Chairman was not sitting, a Committee member was nominated by the Chairman to preside at the sittings. (List of Committee members who sat in the districts is annexed). On a decision taken by the Committee, wherever possible the members of Committee in their visits met religious leaders in various districts to ascertain their views on constitutional reform. vi Further, after the district sittings were concluded on the 5th of March 2016, on a decision made by the Committee, we met His Excellency the President, the Hon. Prime Minister, the Hon Speaker, and the Hon. Leader of the Opposition to apprise them of our work. The Committee invited several leaders of political parties, independent commissions, professional organizations and academics to obtain their views on constitutional reforms. Tremendous enthusiasm was shown by the public to make oral and written representations and we faced a real challenge in accommodating them. Though a dead line was set for oral and written representations, requests for oral and written representations have been pouring in even after. According to our records, over 2500 persons/organizations have appeared before us and made oral and written representations. Further, over 800 representations were received via e-mail, 150 by way of fax messages, 60 by telephone messages and 700 representations by post or handed over at the office. Most of the oral and written representations were from persons representing organisations such as professional bodies, trade unions and other civil society organisations. In addition, we received written representations from Sri Lankan professionals and academics living abroad. We could not fulfil their request to make oral submissions via video conferences as we did not have the required facilities. The Committee feels, the process adopted to consult the people as the first step in constitution making, created awareness among the people about the relevance of the Constitution in the political process and has brought constitution making closer to the people. vii We have done our best to reach a wide section of the people within the given time frame. We have gone out of the way to get the views of religious leaders, leaders of political parties, independent commissions, professional organizations, etc. within the available time frame. Our sittings were held in public and all those who appeared before us were allowed to express their views freely and openly. On a study of the representations made by the people it is seen that a considerable representation of people throughout Sri Lanka are for: 1. Democratisation of the State, by establishing the Rule of Law, broadening Fundamental Human Rights through a comprehensive Bill of Rights and strengthening independent commissions. 2. Democratisation of the polity by strengthening institutions for people's active participation in governance and political life by devolving power to the provincial and local government level and by incorporating citizens' political activity at the village or town level into the State structure. 3. National reconciliation as an urgent task. There were divergent views as to how it could be achieved. Among these, one view was that constitutional reform should focus on meaningful devolution of power as a means of resolving the longstanding political issue of the minorities. 4. The establishment of a public service that is closer to the people, fair, non- political, independent, professional and dedicated to serve the people. It was also a common view of the people who came before us, that the time is opportune for democratisation of the State and national reconciliation that it should be done immediately and if it fails at this moment, the country will not get such an opportunity again. viii This report has gone through almost all the different views expressed by the people who appeared before us as well as views expressed in written representations made to us. It should be stated that there was no vetting done of what was said before us by the people. The format followed in the report is that under each heading we have first set out the views expressed by the people on the subject and thereafter wherever possible arguments expressed in support of the view and our recommendations taking into consideration the views expressed by the people.