International   

Proposals unacceptable, say Sri Lankan parties

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Not final, only meant for wider debate: SLFP

COLOMBO: Most political parties in Sri Lanka have termed the proposals of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) as falling below expectations, impractical and unacceptable.

The SLFP, however, defended them, saying that they were meant for wider debate and not final.

In a joint statement, leaders of the TULF, EPRLF and PLOTE characterised the proposals as something that would not meet the aspirations of the Tamil people.

"Instead of taking the peace process forward, it has made it difficult to find a reasonable solution. Furthermore, being the ruling party's proposal that should form the guideline for a solution, it had made even the proposals of other parties irrelevant," a statement signed by V. Anandasangree, D. Sidhathan and T. Sritharan said.

The statement said the powers to be devolved under the SLFP proposals were not even coming closer to the powers vested with the provincial council, formed under the 13th amendment to the Constitution.

It said: "Fifty years of agitation by the Tamil speaking people to win their rights has brought them back to square one.

"After so much loss of life and destruction to property and having failed to find a solution under a unitary system, the Tamils will not accept any solution less than one under a Federal constitution."

The EPDP, a constituent of the ruling combine, felt that that the provincial councils should be the unit of power devolution.

Call for remerger

Party leader and Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda said the northern and eastern provinces should be remerged with more `asymmetric power,' compared with other provinces.

There should also be autonomous power sharing arrangements for Muslims within the province.

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader and Post and Communications Minister Rauf Hakeem said the SLFP proposals fell short of their expectations. But his party was prepared to discuss them further.

The main Opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), is yet to respond formally to the SLFP package.

UNP Parliamentarian K.N. Choksy, who represents his party at the All Party Representative Committee (APRC), told the Daily Mirror that the proposals for the establishment of district councils were impractical.

He said there were good reasons for the UNP proposal to continue with the Provincial Council as the unit of devolution.

"A step backward"

Pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said the proposals were a step backward, and there was no point in discussing them.

If the government could not understand the gravity of the `Tamil national question,' there would be dire consequences to the country and people, he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Erdogan calls for early elections
Royal draws crowds, but gap remains
Pakistan paragliding Minister quits party post
13 LTTE cadres killed, says army
Proposals unacceptable, say Sri Lankan parties
GlobeCast stops relay of Tamil TV network
Talks proposed
Castro calls for energy revolution
The "courteous bandit"
Pakistan witnesses more protests
Prince Harry will serve in Iraq: army chief
Roadmap sought
Indian mangoes reach U.S. market
"Zulfikar Bhutto declared himself Indian till 1958"
`Canada was told of threat to planes'

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu