Sam flays MR for double-speak

The inability of the country’s political leaders to stand by their commitments after they cease to hold power had been a major setback in genuinely addressing the national question, said Opposition Leader, TNA Chief and veteran Lawmaker Rajavarothiam Sampanthan when he opened the third day of debate on the Interim Report yesterday.

The Opposition Leader expressed regret that former President Mahinda Rajpaaksa and members politically affiliated to him were taking positions that were diametrically opposite to positions taken when he was president. 

Quoting extensively from former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech before an All Party Conference he had convened to seek constitutional solutions to the ethnic question, Sampanthan told the House that the former leader had stood for maximum possible devolution of powers. In 2006, Rajapaksa had told the APRC that it was important to address the question of regional minorities. “He said people in their own localities must take charge of their destiny and control their political and economic affairs,” the octogenarian Tamil leader recalled. 

“This is precisely what we are presently engaged in doing through this Constitution-making process,” he added. Former Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris had also advocated for extensive power sharing within the framework of one country in 2002, the Opposition Leader recalled.  “They say something different now,” he smirked.  For years Sri Lankan leaders had told the international community that the LTTE was the impediment to delivering on a permanent solution to the ethnic question, resulting in the whole world supporting the Government to defeat the Tigers. Eight years after the war ended, the causes of the war had not yet been addressed, the Tamil leader said. 

“It will be a tragedy not to realise that the war began because of the non-resolution of the national question, and the national question remains unsolved,” Sampanthan emphasised. “There are lessons we have learned over the past 70 years. We have felt the devastation and destruction,” the Opposition Leader said. 

Those opposing this Constitution-making process were doing so on sectarian grounds to advance their own political agendas and not in the national interest, he added.  

Sampanthan reiterated the TNA position that the Tamil leadership would strive for the maximum consensus that offered reasonable solutions to the Tamil grievances. 

“The Tamil people of the North and East have been absolutely clear in regard to the manner and mode of power sharing they want. They advocate for federal power sharing arrangements,” Sampanthan said. “But still we realise maximum possible consensus will be in the interest of the country. And to that end we are willing to work towards a reasonable consensus on all issues,” he admitted. 

The Opposition Leader assured the Constitutional Assembly that the new Constitution will guarantee that Sri Lanka will be undivided and indivisible for all time and a land belonging to all its peoples.

(DB)