Chandrika defends referendum

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, JULY 12. The President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, went over state television today to defend her decision to prorogue Parliament and simultaneously kicked off her campaign for the August 21 referendum by asking the people to give her a ``clear and unequivocal'' mandate to change the Constitution.

Ms. Kumaratunga promised that once she had the required mandate, she would change the Constitution within a year, ``after necessary consultations with broad sections of society'', and called for the formation of a ``broad national alliance'' with her Government to achieve this.

Earlier this week, Ms. Kumaratunga used the sweeping powers vested in her by the same Constitution that she was seeking to replace to side-step an imminent no-confidence motion against her minority Government, and called for a referendum on the need for a new Constitution.

The move has attracted widespread condemnation as an authoritarian and dictatorial tactic to block a legitimate democratic process.

The President said today that she had taken the step in view of ``the unstable situation'' in the legislature.

``With a view to providing the necessary space and opportunity for the political parties concerned to find a solution to their differences, I decided to prorogue Parliament for two months,'' she said.

The main thrust of her address was the unfairness of the electoral system in the present Constitution that made it impossible for any party to establish ``a stable Government'', and the need to change it through a new Constitution.

Ms. Kumaratunga did not specify what the new Constitution might be, but dropped a hint by referring to the Constitution Bill that her Government sought unsuccessfully to rush through Parliament last year, as containing provisions to establish the independent commissions that the Opposition had been clamouring for and to scrap the Executive Presidency.

She said the new Constitution would also provide ``fair, constitutional and political solutions to the curse of the ethnic crisis''.

The draft new Constitution that was put to Parliament last year was opposed by Sinhalese as giving away too much to Tamils, and by Tamils as too little. The United National Party also said it was opposed to provisions in it that allowed the retention of the powers of the Executive Presidency for a transitional period.

Though Ms. Kumaratunga needs to win only 51 per cent of the mandate at the referendum, analysts said she would require more than 60 per cent of the mandate to claim popular support to change the Constitution.

It is not yet clear how she can do this if the Opposition does not support her as a referendum is not legally binding on Parliament, and the creation of a Constituent Assembly, where constitutional changes can be effected by a simple majority, needs a resolution by Parliament where the PA has lost its majority.

Local newspapers reported today that even the Cabinet was unhappy with the decision by the President. The Minister for Constitutional Affairs, Mr. G.L. Peiris, was one of those who reportedly complained at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he had not been consulted on the move. Several others too registered their protest, and one stormed out, the papers said.

The Leader of the Opposition United National Party, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, accused Ms. Kumaratunga of taking the ``first step'' towards a dictatorship, and called for all democratic forces to unite against the Government.

He said the Government should have resigned when it became clear that it no longer commanded the majority to defeat the no- confidence motion placed before Parliament by the Opposition.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna called it a ``dangerous move'' and said it seemed like an attempt to revive the Constitution Bill of last year.

Meanwhile, the leaders of 115 combined Opposition Parliamentarians submitted a petition to the President, asking her to sack the Prime Minister and the Cabinet as the Government had clearly lost its majority and appoint to the office a person who commanded the confidence of the House.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : 'Summit, a win-win situation for U.S.'
Next     : Swamy wants Sinha to resign