Lawyers for Democracy (LfD) yesterday, in a hard-hitting statement, said it was appalled by the position taken by a small section of the Bar Council seeking to discredit the present constitution-making process.
The statement came as a response to reports that the Bar Council of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, at a special meeting, on October 23, resolved to express its grave concern about the proposed amendments to Articles 1 and 2 of the present Constitution.
The statement of the Bar Council also alleged that proposed amendments in the Interim Report of the Constitutional Assembly of Sri Lanka had the effect of converting the unitary character of the State to a Federal structure.
“At the outset we note that the BASL has, in the past, stood to protect Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democratic form of government. Thus, in or about early 2016, the BASL made proposals to the Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reforms and subsequently to subcommittees of the Constitutional Assembly dealing with the independence of the Judiciary and fundamental rights,” the LFD statement said.
It also added, “We note that a ‘New Constitution’, which would include abolishing the Executive Presidency in its present form, greater devolution of power, and electoral reform, has been an unrealised electoral promise of Presidential candidates since 1994.
“A large section of the Bar welcomed the steps taken to formulate a new constitution where thousands of people and professionals (including the BASL) have given their proposals. We are also mindful of the fact that the present Constitutional reform exercise also seeks to address the ‘national question’, an issue which has remained unresolved since independence, and, in its unresolved form has plagued Sri Lanka, and been the cause of a three-decade long civil war which has claimed the lives of countless thousands of Sri Lanka’s sons and daughters, while leaving many more countless thousands maimed, displaced, orphaned and widowed.”
The form of Government is a political and ideological issue that transcends all ethnicities, and needs to be answered politically and not by a small and unrepresentative section of a professional association. The questions that have been formulated shows that BASL at present has also taken a hard ideological line akin to extremist elements, undermining the value of diversity respected by the BASL before.
The statement of the Bar Council appears to have been released without reading the Interim Report of the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly of Sri Lanka (‘Interim Report’). The statement has been issued based on a reading of one paragraph of the report, considered in isolation.
It is misleading (if not palpably false), to suggest that the present proposals advocate federalism.
A reading of the Interim Report makes it clear that:
In Sri Lanka, sovereignty will vest with the people and shall be inalienable and indivisible.
Sri Lanka should remain one undivided and indivisible country.
There shall be specific provisions included in the Constitution to prevent secession (division of the country).
The Constitution shall be the Supreme Law of Sri Lanka.
The power to amend the Constitution, or to repeal and replace the Constitution, shall remain with the Parliament and the people of Sri Lanka (where applicable), in the manner set out in the Constitution. (Page 1 of the Interim Report)
Anyone who bothered to read the Interim report, which has been in the public domain since September 21, would appreciate that it is within this framework that it is suggested that there be maximum devolution of power. Devolution of power is essential to ensure greater political accountability and balanced regional development, not only in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, but also in other underdeveloped regions such as the Uva Province.”