‘Purawesi Handa’ is a publication aimed at dissemination of the voices of citizens of this country and to build a wider discourse on issues significant to citizens. We believe that the social discourse that Centre for Policy Alternatives has developed over 25 years should be further intensified at this moment. Therefore, we aim to release this publication in all three languages and plan to publish these conversations as videos in social media. The drafting of a constitution is a very important feature for a country. It is evident that the genuine aspirations of the people living in this society were not represented in any of the constitutional development processes that took place from the Soul bury Constitution to the 1978 Constitution and from then until now. The constitution of 1972 did not seem to have understood the signal stemming from the insurgency of 1971. The 1978 constitution, which has been amended for the 20th time and is in force until now, was challenged by two insurrections in the north and the south during the period of more than 40 years.
The state failed to provide an acceptable fair solution to the northern people who demanded their rights as citizens until the problem escalated into a thirty-year war. More than ten years have passed since the end of the armed war and still there have been no solutions provided to those problems of the people. The rulers also failed to understand the messages emanating from the youth insurrection in the south during 88-89. It seems that none of the rulers for almost 75 years since independence have been able to understand the signals given from the society. The recent public agitation is one of the most pivotal agitations in recent history.
It had very positive as well as some negative aspects. What makes it unique is the non-violent and highly creative characteristic of the agitation. The uprising in the ‘71 and ‘88-89 were to some extent armed rebellions. The young people who contributed to the agitation this time can be considered the children of the ’88- 89 generation and grandchildren of the ’71 generation. Their method employed to display dissent was completely non-violent. They had the capacity and strength to assemble together in unity without the divisions of race, religion, class, rural-urban divides, gender, etc and there was equal value for all within the agitation.
The agitation reflected a number of such salient features. However, even after this agitation, it is sad that the government is attempting to continue with the same old mechanism without understanding the messages given by the people. It is clearly evident that there is a response of vengeance to the current agitation that led to the resignation of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister and finally the President. This is a situation that can develop extremely disastrous consequences. In such a context, our effort is to discuss the concerns for ‘making a system change’ voiced by the protesters. The constitution of a country should evoke respect and acceptance of all its citizens. The constitution drafting process is not limited to the work of the elite regime or political parties but should expand and be formulated with the inclusive participation of the public representing various strata of society and through a broad dialogue.
It cannot be completed simply in a couple of days. Not one draft but several drafts may have to be prepared and the final draft should be subject to a wide discussion among the public. Our effort, therefore, is to contribute to the dialogue on drafting of a new constitution. As the first stage, we inquired into how far the leaders of the political parties who are currently engaged in active politics are sensitive to the issue. We inquired regarding their thoughts on political reforms, strengthening democracy and internal democracy of political parties. It is our hope to conduct further conversations on similar subjects in the future. In particular, we hope to take the thoughts and opinions of experts and scholars to society and to engage in conversations.
Due to the challenging situation faced by the publications industry regarding printing, initially, we can only publish this as an electronic magazine. However, our expectation is to conduct open public discussions on these main subjects in the future.
We invite the university fraternity, professionals and interested citizens to join in order to enrich these conversations.
Editor
Lionel Guruge
Senior Researcher
Centre for Policy Alternatives
This post is also available in: தமிழ் සිංහල
