Opportunity For Sinhalese Under Humane Sirisena

By C.V. Wigneswaran –January 20, 2016

C.V. Wigneswaran

Following my request addressed to the Swiss Ambassador to invite to Jaffna the Swiss Institute for Federalism of Fribourg, Switzerland for a series of Seminars and Conferences on devolution of power, Mr.Davide Vignati, First Secretary, Political Affairs of the Embassy of Switzerland, Colombo contacted Dr.Eva Maria Belser who is here, the Director of the Institute who confirmed her availability. It is she who identified Professor Nico Steytler from Cape Town and Mr.Maurizio Maggetti to accompany her. I had considered such a Seminar urgent on account of the Constitutional drafting process which was being put in motion early this month in Colombo.

Thus with the support of the Institute for Constitutional Studies we had jointly organized this Seminar mainly for the benefit of the Northern and Eastern Provincial Council Members. I had then suggested that the University fraternity as well as the Civil Society too must be given an opportunity to listen to the learned speakers. The Swiss Embassy readily agreed.

While the Seminar today will predominantly be a platform from which our Resource Persons, Professor Eva Maria Belser of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, Maurizio Maggetti, Research Fellow at the Institute of Federalism (Incidentally he has worked in Sri Lanka with the Berghof Foundation and Sarvodaya) and Professor Nico Steytler of the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa would be sharing their knowledge and wisdom, both theoretical and practical on the whole issue of different constitutional models for power sharing during this two hours’ session, their inputs would be beneficial to all of us Sri Lankans to identify constitutional mechanisms that would suit our particular ethnic background and context. Solutions would have to be later identified on the basis of the knowledge we receive to suit the existing circumstances.

It gives me great pleasure while welcoming the learned speakers to also welcome all you Civil Society members. Civil Society is the aggregate of non- governmental organizations and institutions that manifest the interest and will of Citizens. They belong to the third sector of Society distinct from Government and Private Sector business community. In other words you all are individuals and organizations in a Society who are independent of the Government. You are mostly non – governmental organizations and professionals. Today the world over in democratic societies apart from the Government the Private Sector and the Civil Society including NGOs, play an important part in helping any community to develop and prosper.

You are as much a part of Society as any others. If the people or their political representatives are not taking adequate interest with regard to the future of the polity it is your duty to direct the people. That way your position is one of trustees of the conscience of the people. You owe it to the people to lead them. You are amply qualified to do so with many of you being professionals. You will be able to appreciate today the thoughts and words of the learned Lecturers. You need to learn from them and help the masses themselves to learn from you. You have to educate the masses at the grass root level.Read More