Senate cannot be substitute for police and land powers – TNA ‘Bicameral legislature (1948-72) served no purpose’

January 22, 2012, 

By Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Senate proposed by the government as a solution would be complementary and not a substitute for land and police powers, the Tamil National Alliance said yesterday.

“Our position has been patently and abundantly clear on the national question; the Senate proposed by the government which says it goes beyond the 13th Amendment could be complementary, but it is not a substitute,” TNA Leader and Trincomalee District MP R. Sampanthan told The Island last night.

“What we are advocating is a useful method of devolution which will solve the problems of the Tamil community of the north and the east,” he said.

Meanwhile, TNA spokesman and Jaffna District MP Suresh Premachandran said that the proposal of the Senate had been intimated to the TNA around July at the time of the negotiations and the party had told the government very clearly at that time it could be part of a comprehensive political package. Senate meant power sharing at the centre but what the TNA was demanding was devolution of power to the periphery, he said.

There was no point in talking of a Senate without the devolution of power to the two Provinces, the TNA spokesman said.

TNA Jaffna District MP M. K. Shivajilingam said that the government’s proposed Senate was of no use to the TNA or the minorities of the north and the east.

The senate which was in existence between 1948 and 1972 had not helped solve the national question. What was worse was that Sinhala Only Policy of the SWRD Bandaranaike government and the first Republican Constitution of Sirimavo Bandaranaike government of 1972 had aggravated the problems of the Tamils, Shivajilingam said

Sivajilingam said that it would be a positive development if the senate had members who had been elected to the North and East Provincial Councils and not appointees by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. “If the appointees of the Senate are the President’s lackeys, then the whole purpose would be lost.”

There was no point in effecting the devolution proposal s without the land and police powers, Sivajilingam said. What the TNA wanted was self-rule and not self determination, he said.

The TNA MPs were responding to government spokesman and Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella’s announcement last week that the government would propose to the Parliamentary Select Committee the setting up of a senate which was even going beyond the 13th Amendment.

The Minister also said that there were some contentious issues in relation to land and police powers which had to be sorted out through negotiations and deliberations at the Parliamentary Select Committee, where all political parties with parliamentary representation were represented.