THE LATEST CONSTITUTION IN NEPAL CAN BE A VERY GOOD MODEL FOR SRI LANKA – VARADARAJA P.

(Prime Minister Sushil Koirala (third from right) and other MPs celebrated the vote late on Wednesday)

30/03/2016

Former Chief Minister of merged North and East A. Varadaraja Perumal said Right to Self Determination should not be only given to Tamils but to people in every region of this country. Autonomy in every region is a must for the government to deliver efficient development to the people.

“The latest Constitution in Nepal can be a very good model for Sri Lanka. Some 500-600 regions have been united in India for the past 60 years as a result of their quasi- federal Constitutions. More than 40 years’ conflict in Nepal had been settled with a federal Constitution. When federalism was not there in America a civil war occurred,” he said.

Following are excerpts:

As you arrived in Sri Lanka, one of your interviews stated that you are keen on contributing to the devolution agenda. What exactly would be your contribution? Would it be a contribution directly to the government or as an individual?

There cannot be any institution called ‘individually’. Former President J.R. Jayewardene made the Constitution of the country for his own interest, thus this country suffered for the last 40 years. Therefore, the next Constitution should not be for the interest of any individual, a specific group or even a specific race. It should be for the benefit of all communities and all regions of this country.

Varadaraja Perumal

You say the Constitution should be drafted in a thoughtful manner. If so what are the main elements that should be included in the new Constitution?

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe has given a clear picture on how the Constitution shall be framed. The executive presidency should be abolished and the cabinet system should be re-introduced. Therefore the Parliament will play the Legislative role and the President will be nominal.

Both the proportional representative system and first past the post system were failures in this country, therefore electoral reforms is a must in the current scenario. From 1994 onwards when former President Chandrika Kumaratunga came to power, this country repeatedly attempted to bring a new system, which will have a mixture of both electoral systems.

Read More