New Constitution, Muslim Unity & SLMC  

By MYM Siddeek –OCTOBER 23, 2017

Dr. MYM Siddeek

The government has released a document called Interim Report of The Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly of Sri Lanka. However, some political parties and groups with vested interests misinterpret this document as an ‘Interim Constitution’ and mislead the innocent mass. There have been a number of debate sessions and seminars even among the academics and professionals from the time the government released the interim report. It should be clear that what is released by the government is not an interim constitution or a draft constitution! It is a proposal with some alternatives and summaries of representations made by various political parties and groups. In nutshell it is a summary of the discussions. Therefore, it is not the ‘end of the world’ and there is much room for negotiations before a new constitution is drafted. Since this proposal does not reflect the aspirations of the Muslims and does not guarantee their rights and security, the Muslim politicians, leaders and civil societies should continue their negotiations and agitations with the relevant parties and the government before the final draft is submitted. The Muslims have a ‘second’ chance to push for what they want to be included in the final draft of the constitution.  Since the Muslim parliamentarians regret for the mistakes they made in the recent past in the parliament by not opposing a number of legislations and amendments to the existing constitution which have badly affected the Muslims, I hope they will not make another mistake by missing to do this.    

The aspiration of the majority of the Tamils living in the North is a federal type of solution within a merged Northern and Eastern provinces for the ethnic issue. On the other hand, the Muslims have put forwarded a number of counter proposals that they think could ensure their safety and security and guarantee their other rights. One of the proposals of the Muslims is to find a solution for the problems they face within the current demerged geographical boundaries of the two provinces. The Muslims who demand this know very well that their opposition to a North-East merged solution is one of the main factors which antagonised the Northern Tamils and they faced the consequences during the LTTE tyranny. Then they were silent on this issue for some time by gun power and now they have started to express their opposition openly from the time the government started to talk about drafting a new constitution. It should also be noted here that the government did not get a mandate for a new constitution in the presidential election or parliament elections. The mandate was only to amend the existing constitution. Now the Muslims have been expressing their fear that if there is a new constitution and the two provinces are merged they will be left out without fulfilling their aspirations from the time the government published its interim report of the Steering committee of the Constitutional Assembly of Sri Lanka.

I always questioned within myself as to whether the Muslims genuinely want a solution with demerged Northern and Eastern provinces. This question arises because the Muslims also know very well that if the government finally decides to remerge the Northern and Eastern provinces it is not going to stop it just because the Muslims are going to oppose it unless the majority Sinhalese in the two provinces and the other seven provinces oppose it. In order to satisfy the opposing Sinhalese, the government will have to ignore the pressure from the international communities and institutions. If the merger materialises, ignoring the wishes of the Muslims, due to the international pressure and with the blessings of the majority Sinhalese for political reasons, the ultimate result will be that the Muslims in the two provinces will have to live forever with the antagonised Tamils and face the consequences from all spectrum of their daily life politically, socially, economically etc. The Muslims know this fact very well but still they oppose a solution within the merged Northern and Eastern provinces. They also know that if the government decides not to merge the two provinces due to acute opposition from the Sinhalese ignoring the international pressure and the demand from the Tamils, it can put the blame on the Muslims and make them scapegoats. Then Tamils and the Muslims will continue to live as permanent enemies to each other in the two provinces. This enmity can prevail even if the two provinces are merged while the Muslims oppose it. Therefore, whatever the final outcome (remerged or demerged solution), the consequences may be severe and harmful to the Muslims. Then there is a pertinent question to ask at this juncture. Are the Muslims involved in a dangerous exercise by opposing the North and East merger? The answer is ‘No’! The Muslims know very well the consequences if the two provinces are remerged or left demerged as it is now while they oppose the merger. The Muslims also know that the government will not listen to them in the event it decides to remerge the two provinces. But what the Muslims are trying to demonstrate by opposing the merger is that the fear that they have in their mind if the two provinces are remerged. The fear about the serious consequences they and their future generations are going to face.

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