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by M. I. M. Mohideen

The proposed Interim Council for the Tamil majority Northeast region should be accompanied by adequate safeguards and effective power sharing arrangements for the Muslims in the said region.

There are five important concerns:

(1) The separate and distinct identity of the Muslim and the areas of the traditional homelands of the Muslims should be preserved and protected.

(2) The Law and Order in the predominant Muslim areas should be in the hands of the Muslims.

(3) Adequate arrangements should be made to ensure that in the representation to the Interim council, Muslims should enjoy and exercise effective political power and influence.

(4) Adequate arrangements should be made to ensure that in regard to employment and economic investments, the predominant Muslim areas should have an equitable share.

(5) Institutional arrangement should be worked out to link the Muslim majority Divisional Secretariat divisions and Pradeshiya Sabhas in the Northeast region in such a manner as to constitute separate administrative and political units within the region.

The proposed Interim Council will have a Police force consisting mainly if not solely of Tamils. In the process one cannot be unmindful of the strong likelihood that most vacancies in the cadre of the proposed police force will be filled with Tamil militants. In such a situation it will lead to constant fear, anxiety and tension in the Muslim community. Muslims do not wish to be terrorized any longer by the Tamil militants. Therefore, the security arrangements in the predominant Muslim areas should be in the hands of the Muslims.

Since Muslims have to sacrifice their legitimate right for a separate council and the political advantage in the Eastern Province, sufficient weightage should be given for the Muslims in order to ensure maximum safeguards and equitable power sharing. Arrangements should be made for the Muslims to obtain not less than 30% of the representation and members of the Cabinet of Ministers of the North-east Interim Council.

Unless a Muslim has been appointed as the Chief Minister of the North-East Interim Council, provision should be made to ensure a Muslim is appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister who will be in charge of the affairs in the predominant Muslim Areas. In the field of Education, special consideration should be given to Muslim Schools in the backward areas. Separate educational facilities should be provided for the benefit of the Muslims upto the university level.

No legislation that would affects the rights of the Muslims or involve their identity and interest will be passed by the North-East Interim Council unless three fourths of the Muslim members in the Council support for such legislation.

Interim Council

1. There shall be established an interim council for the administration of the Northern and Eastern Provinces for a period of 2 years.

2. The objective of the interim council shall be to establish peace and normalcy in the Northern and the Eastern provinces.

3. During the interim period the council shall ensure the de-escalation of violence and the decommissioning of illegally held arms in the possession of para military groups.

Constitution of the Interim Council

i. The total number of the members of the interim council shall consist of such number of members as is equal to the total number of members entitle to be returned in accordance with the determination by the Commissioner of Elections under Section 3(3) of the Provincial Councils elections Act of 1998 from the several districts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces to the Northeast Provincial Council.

ii. The Interim Council should consist of representatives from all three communities living in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

iii. President will call upon the political parties representing the people of the Northern and Eastern provinces to nominate their representatives to the Interim Council in proportion to the number of seats they have in Parliament.

Powers and functions of the Interim Council

i. The Interim Council shall be entitled to exercise all the powers of the Regional Councils established under the new Constitution.

ii. The powers of the Interim Council shall be enshrined in the new Constitution.

iii. The functions of the Interim Council and its relations with the Governor will be laid down in the Constitution.

iv. The core subjects and functions to be assigned to the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and the other Ministers shall also be enshrined in the Constitution.

Implementing Agency of the Interim Council

i. All the development programmes of the Interim Council shall be channelled the respective Local Authorities.

ii. As soon as the Interim Council is established; the central government shall proceed to appoint a delimitation commission to establish ethnic oriented local authority areas all over the North and Eastern Provinces.

iii. As far as possible and practical the commission shall endeavour to bring in within the same Local Authority area all the residential and agricultural and other areas and resources of the people of the same community.

iv. The delimitation commission in the process shall also re-examine the boundaries of the existing local authorities and may recommend the creation of such additional number of ethnic oriented local authority areas with a view to allay the fears and suspicions of the different communities and people.

v. Such new local authorities as recommended shall be established with in a period of six months (6) and the Central Government with the assistance of the Interim Council shall ensure the holding of elections to all such local authorities and other local authorities in the region whose term of office has expired.

Minority Safeguards

There will be the following safeguards to ensure that all communities in the Northern and Eastern provinces can participate and work together successfully in the operation of the Interim Council:

ii. The Interim Council shall function in committees.

iii. There shall be allocated Committee Chairs, Ministers and Committee Membership to all communities.

iv. Key decisions and legislations should be proofed to ensure that they do not infringe the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution.

v. Any decision of the Interim Council should not be valid.

a. If it prohibits to restrict the free exercise for any religion

b. If it makes persons of any community or religion liable to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of other communities or religions are not made liable, or

c. Confer on any person or community or religion any privilege or advantage which is not conferred on person of other communities or religions, or

d. Alter the constitution of any religious body except with the consent of the governing authority of that body (similar to Section 29 of the Soulbury constitution)

vi. The following key decisions and directives that may affect one or more minority communities of the region not to be valid except with a double majority.

a. Election of Chair to the Interim Council.

b. Election of the Chief Minister

c. Election of the Deputy Chief Minister.

d. Standing orders, budget allocations.

vii. Deputy Chief Minister of the Interim Council also to be a member of the Chief Ministers Conference as well as the Land and Water Use Council.

Cabinet and its size

i. There shall be a minimum of eleven (11) members in the Cabinet of the Interim Council.

ii. Out of the eleven (11), Three (3) shall be members of the first minority of the region.

iii. There shall be a minimum of one (1) member from the second minority of the region.

iv. The Deputy Chief Minister/and the other cabinet Ministers of the Minority communities of the region should have the confidence of the majority members of their respective communities in the Interim Council.

Law and Order

1. Whilst the Chief Minister shall be in overall charge for Law and Order in the Northern and Eastern Provinces - he shall exercise his powers through the Deputy Chief Minister who will be directly answerable for Law and Order in the areas where Muslims are majority.

2. There shall be a Police Station in every Local Authority area and the composition of the Police Force shall reflect the ethnic composition of the said Local Authority.

3. All Police Stations in Muslim areas should come under the respective Muslim District Superintendent, Province Senior Superintendent and Regional Deputy Inspector General.

Budget allocations

The Finance Commission shall take into consideration the following matters before allocating funds and give appropriate directives to the Interim Council.

i. The disparity already prevailing in certain under-developed Local Authority areas.

ii. The size of the population and geographic area of the Local Authority.

iii. The Interim Council should expend such funds as are allocated to it by the Central Government in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Finance Commission.

iv. The Interim Council should also ensure that minority communities within a particular Local Authority should not in any way be discriminated in the allocation of funds for development.

Employment opportunities

All employment opportunities in the Eastern and Northern provinces shall be given on merit and according to the ethnic proportions of the respective districts in which such vacancies are available.

State Lands

I. It shall be illegal for the Interim Council to distribute State lands in any way that would disturb the demographic pattern of any particular Local Authority or Administrative Division or District. II. State lands shall be preserved by the Interim Council for those landless persons of the district according to the demographic pattern of the said district. Any excess land in any district shall be distributed on priority basis to those landless of the adjoining district subject to the rule relating to demographic pattern.

Resettlement of displaced people

The Interim Council shall ensures quickly as possible to re-settle and rehabilitate all those people who have been displaced since the beginning of the ethnic strife.

It shall also be the duty of the Interim Council to reconstruct the lives of the displaced people and enable them to re-possess their lost dwellings and properties and adequately compensate them.

Cultural Committees

1. There shall be established three (3) Cultural Committees one each in respect of every community of the region.

2. All members of the Interim Council belonging to one ethnic community shall ipso facto constitute the cultural committee of the said community.

3. The Cultural Committee shall function under the respective chairperson elected by the members of the respective communities.

4. All heads of local authorities belonging to the same community within the region could also take part in the deliberations of the cultural committees.

5. A Cultural Committee in addition to religious and cultural matters may also discuss and decide on any other matters of common interest of the said community in the region.

6. The Interim Council shall in the Annual Budget allocate specified sums of money at the Independent disposal of each cultural committee for the benefit of the development of the different cultures of all communities in the region.

Equality Commission

There shall also be established an Equality Commission to monitor the statutory obligations of the Interim Council to promote equal opportunity in specific area and parity of esteem between any two communities and to investigate individual complaints against public bodies.

Referendum

A referendum shall be held at the expiration of two years from the commencement of the constitution in the predominant Muslim areas in the administrative districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaithivu, for the Muslim electors of such districts to decide on the question of whether or not the predominant Muslim areas in Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaithivu should remain to form the region to be designated the North-Eastern Region.

Where at such referendum the question -

1. is answered in the affirmative by a majority Muslim votes casted, a Regional Council shall be established for the North-East.

2. is not answered in the affirmative two (2) separate Regional Councils shall be established -

(a) a predominant Tamil unit called North-East Regional Council comprising the combined Northern and Eastern provinces but excluding the areas covered by the predominantly Muslim unit called South Eastern Region.

(b) a predominant Muslim unit called South Eastern Regional Council comprising the predominantly Muslim areas in Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Mannar Districts.

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