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| Sunday, 19 September 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Urgent need for electoral and constitutional reforms P. P. DEVARAJ, a former Hindu Religious and Tamil Affairs State Minister, in an exclusive interview with SUNDAY OBSERVER Staffer P. MUTHIAH discusses the urgent need for electoral and constitutional reforms and power-sharing mechanisms that would ensure individual and community rights.
"During the last two decades, the UN approach to minority rights has considerably changed. It has shifted from preventing discrimination to one of promoting a political role for the minorities. In fact, there is a special UN Convention adopted in 1992, particularly on minority rights. In recent years, as a part of the effort to restructure states, provisions have been made to encourage the co-existence of different ethnic groups, and provide them security and assistance to promote their cultures," he pointed out. Devaraj also stressed the necessity to have a comprehensive Chapter in the Sri Lankan Constitution on fundamental rights and freedoms. "There is also a need to develop a special mechanism that would enable the minorities to participate in the affairs of the country. Individual rights can be sustained only through providing full human security for communities of different identities. Non-territorial and minority communities will be able to enjoy equality and fully participate in public affairs if they get adequate representation in the legislature as well as in provincial structures." He said that the present electoral system did not provide this. "Non-territorial communities are distributed in several districts. The present electoral system does not make it possible for their reasonable representation, even when the population warrants such representation. For example, there is substantial Indian Origin Tamil population in the Ratnapura and Kalutara districts. In Vanni you find a considerable number of Sinhalese. They have never been able to get representation. This is also true in respect of the other districts. An important aspect is to introduce innovative mechanism into our electoral system, to ensure the representation of all communities." The former State Minister stressed that representation was important, not only in the electoral bodies, but also in the administration and in the police force. "Even if you have representation in the administrative structure, it will not be possible for minorities to fully participate in public affairs. I would like to quote here the example of Kenya where a comprehensive Bills of Rights was included in the Constitution." "The suggestion is for a new system to which an innovative mechanism should be added to ensure the equitable representation of all communities, such as multi-ethnic electorates. In 1990, a system of recruitment to the public service on ethnic quota basis had been introduced which has now been suspended. At present the representation in the administrative service has declined sharply. Therefore, special affirmative measures are necessary to rectify the situation. Another matter that needs special attention is the question of implementing the official language policy. Implementation of this policy is not given priority in the national agenda. There are'nt enough Tamil officials in various departments and there is a nonchalant attitude to implement this policy. "Under the constitutional provision, the President has declared 29 Divisional Secretary areas as bi-lingual. However, except for two or three Divisional Secretariats, no officials have been appointed for the others and the declaration remains meaningless. According to latest census report nearly one hundred Divisional Secretariats could be designated as bi-lingual," Devaraj said. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Responding to questions on various views expressed on Rights and
Power-sharing Mechanisms for Non-Territorial Minority Communities P.P.
Devaraj was of the opinion that Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic pluralistic
country. There was a non-territorial dimension to the distribution of
communities. He wanted to bring into the political discourse the
non-territorial aspects of power-sharing that would ensure the individual
as well as the community rights.
