Constitutional Assembly:

TNA and TPC to present separate proposals

by P. Krishnaswamy

Parliament is to be convened as a Constitutional Assembly next week, to draft Sri Lanka's third Republican Constitution, which would address the Tamil question as well. The TNA and its defiant Tamil People's Council (TPC) are hastening to present separate proposals to the Constitutional Assembly.

The TPC, launched on December 9, with TNA's Northern Province Chief Minister (CM) C.V. Wigneswaran as its head started discussions yesterday in Jaffna on drafting its proposals as a solution to the Tamil issue, informed sources said.

The TPC has the backing of certain pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora organisations, especially the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) led by V.Rudrakumaran, and constitutional experts from overseas will also come down to Jaffna for consultations on the drafting process, the sources said. The TPC is of the view that the TNA supports the government and is unlikely to work for a 'just solution' to the Tamil problem. On December 26, one week after the launch of the TPC, leader of the TNA R.Sampanthan held a one-on-one talks with Wigneswaran on ironing out inter-party differences. Although Sampanthan had said that the talks were cordial and constructive, Wigneswaran backed out and attended the second meeting of the TPC on the following day.

The TNA too is now in the process of holding discussions with the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and other stakeholders on drafting its own proposals. Chairman of the Northern of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and forefront member of the TNA's main constituent, the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchy (ITAK), told the Sunday Observer that 'One Country, Two Nations" would be the ideology behind the proposal that the TNA would submit.