Uncertainty over reforms package

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, JULY 30. The Sri Lankan Government is to present a draft new Constitution in Parliament this week but with the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, in last minute negotiations with the Tamil parties, uncertainty prevails over what the final package of reforms will actually contain.

The state-owned weekly, Sunday Observer, reported today that the constitutional reforms package would be placed before Parliament later this week.

A team of legal experts is reported to be working round-the-clock to put together a text of the proposed new Constitution, which Ms. Kumaratunga may put to her Cabinet for approval on Monday.

It is not yet clear if the draft will be based on the recent agreement reached with the Opposition United National Party or will incorporate some elements from it.

The President indicated to Tamil parliamentarians during two separate meetings on Friday that with the UNP backing off from the agreement, she was under no obligation to stick by it, and would revert to the 1997 draft as that was more acceptable to the Tamil parties represented in Parliament.

Last week, the UNP announced that it would not assist the Government to win two-thirds support for the reforms in Parliament if the reforms were not placed before the Buddhist clergy and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The Buddhist monks and the Tigers are, for their own separate reasons, opposed to devolution. The UNP is fully aware of this and so to demand that the constitutional reforms should first gain the acceptance of these two sections, was just an indirect way, and not a subtle one at that, of saying the party was not prepared to back the new Constitution.

But not wishing to be labelled spoilers, UNP spokesmen were at pains to put on record that the party would continue its dialogue with the Government to resolve the conflict, and that all that they were objecting to was the Government's haste.

Now certain that the UNP will not provide her with the additional votes in Parliament to make up the mandatory two- thirds support, Ms. Kumaratunga hopes to shore up votes of Tamil MPs by holding out the offer of the 1997 package. The President is scheduled to hold consultations with the EPDP tomorrow.

However, representatives of the TULF and PLOT, who met her on Friday, said they could take a decision for or against the package only after they see the final legal formulations on the areas of specific concern to minority aspirations.

``This is a very critical vote for us. We cannot blindly support the Government. We have still no idea what the legal draft is going to contain, so we cannot assure our support till we have studied the draft closely,'' said Mr. Dharmalingam Sithadthan, MP and leader of PLOT.

There are other pieces in this complicated political jigsaw that are still missing, and that's not even counting the LTTE.

Assuming Ms. Kumaratunga secures the backing of the TULF, EPDP and PLOT, the Government would still be 10 short of two-thirds support in the 225-member House.

The state-run print media has claimed that several opposition MPs are ready to cross over, but as yet, there have been no substantial developments on that front.

Moreover, some senior ministers in Ms. Kumaratunga's Cabinet are said to be upset at the haste with which the reforms package is being planned to be presented and debated in Parliament.

Several politicians in the ruling PA are asking how a new constitution can be debated and put to vote in three days when it takes at least a month to debate even the annual budget.

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