News: political solution

Q: Will your government ever produce a political solution? A: I think a political solution means you have to do a lot of things. We are doing a lot of things. This Constitution of Sri Lanka is far more advanced than any other Constitution in the world. Every right of the people, the women, the minorities, all races, everyone, is covered. The judiciary has supreme power, even going over the legislature. Every commission which can be created in the world is created in Sri Lanka in the Constitution. It’s all there in the book but practical things have to be done. When I go to Jaffna, I can’t use my language in any of the offices. Similarly, sometimes, it may be that a person coming to Colombo from Jaffna can’t use his own language. Funny thing is that we both have to use another person’s language, English, to communicate. There are also areas in which both communities are living where we have to find a way to implement. I have got a lot of complaints that when a Sinhala person goes to the land office in the Trinco kachcheri he cannot communicate in his own language.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's roadmap for finding a 13th Amendment-plus political solution will take the Tamil question in Sri Lanka to a Parliamentary Select Committee, which will look into it and propose suitable constitutional amendments, and then on to Parliament. Meanwhile, local elections in the Northern Province, which are being held on Saturday, would be followed by a Provincial Council election.

'Speedy political solution needed for ethnic tensions in Lanka' Sutirtho Patranobis, Hindustan Times Email Author Colombo, November 04, 2010 First Published: 16:53 IST(4/11/2010) Last Updated: 16:55 IST(4/11/2010) Share more... 9 Comments Email print A newly appointed Catholic cardinal has said that only a speedy political solution to the festering issues of the minorities could resolve long-standing ethnic tensions in Sri Lanka. Appearing before the government-appointed panel looking into the civil war that ended in 2009, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said though fighting was over between government troops and Tamil Tigers, only a political solution could help in fully resolving the conflict. According to the Island newspaper, he told the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) that the grievances of the minorities should be addressed politically.

The United States says that the latest amendment to Sri Lanka constitution which was passed with a huge majority by the Sri Lanka parliament has undermined the democracy in the island nation.