• Sumanthiran says no maximum devolution possible under unitary model, claims deliberate ambiguity created on Police powers, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam notes unitary State is basis of ethnic conflict, observes no more basis left for ‘any meaningful negotiation’

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) yesterday (9) stated in Parliament that they reject President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s throne speech cum Statement of Government Policy, delivered on Wednesday (8), stating that maximum devolution of power cannot take place within a unitary model. 

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, TNA’s Spokesman and Parliamentarian, President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran noted: “He ends by saying that he will not allow for a separation of the country. We are not asking for a separation of the country. We are rooting for a united, undivided, even indivisible, country. Don’t divide the country. But, share power in a meaningful way. Maximum devolution of power cannot happen in a unitary model, and therefore, we reject this throne speech on that account alone. 

“He says maximum devolution of power within a unitary State. You cannot have maximum devolution of power within a unitary State. The President knows that more than anyone else. The President campaigned on the platform of a federal State in 2005, when he contested for the Executive Presidency. In the last Parliament, when he was the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly, he very specifically said that he stands for a federal State, and now he has done a somersault and says instead that it will be within a unitary State, thus signifying that the scheme of Government will be unitary.”

He further said that President Wickremesinghe had deliberately created ambiguity when referring to Police powers. “With regard to the Police powers, what he said was a mere, short, one sentence paragraph – ‘There is no change in Police powers’. Now, we do not understand what that means. Is he saying that there is not going to be any change and that the status quo will remain or that there won’t be any change to what is in the Constitution? If there is no change to what is in the Constitution, then, the Police powers must be devolved. So, he has created an ambiguity. I suspect that this was done deliberately,” he added. 

Meanwhile, speaking to The Daily Morning, Ahila Ilankai Thamil Congress/Tamil National People’s Front Leader and Parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said while commenting on the same: “The President said that whatever solution has to be within a unitary State. The unitary State is in fact the fundamental basis for the ethnic conflict, because it perpetuates majoritarianism, it encourages racism and for 75 years, it has proved to be a failed system. He has chosen to once again reiterate what the failures of the last 75 years mean. As far as we are concerned, there is no basis for any meaningful negotiation.”

President Wickremesinghe, delivering his throne speech at the fourth session of the ninth Parliament, said that there would be maximum devolution of power within a unitary State and that there will be no change in Police powers.