• TPA to boycott all-party conference unless written assurance on appointing spl. committee on upcountry Tamils’ issues   

The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) yesterday (18) noted that unless there is written assurance from President Ranil Wickremesinghe on their basic demand that he should nominate a special committee to look into the issues of hill-country Tamils, the TPA would not show keen interest in attending the upcoming all-‽party conference. 

Speaking to The Morning, TPA Leader and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Opposition MP Mano Ganesan said yesterday that the TPA had continuously reminded President Wickremesinghe of the need to separately address the socio-political issues of the hill-country Tamils. 

“The Government’s discussion with North and East Tamil parties should continue. We support it, provided that those Tamil parties participate. But this cannot be the entire agenda. There are two more entities that need to be handled separately, namely, the hill-country Tamil community and the Muslim community,” he added. He further said that the TPA had informed in writing to President Wickremesinghe on various occasions in regard to the aspirations of the hill country Tamils.

When commenting on President Wickremesinghe’s recent promise made in Jaffna to fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution on the devolution of power to the Provinces within the next two years period, he said: “The 13th Amendment to the Constitution should be the starting point in resolving the ethnic issue.” 

Meanwhile, Ganesan noted earlier that President Wickremesinghe should appoint three separate high powered committees to examine the proposals of the North and East Tamil community, the Muslim community, and the hill country Tamil community, where common positions reached through these committees should be taken up at the upcoming all party conferences that are scheduled for this year (2023), and thereafter be adopted as constitutional amendments. 

Ganesan also proposed the establishment of a constitutionally mandated non-territorial community council for the hill-country Tamil community, as deliberated under the previous all party conference established by former President and incumbent Government MP Mahinda Rajapaksa, with a mandate on dealing with select affairs of the community that is living in a geographically concentrated basis in Nuwara Eliya and in a dispersed manner in other parts of the country. 

“Once an agreement is arrived at by these high powered committees from the proposals presented by the three communities, constitutional amendments could be adopted. This would be a way forward for the all party conferences. We will not agree to be sidelined in this process,” he added. He pointed out that talks on the national ethnic issue are not restricted to any particular area, but that it is an islandwide issue.

Meanwhile, on 13 December, 2022, President Wickremesinghe stated that he intends to hold discussions with Opposition and SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa at the all-party conference in January, 2023, with regard to the devolution of powers and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution based on seven previous and related commission reports and the report on constitutional reforms submitted by the committee led by President’s Counsel Romesh De Silva.