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C’wealth Secretariat: No decision yet on early CMAG meeting; Sharma visit routine
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa
The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the organisation’s political watchdog, has not yet planned an extraordinary meeting as requested by Canada to discuss the impeachment of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice, a spokesman said yesterday.
Richard Uku, Commonwealth Secretariat’s Communications and Public Affairs Division Director, told the Sunday Times that, “CMAG will make its own determination at the appropriate time”.
He was speaking ahead of Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma’s arrival in Sri Lanka today to discuss arrangements for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Hambantota in November.
Canada, as a member of CMAG, is pushing hard for the Group to convene before its scheduled date in April. This could take place either via teleconference or in person, where the foreign ministers of its seven member states (the eighth member, the Maldives, is currently not participating) meet face-to-face.
The other members of CMAG—Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu—have not displayed the same urgency.
Mr. Uku stressed that the Secretary-General’s current visit was a routine, prescheduled one. “It is not a CMAG-related visit,” he reiterated. Before he leaves on Tuesday night, Mr. Sharma and his senior officials will discuss preparations for the summit with host authorities. A similar visit was conducted in September 2012.
“This allows us to also look at possible outcomes that Sri Lanka and Commonwealth leaders will want from the Summit and Secretariat,” Mr. Uku said.
Asked whether it had anything to do with the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake —and its implications for the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary —he replied, “No, the Secretary-General has issued a statement on that but this (visit) is not connected with that.”
Questioned whether the matter has been taken up at all, he said Mr. Sharma has been “in touch”. “He’s engaged with the Sri Lanka Government on an ongoing basis.” He also said that, if the impeachment and related matters come up, “obviously, it will be discussed”.
Asked, then, whether he had anything to say about how the Chief Justice’s removal impacted on Commonwealth principles, Mr. Uku said it was important for the Secretariat that Commonwealth values are safeguarded.
“What’s important for us is ensuring that values and principles relating to the separation of powers are respected,” he continued. “Those are the values that the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth hold dear. And it was on those values of the separation of powers that the Commonwealth Secretary-General commented. And we want to make sure that we uphold those values and he made those concerns known.”
“There is only so far one can go without being seen to interfere directly in the domestic matters of Commonwealth member states but he (SG) has made the collective concerns of the Commonwealth known in his previous statement,” he said. “We are confident, we are hopeful that all our members stay true to those values or to those principles.”
The Secretary-General’s advance team has already had several discussions with members of the Task Force that is organising the summit.
Mr. Uku refused to speculate on what might happen if Sri Lanka were placed on the CMAG agenda. “We really can’t go down that road and talk about ‘if’ Sri Lanka is being placed on the CMAG agenda because it hasn’t come to it,” he explained. “It would be conjecture and I would be pre-empting the work of CMAG, which I can’t do.”
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