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21st Century Constitution for a modern Sri Lanka: President urges Legislature
President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday asked lawmakers to reflect on the country’s bitter past experiences and work towards enacting a new Constitution to suit 21st century modern Sri Lanka, while urging his detractors to desist from uttering falsehoods about the process.
“We must not create a “constitutional bogeyman” in this country. Doing so will be a great sin and a tragedy.
Instead, to develop the 21st century modern Sri Lanka, we need to give birth to a “beautiful constitutional baby”, the President said in his address to Parliament yesterday.
On a day that marked the first anniversary of his swearing in as head of State, the President said that, while many were quick to criticise, it is time to reflect on missed opportunities to bring about reconciliation and build trust among the citizens of the country, as failure to do so in the past has led to much bloodshed and bitterness in the country, in the decades after independence.
“To bring people of the north and south together, we have to reflect on the experiences of the past. The people of the South are afraid of the word “federal”.
The people of the North are afraid of the word “unitary”. And extremists in both the south and north exploit these words to their advantage,” the President said.
He said that all Constitutions enacted in the country, starting with the Soulbury Constitution, were not created to build confidence and trust among the various religious and ethnic groups in the country.
“We need to closely study the Constitutions of countries such as the USA, France and India. These constitutions were not drafted in a partisan manner, so that, they favour one political party or one religion. Hence, we can see that communities in these countries co-exist peacefully,” he said.
The President urged his opponents not to create a volatile situation in the country over the constitution drafting process. “I urge them with great respect not to spread false stories.
Some are trying to spread blatant falsehoods and create unrest in the country, and put the Government in difficulty,” the President said.
He said that whenever a new Constitution is envisaged for this country, there has been unrest created by some persons. “These are not the moderate, educated, intelligent and patriotic citizens of our country, but extremists,” he said.
The President also said he believed that a Constitution of the country must undergo changes from time to time. “I don’t believe that the Constitution of a country should be like something carved in stone.
Society changes, people change, the world changes, people’s outlooks change with the advent of new technology, and hence, a country’s Constitution must be transformed to keep up with the changing times and to suit the era the people live in,” he added.
He also dismissed arguments by some that it is the executive presidency that helped win the war, and hence, must be retained.
“By saying so, are they implying that we should expect another war in the future?
In that case, what we should do is not retain the executive presidency, but bring about the necessary changes in attitudes of the people to prevent the recurrence of a war.”