The TNA's spokesperson, M A Sumanthiran told the Daily Mirror this week the party was "disappointed that many of the things that should have been done and completed are being dragged on."
"The Government does not seem to have political will to meet the promises it made in their entirety," he said.
Highlighting the stalling of the Office of Missing Persons Bill, the Convention for Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances and the constitutional reform promise, Mr Sumanthiran said the government's commitment was brought into question.
Commenting on the senior Buddhist clergy's statements rejecting the need for any change to the constitution, Mr Sumanthiran said, "The Mahanayake Theras knew for a long time that the constitution making process was going on. They did not say anything about it then."
In a carefully constructed response to the question of whether Buddhism ought to be given the foremost place, Mr Sumanthiran said, "we have not objected to the foremost place being given to Buddhism although that violates Fundamental Principles of Equality. Sri Lanka cannot say all its citizens are equal if the constitution says Buddhism is given the foremost status."
Asked if he was optimistic about the future, Mr Sumanthiran replied:
I won’t say I am optimistic or pessimistic. We have given our 110 percent cooperation to achieve reconciliation in full. A key factor of that is the new constitution. We are participating in the process very responsibly. We have been flexible to arrive at a conclusion. That is all we can do. We cannot act for the government or the other parties. We can only hope that they will reciprocate and constructively continue to engage in the process to have a new constitution."
See full interview here.
