Ranil says All parties should get together to formulate new SL constitution
Opposition Leader and United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday called for a broad based constructional assembly comprising all political parties and other organisations to formulate a new constitution.
He was prepared to reveal his assets at any time
Speaking at a public forum yesterday, he said a draft of the constitution prepared by such a constitutional assembly could be referred to the people through a referendum and enacted by Parliament.
“The sooner we do it the better,” he said, stressing that the country could not afford to waste any more time given today’s situation. Mr. Wickremesinghe said his intention was to bring about a Sri Lankan constitution and not a UNP constitution. He also stressed the need for a discussion to determine the role played by the state with regard to religion. Mr. Wickremesinghe said one could discuss whether the state should be involved in religion or not during such a discussion.
Responding to a question at the forum with regard to the performance of the Opposition he said the perform- ance of a political party should be looked at once in five years and not annually or quarterly like a private company.“A political party is different to a company as it takes more than five years for a party to capture power unlike in a company where performance is looked at annually or quarterly,’ he said. In reply to a question by a member of audience as to whether UNP MPs were ready to declare their assets in an effort to bring about a new political culture, he said he was prepared to reveal his assets at any time and to release a document containing his list of assets to the public.
“A political party is different to a company as it takes more than five years for a party to capture power