Minorities Fear Backlash Over Sri Lanka’s Proposed New Constitution

Sri Lanka’s minority religious groups are concerned after Buddhist hardliners reacted angrily to the President’s proposed new constitution.
President Maithripala Sirisena’s new constitution, proposed on 9 Jan., would decentralise power in a bid to prevent ethnic tensions in the country, but Buddhist hardliners say it contains provisions that regulate the power of the Buddhist clergy.
The Justice and Buddha Sasana Minister, Wijeyasayadasa Rajapashe, denied this claim, saying they are intended only to enable the government to discipline monks who break the law.
Others who oppose the change say that it is an attempt by the government to be more “likeable” to Western nations.
Buddhism currently enjoys “the foremost place” in the Sri Lankan constitution. Article 9 decrees that “Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana [message]”.
Hardliners blasted the President's proposal. “We request Buddhist monks to boycott the courts of this country,” Gnanasara Thera, spokesperson for extremist Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), told the Tamil Guardian. “The government [will have] to convert every coconut tree into a gallows and every school into a prison to suppress the Sinhala [the dominant Sri Lankan ethnic group] Buddhist people.”
The constitutional change could be “good or bad news” for religious minorities, including Christians, who comprise around 7 per cent of the population, and Muslims, who account for 10 per cent, said Sheila Singh, a researcher for Open Doors, a global charity that serves Christians who live under pressure because of their faith.
“It’s good news because it’s another milestone in the reformation that the Sirisena administration has been doing,” she told World Watch Monitor. “Last year, the Parliament successfully adopted the 19th amendment of the constitution, which devolved the many powers of Executive Presidency, which had been in force since 1978. The religious police unit established by the former President, which was used to further create tension between the Buddhists and the religious minorities, was also abolished last year.
“Following these changes, we have seen a relatively improved situation for the religious minorities. But the caveat is that while the current government offers a more open and inclusive governance, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe dismissed the allegations that the foremost place given to Buddhism and the unitary nature of the country are being removed in the new constitution.
“Nationalist parliamentarians and groups such as the Sinhale National Movement continue to guard the claimed identity of Sri Lanka at the expense of religious and ethnic minorities. The constitutional change may push through, but we are yet to see how this will really protect and integrate the religious minorities,” Singh said.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told the Daily Mirror: “Some say the foremost place given to Buddhism and the unitary nature of the country are being diluted through the new constitution. No one wants to divide the country. Most of us, including me, are Buddhists. I am Sinhalese and I need to unite the whole country. For those who speak of Buddhism losing its foremost place in the constitution, I will make a special statement in Parliament. I ask the small parties not to politicise this issue. The new constitution will be based on the aspirations of the people.”