Minority parties form 21-MP parliamentary platform

A group of 21 opposition MPs representing several Tamil and Muslim political parties has formed a new parliamentary platform to press the government on constitutional reform, provincial council elections and land rights.
Tamil Progressive Alliance leader Mano Ganesan said the grouping represented about one-third of the parliamentary opposition and would engage both the government and other opposition parties on issues affecting Tamil-speaking communities.
The platform includes MPs from the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, the Tamil Progressive Alliance, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the All Ceylon Makkal Congress and the Ceylon Workers’ Congress.
Ganesan stressed that the grouping was not an electoral alliance.
“This is a platform,” he said. “When people hear the word alliance, they usually think of an electoral coalition. That is not what this is at present.”
He said the participating parties would retain their separate identities and political positions while working together on matters where they shared common ground.
Ganesan said the platform would focus initially on three issues: reviving the unfinished constitutional reform process, holding the long-delayed provincial council elections and resolving land disputes affecting communities in the north, east and central hill country.
He said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake had previously pledged to continue the constitutional reform process that began during the 2015-2019 administration rather than restart it from the beginning.
The earlier process produced an interim report but ended without agreement on a new Constitution.
Ganesan said the platform would remind the president of that commitment.
He also accused the government of failing to fulfil its pledge to hold provincial council elections within a year of taking office.
The elections have been delayed for several years amid disputes over the electoral system and the delimitation of wards.
On land rights, Ganesan said private and state-owned land in the north and east should be released to its lawful owners and users.
He also called on the government to honour earlier promises to provide unused and uncultivated land to plantation-origin Tamil communities in the central highlands.
The platform would pursue its goals through dialogue rather than political confrontation, he said.
“We intend to speak to both the government and the opposition,” Ganesan said. “The period of armed conflict is over. We now believe in discussion.”
He said the grouping was prepared to hold talks with other political parties, including those that had not joined the initiative, if they could agree on a minimum common programme.
The parties did not need to agree on every political issue to work together, he said.
“If we can agree on five matters, we can work together on those five, even if we disagree on others,” he said.
The platform has appointed ITAK MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam as its coordinator. Ganesan said it would operate through collective leadership rather than appointing a single leader.
He rejected suggestions that the platform was intended to weaken existing opposition alliances or interfere with political arrangements in local councils.
“This is a national platform,” he said. “We will deal with national issues. Local council members must continue their work at the local level.”
Ganesan said the grouping wanted to create a political environment in which Tamil-speaking communities could live with the Sinhala community as equal citizens and share political power and the benefits of development.
He said the concerns of minority communities often received insufficient attention because larger political parties had other priorities.
The platform would therefore present those concerns to the government, opposition parties, religious leaders, democratic organisations and the international community, he said.