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Eminent citizens of this country, such as, Messrs S. L. Gunasekera, Gomin Dayasiri, Neville Laduwahetty, K. Godage, Durand Appuhamy, Gunadasa Amerasekera and many others have all in one voice pointed out the dangers of implementing the 13th Amendment after elections in the Northern Province. The man who was most responsible for defeating the brutal LTTE and restoring peace in this country after nearly 30 years, the Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in a statement to The Island of March 29, as quoted by Dr Gunadasa Amerasekera, says - " The ongoing crisis in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over accountability issues here should discourage those pushing for devolution of power under the 13th Amendment to the constitution. A hostile Provincial Council administration in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in Sri Lanka could be inimical to post -war national reconciliation."
There is very little doubt that the TNA will sweep the polls at any election to be held now. Can we trust the TNA who went to the extent of canvassing support at the UN for the resolution against Sri Lanka, that they will not join hands with the Tamil Nadu politicians, including Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi Vaiko etc. and the Tamil Diaspora, in their effort to form Eelam. What will happen next is echoed by Durand Appuhamy in his letter to The Island of April 24, most appropriately titled, "Do I want to break up my country? Hell no!"
The President has been giving mixed messages. At one time he says that the solution will be based on 13 A plus. Next moment he says the solution will be a home grown one. In my opinion the government should stand firm and say without any fear of India, that the 13th Amendment was forced on us by India, as that is the undeniable truth. With the threat after the "parippu" drop and after the rescue of Prabhakaran from imminent defeat at Vadamaarachchi by India, the then government meekly accepted the terms of 13 A which no sovereign government would have done. The present government must tell the world the truth as to how the 13th Amendment was forced on us and propose a home grown solution.
The proposal to scrap the 13th Amendment and establish District Councils instead, as repeatedly proposed by Neville Laduwahetty, will be the ideal solution in my opinion. The Tamils who are peacefully living in Colombo (nearly one third the population of Colombo) should wake up and support the formation of District Councils, for, if there is turmoil in the North after 13 A is implemented, following elections to the Provincial Council, the camaraderie that exists between the various communities in the South may gradually decline, with Tamils being affected the most.
The Tamils in Colombo must not try to have the best of both worlds and act now. In conclusion, I wish to quote Sebastian Rasalingam, a person who has been consistently promoting reconciliation between the communities, writing from far away Canada, in an article that appeared in The Island of January 24. Referring to Member of Parliament Sumanthiran, he says, inter alia, "He can abandon Tamil tribal politics based on land owning caste discrimination. He should make himself the leader of a future programme which shuns parochial ethnocentrism. The future of the Tamils of Sri Lanka does not lie in segregationist devolution, where they end up falling into the hands of some odious Mervyn-Chelvam type Chief Minister from Manipay or Mavatti puram." Well said, Mr. Sebastian Rasalingam.
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