July 5, 2013, 8:56 pm
A reader has sent us this article which was published in The Island of 19.01.2009, because the issues on devolution today are very similar to what was relevant at the time the article was written
By Atticus
John Maynard Keynes, the economist, is widely quoted as saying "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?" The quote comes to mind when reflecting on the current attitudes to devolution. The facts relevant to devolution have changed fundamentally in the last few decades. Views, however, are stuck in a time warp. We hear the same arguments repeated vociferously, and ceaselessly, that a political solution (a euphemism for devolution) is the sine qua non for peace in the country. It is implied that devolution well beyond the 13th Amendment of the Constitution (apparently the views of the APRC) is the only way to accommodate the "historical" grievances of the Tamils, to address the aspirations of the Tamil people to reconcile the Tamils to the Sri Lankan state, to achieve a real and sustainable peace in the country, to permit the Tamils to live in dignity and to share power in equal partnership. Quite a tall order for devolution to fulfil!
It is quite understandable that articulate Tamils living here, and those who have moved to greener pastures, feel, in reality or perception, that Tamils are being treated as second class citizens. The state security measures combating the LTTE insurrection has weighed heavily on them individually, to a greater or lesser extent, or in respect of someone they know. Likewise the foreign cash flushed NGOs, for reasons best known to themselves, have been prominent advocates of widespread devolution.
Then there are the hordes of peripatetic diplomats from Western countries arriving in Colombo who look at the embassy files stretching back decades, fraternize with foreign funded NGO types and anti-government politicians. Many of them are then loud-mouthed saying there is no military solution against the LTTE and call for a cease fire. They demand a political solution (aka extensive devolution) before the LTTE has been defeated militarily. Some of these diplomats are beyond the pale of civilized diplomatic practice. What sort of diplomat gives an oration at a funeral turned into an Opposition political event? Others are well liked and well intentioned towards the country ("Call me Bob"). The well regarded and respected Indian diplomats are in a category of their own because of constraints stemming from political pressures in Tamilnadu.
It is among the politicians that "argumentative dialogue" is sorely lacking. The UNP has sat out the APRC process with a total lack of logic and sagacity. Perhaps it hopes by this gross dereliction of responsibility to blame the Government for the proposals emerging from the APRC process. For some, too little power is devolved. For others, too much. It is the JVP alone since 2004, if not before, that dimly recognized there was a case to answer relating to Tamil grievances but that devolution was not the answer. Unfortunately it never fleshed out its Tamil policy. After taking positive initiatives regarding the estate Tamils, the JVP leadership pressed the self-destruct button and sailed in a self-satisfied manner towards oblivion.
The Government has blown hot and cold with devolution. The majority of Government parliamentarians are probably resigned to accepting some form of wider devolution than currently prevailing. It seems a necessity if only to satisfy Big Brother India in the aftermath of ousting the LTTE from all territory.
In what ways have the plates shifted, and the facts changed fundamentally, that makes the case for any devolution, let alone more devolution than prevailing, much weaker as a political solution than it was in the past?
First over half a million (probably many more) "Ceylon" Tamils have left the country primarily to Europe, North America and Australia. They have left for good. More leave every year (25,000 a year?) for a variety of reasons such as joining families, marriage, and employment or as asylum seekers. The Tamil Diaspora is doing well in the countries that they have settled in.
The Tamil exodus includes much of the crème de la crème of the Tamil elite (professionals). It was that elite who were in the forefront of fighting for Tamil "nation" rights. The number of "Ceylon Tamils" in Sri Lanka is now thought to be about 2 million people or less, or 10% or less of the total population. The Tamils remaining are overwhelmingly workers, farmers and traders with needs very different from the Tamil elites. Is it really warranted to frame a constitutional system to satisfy the demands of a historical Tamil elite who have left the country for good? Or to satisfy a minute Tamil elite living in the country that makes demands that have little resonance to the Tamil workers and farmers?
Second, a large majority of Tamils live outside the Northern Province---the province where 99% of the settled people are Tamils. With devolution it may be considered a "homeland". But in what way can devolution of power to the Northern Province be judged a political solution for the legitimate grievances of the Tamil population or Tamil "nation" as a whole? The vast majority of the Tamil population would have to learn to share power in other provinces with the Sinhala people as well as other minority groups, in order to find solutions to their grievances.
Third, in the aftermath of the War where much blood has been shed, and much hardship endured by the Tamils in the Northern Province, the circumstances are not conducive to hold free and fair elections. Those who feel humiliated by the defeat of the LTTE, especially many in the Diaspora, may well spend billions of rupees to elect separatists and front men (TNA?) to the Northern Province Council so that they would clamour for more power, and the withdrawal of the armed forces from the North. The provincial system may be made unworkable by acts of terrorism. The Government would then have to spend billions of rupees to preserve law and order, and to safeguard the North against terrorist infiltrators and the flow of terrorist weaponry. Back to square one in dealing with terrorists unless Western nations stop the Tamil Diaspora funding of separatism and terrorism and India prevents any arms smuggling to Sri Lanka. .
Even if there is no turning back, and some form of truncated devolution as a political settlement "flies", there is scope for other measures that could be adopted to transform the relationship between the Tamil community and the majority in the country. These could be implemented not as a means of massaging the ego of the Tamil elite both here and abroad, of caving into western countries for thirty pieces of silver, of indulging the caterwauling foreign funded NGOs, or as a response to the whining and whinging of the Opposition and its allies. They should be implemented solely because the President and the Government believe that they are the right things to do.
* a commitment to compulsory bilingualism in Sri Lankan over a 15 year period. With the primary classes in 2009 (and progressively raising the bar year by year) every Sinhala child would be taught Tamil as a second language, and every Tamil child taught Sinhala as a second language.
* a commitment to compulsory bilingualism in the public service. All salary increments and promotions in government service after 2015 would depend on basic knowledge of both languages.
* a commitment to positive discrimination of Tamil language job seekers in public service recruitment until the proportion of public servants from the minorities at various levels are equal to their proportion of the population (20-25%). The target must be reached before the end of next Parliament.
* a commitment for a three year period of a guaranteed purchase scheme (and subsidy) for the agricultural commodities produced in the Northern Province at a price 25% above prevailing market prices.
* a commitment to establish 100 high quality technical colleges to teach literacy, numeration and technical skills (possibly also basic English) in areas heavily populated by Tamils in different provinces, notably the Northern Province and the Central Province. That task should be assigned to someone such as Anandasagiri, possibly assisted by Wigneswaran, to beg and borrow money from the Government, foreign donors, the Tamil Diaspora and the corporate sector to implement the scheme.
* a commitment to promote the preaching of Buddhism to the Tamil population, especially in the plantation sector, and Hinduism to the Sinhala population.
The President has the opportunity to be a great President in the mould of Abraham Lincoln to bind and bond the Nation as a whole including erstwhile separatists and their sympathizers. In order to do so, he needs to take a lone, heroic stand by refusing to join the Gadarene rush over the devolution cliff to a free fall nobody knows where. Would he opt out? It is a tantalizing question. One can only hold one`s breath.
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