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melange
by Prof. C. Suriyakumaran
A -- Our Prospects:
Everything is now part of one large happy -- or unhappy -- prospect. Almost
every other Public person who matters is running around, and in the news, with
his or her pet solutions to the country's never changing problems. The range
would be fascinating -- but for the implications that each of these concerns
holds the key to happiness and good fortune, or misery and disaster, for the
country and its peoples.
These concerns have been running across the columns from time to time of
late -- and here is our concern -- in increasing tempo, and even acrimony. We
list them below:
"Joint Mechanism"
(i) While the ISGA held the fort after the Tokyo Donor Conference -- when
billions were offered and nothing was done by us -- now it is the Second Donor
Conference, with the ISGA the background and a brand new ball game called
the 'Joint Mechanism' to the fore!
A brand new name indeed! -- which people seem to understand, or do not
understand, simply according to whether they stand for, or against a wanted
'political agreement' -- in the words of Tom Paine on the French Revolution,
"pitying the plumage, but forgetting the dying bird" - for the poor bereft victims
of the tsunami disaster, made pawns in a drawing room politics, luxuriously with
endless sophistication!
"Tamils"
(ii) Meanwhile, both before this event and after, we have had various alarms
raised which would have been of comedy, but for our own tragic prospects.
Sometime ago, certain writers to the Public Columns blandly went on to assert
that there were no Tamils in Lanka! -- if so indeed making it easy for all of us.
We shall not waste space on that except to recall Prof. Kingsley de Silva's
noted words at a TV Panel involving him, Regi Siriwardena, me and others
immediately after the '83 riots, "Who speaks Sinhalese is a Sinhalese; and who
speaks Tamil is a Tamil!".
"Federalism"
(iii) Then there is the current President of the 'Federal Party-alone, with himself
and the Party nowhere in sight of each other, and now affectionately
addressed as "Sangaree" by a new found Sinhala, kin ! -- on Federalism.
"JVP"
(iv) Most of all -- for sometime now -- is the JVP airing all its 'non-solutions',
without really visualizing a solution!
"Foreign Security" - Our Neighbour's
(v) Not to be out of sight, in a short Shakespearean style cameo, has been the
Foreign Secretary of India bringing himself to deliver a strange statement such
as of special concern by him for the Eastern Province, with us not knowing
whether he had or had not other concerns for other parts of Sri Lanka, (He of
course expressed a known, but since historically superfluous, concern for the
now well organized and well led Upcountry Tamil Community). Going on history,
these could after all shift from a Naval Rating's missed Rifle Butt in Colombo to
a female suicide bomber from LTTE Country.
"Conversions"'
(vi) Not to be outdone, the vexed religious conversions on the one hand, and
the draconian Draft Bill on it, stand -- on the one side, hiding the real goings
on; and on the other, blurring the distinctions between free speech and level
playing field -- the writer did spell his meaning in a recent article titled "Defusing
a Potential Powder Keg".
"The Buddha"
(vii) And in the latest, the Tamils to whom the Buddha was their Teacher in
India long before any Sinhala identity emerged 'in Lanka, are pitted by short
sighted Sinhala activism 'in Trincomalee in a Sinhalese -- Tamil feud that they
never sought. (The Sinhala Population 'in Trincomalee did grow from at 4.5 %
in 1921 -- to 3 3.6% in 1981, a process which this writer too had opportunity to
witness during the early 50's. There was no reason on that account that the
Buddha should ever have been brought in now, in over stressed version of
Sinhala patriotism!)
On all these concerns, in a phrase which came to mind, when India's respected
Foreign Secretary was here, our meanings, seem simply like Alice's 'in
'Wonderland' -- 'just exactly what we want it to mean'!
For purpose of brevity, as well as highlighting the first four of the foregoing
seven concerns, we shall not touch on the last three of them listed above
beyond the observations made above on them.
B -- Their Treatments
In treating the foregoing together here as one, we ask pardon and give
apologies. In a sense, indeed, they all are simply a malaise, to escape our own
enclosed thinking on each of them, and reluctance to look forward in a reality
that is there to seek. A prospect. very simple indeed, but perhaps one of the
most difficult, -- as events in any case have proven over the last Fifty Years
they threaten to do so over the next, unless we can do better!
All of the foregoing, indeed, each part of the other, seem a 'National Malaise'
that we have, of not wanting to go forward, where the foregoing problems will,
severally find their places. Not doing so, has obviously been our Past Undoing;
our Present Stagnation; and our Future Foreboding -- 'in which even our New
Opportunities would also pass by.
OPERATIONAL ARRANGEMENT
(i) On the 'Joint Mechanism' -- in which we try to remember the bereft Tsunami
refugees the dying birds'), it was not long ago that an excellent 'Hindustan
Times' report came out in the local Columns as follows:
The North -- South divide in Sri Lanka has had many dimensions. The latest
difference between the two is in the way post-tsunami rehabilitation work is
being done in the two areas. In contrast to the confusion and inertia manifest in
the Government -- controlled areas of the East and the South, there is
direction, coordination, and purposeful action in areas controlled by the rebel
LTTE in the North
Visits to the tsunami -- hit areas in the North, East and South by this
correspondent and interviews with International NGOs (INGOS) working in
those areas, show that while in the South and East, there is little coordination
between the various groups and agencies, in Mullaitivu district, which is under
the de facto control of the LTTE, there is a high degree of coordination, a high
sense of direction, better supervision and an effective system of reward and
punishment.
The difference shows in the work on the ground in terms of relief delivery,
social services at the relief camps, the construction of temporary housing, and
the quality of the housing.
"There are areas and areas in tsunami-hit South and East Sri Lanka, where the
government is simply not in evidence stated a foreign aid worker.
The 'Joint Mechanism' must be seen as an 'operational arrangement' and not
as a political framework, which clearly it is not. Looked at accordingly, it can
have quite simple arrangements, its top-most character being efficiency, and
not political 'balancing'. While therefore, one way could be (a) 'a joint
representative body' of Government and LTTE on the ground, another,
perhaps operationally superior, mechanism would be for, (b) a special, World
Bank. "Operational Window on the Spot" (including UNDP, ADB, ICRC
representation -- with representation of Government and LTTE) that will then
receive the Tsunami Fundings for the Area from Government and others,
under simple clear procedures, for disbursements to the LTTE Areas Tsunami
Programmes. Indeed, similarly, all other Areas, in the Country too, often
'centre-staged' by politicians presently, could well use this machinery!
NO TAMILS HERE
(ii) Then we have that happy melange if we want to call it happy, that we had no
Tamils here! Sankili confronted the Portuguese long before the Dutch saw the
Kerala Tamils in Jaffna, quite before, Pararajasekeram was impressing Ibn
Batuta with his ships! There were also Sinhalese in Jaffna, who are now Tamils.
Place names ending with -'vil' are entirely Sinhala in origin! By the same token,
when the Dutch brought Tamils to populate our South Western Coasts for
Cinnamon Plantations; they led unwittingly also to the millions who now go as
Sinhalese! And almost all place names ending with-ara-or-ura- are Tamil!
On an individual note, Bulankulame is pure Tamil - and Suriyakumara - the
Sinhala being Diulveva. Profuse Tamil / Sinhala interelations down the
centuries in fact, from the time of Kuveni -- clothed in cotton and serving
rice-and the Tamil Bhikkus who came from South India, are all part of this
wonderful facade. It is even mooted that 'Sri Hela' is a descendent of "Eela
Nadu" - in South India and now ' Eelam'.
But one must not take space, and, personally would only refer to an address by
me entitled "Historical Survey of Pluralism and Governance in Sri Lanka", at the
University of Peradeniya in Feb. 1998.
FEDERA:LThe 'Joint Mechanism' must be seen as an 'operational
arrangement' and not as a political framework, which clearly it is not. Looked at
accordingly, it can have quite simple arrangements, its top-most character
being efficiency, and not political 'balancing'. While therefore, one way could be
(a) 'a joint representative body' of Government and LTTE on the ground,
another, perhaps operationally superior, mechanism would be for, (b) a
special, World Bank. "Operational Window on the Spot" (including UNDP, ADB,
ICRC representation -- with representation of Government and LTTE) that will
then receive the Tsunami Fundings for the Area from Government and others,
under simple clear procedures, for disbursements to the LTTE Areas Tsunami
Programmes. Indeed, similarly, all other Areas, in the Country too, often
'centre-staged' by politicians presently, could well use this machinery!
(ii) Then we have that happy melange if we want to call it happy, that we had no
Tamils here! Sankili confronted the Portuguese long before the Dutch saw the
Kerala Tamils in Jaffna, quite before, Pararajasekeram was impressing Ibn
Batuta with his ships! There were also Sinhalese in Jaffna, who are now Tamils.
Place names ending with -'vil' are entirely Sinhala in origin! By the same token,
when the Dutch brought Tamils to populate our South Western Coasts for
Cinnamon Plantations; they led unwittingly also to the millions who now go as
Sinhalese! And almost all place names ending with-ara-or-ura- are Tamil!
On an individual note, Bulankulame is pure Tamil - and Suriyakumara - the
Sinhala being Diulveva. Profuse Tamil / Sinhala interelations down the
centuries in fact, from the time of Kuveni -- clothed in cotton and serving
rice-and the Tamil Bhikkus who came from South India, are all part of this
wonderful facade. It is even mooted that 'Sri Hela' is a descendent of "Eela
Nadu" - in South India and now ' Eelam'.
But one must not take space, and, personally would only refer to an address by
me entitled "Historical Survey of Pluralism and Governance in Sri Lanka", at the
University of Peradeniya in Feb. 1998.
(iii) As for Political Solution and the search for it through a Federal System,
again there are bound to be pitfalls unless there is a true perception of the
concept of this solution. These consist to be brief 'in a true rapport between the
Center and the Periphery. It was not long ago that this was deeply lamented
even in India 'in a noted Resolution called the Sri Nagar Declaration by the
Opposition Parties of India in October 1983.
It was also brought out in the famous S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike speech in State
Council in support of the Executive Committee System, in opposition to a
Resolution introduced by E. W. Perera in 1931 commending the British
Parliamentary system. That continued to dog us these 50 years or more in
which, to quote from a writing by me; "we had 'The 50-Year Democratic folly
which we have confused a 'permanent Parliamentary Majority based on
ethnicity with a majority based on issues. "The diminution of the Nation State
began to be created, not by Nationality but by the State not fulfilling the needs
of Nationality". (Suriyakumaran, the 1987 BMICH Lectures).
In the meanwhile, concurrently, true devolution was not an ogre, but a pillar of
national unity amidst Diversity.
The solutions were simple:
(a) Eschew totally counter productive provocative, enforcement of 'unity' and
'nationality';
(b) Install a truly "Participatory System of Government at the Centre" as the
only means of ever ensuring Unity;
(There are various modes -- The Executive Committee; Statutory Provision of
Select Cabinet Portfolios, and Presidential/Prime Ministerial Deputies);
(c) Install a truly Devolutionary system of Government in which fullest freedom
for Development is Statutory available -- (echoing S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's
summing up of Devolution as consisting in "the three decentralizations, of
Democracy, of Administration and of Development" in which, according to him,
Devolution was further from Separation and strengthened Union by maximum
self-__expression.
"Development without Devolution is as blind, as Devolution without
Development is empty" (1987 BMICH Lectures).
"At any time in history, the extent of National Unity in any country has been an
inverse coefficient of the extent of true participation by the Minorities in Central
Government" (The 1987 BMICH Lectures).
And then, Sangaree and Anandasangaree shall cease to be desperate and the
twain shall cease to desperate, and the twain shall meet!
(IV) The JVP stands, on the first and third of these issues, have been
sufficiently aired in public (if we shall leave out their thinking, not known in any
case, on the Sinhala Tamil mix in Sri Lanka). Only in order be brief, let me
recall a direct visit years ago in September 1990, as a member of Presidential
Independent Surrender Committee that had been set up by President
Premadasa after the collapse of the JVP," with a mandate to take all such
measures as necessary to create a climate of confidence in which those who
participated in the youth unrest, and were still at large would feel encouraged
to surrender and join the main stream of national life of our country"
At the visit to the Hambantota Police Station, which accompanying security
personnel had assured us had some of the most dangerous people, a group of
us which 'included Asitha Perera and retired Justice Pathirana nonetheless
took the step of approaching their leading inmate, described as having been
also a most dangerous person having killed 70 policemen!
With some time, but with slow exchange of confidence, the picture that
transpired from the young man who spoke to us was of oft mouthed
formulations of remote, callous, tragedy laden government, with people left 'in
misery and to their means. The person who spoke was himself not an
unemployed person, but had at his level a very respectable vocation.
One could not be too wrong - with variations of course, and with mass emotions
whipped up at other ranks - 'in surmising the reasons in those years for the
JVP's rebelling against authority and call for a completely new order -- sadly
involving some of the worst atrocities along the road to this goal. With
variations -- shades of LTTE?!
The present JVP has, within its inherent intelligence, past experiences and
capacity for aspiration on behalf of the people therefore, to move from
non-solutions to solutions in all areas, not only joint mechanism, or federalism
or religion, or other!
Let us, therefore, allow these to rest at that and hope for the National Solutions
that we must have -- from Development to Political Organisation with All as
Partners!
TRUE DEVOLUTION
(iii) As for Political Solution and the search for it through a Federal System,
again there are bound to be pitfalls unless there is a true perception of the
concept of this solution. These consist to be brief 'in a true rapport between the
Center and the Periphery. It was not long ago that this was deeply lamented
even in India 'in a noted Resolution called the Sri Nagar Declaration by the
Opposition Parties of India in October 1983.
It was also brought out in the famous S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike speech in State
Council in support of the Executive Committee System, in opposition to a
Resolution introduced by E. W. Perera in 1931 commending the British
Parliamentary system. That continued to dog us these 50 years or more in
which, to quote from a writing by me; "we had 'The 50-Year Democratic folly
which we have confused a 'permanent Parliamentary Majority based on
ethnicity with a majority based on issues. "The diminution of the Nation State
began to be created, not by Nationality but by the State not fulfilling the needs
of Nationality". (Suriyakumaran, the 1987 BMICH Lectures).
In the meanwhile, concurrently, true devolution was not an ogre, but a pillar of
national unity amidst Diversity.
The solutions were simple:
(a) Eschew totally counter productive provocative, enforcement of 'unity' and
'nationality';
(b) Install a truly "Participatory System of Government at the Centre" as the
only means of ever ensuring Unity;
(There are various modes -- The Executive Committee; Statutory Provision of
Select Cabinet Portfolios, and Presidential/Prime Ministerial Deputies);
(c) Install a truly Devolutionary system of Government in which fullest freedom
for Development is Statutory available -- (echoing S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's
summing up of Devolution as consisting in "the three decentralizations, of
Democracy, of Administration and of Development" in which, according to him,
Devolution was further from Separation and strengthened Union by maximum
self-__expression.
"Development without Devolution is as blind, as Devolution without
Development is empty" (1987 BMICH Lectures).
"At any time in history, the extent of National Unity in any country has been an
inverse coefficient of the extent of true participation by the Minorities in Central
Government" (The 1987 BMICH Lectures).
And then, Sangaree and Anandasangaree shall cease to be desperate and the
twain shall cease to desperate, and the twain shall meet!
NATIONAL SOLUTIONS
(IV) The JVP stands, on the first and third of these issues, have been
sufficiently aired in public (if we shall leave out their thinking, not known in any
case, on the Sinhala Tamil mix in Sri Lanka). Only in order be brief, let me
recall a direct visit years ago in September 1990, as a member of Presidential
Independent Surrender Committee that had been set up by President
Premadasa after the collapse of the JVP," with a mandate to take all such
measures as necessary to create a climate of confidence in which those who
participated in the youth unrest, and were still at large would feel encouraged
to surrender and join the main stream of national life of our country"
At the visit to the Hambantota Police Station, which accompanying security
personnel had assured us had some of the most dangerous people, a group of
us which 'included Asitha Perera and retired Justice Pathirana nonetheless
took the step of approaching their leading inmate, described as having been
also a most dangerous person having killed 70 policemen!
With some time, but with slow exchange of confidence, the picture that
transpired from the young man who spoke to us was of oft mouthed
formulations of remote, callous, tragedy laden government, with people left 'in
misery and to their means. The person who spoke was himself not an
unemployed person, but had at his level a very respectable vocation.
One could not be too wrong - with variations of course, and with mass emotions
whipped up at other ranks - 'in surmising the reasons in those years for the
JVP's rebelling against authority and call for a completely new order -- sadly
involving some of the worst atrocities along the road to this goal. With
variations -- shades of LTTE?!
The present JVP has, within its inherent intelligence, past experiences and
capacity for aspiration on behalf of the people therefore, to move from
non-solutions to solutions in all areas, not only joint mechanism, or federalism
or religion, or other!
Let us, therefore, allow these to rest at that and hope for the National Solutions
that we must have -- from Development to Political Organisation with All as
Partners.
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