Vox Populi - a Referendum for the Northeast

Eric Solheim knows how to step on a minefield. He does this with almost boring regularity, but yet, has remarkably never been a casualty needing any serious treatment. Most recently, his gaffe earned him a rebuttal from the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat, which opined curtly that the de-merger of the northern and eastern province was strictly a matter of Sri Lankan internal politics. This was after Solheim had suggested that any de-merger of the north and the east would be unacceptable.
Unacceptable to whom?

What more vox populi is necessary in the event that the people of the north and the east vote in a referendum to de-merge the northern and the eastern provinces? Or, is vox populi, the voice of the man who is most popular with Eric Solheim — who is of course Eric Solheim himself?

A merger of the north and east provinces was legally predicated by the annexures to the Indo Sri Lanka accord, which is now for all intents and purposes a defunct document. The people of the northeast were not consulted either in the drafting of this document or its subsequent passage into loose legal edict.

Any de merger of the northeast that is contemplated now is a reversal of that injustice caused to the inhabitants of the two provinces as a result.

These people were dealt a geographical and political fait accompli that has as much relation to their antecedents as inhabitants of the northeast, as a person by the name of Solhiem may have to Jaffna pittu or Batticoloa kotthu rotti.

Take our Feature article today, which is a reproduction of an Evening Observer analysis which appeared in the same newspaper that you are reading in the year 1949.

If the historical record is that the northeast was culturally more variegated than could be imagined by its present day demographics, isn’t it almost axiomatic that the northeast should be considered a cultural and demographic melting pot?
It is a melting pot, which got into a geographical straitjacket - a forced merger — due to a political imperative of the recent past.

The Indo Sri Lanka accord though a defunct document for most practical purposes, envisages a referendum to determine whether the north-east merger stays or not.

No entity can convincingly argue against vox populi coupled with due political process. The political process of merger, envisaged necessarily a course of action that would determine the viability of this same experiment.

If the experiment of the North-east merger morphed into a protracted political fait accompli, that was in part due to sleight of hand of one party to this country’s conflict.

A referendum to de-merge the northeast provinces therefore could contain the seeds for a political project that strikes at the core of all of the issues that undergird this conflict.

If the people of the east want self-determination, and seek to eject from their forced condition of cohabitation with the northerners, then the moral basis for a separate state of Eelam or an autonomous of federated region would have been blasted.

If the forced North-east merger continues, the great danger is that it would become a permanent political feature which would have been imposed on the people of the two provinces. That’s not just undemocratic, it’s draconian. It is, to use the words of Solheim, unacceptable.

If there is a political conjuncture in which the north-east merger may be put to the vote, this is definitely it. The forces of militarism are on the ready on each side — but no party is keen on open hostilities. Maybe it is mutually induced deterrence.
It’s a political atmosphere which is therefore fairly begging for a resolution of the outstanding issues that lie below the surface of this conflict. Of these, the north-east merger is the most important, and the most easily resolvable. It has to be put to the people. There isn’t the need for political coalitions, national governments or complicated mathematics that determines parliamentary majorities.

Let democracy get to work — and that would do the trick.

Defence reporting

Much has been made of a request from the Defense establishment that defence related newspaper copy could be whetted for clarity. This is no censorship for the simple reason that it comes in the form of a request — and it is also a rather misplaced sense of freedom of the press that would abjure journalists organizations from any sense of responsibility, when the imperatives of a military campaign demand somewhat extraordinary measures. All this is nothing compared to Homeland Security, or the Patriot Act a la the United States. But there was hardly a whimper from the US media establishment at the time these acts were passed, for the simple reason that National Security demanded the suspension of certain freedoms. The protests came later, when the laws seemed to outlive the need for them.

In Sri Lanka, the reaction from the outset seems to be ‘touch me not.’’ Bombs and terrorism do not exclude pressmen — or their wives and kids. Perhaps their families could tell them that this is not the time to cavil on the details.