Opinion:

Devolution should not destroy hard-earned peace

by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

There was a time when Sri Lanka was at the receiving end of violence due to the LTTE's barbaric terrorism and the lives of thousands of innocent civilians were lost as a result. The Tigers had been massacring countless number of hapless civilians who had rejected terrorism.

The LTTE made sure that they eliminated moderate Tamil leaders and those who reposed faith in democracy in a desperate attempt to prove their claim as the sole representatives of the Tamils.

Eminent Tamil political leaders such as A. Amirthalingam were assassinated in broad daylight, ignoring all accepted norms and values as LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran did not care about democracy and belied in the power of the bullet.

It was an era of uncertainty and terror as the country's economy was in a near collapse. Place in Sri Lanka was safe, not knowing when the LTTE would explode their next bomb targeting civilians.

But those who now shed crocodile tears on the plight of Tamils and advocate to us on devolution of power did not utter a word against the merciless attacks of the LTTE. Instead, they preached to us about a peace at any cost.

Honourable peace

President Mahinda Rajapaksa too believed in peace but he was not prepared to achieve that peace at the expense of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. He is a leader for all communities living in Sri Lanka and strongly believed in an honourable peace that would be acceptable to all, irrespective of their ethnicity.

But most of the countries which pontificated on peace and devolution of power were fast asleep when innocent civilians were killed due to LTTE terror. None of the so-called godfathers of human rights never uttered a word when over half a million people were forcibly held by the LTTE as a human shield. Yet, they now exert undue pressure on Sri Lanka and make a big hue and cry over human rights of terrorists killed in action.

No international force or country has a right meddle in Sri Lanka's internal matters as we are a sovereign state. Those who pontificate to us on extensive devolution of power do not practice it in their countries or have had bitter experiences after extensive devolution of power.

Foreigners could not have a greater pain about Tamils or for Sri Lankans, than the democratically elected leaders of our country.

The Government is going ahead with elections to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) in September as promised. Immediately after the country was liberated from the clutches of the LTTE terror, those self-appointed foreign advisors of Sri Lanka demanded that we should conduct the NPC elections.

Rebuilding process

But the Government was not ready to dance to their tune as several other factors such as restoration of normalcy, demining, resettlement, infrastructure development and livelihood projects had to be implemented.

At the time the Security Forces defeated terrorism four years ago, the situation in the North was a complete mess. The recovery and rebuilding process was no easy task, but, hard work has helped realise goals.

Today, life has returned to normal where devastation and hopelessness were the order of the day at one time. Not only have we brought peace, we have given the province a new lease of life with the necessary infrastructure development. Roads, lakes, ports, airports, houses, schools, farms, health facilities have been built and reconstructed.

Advanced technology has been introduced to a province which had been bruised, battered and bloodied by three decades of terrorist conflict.

No other country in the world could match the feat we have achieved in the North in such a short time by rebuilding, resettling, reconstructing, rehabilitating and working towards reconciliation.

President Rajapaksa had given clear instructions to the Northern Governor and senior politicians in the area, identifying four main areas which had to be given priority - de-mining, resettlement, developing infrastructure facilities and the provision of basic needs for rural development.

These orders have been carried out to perfection and only a few more objectives need to be achieved for us to accomplish our mission.

De-mining

There had been hundreds of thousands of mines buried by the LTTE. There were pressure mines, claymore and many other explosive devices.

De-mining was of paramount important as it was the only thing between resettling the people displaced by terrorism. Normally, it takes at least 10 years for a country that had engaged in a war on terrorism for nearly 35 years to accomplish what we have done. Those are accepted figures in the de-mining discipline. We have not invented them. We have de-mined about 95 per cent of the entire area within four years. There are only two areas still to be de-mined and cleared, including Muhamalai and some pockets in Pudumathalan.

Now that we have achieved all this and the people in the North have got a new lease of life, the Government has quite rightly though that it is time to restore their democratic rights, robbed by the Tigers through the bullet. The LTTE bullet will now be replaced by the ballot as the Northerners will go back to polling centres in September to elect leaders of their choice for the provincial administration.

However, the powers enjoyed by the Provincial Councils should be determined by the Supreme Court in keeping with the country's Constitution.

13th Amendment

We cannot let anyone rob the hard-earned peace in the guise of devolution. While accepting the fact that devolution of power is necessary, it should be done on the size of the land and population and not just because some country is forcing that on us.

Be it the 13th Amendment or another amendment or new Constitution, it is entirely a matter for Sri Lanka.

Any such action would only be taken on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) after obtaining the clearance from the Supreme Court.

Hence, no other country should tell us whether we should retain the 13th Amendment or not or whether we should bring a fresh amendment.

It is a public secret how the 13th Amendment was forced on the then Government led by the late President J.R. Jayewardene by the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Cabinet approval was not obtained properly as President Jayewardene was under tremendous pressure to put his signature on the controversial Indo-Lanka Agreement in 1987. It was something which was forcibly enforced on us by Gandhi, against Sri Lanka's constitution.

Devolution of power is an accepted principle worldwide. But to which extent power should be devolved is a matter that should be determined by the size of a country and population.

The extent of India is almost 60 times more than that of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's population is just over 21 million people, compared to India's 1.27 billion. Some Indian states are much larger than Sri Lanka.

Hence, the devolution system that is being experienced in India is not the ideal one for Sri Lanka.

Hence, Sri Lanka needs a home grown solution for devolution of power. That should be decided by political parties in Sri Lanka at the PSC, subject to the clearance of the Supreme Court. No outside force should exert pressure on us to retain or introduce something that is against the Constitution of our country.

Youth brainwashed

People in the North, especially the youth who had born after 1983, have seen nothing but terror. The LTTE, while preventing moderate Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala political leaders from indulging in politics in those areas, brainwashed the Northerners and projected the people in the South as their enemies.

But only the older people in the North are aware how peacefully the Tamils had lived with the Sinhalese and Muslims in the past. All what the LTTE wanted was to wipe out all those lovely memories of peaceful coexistence in the past from the minds of the Tamils in the North. The LTTE had succeeded this to a great extent, especially among the youth.

This happened because the LTTE prevented any other community from entering the North and the East. The Tigers ethnically cleansed the North. There was no growth of Sinhalese or Muslims in that area for over two decades.

However, the reverse never happened in any other area of the country. Tamils were allowed to come to any other provinces and settle down at any time as they wished, during this period.

But the Sinhalese and Muslims weren't even permitted to enter the Northern Province. Even the few families that had been living there were indiscriminately killed or chased away by Prabhakaran's goons.

If the situation was normal there would have been more and more Sinhalese in the Northern Province. There had been Sinhalese in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullathivu, Vavuniya, Mannar and other areas. All of them were forced to come to the South. Not only were the Sinhalese chased out, but the Tigers didn't even permit Muslims to enter the areas they controlled. That paved way for a North with only a Tamil population.

True picture

This is not mere argument but stark fact. If we take Trincomalee as an example, the Sinhala community was the majority in the district prior to 1980. However, the Sinhalese have now become a minority in Trincomalee as most families were chased out by the LTTE.

Not only did the numbers decrease, there was also no growth of the Sinhalese.

If normalcy had prevailed in the North and the East without any LTTE intimidation, the entire situation would have been different. It is nothing but true and correct that in the North and East there must be the same percentage of the majority community.

It is time that the brainwashed Tamil youth in the North be given a true picture about the peaceful coexistence that prevailed among all communities in the past. Perhaps, they wouldn't have ever heard that the Sinhalese and Tamil families had lived in the North in such a peaceful atmosphere, helping one another. They should be taught about that great history of that peaceful era before Prabhakaran ruined that culture.

It is not just a matter of devolution of power and confining Tamils to one province.

That would create further divisions among communities. More than half of the country's Tamil population live outside the Northern Province, mostly in the Western Province among the Sinhalese.

The country's majority - the Sinhalese, are a minority in the capital Colombo, perhaps the only such instance in the world. That alone is an ample testimony on Tamils' peaceful coexistence with the Sinhalese and Muslims outside the Northern Province. All what we need at this juncture is to strengthen communal harmony and steps to reintroduce the good old culture of peaceful coexistence among different ethnic groups.

The majority of the people in the North and the East don't care about the 13th Amendment, land or police powers.

Those are the ideas mooted by interested outside elements and a section of the international community.

Moderate right-thinking Tamils in the North only want to live in peace with improved living conditions.

Hence, political parties represented in Parliament should discuss these matters at the PSC and find out what is most suitable for the country, irrespective of their petty political goals.