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| Sunday, 7 September 2003 |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 De-merger For someone who has long supported the struggle of the Tamil people for equality and recognition as a constituent community of the Republic, the recent posture of the President seemingly against the continued merger of the predominantly Tamil-populated Northern and Eastern Provinces is inexplicable, to say the least. President Chandrika Kumaratunga has made history as being the first major Sinhala politician to go to meet the Tamil militant leaderships in their main stronghold in Jaffna and even in their centre of exile in Chennai. When all other major politicians and mainstream political leadership were shying away from any dealings with the militant groups, Ms. Kumaratunga had the courage to take such a farsighted position in support of the Tamil people's struggle for justice even in the face of negative Sinhala public opinion. One of the biggest, ground-breaking initiatives of Ms. Kumaratunga was when, in 1987, she broke ranks with much of the rest of the Opposition and gave her, and her party's unstinted support for the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord and the subsequent 13th Amendment to the Constitution. These initiatives were a limited beginning to the Tamil search for equality and dignity and she supported them. The subsequent legislative and administrative measures to stabilise the post-Accord situation saw the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. In supporting these moves the President had, at that time, demonstrated a profound insight into the possibilities in the Sri Lanka crisis and taken vital steps for the overall betterment of the country even at political risk to herself. The logic of the President's 'de-merger' posture today is tenuous. If the physical security of each and every ethnic community is to be ensured by demarcating ethnically populated territory for each group, then Sri Lanka faces the prospect of balkanisation. Unlike the Muslims or the Burghers or other ethnic groups, it has been the Tamil community that, along with the Sinhala community, has sought solutions to burning nationality problems by proposing its own self-governing entity. While all other ethnic groups may feel that the way the Sinhala community has dominated post-Independence politics and post-colonial recovery is iniquitous, it is the Tamil community that has sought a radical alternative to the existing state structure. Successive recent governments, with clear popular mandates that include the bulk of the Sinhala electorate, have responded positively to the Tamil grievances by initiating reforms to the Sri Lankan polity. The demarcating of a suitable region that would enable adequate autonomy for the Tamil people has been an important first initiative by the national leadership. It is an initiative that must now be built on rather than rolled back. The President is well known to have actively backed this process. Indeed, if not for the valuable support of the President and the People's Alliance for this process of devolution and, also, the further proposals in similar vein formulated by PA governments, the entire peace process would never have come this far. The questions that are being raised by the President concerning the security and wellbeing of the non-Tamil ethnic communities living in the North-East are of vital import for the stability of the peace process. The devolution of power to the regions to a substantive degree cannot proceed if the newly autonomous entities cannot guarantee the safety and wellbeing of all communities in their regions nor ensure communal harmony. These columns have constantly posed the challenge to the Tamil leadership to vigorously and rigorously ensure that certain minimum standards of government are reached in the North-East region. If such minimum standards cannot be attained it will be very difficult for the Tamil leadership to stake a claim to take over the governance of a region. Thus, while the President legitimately raises these concerns must beware of falling back on old structures that she herself has previously rejected, so the Tamil leadership, especially the LTTE, is under pressure to meet its own responsibilities and back its claims to power by demonstrating its real capacities for political management. |
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