S. Akurugoda

Responding to a question at a breakfast meeting with heads of print and electronic media held on 30^th January at Temple Trees (as reported in The Island), the President Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) has said: ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-the land powers were vested with the Provincial Councils (PCs) and the contentious issue was the police powers.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

According the reporting appeared in Sinhala daily The Divaina, on the same day, the President has said: ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-The land powers are already vested with the PCs. The problem is with the police powers. That too could be given as necessary, without hindering the state security vested with the Constitution.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

The truth is that both land and police powers are vested with the PCs as per the 13^th Amendment forced on us by the Indian government, but fortunately, none of the regimes including those of JR, Premadasa, Chandrika and Ranil didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t take any steps to implement those Clauses, probably, because the PCs were functioning in areas other than the North and East.

While revealing the decision of the government during his press briefing two weeks ago, the government spokesman and media Minister Keheliya Rambukwalla proposed a Chamber (a Senate) representing minorities in addition to 13Amendment.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  While denying that he has not agreed to implement 13A Plus with India, as per the above news reports, the President is apparently hinting what he has agreed with India.

If the above news paper reports are correct, now we have come to a decisive moment. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Soon after the President and the government spokesman revealed their position on demands of TNA, another political party based on communal basis, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) renewed its call for a South-Eastern Provincial Council (PC) comprising Pradeshiya Sabhas controlled by the party in Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Pottuvil, Samanthurai and Kalmunai as well as other predominately Muslim areas in the Eastern Province,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  in the event of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) winning its demand for a PC with additional powers or 13A Plus.

According an another report appeared in The Divaina, Pillayan, the Chief Minister of the Eastern PC was engaged in a secret tour in ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Switzerland recently and campaigned for financial powers too, in addition to land and police powers to PCs. He had changed his political stance and has also agreed to have discussions with TNA, according the report. Recently, the Eastern PC passed a resolution demanding the government to allocate land powers to PCs.

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The sinister motive of these opportunists is to start with 13A for the time being. They know very well that whatever the President proposes as a so-called solution, at this stage, will be blindly accepted by the people. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ TNA and its promoters ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ aware that implementation of 13A is the beginning of implementation of the Thimpu demands (distinct nationality, traditional homelands, self-determination) as claimed in the following statement of Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi to the Indian Parliament on July 31, 1987.
” The Agreement meets the basic aspirations which have animated the TamilsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ struggle, namely, the desire to be recognised as a distinct ethnic entity; political autonomy for managing their political future; and appropriate devolution of governmental power to meet this objective, the recognition of the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka as areas of historical habitation of the Tamils and the acknowledgment and designation of Tamil as an official language of Sri Lanka.

The Agreement constitutes the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka into one administrative unit with an elected Provincial Council; and a Chief Minister. Powers would be devolved… to ensure a full measure of autonomy to the Provinces in Sri Lanka.”

On August 2, 1987, Rajiv Gandhi told a public meeting in Madras that “The Agreement secures everything that the Sri Lankan Tamils had demanded, short of breaking Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s unity. In fact, it goes well beyond the initial demands of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Under the Agreement, approximately one-third of Sri Lankan territory will be made into a single province where the Tamils will have a clear majority. They will have regional autonomy comparable to State governments in India … “ (ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Thirteenth Amendment plus … a look at probabilitiesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ by Foxwatch ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” Sunday Island dated 19/07/09)

The above statements made by Rajiv Gandhi, when forcing us 13^th Amendment on us via his infamous accord with JRJ , are in contrary to the statement made byƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the independence day celebrations in Anuradhapura on last Saturday declaring ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Ethnic communities have no separate regions. The entire country belongs to all ethnic communitiesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. The Presidents above statement is timely and is encouraging.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ However, any statement made in support of the implementation of 13^th Amendment (knowingly or unknowingly) is an acceptance of the concept of traditional homelands or separate regions for specific communities. Formation of regions for specific communities will lead to the gradual disintegration of the country on ethnic basis.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Then, why on earth the political leadership, who defeated the separatist demands of the so-called traditional homeland militarily, are making statements in support of the ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ implementation of the concepts of traditional homeland by implementing the 13^th Amendment ?

It is unfortunate to note that, apart from fighting the terrorist who took up arms openly, the government appear to have no strategy to deal with the political arms of the terrorist (both in and outside the country), up to now.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Instead, the government is taking to TNA indirectly recognising them as the sole representative of the Tamils and is openly promising to meet their demands, little by little, without declaring the reason to do so.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  These disruptive elements must have been arrested soon after the elimination of LTTE militarily, for promoting terror and destruction to life and property. As Dr Gunadasa Amarasekera pointed out recently, if the existing legislature is insufficient, new laws should have been introduced to punish them for their continued assistance to terrorism considering the benefit of the country at large.

Some of the key politicians of the government today were key players and promoters of the disgraced Ranil-Prabha ceasefire. Some were ardent supporters and promoters of the 13^th Amendment since its inception and ChandrikaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s infamous package. They are the same people who believed and preached us that the LTTE is invincible. The worst thing is that some of these die-hard devolutionists have paved the way to notorious NGO activists, who were promoting the disintegration of the nation as a whole for decades by supporting the so-called Tamil cause, to have easy access and to achieve advisory positions in some of the ministries run by them, thereby allowing them to achieve what they could not achieve for decades via supporting terrorism.

It looks like majority of politicians, both in and outside the government, of the day are concerned about their personal wellbeing and not the future of the country and its people.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  As a result we do not see much opposition to the governmentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”DevolutionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ drama (nadagama) playing with the TNA, the parliamentary arm of the LTTE.

If TNA succeeds, in decades to come, it will be the future generation who will have to face the consequences since any attempt to reverse such move would be disastrous. People will realise the consequence soon after the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils are formed with full powers as listed in the 13^th amendment under TNA.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The day the majority community realised that they have lost one third of the country to less than 14% of the population while sharing the remaining with all, due to the short-sighted decisions of their politicians of the day, the country will run into turmoil.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Thus there is a need to mobilise the masses against the 13th amendment before it is too late.

S. Akurugoda