POLITICAL SOLUTION THAT WE NEED
Posted on May 1st, 2012
Mahinda Monnankulame
We talk much about the political solution these days to restore the peace in the country after the war. We had number of unfruitful rounds of talks in the past and will talk once again at the coming Parliament Select Committee too. This also can be a another futile attempt if the government sticks to the myth that the 13th amendment as the only solution and the solution has to be 13th +/- . It is clear when the power is given, people tends to colonize based on their own identity and builds up the ideas of separatism to move away from the center. The political instability today in India is the clear example for this. So, it is useless thinking of an Indian way of power devolution in our country. Instead of that, the low and order has to be restored and implemented much more effectively.
Government was successful against LTTE since they managed to work out a more practical way to fight against LTTE regardless the myth then established that fighting against LTTE was an impossible task. Thus, the government should think of a more practical option away from13th amendment in order to build up a viable political solution.
The Solution : We can demarcate the provinces again to balance the population distribution of the communities within the province, and cut down the number of provinces from 9 to 4 as follows.
Province 1 ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Anuradhapura, Puttalum, Kurunegala districts
Province 2 – Mulative, Trincomalee, Vauniya, Polonnaruwa, Batticalo, Matale, Kandy districts
Province 3 ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” Gampaha, Colombo, Kegalle. Kalutara, Galle, Rathnapura, Matara districts
Proivince 4 ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” Ampara, Monaragal, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Hambanthota districts
Bring about the needing amendments to strengthen the low and order to ensure the rights of all of the communities equally, within the province. The province can have the local administrative powers. All of the administrative bodies should employ the servants in proportion to the population distribution of the communities . And this must not be applied when electing provincial councilors as they are democratically
elected from any part of the province. Priority should be given to teach English in schools over other languages and religion / mother language should be removed as a subject but can be taught only at primary level. May be the primary schools (up to yr 6) will have the communal differences where as all of the other schools are common for everybody. Teaching of religion will be confined to the temples. Government servants in the local bodies must be trained gradually to use English as the first language at their working places. Government should organize common events other than religious functions to
facilitate the people to gather together.
This is the last opportunity we have to work out the best solution as the government has the majority to pass a suitable constitutional amendment.
May 1st, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Mahinda Monnankulame, Do you know what THUN RATA KARMAYA IS? Go raed about it. If Sinhala does not implement this process, then there is no Sinhala, but a TAMIL NADU implenented separatelism. It has to be done in small stages, so the US state department cannot obstruct it. Mahinda please reply to my comments.
May 1st, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Permit me to copy from Heal Lanka:
Brigadier (Retd) LC Perera, a former Army officer now dedicated to reconciliation work through his Heal Lanka foundation.
Pressed by the international community for speedy, effective steps at reconciliation, the government stands at cross roads today. The clock is ticking. If this country is to move forward effectively, we desperately need to rise above the pattern of thinking we had got used to for the past few decades. As Einstein pointed out, the same level of thinking that gets you into a problem cannot get you out of it. It might be more profitable for the country to stop castigating the external ‘bogyman’ and to take a hard look inwards. Are we doing what we really should be doing? For our own sake, to ourselves, we need to be true.
Three years after the end of the war, the conflict still rages and we need to acknowledge that the conflict will cease only when the need for an extremist group like the LTTE is removed from the minds of Sri Lankan Tamil community at large.
Reconciliation is possible only where bruises of conflict are healing and for healing, there needs to be above all, trust and a sense of security with consistency. This is required in the North as well as in the South. There is of course much to be seen in infrastructure development, resettlement and rehabilitation of ex-combatants etc. But the core issues, the sense of truly belonging and acceptance, equal opportunity and inclusiveness in decision making, the sense of dignity and security, these among others, need to be addressed and strengthened. Means of dialogue must be in place that enables parties to even disagree at times but yet retain the trust and rapport. In interaction, guarding the status quo or the ‘majority complex’ is not an inclusive approach nor is it conducive in building an identity of ‘one nation’. Similarly, the Sri Lankan Tamil community need to rid of their ‘minority complex’. However, the redeeming factor is that in each community there is a considerable segment that is not plagued by these complexes and blend well. There is hope.
As we approach another anniversary of the end of armed hostilities on 19th May, we see a window of opportunity for healing and reconciliation. It would be well to remember that there were a considerable number of Sri Lankans who, willingly or unwillingly, lost their lives on the ‘other side’ of the divide and their loved ones are also sensitive to the significance of that day. If we are sincere about the idea of ‘one nation’, a genuine way forward would be to acknowledge that in every upheaval since independence (since we were responsible for ourselves), irrespective of the divide, it was Sri Lankans that died in violence seeking a place in the land of their birth.
An effective step to commence the national healing process would be for leaders of all communities to come together and collectively acknowledge the loss of our people (all Sri Lankans), collectively acknowledge responsibility for failure by omission or by commission to build an environment to prevent such loss and irrespective of their political or ethnic divide, to mourn for the dead, prior to any further celebration of victory. Although mourning is considered a personal matter, such a collective gesture would be the beginning of a journey from a divided past to a united secure future.
This gesture of course requires statesmanship all-round.
May 1st, 2012 at 5:39 pm
Tell ACTC, ITAK, TULF, TNA, LTTE to accept their faults first.
Sri Lanka army, navy, air force, LLRP, etc. have NOTHING to apologise.
May 1st, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Rights for any community is at the expence of the other. As much as the tamils and muslims, the sinhalese also have complaints about their rights. A sinhalese for instance cannot get fair justice from the public services. The humiliation they have to suffer by the public servents is no different from a tamil or a muslim. Sri lanka is a prulalistic society and unless communal politics is abandoned there wont be any fair play,. Rights issues will continue to dominate the development and wellfare of all sri lankans. It will be used by foregn governments to whip SL.
May 1st, 2012 at 8:03 pm
And also month long victory commemorations to further exploit departed war heroes’ memory for political gains and in the process alienating section of the population should also be stopped. Diversification of the population every where to reflect the multicultural nature of the population is also a priority. The privileged power centers in Colombo should be watched. They would do any betrayal to safeguard their privileges. It seems reduction of western aid is a blessing. As Imran Khan says most of such aid goes to those in power and the privileged and they would do anything the masters ask to keep the aid coming.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15055738
May 1st, 2012 at 8:22 pm
I disagree with the 4 divisions.
A proper demarcation as suggested by many commentators is to create the Thun Rata.
1 – Northern, North Central and North Western (all northern provinces anyway) to become one large province.
2 – Eastern, Uva and Southern provinces to become another province.
3 – Central, Western and Sabaragamuwa to become the third province.
This ensures Sinhalese are the dominant majority in all these provinces and others are also equitably distributed as the national percentage. We have to be concious of political realities. When the majority vote is divided between UNP and SLFP (not in equal percentages), their poltiical power is affected to a worse level than the current national level. It must be retained. Only the Thun Rata mechanism ensures that.
Having said that the best solution is not to have any devolution units but to have smaller decentralised units.
Completely agree with teaching English instead of Tamil to students. Other world languages should also be taught including Arabic, French, German, Korean, Chinese, etc. instead of Tamil. Otherwise the nation will not become a business hub.
May 2nd, 2012 at 4:12 am
Whatever method is used to demarcate zones in the country, we ought to continue to guard our coastlines forever against Illegal Migrants. Also have a follow up system (computerized) to ensure that all tourists return to their homelands outside. Illegal migration via fishermen, NGOs, religious bodies too ought to be detected and acted on. Ordinary citizens should report suspicious strangers to their respective police stations.
Let us not forget how the so called ‘Tamil Problem’ started in the first place. The ltte was initially formed to fight Tamil caste wars of the North. That Tamil Nadu is close may encourage Tamils of Lanka to link up with TN and attempts will be made to separate/absorb Lanka, from time to time. Sri Lanka is multi-cultural, multi-religious country, and various groups tend to bring their private sectional fights into Lanka. When the GoSL goes into settle these fights via the armed forces, there is a hue and cry about ‘human rights’ and compensation demanded in the form of special areas designated only for that warring group. Sri Lankans ought to be very aware of these ploys by minority ethnic and religious groups.
Whatever way is used to demarcate zones, the actual unit of governance ought to be the district, as stated by Dilrook.
An Oath of Allegiance to Lanka a must, at schools, work places, the armed forces, etc. We have already delayed too long.
May 2nd, 2012 at 5:46 am
I should say that : the actual unit FOR governance should be the District.
May 2nd, 2012 at 6:33 am
Lorenzo You mean to say ….
Sri Lanka army, navy, air force, LLRP, etc. to accept their faults first ! failed to stop 1956 to 1983 ethenic rioats!!
Tell ACTC, ITAK, TULF, TNA, LTTE etc. have NOTHING to apologise.
May 2nd, 2012 at 6:57 am
Mahinda Monnankulame
Ref: 13th amendment as the only solution and the solution has to be 13th +/- – Agrred !
an Indian way of power devolution in our country is the best solution for ever no point in inavating new solution as We already have workable solution our hand !
teach English in schools over other languages and religion / mother language should be removed – not practical in our motherland (eg as We do not have engough resource to educate all people up to 16 year in our mother language than how We can manage in English ) !
Also We are patriodic peoples not easy to give up Language & religion !
Unit in diversity is practical solution so sooner We fully implement 13A better for all of us !