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Bravo JVP, the court decision to de-merge
North East is a victory you won for all of us.
By Charles Perera
Counsel H. L. de Silva
PC (left) S. L. Gunasekara and Gomin Dayasiri, who appeared for the
JVP, in the case before Supreme Court challenging the merger of the
Northern Province with the Eastern Province, after the Court held that
the merger, made by a Gazette Notification in 1987, was invalid in law.
Pic by Nihal Chandrakumara
Well done JVP ! the court decision to de-merge North East, is a great
victory you have achieved and the people of Sri Lanka will be ever grateful
to you for the initiative you had taken to correct a perpetuating anomaly.
The several governments after JRJ s, had not given serious consideration
to this illegal merger which was undoubtedly for military convenience
of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. It would have been easy for the Indian
Peace Keeping Force to move conveniently from North to East to control
terrorist movement. However, this merger gave the idea to Prabhakaran
to have a larger slice of Sri Lanka for his Eelam.
The de-merger decision may make it easier for the All Party Conference
for devolution of power as well, to take an effective decision with
regard to an appropriate constitution for equal distribution of power
to all provinces. Even without the court decision it was evident that
an illegal situation was existing. The Government s failure to recognise
this fact had done considerable damage to the country as interested
parties( specially the
terrorists) had misappropriated this error for their benefit.
Mr. Anandsagaree of TULF, had stood for Federalism, and he had latterly
said that he was opposed to the de-merger. And he insisted that the
Tamil people want nothing less than Federalism, and that was not a correct
statement, as with his prestigious position in Sri Lanka such a statement
may have a prejudicial influence on the participants of the APC, and
some sectors of the population. That criticism against him is not made
because Mr.Anandasagaree is a Tamil, but because the statement appears
incorrect as there may be Tamils who are opposed to federalism.
No politicians are sacrosanct and they belong (within inverted commas)
to the public and being critical of them is not spewing venom. Being
critical using any strong words, of the decisions taken by the President
of Sri Lanka, would not be taken as a personal insult to him. It is
strange that the moment a Sinhala member of the public makes a statement
against a
Tamil Political Party, a Tamil politician , a journalist or an academician.,
he is called by all kinds of names a racist, a chauvinist, a Sinhala
supremacist or even a narrow minded devil dancer. The only crime he
seems to have committed is being born into that Sinhala majority.
Any one else , a Tamil, a Muslim, or a Malay may make any malicious
remark against a Sinhala Political Party, a politician, a journalist,
or an academician, and one will not be called a racist, chauvinist,
or supremacist. They are just normal citizens, who can, not only spew
venom, but also live fire if they feel like.
If some one were to make derogatory remarks, say about Mr.SWRD Bandaranayake,
will any one from among the Tamil public take offence and write against
such an individual, making scathing remarks about him and his supposed
character ? Certainly not they will on the other hand pay him glowing
tributes, as a fearless independent writer, a true son of the land.
As much as getting rid of terrorism we should also get rid of our inborn
attitudes, and the communities should get together joining hands as
equals burying all our differences ethnic, religious and cultural, to
usher in a united nation of communities bound by the fraternity of being
born in the womb of the mother Sri Lanka.
JVP instigated court decision to de-merge North East, is another blow
to Prabhakarans dream of Eelam, the next blow that would shatter the
whole of his dream will come with the military victory over the terrorists.
Here again it was the short sighted attempt of the President to call
for immediate peace talks with the LTTE terrorists, that resulted in
the recent Military debacle loosing the lives of 133 soldiers, and valuable
material.
The LTTE wanted to mark a victory at any cost before the D-Day for talks,
and commenced attacking the army. The army retaliated without having
the time to evaluate the situation, not to allow terrorist victory before
the dates announced for peace talks. Therefore, if not for the dates
fixed for talks, the army would not have precipitated into action without
a prior plan. This much we should say in defence of our valiant army.
May all be well for the army in the future, and our sympathies go to
the families that lost their loved ones.
Our dead heroes, were fighting to keep this land free from terrorists,
and for all of us Sinhala, Tamil, Muslims and Malays to live happily
together.
They were not killing Tamils but terrorists. Our sympathies go to the
dead
misguided terrorist cadres and their families too, as they were perhaps
being forced to fight by a ruthless group of terrorists to keep themselves
alive.
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