Mr. Anandasangarees
Latest Plea- Is it Reasonable?
C. Wijeyawickrema cwije7@yahoo.com
Mr. A is repeating his plea for a fair and just political
solution within a united Sri Lanka (Island 9/13/2007). Colvin (1972
Constitution), JRJ (1987 agreement with Rajiv G plus his13th Amendment),
RP (secretly arming LTTE), RP and CBK (offer of the Northern Province
to Prabakaran for 10 years), Ranil W (2002 CFA agreement) and CBK (P-Toms)
each perhaps, thought s/he was presenting a fair and just solution.
By using the term conscience, some Tamil writers (example,
The Voice of Conscience, S. Thavarajah, Island, 5/30/2007)
tried to give a moralistic bath to fairness and justness.
I do not wish to take that path or ask whether Mr. As plea is
morally justifiable for the simple reason that what is moral is influenced
by ones religious convictions. For example, the American president
and the ex-prime minister Tony Blair and a large community of Christians,
world-wide, believe that the God is on their side in their invasion
of Iraq. Killing for self-defense is tolerated under the Judeo-Christian
tradition but not according to the Buddhist way of life.
Because of subjective (internal mind) issues inherent in terms such
as fairness, justness, and consciousness,
I wish to ask Mr. A an objective (external to the inner mind) question.
Does his plea pass the reasonableness test?
Mr. As plea for a fair and just political solution is based on
the thesis that the unitary label will not deliver a [much needed]
political defeat for LTTE [Prabakaran] and unitary state will not be
acceptable to Tamil and Muslim people. This thesis does not have
the support of verifiable/verified facts. People in Jaffna, Trincomalee
or Batticaloa did not then, or do not now, oppose the term unitary.
It was the Colombo-living separatist Tamil leaders who propagated anti-unitary
ploy to protect and continue the privileged status they enjoyed under
colonialism. Mr. As alternate thesis that only under a united
label that Tamils-Muslims-Sinhalese could live together in harmony is
also redundant because Tamils and Muslims in the North and East are
moving to South to live in harmony in Sinhalese villages.
Under a vocabulary of fair, just and conscience one could hide the old
F formula which is lurking in the dark. But an application
of the reasonable wo/mans test could throw some light on why sharing
of power with people (instead of creating a new set of Tamil politicians)
has no connection with a constitutional label. I believe in the concept
of empowerment of people at the village level proposed to APRC by the
SLFP in April 2007 which is similar to the Panchayathi Raj Institutes
system implemented by India in 1976 under the Panchayathi Institutes
law, and wish to submit the following set of questions for Mr. As
consideration.
1. Does he accept SJV Chelvanayagams theory that there
is a traditional Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka?
2. Does he reject the Pondicherry sub-model under the Indian F
model? (the late Neelan Thiruchelvam rejected it)
3. How does he propose to handle the demands of Muslims in the East
(Oluvil declaration) and the Indian Tamils in plantation areas?
4. Does he know that the idea of a separate Tamil state in Ceylon first
began in 1919 just one year after Tamil leaders in India demanded a
separate country for them in India?
5. Does he think that the colonial master who said India is a
myth and promoted the idea that there are two Indias,
yet rejected GG Ponnambalams plan or SWRDs federal proposal
for Ceylon because they did not want to apply any more the divide-and
rule policy in Ceylon?
6. Does he not think that the reason for rejecting Ponnambalam-SWRD
plans by the British was realities of geography and history of Ceylon?
7. Does he deny that in 1948 there were two Ceylons? The Colombo-Ceylon
of SJVC-Naganathan-DSS-JRJ-NM-Colvin-Leslie-Sir John-civil servants
and the Village Ceylon of Sinhala-Tamil speaking masses?
8. Does he deny the fact that Nehrus language-based federal set
up installed in 1956 did not help the Indian common man or woman, but
created a second tier of set of corrupt and exploitative politicians
at the regional level?
9. Does he deny that this was exactly what has happened with the white
elephant called the PCs in Sri Lanka?
10. Does he deny that the Indian F system that he marvels at is on logs
(kota uda)? The use of presidential rule power has become a thing in
the past and the Indian PM is depending on Tamil Nadu or other regional
votes to keep his job.
11. Does he deny that no matter what happens in Sri Lanka, the Tamil
Nadu factor is going to be a permanent threat to Sri Lanka
due to the shallow sea separating the two land areas?
12. Does he not know that in Tamil Nad there are demands for two separate
states within itself and Sri Lanka is an easy escape goat for Tamil
politicians to divert such demands with Ravana identified as a just
Tamil king who fought against the evil Rama and Seetha? Karunanidhi
says Rama is a myth.
13. Does he think that Karuna was wrong in giving up claims for a home
land and demanding give us what Colombo gets?
14. Does he deny the fact that the Tamils and Muslims are richer than
the Sinhalese in Colombo or in other towns and cities in Sri Lanka?
15. Does he deny the fact that Tamils and Muslims have other lands as
home lands (or source regions) whereas for the Sinhala Buddhists of
only 15 millions or so Sri Lanka is the only fair and just
source region?
16. Can Mr. A deny that the problem in Sri Lanka is mismanagement by
a group of Colombo people and an Indian F model will not be the solution
to peoples misery?
17. Why does he not think that the solution is eradication of corruption,
crime and the dirty politician after the military solution to the terrorist
acts of a small group of Tamils? Even the Hindu editorial says that
terrorists must be militarily defeated (9/17/2007). This was also the
story that General Petreyas told the American Congress last week.
18. Why does he think that a unitary constitution will give room
for further agitation but an F constitution will not
give room for further agitation? The history of F is exactly
the opposite of this.
19. If Mr. A is right in telling us that a unitary proposal will
kill the hopes Tamils why is it that more and more Tamils want
to come south and live amongst the Sinhalese?
20. Why does Mr. A not see the need to empower people at the village
level? How does a Hindu village or a Muslim village affected injuriously
by a unitary constitution?
21. Why does Mr. A not see the need to arrange administrative units
on the basis of ecology and not on language or religion? What is wrong
with water basin-based village boundaries and district or provincial
boundaries?
22. Would Mr. A please read the following books which document how the
Federal giant USA is failing in serving its people to come out of poverty
and misery? Yes, poverty and misery inside the worlds super power.
(a) The Radical Center by Ted Halstead and Michael Lind (2001)
how the two political parties (Republican and Democratic) ruined USA
(b) Where have all the leaders gone? by Lee Iacocca (2007) how
corrupt the American political leadership has become
(c) Assault on Reason by Albert Gore (2007) how the experiment
called the American Republic is failing so rapidly
(d) The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders Cure for Royalism
by John Nichols (2006) why President Bush should be impeached
for violating the U.S. Constitution
Two non-Hindu politicians (Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi) prepared
a court document denying the Rama-Seetha story. It took NM Perera thirty
years (1935-1964) to visit the Dalada Maligava with a tray of jasmine
flowers. Some terrorist-supporting Tamils sarcastically write that though
a Christian, the late Kadiragamars funeral rights were conducted
by Buddhist monks. Karuna, a one-time ruthless killer is not hated
by the average Sinhala wo/man any more. People used to call C.A.S. Marikkar,
Sinhala Marikkar. Jeyaraj Fernandopulle has a better chance
to be a second Kadiragamar. JHU said it would vote for Bakir Markan
Marker instead of Ranil or Chandrika if the three were in presidential
contest. Mr. A declined an offer by JHU for a seat in the parliament.
It was a Muslim, Abdul Kalam, last Indian President, who said that the
solution to worlds problems lies in Buddhism.
A Buddhist cannot discriminated against another human being (human rights?)
because his/her way of life is based on the concept of impermanence
(anichcha); unlike in the western religions in Buddhism life is cyclical
(birth and death) and not uni-directional. Some politicians with non-Buddhist
birth ware Buddhist masks for political reasons but from the Anagarika
Dharmapala to Gunapala Malalasekera no Buddhist leader preached discrimination.
Is there any lesson that Mr. A could learn from the above facts about
fairness and justness? Mr. A has not shown, at least to this writer,
who had lived with Tamil roommates and a lot of Tamils, that he is still
not taking the Ponnambalam-Chelvanayagam path of betrayal of both the
ordinary Tamil and the Sinhala. The fact that Prabakaran is all out
to kill him may allow some anti-national NGOs and some foreign ambassadors
to project him as a symbol of moderates (moderation) but
he, the million-rupee salaried NGO mudalalis and the so called international
community, cannot use that as an excuse to ignore the need for him to
pass the reasonableness test. I hope Mr. A would prove me wrong.
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