Vitharana and his efforts to undermine Mahinda Chintanaya should be defeated

S Akurugoda

There appears to be a tremendous pressure from donor countries, particularly the Co-Chairs, and India to place a political solution to the so-called ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. This is evident from the appointment of various committees to prepare 'devolution package', cry for 'maximum possible devolution as a basis for negotiation with the LTTE' etc.

Prof. Vitharana, Chairman of the APRC, has told the Chief Incumbent of the Malwathu Vihara that the APRC is studying Indian devolution models. He believes that the Indian model is the best suited for Sri Lanka and whatever the committee proposed, it should be acceptable to the LTTE. As the prelate of the Malwathu Vihara quite correctly pointed out to him, solutions should not be offered to the LTTE but to the people of Sri Lanka for ratifications. Prof Vitharana also believes that the country is already divided.

Many who wanted to devolve power as per the Indian models have forgotten the fact that India has had already forced Sri Lanka to implement its constitutional solution in 1987 but the North-East Provincial Council did not last long due to LTTE resistance.

Knowing very well that Tigers want nothing less than a separate state of Eelam, some politicians who have not have not even been elected by the people, working hard to satisfy foreign funded peace nicks, the so-called international community and Co-Chairs and go on mumbling the usual 'mantra' of 'place devolution proposals and start negotiations with LTTE.

These groups either no nothing about the history of the Tamil Tiger Terrorism or willfully exploiting the situation for their benefits. If the so-called problems of the people of the North and the East could be solved by negotiating with the Tamil Tiger terrorist, as imagined and pressurized by the foreign powers, then by the same token the problems said to be facing those foreign powers due to terrorism of Al-Qaeda and Taliban could also be solved by 'Solution Packages and Negotiations'. Thus negotiating with LTTE is only a myth.

According to the latest reports as hinted in some of the newspaper, SLFP is said to be for a unitary solution but also for the Indian Model! India has a Federal Constitution and we do not know the logic behind this unitary solution under a Federal Model! The mere appointment of Tissa Vitharana as the head of APRC, release of so-called 'majority report of the experts' followed by Prof. Vithrana's own proposals and the latest proposals of SLFP are some indications of what the government is planning to do.

It appears that Mahinda Chinthanaya has been taken for a ride by a handful of federalist within the government rank led by Tissa Vitharana and the government has now fallen into the hands of the pressure groups to devolve power as per another Indian solution.

At the last presidential elections, the overwhelming majority of the Sinhala people voted for Mahinda Chinthana, mainly because of its commitment to a unitary state. The verdict of the overwhelming majority of the Sinhala people cannot be changed by a gang of federalists by playing around with words. These federalists and vested interest parties, the NGO dollar 'kakkas' and others appear to think that they could undermine the mandate given by the people by producing some sort of an agreement between two main parties, the SLFP and the UNP, and publish same as the 'solution' to strengthen their own hands.

Former Minister Mangala Samaraweera was said to be sacked due to his failure to follow the policies of the governing party when the Palestinian issue came up at the United Nation. If a Minister or a MP is going against the policies of a party or the government there is no question as to what should be done either to correct him or to punish him. If the government is genuinely serious about the unitary state as promised under the Mahinda Chinthanaya, Tissa Vitharana (being a minister of the same government) should have been sacked by now for campaign vigorously to implement something different to the polices of the government.