By Ananda Ariyarathne Courtesy Ceylon Today

“A Constitution is expected to consolidate all the imaginable ‘safeguards’ to protect and preserve human rights, incorporating all the practical facilitations to make all those rights achievable.

It has to be the best framework to feel the pulse of the people and capable of guaranteeing aspirations of the people. The moment it is changed to have features copied from other environments it becomes alienated from being based on the realities of a place where it is going to be applied, it ceases to be functional as aspired but instead shall end up purely ornamental.”
All the problems we have are centred on our rate of economic development and the absence of a National Master Plan to develop our resources to be shared by the whole nation. The lapses and inefficiencies in the ‘Economic Development Sector’ have nothing to do with any weaknesses in the ‘Constitution’. The blame should go to all the Governments that ruled this country from the time of our so-called independence. If we were an affluent nation, the picture would have been different.

Absence of uniformity

It was the uneven distribution of benefits that affected the citizens of this country. The Political parties and their leadership should take the blame for the blunders caused with the help of clueless bureaucracy. All those blunders, together, affected the basic needs of the people. Housing, health facilities, education, transport and the general net income of the people complicated by the ever increasing cost of living have made what our country is now. We are in a bottomless pit and still falling. All those deficiencies are not due to a ‘Bad Constitution’ but due to the ‘Bad Management’ by the custodians, who came to power, when those in power were rejected. Fiery and witty speeches in Parliament and in public would not have altered our situation. Our elections had always been not to select right policies and elect capable and efficient political leaders but to reject those who failed. We do not realize that except for some isolated few, it will be the repetition of the same story.

Urgency for a ‘Constitution‘

The main and the most immediate factor is the undue pressure from International Sources, the United Nations and some of the Western Democracies which have been misled by the Global Tamil Extremists who are bent on establishing a nation of their own. There is nothing wrong in their establishing a country of their own in a justifiable manner. It is really funny, when it is not done where the real Tamil Civilisation started and where the largest concentration of Tamil people can be found.

The Tamil community in Sri Lanka is a result of continuous exposure to Tamil forces from South India in early history, resulting in an identifiable community. The specialty in Sri Lanka is the fact that the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamil people have the same origins and remained more as an integrated part of this island nation. The presence of such a large number of archaeological sites, is now considered as predominantly Tamil areas, prove the fact that the Tamil Culture got established in those regions, later. However, it is a fact that there is an easily identifiable Tamil community in those regions now and that they should be citizens of Sri Lanka with equal rights.

Then, where did it go wrong? It was with the rise of the community based nationalism. It is an undeniable fact that the post independence governments were controlled by ‘representatives’ of the Sinhala voters and the wrong kind of ‘nationalism’ gave reasons for Tamil politicians to become openly suspicious about the Sinhalese, resulting in behaviours that prompted Sinhalese to become more communal minded. That started the vicious cycle which caused the ‘gap’ to widen. Such an environment never facilitated ‘conciliation’ but prompted ‘segregation’. Continued absence of corrective measures allowed the gaps to become widened and remain. That resulted in the unavoidable growth of a different kind of ‘nationalism’ which had more ‘communal’ features than a united nation of diverse cultures bonded by mutual respect based harmony. Instead, the political leaders of both communities contributed more towards the segregation than towards unity.

That ended up leaving the ‘Tamil Community Politics’ polarizing more in the lines of some kind of an effective solution. Although, it may sound bad from the Sinhalese point of view, Tamil politicians identifying the political situation described as ‘Sinhalese hegemony’, it became a reasonably valid expression. The best way for a Sinhalese to feel and understand the ‘psychology’ and the temperament, is to forget for a moment, that he is a Tamil and try to look around. In the eyes of Tamil leaders, the system looked like a ‘one horse race’. That was how the separatist sentiments became consolidated. It was due to no fault of the ‘Constitutions’ which were in place.

A careful analysis would show that the gap was created first as only a crack due to adventurous Sinhala leaders of the government. Unimportant changes like making Sinhala the State language made life difficult for an ordinary Tamil citizen in a remote village in Jaffna. A silly change like introducing the Sinhala letter ‘Shri’ for vehicle number plates gave enough reasons for extremists to react. How beautifully logical if the ‘Tri’ lingual education was introduced instead? If such a thing happened, would there be a need for ‘Proficiency Bar Examinations’? It was then, a far thinking socialist politician who said “One language two nations and two Languages one nation”. Now we are looking for solutions through ‘Constitutions’.

A Unitary Nation

In reality, what was left behind was the gap that kept the two politicians drifting apart. That caused the Tamil Community to suffer mainly due to the personal attitudes and visions of some political leaders of both communities. They became instrumental in causing the background for such while the leaders of Tamil people who had wrong visions that aggravated instead of bridging the gaps. How can such a position be rectified by a New Constitution?

We had existed in this land, together for over two thousand years. And now we are in a wide new world where co-existence is the answer. That will be the New World Order. It is a time ‘Independent Nations’ form ‘Unions’ to share resources. Here, we try to see ways to go separately. Why cannot we exist together?It is logically more beneficial for both the ‘communities’ as the resources of the whole land can only be available then. But that is an already existing condition, as a Tamil Citizen does not have any barriers to prevent them from being, employed, doing business, and owning property in any part of the country. The so far unforeseen factors shall be many. The present dependency on the Sinhala dominated economy is a must for the Tamil people.

Rivers and irrigation systems shall become new problems. It is easy to say ‘separation is the best’. It will be a continuous case of frictions and problems, especially after such a decision which can make even the very passive Sinhala people to become very communal minded. Why all such unnecessary problems? If the Global Tamil Extremists want a State of their own, let them do that where Tamil Civilisation started and where the largest concentration of Tamil people can be found. Just leave the helpless innocent Sri Lankan Tamils alone. With sincere thinking, Sri Lankan Tamils can solve their problems.

Whatever that happened in the past were connected to weaknesses or the absence in having meaningfully effective Laws and their sincere enforcement. For example, if there was a ‘Trilingual’ education extended to all parts of the country and the same facility standards were maintained, we would have had a beautifully bonded nation for the future rather than promoting boundaries and fences. At present, it is only a few more adjustments that have to be made. If all the crucial government departments consist of citizens from all the communities, what more should have been needed? All the actions of this country would have become more transparent. It was the extremist feelings propagated among Tamil youth that prevented them from joining the government services to a certain extent.

Encouraging separation

Nationalism in Sinhalese dominated politics led by short-sighted politicians committed blunders that added on to the grievances of the Tamil people. Grievances led to frustrations, loss of trust continuing in a vicious cycle making the gaps wider. In every direction were problems and hardships. The Tamil leaders who had been reduced to a set of ‘Ceremonial Politicians’ who became the only link with the outside world, who did not have any say in matters, but the people kept on sending them to Parliament in Colombo.

The turning point came closer and the Tamil youth who started thinking radically had no reasons to promote ‘conciliation’ with some people who had no care for them. Militancy became the medium that could attract attention. Killing of Alfred Duraiappah became a necessity and that began the era of armed conflicts.

The Tamil youth became ‘criminals’ in the eyes of the government, and they always had the ‘sanctuary’ across the sea where, the Sri Lankan government had no jurisdiction. Tamil extremist organizations and the powerful Tamil Nadu politicians gave their help and we know how the Tamil youth from the North and East got trained there.

Main aspects that make the ‘New Constitution’ suspicious and ‘dishonest’
Arbitrary demarcation of Northern and Eastern Provinces as ‘Traditional Homelands of Tamil people in Sri Lanka’ does not hold for two reasons. One is that Sinhalese people were there and got pushed away from time to time by invading Tamil armies shall not qualify such a demarcation. Moreover, it was a demarcation done by the British for administrative conveniences. The archaeological findings prove that Sinhalese people were present in all those areas and they became actually the ancestors of the present Tamil community. Therefore such a demand clearly indicates the motive behind. That is what the Global Tamil Extremists want. Not because they care for the Tamil Community in those regions. The Sri Lankan Tamils in those areas are just an expendable convenience. Like they used Prabhakaran, they are using the people now.
Considering an eventuality like a Federal Arrangement, why is it necessary to have Police Powers reporting to the Chief Minister ? That is to ensure Police Protection that can quietly move in later.

The Central Government cannot touch any violators. All the activities can recommence in a larger scale.The declarations by the present politicians prove their intentions. If they sincerely wish an Independent Police Force to be there, what is stopping them even now? It is a matter of adjusting reporting system and ensuring transparency. Here it is a ‘cloak and dagger’ drama.