Federalism – Why?
Posted on November 5th, 2017
Laksiri Warnakula
‘Making a mountain out of a mole is a lot easier than bringing a mountain that has grown high, far and wide down to the size of a mole’
Our politicians have never understood this, either because of their stupidity or their greed for power and personal gains. I for one, would put my money on the later.
The emergence of LTTE followed by its growth to a point, where they could or were confident enough to take on the whole defence force of the country, is a classic case in point.
Politicians, who keep clamouring about making our country a federal state must not compare it to other countries that have such governments, which are supposedly doing fine there. And they should not be audacious enough to assume that such a model would work in Sri Lanka too.
And even though times have changed and progress can only be made by keeping up with the times wisely, it doesn’t mean that we should do it as if trying to keep up with the Joneses! and go along with the wishful thinking that it would work.
We think differently, have our own values, histories, customs and many more that have existed for many centuries. What needs to be done is to promote understanding of these values and the rest amongst all communities as best as it is humanely possible. We can throw the outdated away, educate the people where necessary and promote only what is best for the people of the country.
By the way, what exactly are the problems that the Tamils of Sri Lanka have today that can only be sorted out by making it a federal state? Can someone please enlighten me? However, the Tamil leaders do have a problem. They may still carry pamphlets and leaflets in their pockets with the LTTE emblem on the front covers and some are even bold enough to let them be seen in public and even photographed. They probably even dream in their sleep of an Eelam too. They seemed to have placed themselves at the beck and call of the Tamil diaspora, who fuel the drive, to say both literally and metaphorically, for a federal status.
Hacking and removing all that is rotten on the bark is one thing. Yet cutting up the core is another. It will kill the tree in the end.
Copying a ready-made template from somewhere else and pasting it on our own land could end up in disaster or even disintegration of Lanka, in the end!
November 4th, 2017 at 4:58 pm
Sri Lanka is a federal country since 1987. The unitary label is only to keep Sinhalese fooled. Provincial councils have federal powers (powers that cannot be taken over by the parliament easily). Even 2/3 of parliament cannot take back provincial powers as we saw in Divi Neguma, Super Ministry and 20A bills! Sri Lanka is federal.
What USA, India and Tamils want is a confederated country which is worse than federal.
November 5th, 2017 at 4:07 pm
The golden question that goes a begging for an answer from the Federalists is how their demands if given going benefit those Tamils who are outside of the North n East. This question has been asked many times but the Southern polity has never insisted for an answer. All that has been happening is Federalists / Eelamists keep on asking and improving on their demands and our idiotic politicians burning the midnight oil to find solutions to appease. This one-way conversation should stop!
Since Independence, the Racist Tamils have been successful in driving away the Sinhalese from the North, while they themselves have no qualms about settling down in the most lucrative and developed lands in the South including Colombo and other big cities.
How many years did it take for the July ’83 Tamils to return to Colombo and other cities and settle down as if nothing happened? The clear reason for this is that it is not the Sinhalese that drove them away, but the UNP politicians and their thug armies. On the other hand, all Sinhalese who were displaced due to ethnic strife were never allowed to return to the North nor have the Southern politicians made any positive effort to do so. Even after the successful completion of the Eelamist War it did not happen.
THERE CAN BE NO SOLUTION TO MINORITIES IF THEY DON’T HAVE LONG RANGING PLANS TO LIVE WITH THE MAJORITY OF THIS COUNTRY – THE SINHALESE. ONLY OTHER SOLUTION IS MORE WARS AND NOTHING ELSE. CURRENTLY, THE EELAMIST PLAN IS TO HAVE EELAM AND KEEP THE SOUTH AS THEIR FEEDING GROUND.