C.Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.

Talking once with a miner I asked him when the housing shortage first became acute in his district; he answered, when we were told about it,” meaning that till recently people’s standards were so low that they took almost any degree of overcrowding for granted.

George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), 64

Give us what Colombo gets [Col. Karuna paradigm]

Jaffna man asks for water, schools and hospitals, not an Eelam [Raajitha Senaratna]

Missed the first bus

In 1987, who supported the 13-A?  JVP sacrificed 60,000 heads fighting against it. Mrs. B and the SLFP did not think it was a solution to Tamil separatism. Apart from the Vartharaja fiasco, the other southern provincial councils proved that they were a sin and a crime perpetrated against people. Therefore, it was a reasonable expectation of people and the mother of the Hasalaka hero, that the end of Prabakaran’s war on May 19, 2009 would also be an end of 13-A death trap. You Tube video clips showed how rescued Tamils in refugee camps addressed MahindaR as Maharajano in desperation. A presidential proclamation should have declared a second Civil War against the 13-A. But the destiny of the island was not to be that; Ban Ki Moon landed with a Trojan Horse!

Give war a chance

It took decades of concerted effort to sanitize the Nazi minds in Germany after Hitler’s suicide. Instead of deploying a welfare program to heal the hearts and minds of the wounded Tamils with houses, schools, hospitals, water and jobs, and simultaneously engaging the army to rehabilitate irrigation tanks and canals in the Rajarata, MahindaR succumbed to the infamous Vessantara-Siri Sangabo syndrome of Rpremadas and Mrs. Chandrika. Thus, in 2013, the northern province was handed over to the moderate Colombo Tamil Wigneswaran (so certified by Vasudeva N and Dayan Jayatilaka) on a platter. The trojan horse became a proverbial tiger’s tail!  So, W, with an all-expense paid legal platform goes badmouthing that Tamils have faced genocide since 1948; teaching Sumanthiran and Sampanthan, what Ponnambalam Arunachalam did not know in 1921, that the king Devanampiya Tissa in the Mahavamsa was not a Sinhala king but a Tamil (Buddhist) king named Theesan.  Apparently, Sinhala migrants invaded Lanka and converted Hindu Tamils to Buddhism, temporarily, hence, the Theesan story.  He does not want Tamils to marry Sinhala men or women, but his two sons are married to Colombo’s Sinhala girls, perhaps to escape from the Colombo genocide. Between 10-15 percent of the sacred space in a typical Buddhist temple in the South is devoted to Hindu gods and goddesses. But Wigneswaran opposes Buddha statutes in the North, thus poisoning the innocent Tamil mind. This was what caste-based feudal lunatics in the past such as QCs GG Ponnambalam, SJV Chelvanayagam, and the math professor Sundaralingam did, the Orwellian trap of Sinhalization of the Jaffna Tamil.

The second chance

The life and death issue in Sri Lanka today is, how to kill, not stop, the dishonestly run secret scheme by the trio -Ranil-Chandrika-hardcore Marxist Jayampathi- to balkanize the island. Other talks and gossips such as Central Bank robbery, selling the country or the price of a coconut etc., hides the gravity of this issue. MahindaR avoids it, and the educated and professional supporters behind him, the Viyath Maga and Eliya, follow a policy of walking on eggshells on this 13-A dilemma. No wonder among the prospective 2020 presidential candidates, Nagananda Kodituwakku is the only person who openly declared that he will remove the 13-A, the other two, Maalinda Seneviratne and Rohan Pallewaththa are silent. A much-rehabilitated, yet still a big 13-A fan, Dayan Jayatilaka, writes strongly in support of SLPP.

It is in this uncertain climate, that the maroon color Sri Lanka map of SLPP’s election victory presents a second chance to save the island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_local_elections,_2018). Who cares if Ranil is replaced by an old wine bottle of SLFP or Mrs. Chandrika sells her property to move to London. One may never know true intentions of the SLPP leadership, but the people’s train is on the track, down the hill, reminding 1956 or the spirit of the Great Panadura Waadaya in 1873. Justice to Tamils, if anything further is needed to be done administratively in this regard, cannot come from the accelerated 13-A path of Ranil-Jayampathy-Lal Wijenayaka or Viyangoda-Shiral Laktilaka-monk Dambara Amila NGO dollars. SLPP map is a people’s resurrection of ideas of the late Ven. Gangodawila Soma and the movement commenced recently by the Asgiriya Sanga Karaka Sabha. It was people’s acceptance of a militant (disciplined) Buddhist approach, the kind of the monk Ashin Wirathu’s in Myanmar, and our own Bodu Bala Sena. Gandhi and MLK in USA were militants who broke unjust laws by peaceful means. Sinhala Buddhists gave the benefit of the doubt to SLPP, without a clear course correction demonstrated by MR on 13-A, because of the anti-Buddhist and anti-army work led by Ranil and Mrs. Chandrika.

If properly understood, SLPP map throws light on many political hot potatoes. Bodu Bala Sena leader Ven. Galabodaatte Gnanasara’s crime was not his copying the Anagarika Dharmapala method of verbal assault, but his calling a spade a spade. His sin was that he opened the eyes and ears of the Sinhala Buddhist masses to the fact that they have no proper or even an improper Sinhala Buddhist leader, and that politicians treat them like the way how some men treat the proverbial kind-hearted women. In Ven. Elle Gunawansa’s words Buddhists who carried Buddhist flags for these politicians ended up owing the flag pole! Fake Buddhist politicians are scared even to listen to Buddhist grievances because they do not want to appear as pro-Buddhist in the eyes of marginal Muslim and Tamil votes.  SLPP maroon map demonstrates if people are given back the right to elect their representative under the pre-1978 method Sinhala votes can still, before Muslim population multiply as part of world-wide Islam strategy, nullify this vote edge. Despite serious defects in the new law, the ward-based local government elections freed people from the democracy prison built by JRJ and Rpremadas.

Make majority, minority

White man after capturing Sinhale in 1815, followed a policy of favoring Tamils. In 1832 he made Sinhalese and Tamils equal in the Legislative Council. By 1921, when increasing voting rights made it unnatural to follow this undemocratic policy, Governor Manning in 1924 introduced a plan to balance the Sinhala majority with a combined minority, stating that no one community should be allowed to impose its will on the other communities. More electorates, multi-member seats, the Senate, appointed members etc., were examples of abandoning the Manning concept in favor of a more reasonable approach to minority fear. However, Section 29 (2) of the 1947 constitution was an unreasonable attempt to bury the discrimination perpetrated on the Sinhala people of Sinhale.  Christian-related Sinhala Buddhist” politicians mishandled Sinhala-Tamil conflict justice going against principles of Buddhist politics. After 1978 with new election laws JRJ and Rpremadas, knowingly or unintentionally, reintroduced the Manning method of 1924. Sinhala politicians became prisoners to Muslim and Tamil vote blocks. Minority began to control majority. Sinhala politicians were not willing to talk on behalf of Sinhala Buddhists for fear of antagonizing minority votes.  Ven. Soma or Ven. Gnanasara had to step into play this role. Finally, in 1987, 13-A, made Sri Lanka a federal state. Because of this Sinhala Buddhist lost Sinhala masses wanted to this situation changed, and it appeared as a demand for having an electorate to elect a local representative. The ward election, no matter how sick the law effected it, gave Sinhala Buddhist people an opportunity to reject this politician games operating since 1978. Majority must be majority, and minority must be protected. Sinhala Buddhist professionals who oppose this game and politicians like Wimal W and UdayaG, can now openly demand the abrogation of 13-A. This is what Sinhala Buddhists expect of them, sharpen and clarify the mission.

Rwandan genocide-1994

The history of Hutu majority and Tutsi minority in Rwanda is comparable to the situation of Sinhalese and Tamils in the colonial Ceylon. Ponnambalam Arunachalam in 1921 was a symbol of how the colonial master nursed the minority against majority of Christian Sinhalese. Thus, two Christians, James Peiris and E. J. Samarawickrema, made a deal with Arunachalam offering him a Tamil communal seat in the western province, which had to be abandoned due to protest led by F. R. Senanayaka inside the Ceylon National Congress. Tamil separatism in Ceylon began with this incident because it shattered any hope Arunachalam & co had of becoming controllers of Ceylon politics. It was unrealistic, but that was how Tutsi minority ran Rwanda under the Belgian sponsorship. The difference, however was that Buddhist way of life prevented a Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka during a thirty-year war. That was until Wigneswarn uncovered it suddenly after 2013!

From 1923, when Arunachalam openly embraced Tamilakam political doctrine to JRJ helplessly accepting a federal setup in 1987 under 13-A through the Wigneswaran episode in 2013, black-white, Christian-influenced Sri Lankan politicians mismanaged and mishandled Tamil politicians and Tamil separatism, for their personal gain, violating Buddhist principles of governing. From 1935 Marxists added their Bangawewa fuel to this mess, and different versions of JVP behave like headless chickens sunk in the western myths of multi-cultural and interfaith voter-directed frauds. So many in the world say that solutions to world problems could be found from Buddhism, and president Sirisena, who began his public life as a Marxist at the age of 17, said this so many times from political platforms. He even sponsored a book on how to practice Buddhist politics in the world’s state craft. Rpremadas, who erected more stupas in the island than any other king in the history, was suspected of delusional in dealing with Prabakaran. Mrs. Chandrika and Ranil knew nothing about Buddhist precepts or politics. They are full-Christians ended up as half-Christian political Buddhists.

Buddhists have no DNA traits of discriminating other human beings or unnecessary harming animals or even a tree. But for over 500 years they were the victims of aggression and cruelty by non-Buddhist humans, which became a new reality during the yahapalana interlude. Greedy politicians with vote-catching formulas cannot fathom the Buddhist ethos of villagers. Homo sexuality or women drinking toddy are private matters in a Buddhist jurisprudence. Sinhala Buddhist masses gave the country a new map of Sri Lanka covered with SLPP’s maroon color, at the first opportunity they got after 1977, under a half-baked yet ward-based direct electoral method. The message is for all though, including the SLPP leadership. It is no surprise, that this message hidden in the voting pattern map is yet to receive the attention of both 13-A plus crowd as well as the anti-13-A professionals. The new map cries out with an answer to the internationally raised question of how to make meaningful devolution empowering Tamil people (not separatist politicians) with adequate space for promoting Tamil identity (aspirations).

Other domestic questions are, how to get rid of Tamil separatism, removal of the white elephant provincial councils, reduction of corruption and promoting sustainable development. Global Tamil Eelam project now operating with dollar dowry of Prabakaran will face a natural death with the demise of its key managers, as the second generation of these Eelam fathers, most of them married to white men and women, have other material attractions in the western world. For example, even domestically, I doubt Wigenswaran’s sons or grandchildren will talk about Tamil genocide after W’s death. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the real (true) Sinhala Buddhist politicians to do justice to other minority ethnic groups without harming the majority Sinhalese.

Analysis-Synthesis

• 13-A, an unwanted burden placed on people, is not a geographic solution fulfilling Tamil wants and needs. Sri Lanka’s ethnic distribution map is like a scrambled egg, not possible to unscramble as separate homelands. Ward-based map of local government units is a map of a mixture of Tamil, Muslim, Sinhala, Christian, Islam and Buddhist voters. Within a ward method each individual and each family has room for its wants and needs, and political space for achieving reasonable levels of public aspirations known as ethnic identity, via agglomeration of local government units in appropriate geographic locations in the island, north, east, west or central regions. At local government level a Wigneswaran or Gajakumar Ponnambalam becomes a mere paper tiger.
• Ward-based map of SLPP demonstrates that for Tamils, Muslims and Christians reasonable geographic space (i.e. lots of local government units) could be identified for aspirational purposes going beyond basic human wants and needs, desired by Arunachalam as far back as in 1923.
• Ward-based local government units could be empowered with more responsibilities mentioned in the three lists of the 13-A. For example, giving local police functions to a local government unit is not like giving police power to chief minister crooks or to Wigneswaran under the 13-A.
• The boundary of wards should not be an arbitrary combination of several GSN division, which in turn are demarcated arbitrarily in the first place. Wards must be identified with natural boundaries, i.e. small river basins. Wards should not base on language or religion. If in a local government area, a certain caste, religion or language is not represented adequately by wards, that should be remedied by appointments made administratively.
• The SLPP map shows that maroon color encompassed almost the entire country even under the current unscientific, party-manipulated ward demarcation method. Therefore, objection to a language-blind ward demarcation system has no validity.
• Like the county councils in England or USA, a local government unit in Sri Lanka must have an organic, ecologic unity. A ward is not created to build culverts. The size of a ward, its geographical area, in most cases, could be too small for viable development projects unless it is considered as functional unit of the larger local government area. When wards are demarcated as mini river basins a collection of them (local government unit) becomes a much larger river basin. In New Zealand, by its constitutional law, local government units must follow natural (river) boundaries.
• Thus, instead of Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim local government units, country will have a system of ecologically demarcated local government units, numbering more or less than 340. The two aspects of ethnic mixture and ethnic differentiation at ward level would interact within a local government jurisdiction until the minority-majority fear psychosis in the country meets a natural death, when politician mosquitos such as Wigneswaran, Samanthiran, Hakim and Rishad, find the ethnic pond is empty. Actually, this could happen in 15 years, time needed for a child in a school to be fluent in Tamil and Sinhala.
• A blessing in disguise of the defective law made to satisfy JVP and SLMC, Rishad Bathuiddeen’s party, Mano Gansehan’s party and upcountry Tamil parties, is the fact that in 160 of the 340 local government units no party has won over 50% of the wards. This makes local situations rather than the dictates of Colombo party office determining local management decisions. Person not the party could become important.
• SLPP Ward map help solve the upside-down problem of the minority-majority issue. Ven. Sumanarathana Thero of Managalaraamaya, Batticaloa brought to light how Sinhala residents in that area are suffering in the hands of Tamil and Muslim GSNs, police and government officers without even the basic facility of getting a birth registered. A Buddhist living in Bandirippuwa, Nattandiya area said recently that he is living like a minority person in a Christian world. Sinhalese in Muslim population pockets are minorities. Similarly, if Tamils living in a non-Tamil Ward have reasonable fears of discrimination, and that local government unit has no Tamil elected, then law must have a provision to appoint a Tamil representative by administrative fiat.

You cannot legislate against geography

The nine-province division of Sri Lanka was a decision taken against the geography of the island. For the colonial power the 1832 five-province decision was rational because the purpose was to minimize the power of the Kandyan feudal leaders. It was extended later to reduce distance barrier from the Kachcheri. This rule applied even recently when the Gampaha district was created. Despite suggestions from several Buddhist Commissions to move the capital city to Rajarata, the conflict between geography and administrative division did not receive any attention from black-white politicians. Instead, there was the monumental environmental blunder of moving the parliament away from Colombo to a marshy-wetland area near Kotte.

Ironically, JRJ who had to accept the arbitrarily demarcated eastern and northern provinces as the Tamil traditional homeland, appointed a Land Commission in 1987, which in its 1990 report (Sessional paper no. 3) recommended to demarcate provincial and administrative boundaries using river basins. Then, for the first time after 1948, president Sirisena said publicly that the provincial division was a white man’s decision, without doubt, not knowing the recommendation above. One can understand that in the 1960s there was no serious concern on environmental protection but how could politicians and professionals ignore it in the 1990s and now in 2018?  With climate change, environmental degradation, floods, landslides and droughts, a sustainable development is not possible unless administration units are based on ecological boundaries.

The basic civil administrative unit is the GSN at the village level. There were 4,000 of them before Rpremadas increased them to a mindboggling 14,000. The nearly 8,000 wards for the 2018 elections came out of that number. The country needs to be re-demarcated using natural criteria, i.e. river basins so that a GSN division is also a ward. This means that the country has as its GSN and wards its mini-river basins (or a tank or a groundwater basin).

Our heritage

Sinhala Buddhist civilization survived in this island for over 2,500 years with an ecological model, a Trinity of village-tank-temple. Over 40,000 village names we find today is evidence of this Trinity with collections of such villages/hamlets. Gamsabhava from the times of king Pandukabhaya was this political unit. Unfortunately, American professors like Donald Horowitz, who write about nonmajoritarian solutions to minority human rights, never mention about the Gamsabha institution in Sri Lanka or the Panchyathi Raj in India. Instead, those who implement western proposals soon end up splitting into separate countries at war. Best example is Sudan from which a South Sudan sprang up, now in total ruin and starving with no white expert to help. 13-A path will take Sri Lanka on this Sudan trap.

Anagarika Dharmapala did not write specifically about the Trinity Model, but Ven. Kalukondayave Pragnashekara following his speeches on the need to serve people, resurrected the Gamsabha spirit successfully in the 1940s. It was known as an island-wide Village Reconstruction and Crime Control Program.  How many living in Sri Lanka today aware that this program rapidly spread into so many districts in Ceylon was sabotaged midway by the white and black-white politicians and officers?  D. B. Jayatilaka who also opposed Anagarika Dharmapala in the 1930s, either did not want to help or could not help the monk Ven. Kalukondayave, a fact that the monk had painfully recorded in his autobiography written in 1970 (pages 245,372).

All what the monk asked, and DBJ promised as possible, was to allow Osmond de Silva, the young ASP working with him to stay in the Kegalle police district for two more years. But DBJ who was going to be the PM of Ceylon could not overrule the white IGP who said that no exemption was possible to the transfer rule aimed at preventing police officers developing undue contacts in the locality they work.  In order to prevent Osmond having contacts with villagers he was transferred to the police training station at Bambalapitiya!  But, the concept of the monk was so significant, and same black-white civil servants who sabotaged when the monk was doing it, printed as a sessional paper a similar project started by Wilmot Perera in the Horana area, which faced a natural death. This incident with DBJ is comparable with what D S Senanayaka did to Ven. Henapitagedara Gnanaseeha. DSS asked the monk to help in the election, promising funds to establish a monk-training center. But after he won DSS said, that under the Section 29(2) of the constitution government funds cannot be allocated to a religious project. Ven. G left the Temple Trees vowing never to come back. SLPP as the train selected by people for the new journey, could benefit from the 99-point program of Ven. Kalukondayave, in preparing work plans at the ward level (p. 245).

Expert reports dusting under tables

The Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Local Government Reforms (Sessional Paper 1-1999) also known as the Abeyawardana Report, strongly recommended going back to the ward system. May be Dinesh Gunawardena knew about this report. The concept of ward demarcated as an ecological unit could be used as a foundation brick for all kinds of other administrative and functional divisions in the island. It can be the basic GSN units. Aggregation of wards at different geographical levels such as parliamentary electorates, districts or regions will be a blessing for all. For example, using it the island could be divided into seven river basins, each region having a sea face, unlike the NCP, Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces today. It allows a river basin region for the north. In future allocation of water to north from the south could become a geopolitical issue if the entire country is not managed as components of one hydrologic unit. Moragahakanda project and the demand Wigneswaran made for its water is a warning sign in this regard. From the days of the money order economy Jaffna had to depend on the south because gods did not endow it with sufficient land and water resources.

SLPP has a large number of experts and professionals behind it, a younger generation, if they are allowed to serve the country without politicians’ interference. For example, the speech given by ENT surgeon, Seetha Arambepola at the Viyath Maga 2017 annual conference was marvelous. Dedication of Anuradha Yahampath who confronted Vaiko at the UN Geneva meeting in 2017, Gevindu Kumaratunga’s handing of NGO dollar agents at TV debates makes those of us old and away from Sri Lanka proud.  Anuruddha Padeniya is another name. There must be hundreds of them ready to serve if allowed. Retired talent of government officers and others should not be allowed to go waste. There are two retired geography professors that SLPP could benefit from if so desire, Drs. G H Peiris and C M Maddumabandara. The geography departments have dozens of teachers who could be utilized for land use planning. When Ranjan Wijeratna was in charge of the then Agricultural Development Board, he implemented a project to collect land use planning data. Prabakaran did this at GSN level after 2002 CFA and generated maps! Hema Basnayaka, C.J., had collected data on tanks in Sri Lanka who became the chairman of the then Water Resources Board. Who has this database now? When I tried to get a copy of my birth certificate the Panadura AGA office replied with the word dirapath.” When England has records 700 years old, my 70-year old record got itself decayed,” the meaning of the word dirapath. It means the blame goes to the document registry for getting itself ruined and no officer is responsible for the loss! Sri Lanka must come out of the evil triangle of politician-officer-NGO.

Conclusion

A similar proposal was presented as evidence before the LLRC, and later president MahindaR indicated a willingness to study it. On one occasion he summoned Lalith Weeratunga and asked him to work on it, but that was the end of it. Then the Divi Naguma came and killed the Jana Sabha concept. Not only that, Gamin Diriya, a successfully run village development program, without politicians meddling with it, was abandoned, reminiscent of what had happened to Ven. Kalukondayave P’s successful program in the 1940s. Amidst all kinds of hairsplitting arguments and selfish interpretations, and the fear of loss of MP privileges, the message from the SLPP election map is very clear: remove JRJ-Rpremadas election laws, remove 13-A and attend to Sinhala Buddhist grievances and devolve maximum possible political power to people at village level. Small political parties and ethnic parties should not be allowed to take as hostages the country and its Sinhala Buddhists.

Next essay: Rwanda genocide 1994 and the ward-based election results