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

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Arun Tambimuttu (AT), who is SLFP organizer in Batticaloa says the person who killed his mother is still living in Batticaloa but he does not want to harm him. One reason is that the murderer has children.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Think of what other such organizers in the south with ruling party connections are doing to their opponents. AT of this caliber in his inner-spiritual mind can one day be a Tamil Obama in Sri Lanka because he has taken the ultimate step a Tamil can take in Sri Lanka. As a new generation of politician, in his outer manifestation of material world (for example, Kumar PonnambalamƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Tamil aspirations) he says 13-A should be abolished and the Panchayathi system of government should replace it. He created Tamil for Sri Lanka, to walk the talk. I hope that Arun and Imtiyas Bakeer Markar join hands and create Tamils and Muslims for Sri Lanka organization to work with the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS).

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ATƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s actions are like the arrows that Arjuna was using on Lord KrishnaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s guidance in the Mahabharatha war.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  His arrows go through the hearts and brains of the TNA, Azath Salley, Pakiyasorthy, Wigneswaran, Mano Ganeshan and the Tamil separatists in London, Paris, Toronto or New York.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ATƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢S ACTIONS dump people like Dayan Jayatilleka and Rajitha Senaratne in a deep mud pit. Needless to say how it affects American ambassador SisonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s plans. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Canadian, Australian and UK politicians in love with the Tamil voters in their respective electorates would get so frustrated with this Arun bombshell.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Navi Pillai is sure to retire from her Tamil HR business in disgust.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  I support Arun and BBS because what they say and do are reasonable. It is true that Tamils in Europe or Canada learn the language of their new country as quickly as possible and their children are forgetting Tamil.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  In Sri Lanka after 1956 Tamils were provided opportunity to learn Sinhala but separatist Tamil politicians in Colombo sabotaged it while giving Sinhala private tuition to their own children. The common Tamil man became a sacred or sacrificed political cow.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  When I was an undergraduate I had translated letters came in Sinhala from PeopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Bank to Tamil students. I felt it was wrong and that there should have been at least an English version of the reply. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Such defects were there, but for a Tamil born in Sri Lanka to tell that there is or was Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka should be a crime and a sin. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the US Congress this crime was exposed by a congressman who asked, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-If HitlerƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s cabinet had Jews and if HitlerƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Chief Justice, Attorney Genral, IGP and all DIGs were Jews how can you say Hitler was doing genocide? ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…- In July 1983 that was the scenario in Sri Lanka! A Tamil in Sri Lanka has more rights than a Tamil in Tamil Nad.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Tamil separatism was not a Hindu Tamil plan. It was a Christian Colombo-Tamil plan.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Anti-Hindi and anti-Hindu Marxists in Madras state began it in the 1930s copying Ali JinnaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s plan for a Pakistan. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Malay-born Christian SJV Chelvanayagam realized that there was no chance for a Tamil dream in Malaysia with the Bhoomi Putra Movement, and migrated to Colombo to create a new Tamil kingdom and deliver Trincomalee to India. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ At least 20% of a Buddhist templeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s sacred space is devoted to Hindu gods and goddesses.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Only a Christian Tamil like GG Ponnambalam could complain before the Soulbury Commission that allocating money for the restoration of the ancient sacred places of Anuradhapura was discrimination against Tamils! Ever since anything done by the Colombo government was branded as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-SinhalisationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of Tamils.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  And, any Tamil who was cooperating with the Colombo government was branded as a Tamil traitor. Even GG Ponnambalam was bestowed with this title by his fellow travelers! Sooner or later Arun is sure to get this title. But Arun is the first Tamil to accept M. C. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ SansoniƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s advice to Tamils and to publicly take an extra mile with itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚If the TamilsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ cry for separatism is given up, the two communities could solve their problems and continue to live in amity and dignityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ (Sessional Paper No. 7 of 1980).

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ArunƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s position that 13-A should be removed fits in with BBS stand that 13-A should be removed without a referendum. Anybody who had a chance to listen to NethFM-Unlimited radio interview of Ven. Galabodaatte Gnanasara on May 15, 2013 would understand how reasonable was the program of action of BBS and the larger philosophical underpinnings of the idea of BBS. Mrs. B and Dudley Senanayake were the two leaders who had the best opportunity to create a reasonable and prosperous Sri Lanka but both of them missed or abused it. Politicians of all kinds and levels destroyed Sri Lanka or the black-white ruling elites used politicians to continue exploitation.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Today it has become an international exploitation game of free trade and WTO with an evil trinity firmly entrenched in the island. This evil trinityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚the politician, the officer and the NGOƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚operates from local to national level and horizontally covering each and every project or plan at every location. Every aspect of citizen life is controlled by this evil tripartite.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  This evil triangle must be replaced with the Trinity of Temple-Tank-Village model of ancient Sri Lanka by the Panchayathi system where leaders are elected by the village on a non-political party basis. If five persons agree then god is there is what Vinobha Bhave meant by the word Panchayathi. Sri Lankan village is divided today not by language, religion or race but by red, green, blue party colors. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Unless this is ended or eradicated there can be no progress and peace other than politicians muddling through at enormous costs to people.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Village level or GSN level (grama sevaka niladhari) devolution/empowerment is suggested by the LLRC Report also.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The Divineguma Law attempts to implement it at GSN level with a set of officers telling people what to do. Instead this law should be modified and a local committee of ten elected by non-partisan basis must be in charge of taking local decisions (basic human needs mentioned in MaslowƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s hierarchy of human needs) and officers with the duty of implementing decisions taken by the people via the peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s committee. Already the gami diriya program was doing this with remarkable success, making local politicos jealous and frightened.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  A further refinement of Sri Lankan Panchyathi should be the demarcation of the boundaries of these units based on ecological criteria, most logical being the river basins (Oya, Ela) or groundwater basins or water tanks.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  If each Panchayathi is based on hydrological considerations they will not be language or ethnicity or caste-based units. This is the best way to provide incentives to people to think as ecological-economic communities and not Tamil or Muslim or Sinhala communities. This does not however prevent respective ethnic communities to work on their group rights if a particular ecological unit happens to be predominantly consists of one ethnic group. With thousands of such units of varying level of ethnic mixture or mono-ethnic people will learn to be reasonable and fair in dealing with group rights (aspirations?) in public.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  There are now 14,000 GSN units, increased from 4,000 by Rpremdasa to provide jobs for UNP catchers of his day but an ecology-based demarcation will reduce this number to a reasonable figure.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  These new units based on ecology can go upward ending as seven river basin regions in Sri Lanka. Yalpanam will be one of them. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Below these seven river regions there can be district-size units or Pradesheeya Sabha size units. Thus there is flexibility in creating larger spatial units. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  This is not a new idea.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Sarvodaya has followed this kind of model of village level units going upward for decades.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Gandhi Center has been preaching it for years. But politicians do not like this idea as it removes them from controlling people. This is why BBS and Arun T should meet and work together to get people empowered dismantling the evil triangle.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  I hope somebody in Sri Lanka think about this and bring it to the attention of BBS and Arun. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A plan based on this idea is already available at the LLRC office in Colombo and ironically After CFA 2002, under Prabakaran local planning units were created on this basis. Increasing ecological disasters (floods, drought, landslides, forest removal, soil erosion, water pollution, air pollution, garbage dumps) make it a world-wide issue of administrating land as small scale natural resources units. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ For example, in New Zealand all local government units are river basin units.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Apart from natural science reasons two other social factors compel us to think differently from artificial divisions of land that began in 1832 in the case of provinces and definitely during R. Premadasa days in the 1990s in the case of GSN units.

1.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The ethnic population distribution map of Sri Lanka is like a scrambled egg. Therefore, the smaller the local unit the better for the ethnic representation;

2.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s problem is spatial economic inequality and not spatial ethnic inequality. For example, poverty, school admissions, health care, garbage, roads and lack of opportunity for individual and group advancement are issues common to all people whether they live in Matara, Vavuniya or Muttur. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The evil triangle operates at all locations, Jaffna, Mannar or Matale, Ratnapura. Like what Col. Karuna said once the issue is ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Give us what Colombo gets.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ This was what JVP said in 1971, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-milk to Colombo and forage for the village.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Anyone who cares to surf BBS website could see that it has come into existence because politicians came to power cheating Sinhala Buddhists with false promises.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  MahindaR was able to fulfill one promise he made in 2005, to end the war. That was historic achievement done under the rules of military with a new military road map. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ MR has so far failed to handle the decay of civilian and community lives in Sri Lanka because he is using the same old road map that ruined the island for 60 or 90 years. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ BBS is making him to re-think and if he fails BBS will compel him to change via its people power.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Because of their common area of agreement a dialog between BBS and Arun Tambimuttu will be useful in meeting their respective missions and goals and ultimately for a better future for Sri Lanka.

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