Call for merger of the North & East by Chief Minister Wigneswaran
Posted on October 20th, 2013
P.A.Samaraweera, Australia
The Chief Minister of the Northern Province Vigneswaran,‚ has called for the merger of the North and the East. The population of the‚ East comprises not only of Tamils but Sinhalese and Muslims as well. According to‚ reports, the‚ Sinhalese,‚ Tamils and the Muslims living in the East‚ are in equal number. If there is a merger, the Sinhalese and the Muslims‚ in the East would become a minority and would come under the heels of the TNA. Therefore, any move by the TNA to merge the North and the East should be vehemently opposed. Following the Indo-Lanka Accord they were merged by JR and subsequently demerged by a Supreme Court decision. Now the request for a merger is based on imposing the 13 Amendment.
There was a time when the SLMC leader, MHM Ashraff asked for a separate ‘State’ in the East for Muslims. But with the demerger this demand had a natural death.
Now, the TNA, comes forward as the saviour of the Muslims. Once, when the LTTE was at the height of its power the Muslims living in the North and the East‚ were at the mercy of the terrorists‚ and they paid dearly, some with their lives. Then the TNA was the mouth-piece of the LTTE. The TNA’s motive is to get the support of the Muslims for a merger. However, the Gen. Secy of the All Ceylon Muslim Congress had made it clear that the demand of the TNA is unacceptable. The ultimate goal of the TNA is separatism. The TNA, the Tamil diaspora, the LTTE rump and so on are trying to get through the back door what the terrorists failed by a 30 year war. There should be stiff opposition for the call of a‚ merger of the North and the East by the TNA.
October 20th, 2013 at 12:29 pm
But the SL govt. has given EVERYTHING TNA asked for since 2009.
e.g. Remove army from north – DONE!
e.g. DON’T settle Sinhalese in the north – DONE!
e.g. Punish ONLY army war crimes allegations – DONE!
e.g. GIVE north PC to TNA – DONE!
e.g. KEEP 13 amendment – DONE!
e.g. RELEASE LTTE terrorists – DONE!
So I’m inclined to think the govt. will give this demand too.
Govt. is making preparations to do it. Sinhalese in the east are TOTALLY DISREGARDED. They can’t even build houses!!
October 20th, 2013 at 12:54 pm
My Comment on Mahindapala’s article: “Tamils Liberated from their Facist past at last!”
Generally … I agree with Lorenzo’s comment above!
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Bravo, Mahindapala … Well Said!
However, I disagree on two points:
1. The Crowning Glory of President Mahinda Rajapaksa was to utterly defeat the LTTE in the battlefield; but his FAILURE to REVOKE the 13th Amendment and DISMANTLE the Provincial Council System in the wake of that Victory, declaring that Sri Lanka will never be allowed to disintegrate into Ethnic Fiefdoms, will be seen in the future as his Greatest Failure.
2. You say the liberation of the Northern Tamils from the grip of Prabhakaran and the LTTE will be hailed as the crowning glory of his regime, but are they really free of the ideology that underpinned that terror NOW?
By failing to destroy the racist political separatist movements and ideas that gave birth to Prabhakaran’s terror, he has not truly liberated the Tamil people. As we now see, that racist terrorist ideology is crystallizing again, under the Tiger Nominated Agents of the TNA, into an organism that will lead the Tamils down the same path of death and destruction. The President should have BANNED all Separatist and Communal organizations with Labels like “Eelam”, “Tamil”, “Muslim” and “Sinhala” in their names and dismantled the very basis of the demand for regional power by launching a ONE NATION program of Community/Ethnic Integration through settlement to homogenize the community distribution of the population in the nation.
Instead, our heroic President has caved into to foreign pressure, without realizing that the brainwashing of Tamils over 30 years cannot be undone in 4 years given the enthusiastic support of Tamil Nadu and the Sri Lanka Diaspora to continue the Eelam struggle. He should have pointed to the 50-year occupation of defeated Nazi Germany to preserve the lives of all inhabitants of Europe as how those foreigners maintained the peace in the face of unremitting murderous Nazi ideology.
With the Eelamists raised to power in the Northern Province, everyday there are pronouncements and demands that echo the Vadukoddai resolution. Sinhalese leave Jaffna, Prabhakaran is a Tamil hero, restore LTTE cemeteries, eliminate Army camps, give Police powers, give Land powers, engineer a fishermans war with Tamil Nadu, reject the nation’s president as Head of State for taking oath of office …. ad inifintum, ad nauseam. Clearly, the TNA-led Northern Province is drifting towards secession and Vadukoddai/Eelam War V! Is that the “Liberation of the Tamil people” we should of … the Crowning Achievement?
While I applaud the President for winning the war, and building national infrastructure, I do not believe that he has succeeded in either truly permanently liberating the Tamils …. or for that matter the rest of his countrymen … from terror … for the winds of war are gathering again.
October 20th, 2013 at 1:48 pm
COMING EVENTS ARE CASTING THEIR SHADOWS.
THE NP-CM sly fox, said for a start, the Tamils and Muslims must join hands. I asked, what about Sinhalese ?
This SLY FOX is looking for a Scape Goat. He thinks that the Muslims will fall for his masala vadai gundu.
We should not forget ex-CJ Nanda Silva for his patriotism, to de-merge North and East.
Lorenzo !! MR was a star class President, that saved Sri Lanka. Now, he will be a dumb class President if he gives in. That will be his SENASURU.
October 20th, 2013 at 6:06 pm
Without Trincomalee, Tamils have no geopolitical clout. They will make all attempts to merge what they believe their traditional homelands.
Percentage wise, 60% of the people in Eastern Province are not Tamils. East must retain its identity and not be part of the North. More than TNA, India wants the merger.
October 21st, 2013 at 12:43 am
The provincial boundaries were drawn up by the British for administrative convenience and that was many years ago. A good case could very well be made in the light of current conditions to revise provincial boundaries to be more in line with present considerations. The legitimacy of the de-merger has been confirmed by a decision of the Supreme Court – of which the new Chief Minister of the Northern Province was a member – and there is no good reason for the two provinces to be merged again. No doubt, the CM would like to have more clout with a re-merger but the government should not simply agree to please him or anyone else.
The 13th Amendment was something that Sri Lanka should never have agreed to, it was imposed, that is, thrust down the country’s throat by the hypocritical Indians who whilst preaching ahimsa and non-violence have since Independence being doing everything that runs counter to those ideals. There is no reason for SL to allow itself to be coerced again. As they say in Sinhala, you don’t fall in daylight into a pit that you fell into by night.
October 21st, 2013 at 6:08 am
GoSL should go for administrative divisions based on the River Basins. That way, the old British established forms of governance which suited Colonists mostly and their ‘divide & rule” principle, can be thrown out on a forever basis.
Tamil Separatist leaders always rode on the back of Colonists, mostly the British Colonists. It is high time Sri Lanka got rid of the negative Colonial yokes. Self respect of a Nation will come only after the negative vestiges of Colonial rule are removed.
October 21st, 2013 at 10:37 am
Why only North and East should be amalgamated ?
Merge all the provincial councils.
October 21st, 2013 at 11:00 am
Chief Minister Wigneswaran said many things..including that MEGOLAMANIAC is a Sun God & a HERO. I am waiting till he slips up by another revolting statement just to please the Tamils in Lanka & the so called Tamil Diaspora.
FIRST & foremost we MUST insist upon President Rajapaksha to FIND a way of removing this ATTRCIOUS amendment FORCED BY INDIA, when JRJ was cornered by INDIAN intelligence to accpet a diisasterous ammendment. NORTH & southerners of Lanka, should take the blame for supporting FRINGE parties in Lanka & it made JRJ unable to govern.
Some blame MUST be accepted by Sinhalese too being so DEVIDED on every issue & make way for minorities to take an upper hand.
SO WE ALL say it (13th Ammendment should go), BUT are any of our contributors LANKAWEB even gathered like minded PATRIOTS to draw up a plan to EXCEUTE SUCH a measure? Very soon CHOGM will be over, THEN we have no excuse to delay removing this UNACCEPTABLE ammendment.
Thank you all….ONE NATION, UNDER ONE FLAG, UNDER ONE LEADER, STRONG & FREE..”God Bless Lanka & her people..J
October 21st, 2013 at 9:47 pm
In a small island country like Sri Lanka, it would not be viable to give two thirds of the coast line and a large chunk of land to one province having a small population density, with a small minority community as the dominant race, completely out of sync with the rest of the country. However, I too think for cost cutting and better administrative and development reasons, it might be good to reduce the 9 provinces to 8 or less, by merging some regions. I believe the North Central Province could be merged with the northern region of the Eastern Province and Uva Province with the southern region of Eastern Province. This will give each of these new provinces a segment of the Sri Lankan coastline for development and also maintain a population balance with a Sinhalese majority similar to the ratio the country taken as a whole. Whereas, if the North is merged with the East, it would create a mega-province with a small population density and two thirds of the entire coastal region with all the natural resources of the sea, harnessing of which confined to only one province out of the eight provinces. This would result in a very poor administrative structure and slow development, which is not what Sri Lanka needs, having lost three decades to terrorism and economic destruction..
October 21st, 2013 at 10:36 pm
AnuD said….
Why only North and East should be amalgamated ?
Merge all the provincial councils.
Simply Brilliant Idea!
Pass a Bill to MERGE ALL Provincial Councils into ONE!
PERFECT! ONE Nation with ONE Provincial Council!
October 22nd, 2013 at 10:11 am
The recent Supreme Court decision on land rights is quite clear the PCs have no rights over land. Land and territory are matters that are in the hands of the Central Government. Any land allocated to PC is given by the Central Government for a specified purpose.
Even self determination cannot be claimed by the Tamil people of the North and East as land and territory belong to the Government and the Tamils may retain ancestral rights on the lands belonging to them but that does not make them a separate people, speaking a separate language, and living in a separate territory. The Tamils are all over Sri Lanka and the Tamil language is not confined to the North and East. Even the Tamils in the East do not claim an affinity with the Tamils in the North. Estate Tamils are again different.
Under these circumstances the merger of East and North cannot be claimed by the Northern PC. They are different provinces, with different people living in them.
October 22nd, 2013 at 11:53 am
We advise Man Mohan Singh to stay at home, and Sri Lanka to DOWNGRADE relations with India by CLOSING all except the Colombo Indian Embassy, canceling the Sampur Power Plant agreement, taking back the Palaly airport and Trincomalee Oil Storage tanks, rejecting Indian Reconstruction aid for the Northern Province and their heavy INTERFERENCE and PRESENCE in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, reducing Economic links with India, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, REVOKING the Indian imposed 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution and DISSOLVING ALL Provincial Councils.
In SHORT, use this opportunity to get India completely out of Sri Lanka.
Then, we can say that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has EXECUTED a MASTER STROKE! Not Otherwise!
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Master stroke: Can Mahinda Rajapakse afford to be as daring as Sri Lankan cricketer Jayasuriya?
By Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
EconomicTimes.IndiaTimes.com
October 23, 2013
NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka has warned that a boycott of next month’s Commonwealth heads of state Summit in Colombo by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have “consequences” for bilateral relations between the two countries, queering the pitch for the government ahead of a decision on the level of its participation. Singh is under intense pressure from Tamil Nadu politicians, including those in his own Congress party, to not attend the November 15-17 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) as a mark of protest against the treatment of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. The government intends to decide on Singh’s travel to Colombo after he returns from China on October 24, sources told ET.
But India’s vacillations have frustrated the Mahinda Rajapakse government in Sri Lanka, which diplomatic sources in Delhi, said was pushing hard to have Singh attend the summit that is being held in Asia after 24 years. “Presence of Indian PM means a lot for the Rajapaksa government and Sri Lanka in general. They are obviously disappointed,” one source said. Colombo has threatened that Singh’s absence from the meet will adversely impact bilateral ties, although the sources said it was not clear what the consequences would be.
While India’s Tamil parties are keen that Singh boycott the summit, a top Tamil leader in Sri Lanka – CV Vigneshwaran, head of pro-India Tamil National Alliance that runs the island nation’s Northern Province – is keen that the prime minister not only visits Colombo but also Jaffna, the seat of Tamil power and politics. In the event of Singh boycotting, India will be represented by Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid, which could be viewed by Colombo as New Delhi downgrading the importance of the summit.
A foreign ministry official rued that state politics was affecting the course of foreign policy and harming national interests by pushing Sri Lanka into the arms of others. Sri Lanka has in recent years moved closer to China as well as Pakistan. China had supplied Colombo with arms to fight the LTTE, and after the war, also helped several infrastructure projects.
The West too has been eyeing Sri Lanka’s strategic location for decades. Pakistan has supplied Sri Lanka with metal detectors and body scanners for the CHOGM Summit, reportedly after India dilly-dallied on the issue.