POLITICAL ETHNOCIDE, STATE SUICIDE?
Posted on August 31st, 2016
By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
2016-08-31 00:00:26
How is it that the much-celebrated peace agreement heralding national reconciliation in Colombia between its FARC guerrillas and Columbia’s President Dos Santos just signed in Havana in the presence of President Raul Castro, ending over half a century of civil war, opts under the rubric of Transitional Justice for restorative justice over punitive justice, contains an arrangement for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission with a provision for amnesty or light/non-prison sentences such as ‘community service with restricted residency’ for guerrillas and soldiers (despite evidence of drug trafficking, large scale kidnappings, massacres and atrocities) but has no provisions whatsoever for new laws and an Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the war and the military— while post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka, in which the protracted armed conflict did not culminate with the terrorist militia agreeing to a negotiated settlement with the decommissioning of its weapons but in an outright military victory for the democratic State, eschews the painless option of a general amnesty and is deemed to necessitate not only a Truth and Reconciliation Commission but an Office of the Special Prosecutor and Special Laws aimed precisely at punitive justice?
Why are we in Sri Lanka even talking about Transitional Justice? The Colombian peace agreement reflects the right use of the concept of transitional justice. It represents a transition from war to peace by means of a mediated negotiated settlement.Transition implies an evolutionary, gradual, peaceful, non-zero sum outcome. The opposite of transition” is rupture”. Victory/defeat in war is the ultimate zero sum game and is not an example of evolution! Where in the world, apart from Sri Lanka, has a constitutionally legitimate army which won a war outright, been subject to Transitional justice and a punitive special prosecutorial process?
In Northern Ireland, the Sinn Fein/IRA and the British State signed the Good Friday agreement in which there was no punitive accountability arrangement. It has proved successful. Some tepidly Sri Lankan liberal cosmopolitans (including expats) then said that international law and norms have moved on. Well, the allegedly outdated ‘Good Friday’ perspective now reappears in Colombia, ignoring the supposedly new rigorous accountability norms.
Imagine if after the defeat of Nazism, the Nuremberg trials were not only of the Nazi fascist ringleaders but also of the Allied leaders who signed off on Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This didn’t happen and could not have happened, horrendous as those tragedies and crimes were, because that is not how History works. Sri Lanka’s submissively pro-western ruling elite is attempting to bend History and override its indelible verdict which lies far deeper in the collective consciousness than any ephemeral, episodic electoral outcome.
If the provisions of the peace accord in Colombia which brings peace after 52 years and has triggered widespread public celebrations, are to be submitted to a national referendum for approval, why isn’t the implementation of the domestically contentious Geneva resolution being submitted to a national referendum in Sri Lanka?
Why not declare a general amnesty for all combatants, military and LTTE, and look to the future, instead of repeating the fatal error of Eurydice and look back?
The US-Britain-UNP strategy is the restoration and reconstruction on the Island of the pre-1951 neo-colonial model, regarded as a golden era of the Westernized socially privileged. This was the model which existed before SWRD Bandaranaike and DA Rajapaksa ruptured with the UNP sixty-five years ago and formed the SLFP, thereby creating the two-party system and empowering the Sinhala subaltern classes by levelling the playing field and establishing a competitive political marketplace in which elite factions had to bid for the votes of the Sinhala masses.
The present UNP-SLFP bloc is either intended to weaken the political clout of the Sinhala majority on the island because the latter no longer has two powerful parties trying to outbid each other for the Sinhala vote. The Sinhala voter is being deprived of a democratic choice and is sought to be presented with a monopolistic market with only one option and path; the pro-West, centre-right UNP-SLFP alliance.
The strategic project to politically marginalize and dis-empower the Sinhalese in the only place on the planet in which they constitute a majority, is such that the JO with 51 MPs is deprived of the Leadership of the Opposition, while that space is accorded to the erstwhile fellow-travellers of the Tigers, the TNA, with 16. Southern political power is sought to be frozen out; the collective Southern voice silenced.
This political ethnocide is paralleled by economic ethnocide. When state owned enterprises are sold off, it could be another Raj Rajaratnam who ends up owning them. Meanwhile the well-known CEO of a top bank resigned because the staff union discovered that sixty per cent of recruitment was from a minority.
The endgame is constitutional ethnocide. The Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan state are sought to be weakened by means of irreversible geopolitical and geo-strategic dis-aggregation. The elimination of the unitary definition or its residual retention only as nomenclature but not as content, will empower and enlarge the North by re-merger with the East and enhanced economic power including over arable land and its commercial disposal.
We’ve all heard of young Prince Dutugemunu’s traumatic fear of being hemmed in. What faces us is a far worse fate. The constitutionally enlarged, empowered North will be permanent merged with Tamil Nadu and India by means of the Hanuman Bridge and undersea tunnel, thus creating a geographically contiguous Greater North, under which the Island’s South and the Sinhalese will lie contained, crippled and crushed for eternity.
The granting of considerably more power to the Provincial Councils and Chief Ministers will shatter any sense of Sinhala nationhood and foster instead a divisive, parochial provincialism. Raising a unitary standing army will be more difficult than before, let alone waging a war of self-defense and reunification as we did in our lifetime. As in the case of former Yugoslavia, an army in an ethno-federal system (by any other name) is likely to split up along provincial lines.
Question Five: Why is this happening to us? How is this Kafkaesque scenario even possible? In a grand strategic symmetry, the island’s North has always identified itself with and been allied vertically with the Greater North, i.e. India and the Global North, while the island’s South has always sought counterbalance with a solid identification and horizontal alliance with the Greater South, i.e. the Global South plus Eurasia (China and Russia). Today, the ruling elite has abandoned any identification or alliance with the Global South and Eurasia. Thus the majority community located in the Island’s South, has been cut off from its global support base, its natural allies and friends, and its geopolitical hinterland.
The Sinhalese are to be punished and demilitarized, and the country turned into a de-facto protectorate of the UN-US-Britain, for the crime of having vanquished Tamil separatist terrorism which ravaged our land for decades. Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the combat commanders and military intelligence operators are being targeted and will be punished for having eliminated the Great Hero (‘Mahaveera’) of the Tamils, the monstrous fascist Velupillai Prabhakaran. The Sinhalese and their patriotic leaders are being made an example of, for their defiance in defending their country, ignoring Western attempts to abort the victory and save the Tamil Tiger leadership.
The penalty the West seeks to impose is to take our country away from us and give it over to the same reliably submissive and servile social strata that managed our society for imperialism during the long night of colonial and neo-colonial hegemony and humiliation. But I’ll be damned if I passively let my country be taken away from me, without struggle, without resistance.
– See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/115012/POLITICAL-ETHNOCIDE-STATE-SUICIDE-#sthash.D53Aq322.usfSRQXa.dpuf
September 1st, 2016 at 3:38 am
When looking at Sri Lanka’s history, it is extremely obvious that from 600BC to around 1400AD there were three kingdoms, all Sinhala Buddhist, Ruhuna, Pihiti or Rajarata and Maya or Malayarata. Rajarata encompassed today’s North Central, North Western, Northern and even the Central Province. Ruhunu rata encompassed today’s Uva, Eastern and Southern Provinces. The Kandyan Kingdom from 1400AD encompassed most of the island inclusive of today’s Northern and the Eastern Provinces except for the Jaffna Peninsula. Even the Jaffna Peninsula was invaded and occupied by force by Aryachakravarthi (Pandyan) and actually did belong to Rajarata earlier and later the Kandyan Kingdom.
Today’s provincial boundaries were drawn up by the British colonialists as per their divide and rule policy and the Sinhala people were not consulted when drawing up these provincial boundaries. In the meantime, most Sri Lankan Tamils of today were actually brought over during Dutch and British times to the Jaffna Peninsula and elsewhere to work on tobacco and indigo plantations which were planted extensively in all the colonies since they were much sought after and made a lot of money for the colonialists. Therefore they are recent arrivals and cannot claim homelands or separate states whatsoever.
The usual practice when a colonial power hands over their former colonies is to hand it over to its original owners. Therefore the British colonialists should hand over the Kandyan Kingdom to the Kandyan Sinhalese from whom they took it by force. Since the Kandyan Kingdom encompassed the North and the East, these provinces too should be handed over to the Kandyan Sinhalese who are its rightful owners. Even the Jaffna Peninsula should be handed over to the Kandyan Sinhalese since it was part of Rajarata and was forcefully occupied by Aryachakravarthi (Pandyan).
Since this has now been done already, the TNA and other separatist terrorists or the US, UK EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden and India cannot demand that present day Northern or even the Eastern provinces be provided any more powers or be made into federal states since this is totally going against the history and archaeology of the island and totally going against the rights of the Sinhala people who also have fundamental rights to claim the entire island inclusive of the North and the East as their homeland first and foremost. Therefore, the TNA , the separatist terrorists, the US, UK, Norway, Sweden, Canada and India has to respect the history and archaeology of the island and accept that the present day provincial councils are more than sufficient to run the affairs of the provinces. Sri Lanka must be a unitary state and no more powers should be provided to the provincial councils. In fact, when talking about the 13th amendment, the concurrent list subjects must be included in the national list. The provision where two provinces can merge should be deleted. The bogus claim of the North and the East being the homeland of the Tamil speaking people should be deleted. The entire island should be declared the homeland of all its peoples.
Sinhala people should be resettled in the North in quite a large number if there is to be peace and harmony within the island since Sinhala people have every historical right to live in the North as well as the East. It is only due to ethnic cleansing of the North of Sinhala people by the LTTE and the other separatists that Sinhala people are not at present living in the North. Many thousands of landless elsewhere in the island especially Sinhala people should be provided land in the North since most of the vacant land in the country is in the North and in the East since both these provinces encompass over 28% of the land area of the island. Then only will there be peace since when people mix, there is more harmony. This is the only way towards peace and development in the island.
September 1st, 2016 at 3:39 am
Apart from highly commending you for taking legal action against the treacherous CBK (Chaura Rejina) regarding the defamatory and utter lies she keeps repeating to defame her rivals, legal action should be taken against her for stating that she will definitely devolve more powers to provincial Councils within the new constitution. Does this evil woman CBK think she owns Sri Lanka and that she is the one who is going to draw up the new constitution of Sri Lanka (according to the wishes of the imperialistic US, UK, EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the racist TNA and the separatist terrorists)? The constitution of Sri Lanka should satisfy first and foremost the majority of people of this island i.e. the Sinhala people and the Sinhala people firstly do not want to draw up a new constitution nor do they want any more powers whatsoever be provided to the provincial councils especially land, police and fiscal or to illegally merge the North and the East.
Someone has to go to the supreme court and take action against treacherous CBK for suggesting that she will definitely devolve more powers to provincial councils within the yet to be drawn up constitution since this means the treacherous Ranil, Sirisena, CBK and Mangala have already drawn up a constitution to satisfy the imperialistic US, UK, EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the racist TNA and the separatist terrorists which is illegal.
September 1st, 2016 at 7:30 pm
An excellent article by Dayan. Thank you very much for telling the truth as it is.
The current war crimes, constitution, OMP, ETCA and other major movements are all aimed at committing ethnocide against Sinhalese and wiping out Buddhism from Sri Lanka. Dayan failed to mention the second part.
Given that it is an existential threat to Sinhalese and Buddhists, I reluctantly agree for any means to stop this from happening. As history teaches us, once it is done, there is no going back.
Sri Lanka is divided more than between the Global North and the Global South. Saudi led new stream is also dividing Sri Lanka and hopefully it will counter the Global North as it does everywhere else.
We also need a Plan B to save what is left for the Sinhalese as the unitary dream fades away. The Indian model should be implemented in Sri Lanka with Sinhala as the only official, national and regional language in 7 provinces while letting Tamil only in the north and parts of the east. Reciprocal restrictions against Tamils must be introduced in the 7 provinces outside the north and east as Sinhalese and Muslims are prevented in the north.
All this brings up a question we never had to face before – should Sri Lanka be protected or should Sinhalese and Buddhism be protected? In the past, the former meant the latter but not anymore. The sooner we accept this bitter truth the better. Otherwise Sinhalese are going to lose the entire island, not just the north and east.
September 1st, 2016 at 9:28 pm
Sorry, Dilrook,
BUT NO PLAN B that accepts a non-unitary country and the creation of a can erous EELAM state that will forever EXPAND its boundaries against a rump Sinhala state should EVER BE ACCEPTED.
Better for all of us Sinhala people to risk DYING NOW than to accept the SLOW & SURE STEADY SUICIDE of our people in the long term.
Only the island border of our Motherland is defensible; anything less is to accept gradual assimilation into Tamil Nadu and India.
Better to FIGHT NOW with ALL OF OUR MIGHT than to accept a non-unitary state doomed and eventual absorption of our people into Tamil Nadu.
As Dayan said, I’ll be damned if I let my country be taken away without a struggle, without resistance, come what may!
September 1st, 2016 at 11:10 pm
Ananda
On Plan B.
I know most nationalists would disagree with me on this for now. However, I urge you to think of what will happen (not what we want to happen) if or when Sri Lanka’s federal status is further enhanced and/or the position of its unique linguistic, religious and cultural identity are compromised.
Sri Lanka is already a federal country with powerful chief ministers and constitutionally recognised provincial powers that cannot be changed by the parliament (without a majority of all PCs agreeing). A classic federal country after 13A. The unitary clause is useless and is there only to fool gullible Sinhalese.
It is very good to regain the lost unitary status and give the right of place to Buddhism and the Sinhala language. However, if it is not happening and if there is no workable way of it happening, then you are doing more damage than good by holding onto a false notion of unitary status while ethnocide against Sinhalese keep happening in the background.
South Indians have already Tamilized most of Colombo City and the western coast sporadically. If the trend continues, Tamil Eelam map, demand and internationalized agitation will spread to Moratuwa from current Madampe. Similar moves are underway in Maha Oya, Monaragala and Kandy.
No politician, certainly not Mahinda, has any plans to oppose Indian and US devolution demands let alone turn Sri Lanka unitary. Unfortunately I don’t see any honest ‘unitarist’ becoming president or prime minister in future. Ultimately what will happen is the north and east will be fully turned Tamil and Muslim controlled (without nationalists agreeing) and the rest will become multicultural = increasingly South Indian in identity (with nationalists agreeing). That is ethnocide of the entire island.