Dr Sudath Gunasekara 4.4.2018

2 Colonial tools of governance like a) The Constitution. b) The system of Government, c) Parliament. d) Political Parties e) legal systems, f) Administrative machinery and g) Interference by ex-colonial countries, individually and jointly in the internal matters of this count

The 1948 Constitution, the political Pandoras box of British colonial hypocrisy to perpetuate colonial rule and exploitation and destroy Sri Lanka’s unity, integrity, political instability, Sinhala Buddhist civilization, progress and making it a social hotchpotch of ethnic clashes

The 1948 Constitution

The Soulbury Constitution was made in England, or at least by Jennings the constitutional lawyer of the British Crown. So naturally he will try his best to protect British interests rather than the interests of the colony or its inhabitants. It conferred dominion status with a West minster model Parliament with limited legislative power, a Cabinet system of Government, a Senate, Political Party system, a Judiciary of the English model, Administrative machinery based more or less on the home system with a Civil Service at the top as the guardians of the democratic process.  On the face of it, it appears to be cornucopia, a symbol of plenty with abundant things to be happy for a newly freed country from the clutches of colonial rule.

But look at few vital things it has retained. As a dominion we were kept still under the control of the British Commonwealth of Nations. So the Queen remained the Head of the State, laws were made in her name. The Governor General was appointed by her and therefore he represents the queen of England. The appellate power of the Judiciary was retained with the Privy Council in England. To that extent our Supreme Court was a misnomer as it was not supreme as the word denotes.  Laws were made in the name of the Queen; oaths in Parliament had to be taken in her name.  Katunayaka and Ratmalana Air bases were kept under their control. As such our defense policy was not that free. Nearly 1.2 million South Indian labourers they brought here to work on their Tea plantations who were British citizens by 1948 were left behind on Sri Lankan soil without returning them to the place from where they came or at least taking them to UK relieving us of a bundle of political, demographic, social and cultural problems. That way the vacant possession of our motherland they took over in 1815 was not returned. Even the name of the land, Sinhale, we handed over and they took over was not restored. It is a tragedy that none of our leaders at that time has brought up these issues as vital to complete independence. The Sinhala language that was the language of the nation for over 2600 years at least was not restored and the native language, Sinhala, was not made the official language of the new Independent State. Had they got the name of the country Sinhale and the Sinhala language as the official language of the Independent Lanka, the place of Buddhism as the State religion restored, as it had been at the time of ceding in 1815  such provisions would have  got legitimized and quarrelling on those issues would have been averted.

Over and above these issues the new Constitution introduce a new concept of minority under sec 29. We never had minorities before 1815 in this country and we had only one nation then and before. This section cleverly and covertly introduced serious limitations to the law making process of a free and independent nation. This section conferred undue importance to minority groups like the Tamils and Muslims. Sec 29 thus provided legitimacy to the concept of minority in this country for the first time in its 2500 year long history and it also planted the notion that there are many nations in this country. This gave undue recognition and importance to both Tamils and Muslims making them to feel and believe that they are also nations in this country now where as prior to 1815 there was only one nation in this country and that was the Sinhala Nation. To make things even worse Governor Moor named the new political party as the United National Party (UNP). With this notion being constitutionally recognized the concept of many nations and the need for the recognition of their legitimacy got permanently settled down in this country. This is how the British conspired and planned to destabilize and destroy this Island nation.

If this section had been objected and removed at that time there would not have been a minority or ethnic problem either. I am convinced that it was this section 29 which paved the way for many communal political parties in this country with the ethnic or religious labels like Tamil and Muslim, agitating for separation, self-rule and self- determination, human rights, self- dignity and reconciliation etc.

The system of Government and the Parliament.

Next our politicians meekly agreed simply to copy the Westminster system recommended by the  British, instead of evolving our own system based on the rich past history, as if we never had a system of Government in this country in its entire 2500 year history.  Why didn’t they tell the British,   You relieve us of your clutches, oppression and exploitation and leave the country with you bags and baggage and we will look after  the system of Government and governance” as we had done for 2600 years.

I think we had enough erudite scholars who knew the history of this country to formulate a system of government suitable for the country with or without a written Constitution. Instead they submitted to the conspiracy of the colonial British and swallowed the system imposed on us ‘hook line and sinker’ naively as if they were a bunch of uncivilized barbarians who had no history or civilization. A deeper analysis of the 1948 Constitution from a socio –political angle clearly show the following hidden objectives in it.

First, planting the British system of government on this land to perpetuate their colonial legacy as long as possible. There by the British cleverly obstructed the native system to raise its head.

Second, introducing the concept of minority in to Sri Lankan politics with the covert intention of planting the seeds of the ideas of multicultural, Multi lingual and multi religious to generate chaos and confusion to enable them to manipulate their policy of divide and rule

Third, to divide the country on ethnic on linguistic and religious basis to prevent it forging ahead as a new dynamic nation

Fourth make Sri Lanka an eternal hotchpotch of communal, religious and political tension and chaos.  There wasn’t a single politician of the Dharmapala thinking who could stand against this British conspiracy. All those involved in the transfer of power were western educated social elites who knew very little or nothing about the local traditions. They played the role of your majesty’s obedient servants only. None demanded to restore the status quo that existed in 1815 including at least the name of the country, the native language and the religion. None protested against the presence of over 1 million Indian coolies right at the heart of the country and the presence of the British forces in Trinco an d Katunayaka.

Moreover the natives who took over the Government failed even to adopt at least a native nomenclature like Rajya Sabha or Niyojita Mantri Mandalaya, Janadhipati or Lakisuru, Uttara Mantri Mandalaya even under that system, for the people to feel that theirs is now an independent and free country. They should have at least learned from India that took a large number of such steps such as naming it a Republic, naming the Parliament as Lok Sabbja (Lower House) and Rajya Sabha (Upper House many other terms like Rastrapathi, (President) Rastrapathi Bhavan(Presidents House)

.Next I refer to the party system the carcass over which people quarrel and perish as a nation

The British designed this Constitution as a tool with which Briton could perpetuate its post- colonial control and leverage over this Island nation in the same manner they did it up to 1948, that is exploitation of the country while conspiring to widen the gap between the majority Sinhalese and the minorities to a no return situation and destabilize this Island nation politically, economically and socially so that Sri Lanka will never rise up as a strong nation in the Indian Ocean by aligning with Asian giants like China and ever remain a servile underdog of the British empire. This strategy must have worked in the mind of the Governor Moor when he suggested the name UNP (United National Party) in which he identified Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims as separate Nations for the first time in this country. Thereby he injected this communal germ in to the heads of the minorities and raised them up psychologically and mentally to that equal status level. Probably Moor knew by that time the Tamil mind as well spearheaded by Chelvanayagam who had already formed the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachhci (Ceylon Tamil State Party) which he duped as the Federal Party to hoodwink the outside world.

Our politicians did not have the foresight to see reality of these conspiracies and the future dangers aligned with them. Had there being at least one man who could understand these possibilities I am sure he would have object and go for a homemade system of Government to make Independence a reality.  At least they should have learned a lesson from countries like India and Burma. Had they resorted to such strategies most of the appalling political situations would not have arisen.

In India political parties were called either a National Party or a State Party. Indian National Congress (INC) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  It doesn’t have Tamil and Muslim parties like in this country. Look at the number of parties and their nomenclature, we have in this country. There are over sixty and most of them are either Tamil or Muslim and over ten of them are separatist parties fighting for EELAM. They all are based on ethnicity or communal aspirations. How many Tamil and how many Muslim political parties are there in this country? Even the Commissioner of Elections may not know it. I attribute this proliferation of ethnic and religious political parties primarily to the British conspiracies to divide this nation as embodied in the 1948 Constitution

The UNP was split in 1951 as SWRD left and formed a new party SLFP. Today we have more than 60 registered political parties with two main national parties SLFP and UNP. Of these two only the SLFP has native orientation.  In retrospect all these political parties have miserably failed to lift up the country to the level of a prosperous and developed modern country. Overall their records are pathetic. Their main aim is party consolidation rather than the development of the country. Instead of the principle of pro bono publico” that is considered as the hole mark of politics they all work only for their own good. There was no national policy on any subject where all parties agreed. This again displays the chronic poverty of our political parties.

Tamil communal movements implanted by the British against the Sinhalese

Communal Tamil movements started in early 20^th C evolved over time but came of age by mid 1980s under Prabhakaran (the sun god of Tamils) and the movement reached its climax in the following two decades causing enormous damage to the national economy, killing more than 60,000 people and thereby they took the country backward by decades. Communalism under the LTTE went to the extent of attacking the very heart of the 2600 year old Sinhala Civilization when they attacked even the Temple of the Tooth and the sacred Bo tree at Anuradhapura killing 100ds of innocent Sinhala civilians.

Prabhakaran who was called the most dangerous and brutal killer died on May 9^th leaving the EELAM dream a night mare. This movement ended up militarily on ground on 9^th May 2009 by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. But I feel this is only a temporary respite as the EELAM ideology is still not dead. The communal politicians at home and the so-called Tamil diaspora and the vicious colonial forces are working day and night to stop this Island nation returning to normalcy. But even if they raise their heads at a future date the Sri Lanka Forces will deal with them in the same manner as they did in 2009 May,  as their ancestors had defeated all invaders over the past 2 ½ millennia. The same destiny applies to the Muslims as well. Both Tamils and Muslims have to understand this reality.

At the two extremes, both Tamil & Muslim leaders have sought separate states. SLMC’s Chairman Basheer Segu Dawood demands a separate Muslim State/Province’ with Kattankudy as its capital, a Muslim province giving a motherland and self-determination to Muslims’ and we cannot give up our demand”. The SLMC stance is that Muslims need a separate Muslim Province. Our late founder of SLMC M.H.M Ashraff too endorsed it. If a Chief Ministers conference is held a Muslim Chief Minister should definitely participate in it,”

What is clear and what separates past Muslim leaders from present day men is the caliber of their leadership & their rhetoric. No previous leader would ever misuse their position to attack the majority as leaders like Hakeem have done in recent times. In August 2012, then Justice Minister (and leader of the Muslim Congress) Rauf Hakeem at a meeting in Kalmunai had demanded President Rajapakse should defeat ‘yellow-robed terrorism’. What audacity a descendant of an itinerant Muslim had displayed in such verbosity.

Then at the other end there are the likes of Rishard Badurdeen himself a refugee who had been saved by Sinhalese and today towing a very fundamentalist line taking funding from highly questionable overseas groups to instill a foreign Arab culture disregarding the country laws & completely ignoring appeals to stop raping the forest of Wilpattu for mono-ethnic settlements.

Anyone seeking answers to what has divided the Sinhalese & Muslim communities need only to list down elements that did not exist before 1980 to realize that these new elements are the likely reasons for the tensions.

This is nothing but Wahhabism on the rise in Sri Lanka?  WION Report March 17, 2018   02:25 pm March 17, 2018   02:25 pm by Padma Rao.  The root cause of all these ethnic elements

The report says that there are 749 Madrasas in Sri Lanka and one Islamic University. There are at least 10 major Muslim mosques in the island nation and dozens of smaller ones. It claims that 90% Sri Lanka’s mosques are in the clutches of Wahhabi preachers” and that 33 Sri Lankan Muslims are reported to have joined Islamic State. One wonder as to what the Government of the country, if there is one at all, and its leaders elected by the people are doing

Unwarranted interference by the so-called International Community in the internal matters of this country with their own agendas and the stupidity, naivety, sloth, inactivity and tragic failure to do their duty by the country and the people of our politicians are the  main causes that are primarily responsible for this situation.

Separate legal systems for different Communities in one country?

Another reason that has brought about ethnic strife in this country is the introduction of separate laws for different communities by the British. For example they allowed Thesavalamei for Tamils and Muslim law for Muslims while they imposed Roman Dutch Law for the native Sinhalese where as they should have had one Law for all the people in this country. Sinhalese who formed the nation of the country were the only people who were deprived of their laws and on whom an imported legal system was imposed on. What a tragedy? More importantly Prior to 1815 all subjects in this country came under one Law, that is the Law of the Sinhale. Our leaders who took over in 1948 should also have demanded that all citizens of free Lanka should come under one Law. But they didn’t. What a naïve and stupid bunch of politicians we have had and continue to run this country? This I see as the biggest problem Independent Sri Lanka is suffering from.

Here again I would like to repeat the list of causes I mentioned in Part 1 fore brevity

2 Absence of visionary and patriotic Statesmen of stature, character and love for the country who are deeply committed to nation building and who have a deep understanding of the Islands history, statecraft, laws and customs and traditions, culture, ethos and values and who put the country and the people before self and who can take the country forward with the modern world without compromising the spirit and substance of endogenity and who will never betray the country neither for personal gain nor for fear of even losing one’s own life

(3 Absence of strong national leaders, patriotic national political and civil movements and institutions who/that can stand above politicians and exert control over their actions that goes against national interest

4 Absence of a strong Constitution including a National Code of non-negotiable National policies on matters like the State, form of Government, the national and Official  language of the State, place of Buddhism, the Law of the country, rights and duties of each individual and each community by the country, protection of the environment

5 Non-participation of educated, astute and charismatic men of character well versed in the country’s history etc as given in 2 above.

6 Presence of foreign funded NGOO manned by their subversive agents with their own agendas seriously inimical to national interest freely operating without any government control

7 Absence of a pragmatic and consistent Foreign policy committed to the best interest of the country and lack of an apolitical machinery of efficient professional Foreign Service of the highest level that could stand in par with any International Foreign Service and could muster the optimum support to the country in all fields such as political, economic, strategic and cultural.

8 Unnecessary interference in the internal matters of this country by the so-called International Community and their agencies acting with bias based on self- interest at the instigation of Tamil voters living in their countries( who call themselves Tamil Diaspora) and above all the Indian interfere with our local affairs in everything and the failure on the part of the Government of this country to stand against this type of uncalled for interferences and bullying by every Dick, Tom and Harry as a strong Government.

( India has played a pivotal role  throughout in interfering with our domestic matters ranginf from from regime change, training LTTE terrorists and providing them with all logistics to fight against the Government of this country, military involvements, building ports, roads and house building to providing Ambulances to hospitals and even laundering hospital linen, entertaining and encouraging Tamils in this country to work against domestic policy and instigating even for separation in pursuance of its own interest to encouraging Tamilnadu politicians to meddle with Sri Lankan matters when more than 60 % of her people don’t have even lavatory facilities. All these things are done with the ulterior motive of destabilizing this country to protect and enhance her own interest, strategic, geopolitical, economic and social).

9 Reluctance, refusal and failure on the part of Tamil and Muslim communities (especially their politicians) to comprehend the ground realities of the Sri Lankan society and their pursuing a conflicting course of action, having over- estimated their strength without realizing that ultimately they will be the main losers.

10 The self- seeking Tamil and Muslim communal politicians who don’t see beyond their nose tips and doing everything only for their communities completely forgetting that they are also  responsible citizens of Sri Lanka and not citizens of either India or the Arab World and that they cannot behave like Indians or Arabs any longer if they want to earn their living here and live here, not realizing that they have to fall in line with the Sinhala majority, whose Traditional Homeland  this is, if they ever dream to enjoy the unique benefits of this blessed country, as its citizens or otherwise they have to make up their minds to go back to their own native countries from where they have come.

11Prevailing political instability and anarchy in the country that has caused lethargy and ineffectiveness of the whole government machinery and inefficiency and inability of the present Government to govern and the lack of a comprehensive National State policy on any subject that comes within the purview of Governance.

12 Never ending Inter-party political rivalry and competition between the two main national Political Parties the SLFP and UNP and the absence of a third alternative that can win over the people to form a Government, with a difference

Furthermore activities of Pseudo academia both Sri Lankan and Foreign working overtime partly win laurels and lucrative positions from western Universities and partly to denigrate the Sinhala Buddhist of this country have also immensely contributed for this chaotic situation. Among native academics Stanly Samuel Thambaiya, Gananatha Obesekara, H.L Senaviratne, Wickramabahu Karunaratna, Kumar Rupasingha, Jehan Perera and C.R De Silva to name a few are noteworthy while  people like Steven Kempher and the like who subsist on donations from Tamil Diaspora have greatly contributed to this situation. It is very unfortunate that local scholars have not taken sufficient action to debunk or defeat the vicious and erroneous information the above people spread throughout the world

Even the few who talk and write on these subjects like Gunadasa Amarasekara, Nalin De Silva  and Sarath Weerasekara are condemned as Sinhala Buddhist chauvinist both at home and abroad. Above all the absence of a Government to take the true message to the world and argue in international forums is the biggest problem we face. In this regard I congratulate the members of the recently formed Global Sri Lankan Forum (GLSF) for their magnificent work carried out throughout the world, more particularly at Geneva UNCHR sessions.

Conclusion

The truth is there is no ethnic problem at all in Sri Lanka.  Up to 1815 this country had one nation. Though we had Tamils and Muslims as minorities in small numbers they were never called nations or never pretended to be nations as they do now. The whole country was then known as Sinhale (Tun Sinhale) and the nation was Sinhala. That is why it was right throughout known as Sinhale meaning the land of the Sinhala people. The tendency for Tamils and Muslims to pretend to call themselves as separate nations was a post- colonial phenomenon. In fact this     novelty was a direct result of the British Colonial policy of divide and rule they adopted to divide the people within this country, as a political strategy to weaken the natives Sinhala people to avenge the humiliations  they received at the1803 defeat in Kandy and the losses they incurred in 1818 -1848 rebellions. British continued this diabolical conspiracy right through their rule and hang on to it covertly even today. All what is propagated as ethnic issues are the direct byproducts of British colonial policies. Tamil and Muslim agitations for separation and special privileges in this country are actively supported both overtly and covertly by the West while they adopt a policy diametrically opposed to this at home. When it comes to Muslims even the Arab countries led by Saudi instigate and support their agitations. Having got embolden by these outside support and the weaknesses of the major national political parties both Tamils and Muslims try to assert and create unnecessary problems. This has given rise to ethnic and religious tensions. Until and unless the Tamils and Muslims admit their legitimate positions in the Sri Lankan society and to accept inalienable rights of the native Sinhala people in on their motherland there can never be peace and harmony in this country. Not only the Tamils and Muslims but the whole world has to recognize the fact that this was the land of the Sinhala nation for the past 2600 years and it had been the home of the Sinhala Buddhist civilization.  Both Tamils and Muslims being itinerary ethnic groups who had come either as traders or invaders in history who have their own motherlands elsewhere should never dream to own this land and they must be prepared to live with the natives amicably without creating unnecessary problems. This was how it had been right throughout history.

The local Sinhala Buddhist politicians must unite, as one group and give this message to the minorities as well as the whole world. They should stop wooing for the minority votes giving them undue privileges and thereby betraying Sinhala nation and the motherland. They also should go for a social integration programme as it had been done here right throughout history. That is the only way to restore ethnic harmony and reconciliation between the three communities.

Concluded.