Dheshamanya Dr Sudath Gunasekara Former Secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayaka and the Ex-President of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association (1991-1994).
20.01.2026.
(This article is of two parts. This is Part 1 to be followed by part 11.)
Part 1
It is a historical fact that it was the heroic ancestors of the present day Kandyan Sinhalese who defended the motherland against three powerful invincible Western colonial invaders, for 343 years (1505-1848), and who protected it for posterity, with dignity and bravery unmatched in world history. This is a brief note on the tragic story of the Kandyan areas and its people, betrayed and neglected by their own politicians who ran the country since 1948 up to date.
The betrayal of the heroic Kandyans in the post 1948 period up to date, by Sihala politicians at a glance.
The Kandyan Peasantry Department (initially a “C” grade sub-department) was created in 1958. It was placed under a Coordinating Officer for Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation within the Home Ministry at that time,
Instead of Appointing a high-powered Development Board and an Advisory Board with advisory capacity with direct access to the Prime Minister (The Head of the State at that time) and his Cabinet in regard to all matters which fall within any development program prepared by them with adequate technical and financial assistance to enable it to make its own investigations and a Secretariate under a secretary of an officer of Government Permanent Secretary Status who should have direct access to the Prime Minister (157-160)”
But none of these recommendations were implemented by any government in the post independent period up todate.
This clearly shows how all governments since 1951 have treated the Kandyan areas and their people, the saviors of the Sinhale and its heroes, (our ancestors) who saved this country for these ungrateful politicians to enjoy the privileges of political power.
The department was later upgraded to a “B” class department in 1964, and subsequently to a full “A” class department in 1994 again only by name, minus adequate power and financial resources to uplift this vast area covering 1/3rd of the country.
The establishment of this department was based on the recommendations of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission Report of 1951, which identified landlessness and poverty as the major issues in the region. This Report was a sequel to the Commission appointed by Governor Mason Moor on 13th January 1949 to make recommendations as to the measures that should be adopted for the amelioration of their twin problems of landlessness and poverty. It must be stated here that the commission had not made any reference to the main and real issues, that created the above twin problems of landlessness and poverty of the Kandyan regions or its people but touched only the tip of the ice berg, details of which I have referred to in the following pages. Even the one and the only Six -Year plan submitted by Minister A Ratnayaka was put in to the wastepaper basket together with the CPR by the government of the day and left fully ignored until 1958, until the new government created a teethless and moneyless C grade Sub Department that had to wait for another 36 years until 1994 to upgrade it in to an A class Department. But even after 1994 unfortunately, the subject of Kandyan area rehabilitation and development was never considered as an important national issue, until it was finally murdered and buried under 10 feet below for good by Basil Raajpaksa in January 2014.
Both the 56-year-old ailing Kandyan Peasantry Department and the Uarata Area Development Authority created in 2005 (based on a paper I submitted to Prime Minister Mrs. B in 1994) were also finally abolished, in January 2014 with the creation of The DiviNaguma Authority by Minister Basil Rajapaksa and buried it forever, never to rise from its grave again.
This in brief is the tragic obituary notice of the Kandyan heroes who fought for 310 years (1505-1815) against three powerful western colonial invaders, dying in tens of thousands to defend their motherland and saved it for you and me, to live today, on this cherished land of Gauthama the Buddha, known as the Sinhale, the land of the Sinhala nation.
The Six Year Plan (1954/5-1959/60)being the only meaningful action ever taken on this subject by Home Minister A Ratnayaka submitted to the then Government in 1952, made to ameliorate these twin problems landlessness and poverty as the major issues in the region, that were only the tip of a Himalaya Mountain of physical, economic, social, political and even the pain in the neck conflict with India, our closest neighbor, left behind as an ugly legacy of British colonial rule. But is it not an unpardonable negligence and disgrace on the part of all post-1948 governments, that not even 10 % of the proposals made under that first and the only 6 Year plan had never been implemented fully up to date.
On the other hand, look at the treacherous way as to how all our own Sinhala unpatriotic politicians, who had no love for their motherland, its people or the 2500 year old pristine Sinhala Buddhist heritage and who have no vision or a mission of nation building have betrayed our motherland, its heroic Sinhala nation, the sons of the soil together with their millennia old heritage have paved the way to hand over 1/3 of our motherland to these Malabar immigrant Tamils on a platter for their vote (which they never get) who were only imported slave labour by the British colonial invaders after 1870 to work on their plantations and left behind, when they left the Island in 1948 as a bunch of stateless coolies, whose history even as British collies left behind is only 77 years.
Also Look at the way as to how these unpatriotic politicians have made a bunch of immigrant foreign laborers only with 77 years of illicit staying on this Island, almost the virtual owners of these lands by their political blunders made in the name of governing from 1948 to date.
The tragic story of the KandyanSinhalese, whose heroic ancestors defended and protected the motherland, Sinhale and its civilization and the Buddha sasana, from the second century BC, to the 13trh century AD, first, against the South Indian invaders and second, against three powerful invincible Western invaders with their mighty naval and gun power, Portuguese, Dutch and the English for 310 years (1505-1815) and also who protected it for posterity without allowing it to be a country like Australia, America or New Zealand, where all natives were totally annihilated by these European invaders and established their own Kingdoms on others soil.
In this country, on the other hand, they were able to captured only a narrow coastal strip, not more than few miles, around the Island abutting the Kandyan Kingdom and ruled it by converting the people there to the invader’s religions, by force, completely destroying the native Buddhist temples and viharas that were there. They baptized almost all native Sinhala people within this coastal belt and gave their names and forced them to adopt their cultures.
But the enemies were fiercely resisted and never allowed to capture the Sinhale, the Kandyan Kingdom at the center, by the Sinhala heroes of the Kandyan Kingdom who protected it, covering more than 90 % of the total area of the country, by restricting the invaders occupation to the coastal belt for 310 long years from 1505 to 1815. This is how today we have large number of Pereras, Silvas, Perises, Coorays,Fenandos, Pintos, Singhoes, Martins, Simons, Davids. Dias, Davids, Johns, Alvises, Richadrs, Simons, Marys, Elizebeths, joslins, Dulcys, Anns etc in the South Western coastal strip even at present.
(See map below by Henry Marshell Ceylon).
Had the Kandyan Sinhalese also meekly yielded to these sea pirates like the Sinhalese of the coastal areas, we would never have a country as Sinhale and a nation to be called Sinhale, with Buddhism in this country as the foremost Religion as we have it today and ended up under a different name of their choice like Australia or Amerika packed up with Silvas Fernados, Peirises and Diases and Pintos all over the Island with no Bandas and Manikes or Appuhamis, and infested with Catholic and Cristian Churches and Cathedrals with no Buddhist Temples, Viharas and a Temple of the Tooth to be seen and probably without Sri Paada, which they had already named as Adams Peak in the early 19th century probably copying from what Iban Battuta an Arabian Traveler, who visited this Island around 1344 AD was supposed to have called it. This is how Sinhale with its pristine Sinhala Buddhist Civilization would have ended up, had the Kandyan Sinhalese not protected it from the invaders of course at a price.
The Kandyan Kingdom in 1815
The red line shows the boundaries of the Kandyan kingdom as at 1815.The narrow strip between the red line and the sea is the area to which the three invaders were confined for 310 years by our heroic Kandyan Sinhala ancestors.
This is why I maintain the argument that all Sinhalese, whether they reside in the lowlands or the hill country, in this Sacred Land must at least now resole to call themselves by that epithet Sinhalese only, without any prefixes like Kandyans or Low country Sinhalese, a trickish division Robert Percival introduced to divide the 2500 year Sinhala Nation in 1803, as the first conspiracy to weaken the Sinhala Nation to further their vicious divide and rule policy by dividing the Sinhala nation in to two adversary camps as Kandyans and Low country Sinhales camps. The nation had to be ever grateful to the never yielding brave patriotic Sinhalese of the Kandyan Kingdom for Protecting the Kandyan Kingdom at the center covering the Major area of the Sinhale Kingdom with its Buddhist civilization until finally it was annexed to the British Empire on March 2 1815 by conspiracy, intrigue and deceit hatched jointly by Doily the Master brain and Brownrigg the white murderer Governor of the coastal belt at that time.
It must be clearly stated here that the 1815 annexation was done between two equal Sovereign Kingdoms by a mutually agreed Convention and never by yielding to the invader. Therefore, all Sinhalese in this country must be proud that Sinhale was the only country in the world the British annexed to their Empire by mutually agreed convention between two sovereign and independent nations and not by conquest as some historians have stated. Doily had convinced Brownrigg that this was the only way to capture this country, recollecting their disgraceful defeat at Danture and Kandy in 1803. Doily and Brownrigg had other plans up their sleeves, when the Kandyan Convention was singed which, they activated in 1818 on Nov 1st under the Royal Proclamation 1 declaring war on the Sinhale Kingdom and on its people and thereby unilaterally violating the Kandyan Convention, that remains a valid agreement even today, as it was never abolished by law up to date, as I know. Thereafter, the British ruled this country in their own way by the gun and the sword under Royal Proclamations by the British Crown, seemingly legal but technically illegal under repressive laws and enactments up to 1948, while the Kandyan Convention was still valid.
I am writing this essay today to express my deepest sorrow and disgust on all post 1948 Sinhala politicians and their governments, that were supposed to have governed this country from 1948 up to date, with five exceptions only, who have looked at this issue pragmatically and realistically up to date. The first was D.S.Senanayaka, the first Prime Minister who disenfranchised all Indian coolie labourers in 1948, who were brought and settled on the newly opened up Coffee and Tea plantations in the central country after 1870 by the British. This I consider as the first step taken by any politician to send these army of South Indian labourers back to their own country. But unfortunately, he did not live to complete that historic task. Second person was A. Ratnayaka Minister of Home Affairs who presented the first and the only Six Year Plan (1953-59) with such enthusiasm and joy saying at last justice had been meted out to two provinces of Central and Uva. May the coming years bring up to view a grand vista in these Provinces redolent of the glories of the pristine past’ he concluded with immense joy. But unfortunately, his wild dream ended up in a day dream due to political infightings within the government followed up by change of government in 1956 that put Minister Ratnayakas dream in to limbo due to lack of patriotism and commitment in meeting justice to the Kandyan areas and its heroic people by all successive governments until the subject of rehabilitation of the Kandyan areas and its people were finally literally killed and buried under 100 feet by Basil Rajapaksa in January 2014 for ever by abolishing the ailing Kandyan Peasantry Commissioners Department established in 1958 and The Kandyan Areas Development Authority
The Six Year plan on rural reconstruction and rehabilitation of social and economic conditions of the Kandyan areas in Central and Uva Provinces made in 1953 on the recommendations of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission Report of 1951 was a very comprehensive and pragmatic development plan. The Minister of Home Affairs Mr A. Ratnayaka in his forward to the Six Year Plan had said that a sum of Rs 220 million was provided for that Six Year Plan. But whether that money had been provided to this cause is moot question, the way how that Six Year plan was implemented up to date.
The High-Powered Development Board on (P229/30 KPC Report) or the Main recommendations made in (P232 and 233) including 4 additional Kachcheries, at Naula and Rikillagaskada (Kandy district) and at Bibile and Wellawaya (Uva Province) and the proposal made set up the establishment of a Development Fund and to collect special Taxes and roads in the area to be diverted to the Development Fund etc never saw the light of the day. There is also a contradiction between the Development Board given of (P230) and the Advisory Board on (P233). For these reasons and the defeat of the Government in 1956 Minister Ratnayaka’s expectations and good intensions never saw the light of the day.
The third was Sir John Kotalawala who entered in to a Sri Lanka friendly Agreement in 1953 with Nehru by which he insisted that any plantation worker, if he or she want be a Sri Lankan Citizen and stay here should learn Sinhala, the Language of the country, and be prepared to assimilate and intergrade with the native Sinhala society. Those who agree to do so will be kept on provisionary list for 10 years before they become full citizens of this country and those who are not prepared to do so will have to leave the country and go back to India.
The fourth was R.G.Senanayaka (the son of FR) who formed the new political party Sinhala Mahajana Pakshaya in 1972. He spelled out the best manifesto ever, that is the Ideal Constitutional format to this Sinhala Buddhist country. But with his untimely death in 1972, this country lost the only politician who presented a patriotic national policy for the first time, based on the civilizational foundation of this country which Gunadasa Amarasekara call the sabhYathva raajya” publishehed recently. Had R.G. survived to form a government and to implement his manifesto, I have no doubt the story of this country today would have been completely different. But the people of this country are not fortunate enough to have such a constitution as he also died prematurely.
Coming bac to the implementation of the Six Year Plan, I note, it is a national tragedy that even 10 % of this Six Year Plan has not been implemented up to now. (See below for more details).
Although the KPC 1951 was the 2nd best Commission Report produce in pre 1952 period (After the Kannangara Report on Free Education 1943), it dealt only with the ‘Social and Economic issues’ as that was the mandate given to the Commission by the then Governor. As such the KPC Report Commission did not include the following major national issues to make it a comprehensive and realistic rehabilitation and development plan.
1.The need to restore the lost physical stability of the Central hill country, so critical for the survival of, not only the Kandyan Provinces but also the entire life system in this whole country, that was completely destroyed first, by the invaders by deforesting the whole hill country, the main watershed of the Island up to 8000 ft msl, which resulted in drying up all the major rivers of the Island that have their sources and degrading 1.3 million acres in the hill country, by opening up the land for largescale Coffee (1840)- and Tea (1870) plantations. It was followed by other activities like constructions of roads and railways, buildings and shelters for millions of imported slave laborers from South India who had no love for this land as they had come only to make a living for survival as conditions in India were so miserable at that time and millions of South Indians left drought and poverty-stricken India to other parts of the world in Asia, Africa and even far away countries like the West Indies in search of a way of living.
The massive physical changes that took place in the central Hill Country due to its opening up for plantations followed by largescale deforestation by the invader was followed by large scale eco-biological changes; earth slips and landslides on the hills and untold flash flood and misery in the downstream areas as it had been clearly explained in the Kelani Valley Railway Commission Report (1894) which reached the climax of devastation this year due to cumulative effects that gathered momentum over time up to now. (Therefore, the need to restore physical Justice)
2. The need to restore the lost land rights of both crown and private within the Kandyan Kingdom of the native Kandyan Sinhalese, exceeding 1.3 million acres first by a) restoring the pristine natural forest cover that was strictly protected (thahanchi kele) during the times of the Sinhalese Kings in the hill country on all lands above 3500 ft msl and
b) returning all the land owned by native Sinhalese to their original owners as these lands were taken over by the invaders from the native people by force with no compensation either, under repressive and illegal laws like the Act no 12 of 1840 on Encroachment on Crown Land, (as if they were the property of the British Crown), the Temple Land Ord of 1853 and the Wasteland Ord of 1897. (The need to restore the Legal Justice of the Bhumiputhras)
3 Above all the need to send back the 1.2 million Indian labour force brought by the British as their slaves by 1948, back to India (As they were British Citizens then), like what Burma, Tanganika and most Colonies in Asia and Africa did, as we need to get back the vacant possession of our mother land handed over to the British in 1815 by mutual agreement. Therefore Sri Lanka/ Sinhale Government too had a solid legal claim to make this request from the English in 1948 ( which they never did) when they declared ‘freedom’ to this Island as even the Kandyan Convension1815 had already explicitly stated and committed not to allow Malabar people to do anything with this country after 2nd March 1815, by stating All claim and title of the Malabar race to the Dominion of the Kandyan Provinces as abolished and extinguished” (sec 2 of Kandyan Convention of 1815). I hold the view that this Constitutional provision applies equally to all Malabar immigrants imported even by the British since March 2. 1815 to this country and settled anywhere in the Island including the North and the East, who were brought after 1799. Furthermore, even at the time this Commission was appointed in 1949 these plantation Tamils were not-citizens of this country. As such the Commissioners should never have addressed estate Tamils in this survey as they had done by publishing notices in Tamil.
4.The need to get compensation by way of reparation from Britain for using our land by exploiting its resources to enrich their Empire, where the sun never set. Compensation also should be claimed for the Kandyan people for the loss of life and property and the means of living in 1817-1818 and 1848 freedom struggles and for crimes they committed like murder against native leaders and banishing them to foreign countries like Mauritius. (Political and social justice for violation of human rights)
However, one can argue that the commission cannot be blamed for these lapses as it has carried out its duty within the terms of reference only ” But I hesitate to exonerate the Commissioners, more particularly its Chairman N.E. Weerasuriya, a distinguished legal luminary and its Secretary Victor Tennakoon, who was also a noted Kandyan legal luminary, M.D. Banda, a patriotic and noted Civil Servant and finally D.B. Allepola Assistant to the Commission, a renowned scholar on Kandyan affairs for not drawing the attention of the Governor to revise the terms of reference more objectively in terms of the above requirements I have mentioned1-4. With these serious lapses, I opine the Commissioners have given birth only to a baby rat after making a mountain of efforts” as the famous Sinhala proverb says and also it reminds me the story of the seven blind men who described the elephant.
It also should be noted that Governor Mason Moore (1944-1948) who appointed this commission was a great schemer and an exponent of the British Divide and rule policy. He was the man who named the newly found political party as the United National Party (UNP) implying that there is more than one nation in this country. He convinced leaders that it is an attempt to unite all nations in this country and cleverly implanted the idea that this country is a multi-national, multi-ethnic and multi religious country, in the heads of our visionless politicians, which they had already inculcated in the heads of the minority groups such as Tamils and Muslims and also in the international circles starting from 1799 with the infamous yarn of two nations and two countries in this land of the Sinhalese, naked historical fabrication cooked up and invented by Cleghorn, the father of this master conspiracy to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this country and he submitted it to Governor North. This may be why Moore deliberately limited the terms of reference of this commission to social and economic conditions only, so that he can deceive and appease both Sinhalese and Tamils by that trick, and also killing two birds with one stone. By that subtle trick he deceived the native Kandyan Sinhalese politicians that his government is genuinely interested in the welfare of the Kandyan Sinhalese whereas the truth is not.
Exclusion of the above 4 indirectly guaranteed the safety of the immigrant Indian Tamils on the Estates, indicating to Estate Tamils that they are also safe under his government as a separate nation within the Kandyan territory in this country and therefore they should not worry about the appointment of this Commission
But, nevertheless, in fairness to the Commissioners who had devoted their valuable time for 3 years from 3rd March 1949 to 28th Feb 1951 and covering 2 Provinces, Central and Uva with extremely difficult terrain, meeting thousands of officers and villagers and producing a 529 page thesis on this subject that prevailed at that time, I should not fail to say that they have produced a comprehensive and detailed record on these two subjects assigned to them namely, the social and economic conditions in the Central and Uva Provinces that should definitely serve as the foundation of any socio-economic rehabilitation and reconstruction programme in these two Provinces.
However, the Commissioners as patriotic and responsible citizens, in my view should have requested the Governor for a revision of the terms of reference to include the above four requirements, if meeting justice to Kandyan areas and its heroic people is the genuine objective of the Governor in appointing this Commission, as social and economic justice of the great people of these Provinces in particular and the nation in general can never be accomplished without fulfilling those four requirements in this country as an independent nation, as they form the steal foundation of any future political, social and economic rehabilitation and reconstruction programme in this country to make it an independent and a free Sinhala nation, as it used to be prior to 1815 for more than 2500 years.
In spite of the intrinsic value of the KPC Report as a source of statistical hand book on socio-economic data for any future development plan in the Central and Uva Provinces, it was not seriously accepted for implementation when it was submitted to the cabinet in 1953. I am also sad to note that it had always been given step motherly treatment by all governments up to date, as if there is no Kandyan area or a Sinhala population by that name. At the same time unfortunately, there had never been a political leader from the Kandyan Provinces who could stand up in Parliament to say this. There was also no social leader or an organized power group of Kandyan leaders or a formidable political or social power group to speak on behalf of the Kandyans regarding their plight in their own ancestral land or to speak a single word on their behalf in Parliament and take up this issue with the authorities in protests against this discriminatory and lukewarm treatment given to the them by all governments ever since 1948 up to date, although 77 years of misery have already gone.
Compared with the special patronage extended by all governments and their leaders, towards these migrant foreign estate Tamils workers who were brought to this country only as coolly labour by the British after 1840 to work as cheap labour, the way how the native Sinhalese had been treated by all post 1948 governments are depressing and appalling. The estate Tamils, who had been here only for 75 years as illicit immigrants, have never considered this country as their motherland. But they play their political clout by bargaining their vote to get established permanently right at the center of the country in the Heartland of the Sinhala Kingdom as Malayaha probably to be converted as Malayanadu with a different culture, a different religion and a different language with allegiance to India which they consider as their motherland for all intent and purposes, with the subversive blessings of India and the so-called Euro-American International neo colonial powers whose dream is only to destroy this land of the Sinhala Buddhist civilization, after establishing a mini Tamilnadu within the Geographical Heartland that had been the strategic citadel and hideout of the Sinhalese Royalty jealously guarded from time of Dutugamunu and Walagamba( 2nd century B.C.) up to the days of Sri Wickrama Rajasinha(1798-1815).
Unfortunately, none of the post 1948 governments or the politicians in this country (with the exception of D.S. Sir John and R.G Senanaayak) have been able to understand this historical reality of the Sinhala nation and the Central Hill Country in particular up to now. Also, none of them has realized the imminent danger of having an unfriendly foreign population of a different ethnic group, different culture and a different religion and historically anti Sinhala anti Buddhist nationality who were sworn enemies of the Sinhala Buddhist and whose ancestors had been a headache invading this country from the second century BC, presently playing hell right at the Geographical, historical and strategical Heart land of this land and the urgent need to get rid of them before they establish their 29th Indian State within this country with an international Airport at Nuwara Eliya right at the Geographical Heartland of the Sinhala nation.
That is how the politicians of the post 1948 period have treated the Kandyans, who had saved this 2500-year-old our motherland and its unique Sinhala Buddhist civilization from foreign occupation for 310 years from three invincible Western invaders and protected the Sinhale, the motherland of the Sinhala nation. Even the First and the only Six Year Plan submitted to the Cabinet by the Minister of Home Affairs A. Ratnayaka in 1953 was rejected due to objections by the then Minister of Finance M.D.H Jayawardhana who refused to allocate money for its implementation, stating that he opposes special treatment for any one area or the Kandyan people.
Ever since 1948 the subject of Kandyan Peasants was looked down upon by all Governments and the descendants of the brave Kandyan Sinhalese, the saviors of the motherland at very high cost were illtreated and neglected for hidden political reasons I think, until the Kandyan Peasantry Department and the Upcountry Area Development Authority (as they had named it due to their allergy towards the word Kandyan) was finally killed and permanently dumped in the bed of the Indian Ocean, symbolically, along with the 4 million Kandyan people by Basil Rajapaksa on 1st April 2014 by abolishing both the Department of Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation and the Upcountry (as these politicians hated even the word Kandyan) Area Development Authority without a hum from any Kandyan area politician, in Parliament or any Provincial Council or even a single Pradhesiiya Saba. (The then Government named it as Upcountry Area did not accept the name Kandyan Area Development Authority” I proposed in my memorandum to Mrs. Bandaranayake in 1994 for the first time by any.
I see many political and sectarian reasons for this apathetic attitude of all governments. Out of all, I see the following main reasons as to why it was sidelined by all governments.
1.The first is the Kandyan- Low Country conflict. Created by the Colonial masters in 1803 and swallowed by who lived under the colonial powers for 310 years as their obedient captives enjoying various privileges under them even without supporting the Kandyan freedom fighters to defend the motherland.
2.The second and perhaps even more critical was the treacherous betrayal of the Kandyans by the Low Country Sinhala politicians for the petty privileges they had got from the white rulers and
3, Third, their greed for the Tamil vote in the plantations and even in other areas in the country as all political parties who consider political power is more important than even their motherland and their own nation.
4. Fourth, is the ignorance of all politicians and the reluctance to accept the unique and historic role the Kandyan people had played in protecting the motherland from the invaders for 310 long years and the yeoman sacrifice they had made on behalf of the present generation in the whole country to live as Sinhalese on this resplendent paradise on earth.
5.Fifth, all Governments in this country since 1948 were run mostly by the Colombo based westernized English educated elite with a mediocre set of representatives from the village sector who were only flag bearers in Parliament dictated by the party leaders. The government of this country therefore was always run by a selected set of elite leaders either from Cinnamon Garden or Banana Garden (Kehelwatta) who decide what to do.
Again, Look at the Rajiv/JR Accord of July 29. 1978 under which JR agreed to merge the two provinces NP and EP as the Traditional and Historical Home land of the Malabar immigrant Tamils who were imported to this country only after 1799 as collie labourers of the Colonial government, to legalize Tamil also as an Official Language in this country by the 16th amendment to the Constitution whereas it is not so even in India where 70 million Tamils live (in their actual Historical Home land of the Tamils) also made Tamil the language of administration in these two province opening the door to political separation as an independent State, to grant Sri Lanka Citizenship to all Tamils living in this country by that time, violating the Ceylon Citizenship Act and most of all to establish 9 Provincial Councils to devolve Legislative, Executive Judicial and land powers to the Provinces and thereby totally dismantle the well-established Kachcheri system of District Administration under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and thereby reducing the 1978 Constitution to a mere scrap of paper paving the way for a separate Tamil State within this country ending the unitary State of Sri Lanka.
Next Premadasa devolved power to the Divisions by his famous, Transfer of Powers to the Divisional Secretaries by Act no 52 of 1992, by which he devolved land powers to the Divisions taking it out from the GAA. The PA Circular 21 of 1992 by which he betrayed the motherland by dismantling the unitary character of the Sri Lankan State Leading to a division of the county first to a quasi-Federal status and end up with complete separation with the declaration of the Tamil EELAM in the North and East very soon.
Moreover, all these Colombo based politicians were always advised by the Colombo based Western educated legal, professional, financial and business elite. In reality it was this Colombo elite who ran all the Governments of this country since 1948. They take the politicians on a blind alley by their noses, making them their victims and often their prisoners and the proxies of the Westminster system of government, because it is the perpetuation of that system that protects their privileges.
The sixth as I perceive is the minority bias arising from the eternal fear that if they implement the KPC recommendation even in the limited way, they will not get the support of the Estate Tamils. I have personal experience on this subject as I have been speaking to many politicians representing the Kandyan areas, where there is an insignificant minority, where they have their reservations on this subject noting their dependence on the Estate Tamil vote. But in reality, very rarely an Estate sector Tamil cast his/her vote for a Sinhala Candidate.
None of the Estate Tamils joined any national party. Tamil politicians in the Estate sector have their own Communal political parties who support whatever the Party that comes to power and get their communal demands fulfilled. They never thought that they were a part and parcel of the Sinhala nation. They always think and act as Indians even in their dreams. But when it comes to governance, they always support the party in power. In return the Estate Tamils often get Ministries and even Cabinet Portfolios. The Sinhala Governments who never see anything beyond their noses, and who never had national policies thus have succumbed to all their demands at the expense of the Kandyan Sinhalese right from the beginning just to retain their power.
All the Sinhala politicians representing Kandyan areas keep deaf, dumb and blind to all these issues. Those Sinhalese politicians in the low country also keep quiet as if it is not their business either.
As for me I have never seen a government or a heard of politicians like this, in any other country anywhere else in the whole world, where they have betrayed their own people who have built up the civilization and protected its sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country throughout history, paying with their life in millions, who have betrayed and neglected their own country and people like the Sinhala politicians of this country, especially those who ran the country since 1948.
One has to read Part 11 that will follow without fail to get a full picture of this tragedy.
Part 11 will follow
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