Dr.Sudath Gunasekara
(Please note
that this is a revised version of an article I wrote to Lankaweb on 7.6. 2018
and 10. 3. 2020 on the same subject up
dated to suit the present situation)
Lakisuru Gothaabhaya Rajapaksha Metitumani !
The whole
nation, and at least the 6.5 million of us whom have voted you at the
Presidential election and the SLPP on 5th August demand Your Excellency to abolish the
white elephant and the curse that is Provincial Councils and its root the JR/
Rajiv Accord of 29th July 1987 at least now, before this Indian born Rathaksiya
gobble up the Sinhala Buddhist Nation and this whole Island in its entirety in
no time.
While
congratulating again for the historic and unprecedented victory you have gained, as I predicted on the
14th Nov via my E-mail, addressed to
you (Published in Lankaweb) and also while adoring all patriotic and courageous steps you have
already taken since then up to date like no other President, such as the brief
but dignified speech you made at the
Election Commissioners office on the day you were declared elected as the
President of this country and your historic address to the nation at the
swearing in ceremony under the shadow of Ruwanweli Seya (which I have been yearning for 14 years for
the Head of the State to do), the most sacred Buddhist Stupa in the world and
the crest jewel of the Sinhala Nation and the dignified address from the Thrown
on 20th August you have restored an age old tradition followed by
our ancient Sinhala Kings, signifying a turning point in the history of this
Island nation.
Furthermore the lean interim cabinet of 15 Ministers, the
smallest since 1956, the excellent way you have handled all Indian politicians
and the Indian press on you visit just concluded and many more wise and bold
decisions you have taken since you assumed Office, I am writing this note to
you to earnestly request you to abolish the JR/ Rajiv Accord of 1987 and the
disastrous 13th Amendment that gave birth to Provincial Councils and many an inconsistencies and historical
travesties in the Island’s long and checkered history (explained in detail below), to rescue this unique tiny Island nation from disappearing
forever from this planet earth in few years due to disintegration, disunity and
infighting between Bhoomiputra Sinhalese and intruder Tamil and Muslim ethnic
groups, resulting from this well designed
Indian political Atom bomb called the
Provincial Councils, planted to destroy
this 2500 year old Glorious Sinhala Buddhist civilization, an all-time
pride and a garland for human civilization on this
planet.
I identify the
following catastrophes resulting from these two Indian prescriptions.
- Complete breakdown of district administration
- Complete disintegration and division of the Sri Lankan State in to a
number of different ethnic and religious enclaves at logger heads fighting for its
resources like land and water and supremacy over the others threatening its
unitary status and sovereignty as a nation.
3 Destabilization of governance resulting in complete
anarchy due to break down in governance
- Colossal wastage of Public funds with no benefit to the people or
the country in trillions rupees
- Since the first elections for
Provincial Councils took place on 28 April 1988 this is how public funds have
been spent or rather wasted on their upkeep.
Sri Lanka
Provincial Councils: Expenditure
1996 – 2017 | Yearly | LKR mn | Ministry of Finance
Sri Lanka’s Provincial Councils: Expenditure
data was reported at 286,031.000 LKR mn in Dec 2017. This records an increase
from the previous number of 276,147.000 LKR mn for Dec 2016. Sri Lanka’s Provincial
Councils: Expenditure data is updated yearly, averaging 103,769.000 LKR mn from
Dec 1996 to 2017, with 22 observations. The data reached an all-time high of
286,031.000 LKR mn in 2017. So with an average of almost 104 mn you can
visualize how much national wealth has gone down the drain for the past 31
years, that is approximately 3224 mn or 3.2 Billion. What a colossal wastage
and a pathetic and unpardonable misuse of public funds.”
The other
important aspect is much of this money has gone for unproductive items like
salaries and remunerations of Politicians and public Servants, buildings,
vehicles, meaningless regular and luxury tamasas in five start hotels, foreign
joy trips and other activities unrelated to development. Once the Secretary of
the Ministry in charge of this subject told me that only 10 % of voted funds is
spent on capital work and the balance 90 % is spent for recurrent activities
which do not contribute anything for development.
With all this
wastage of Public funds the billion dollar question the people of this country
ask is what benefit PCC have brought to the Country since 1987. Beside the
colossal financial lost to the country, the political, and administrative and
institutional mess, chaos and confusion by way of duplication of institutions,
and increase of an utterly unproductive and lotus eater set of politicians, and
public servants. What benefits it has brought to the country over the past 31
years. Officials, offices and expenditure have exponentially increased in the
ratio of 1 to 15 with zero output. It also has brought about a complete
breakdown of the once highly efficient District Administration in this country.
Thus the Provincial Councils have come to stay as a veritable Huniyama for this
country’s peril.
Why we should have Provincial Councils at all
In this back
drop I pose the pertinent question as to why we should have Provincial Councils
at all in this country; today the whole nation asks? Who asked for Provincial Councils? Was it a request by the people of this country
or by some genius politicians for better governance? No one at Home asked for
it. It was India who proposed it first, to appease the Tamilnadu electorate to
consolidate power at Home by imposing it on the Sri Lankan President by force,
almost at gunpoint, well timed, when there was an old and weak President as the
Head of Government. I still remember how India invaded our air space with their
war jets and dropped parippu? to the north and how arrogantly and
undiplomatically their Ambassador Dixit behaved in front of the elderly
Statesman JR, the Head of this country at his Ward place residence, as if Dixit
was the viceroy of India conveying the message of the Indian ‘King,’
threatening a Head of a Vassal State of India of an imminent Indian invasion of
the Island, if he refuses to sign the Accord.
The Accord was
strategically designed by India , to divide and destabilize this country on an ethnic basis giving Tamils full power to
own and rule nearly half of the country including the North and East and
Central Sri Lanka (inclusive of Central, Sabaragamuwa and Uva Provinces),
although India did not clearly specify these three Provinces. This was nothing
but an extension of the same divide and rule policy started by the colonial
British in 1832 by the creation the Provinces in a different form. This Indian
conspiracy becomes crystal clear when we analyze the following impositions
India made on this country by the Rajiv/JR Accord of 29th July 1987.
1 The
declaration of the Northern and Eastern Provinces comprising 1/ 3 the land area
of the Island as the Traditional Home land” of the Tamil People that was a
complete travesty of the Islands authentic history. These two Provinces have
never been a traditional Tamil land at any time of known history. On the
contrary this whole Island had been the traditional Homeland of the Sinhala
people at least from 543 BC and it is a historical fact accepted by all
historians, other than the Tamils and Indian politicians.
First, this
Accord enabled the Tamils to claim 1/3 of the land area of the country for a
mere 5 lahks Tamils and thereby depriving any Sinhalese or Muslims being
settled there while Tamils can settle down in any part of the Island
Second, giving
Tamils the right to own 1/3 of the country, 2/3 the coastal belt and nearly 3/5
of the marine territory and its resources including the Trincommallee harbor,
the best natural harbor in Asia and the
second best in the world.
Thus this Accord
deprived the Bhoomiputras, the Sinhalese their birth right over their Motherland,
which their ancestors have protected against all foreign invasions, both Indian
and European for 2500 years and enjoyed for millennia as their beloved
motherland from the dawn of history. This Accord was designed by India in order
to fix the last nail on the Sinahla nation, with a vicious plan to annex the
Island to India in future.
Third Made Tamil also an Official language,
nullifying Sec 18 of the Constitution of the Republic whereas even in India
Tamil is not recognized as an Official language in spite of the fact that there
are nearly 70 million Tamils there.
Fourth forced Sri Lanka to give Citizenship to all estate
Tamils of Indian origin in the Central, Sabargamauwa and Uva Provinces and even
Indians living in other parts of the country even if they are illicit
immigrants, disregarding all internationally accepted norms and our own laws on
the subject of granting citizenship to foreigners in any country.
Fifth imposed
that the Northern and Eastern Provinces should be merged to form one Tamil
Province with provision to merge two or more Provinces as one in future.
Thus in sum the
Accord completely destroyed the Independence, sovereignty, the Unitary status
and the freedom of this Island Nation and i1987 Constitution as well, within
few minutes, by one man Junies Richard Jayawardana against Island wide protests
organized by the Opposition and the objections by some of his own Ministers,
reducing this country to a veritable vassal State of the Subcontinent without
any resistance. This was meek submission on the part of JR he committed for
survival.
Therefore while taking action to abolish this
Accord, I also earnestly request you to reverse the above 4 conditions as early
as possible.
JR was forced to
accept the Accord almost at gunpoint and India laid down these 4 serious
conditions reducing the 1987 Constitution to a mere paper scrap. Adding to this
JR created PCC to all other Provinces as well accelerating the process of
division and disintegration and leading to future political and administrative
confusion. This Accord was signed under Island wide emergency and after confining
all his MPP to a five star Hotel having obtained their undated letters of
resignation.
The
implementation of this Accord, to its logical conclusion will definitely wipe
out the Sinhala Buddhist nation from the surface of this planet in the long
run. Therefore the crying need, to abolish it immediately, with no delay.
It is in this
dangerous and disastrous backdrop that I urge all patriotic people to rise
against this Accord and disastrous Provincial Councils to strengthen the
President’s hands and request him to abrogate it immediately as it constitutes
the foundation for the division of this small country in to 9 antagonistic
pieces and finally falling in to the hands of India (As you know Sir a
scrambled egg can never be un-scrambled).
This is exactly what the people of this country have been agitating and
demanding every government, for the past 31 years. But tragically it has not
fallen on the deaf ears of our selfish and timid and power hungry politicians
who have no concern for the country or the future of the people. The SLFP under
Sirimavo protested against it right from the beginning although later it also
embraced it without realizing the inherent dangers that underlies these clauses
of the Accord.
Let us abolish these PCC immediately
As such why talk
of PCC elections now, instead of abolishing this national curse and disaster
immediately? This is a crucial political decision long overdue that has to be
taken by a patriotic statesman like you, who loves this country and its people,
in order to save this country from an imminent total political, economic,
social and cultural disaster in the offing. In fact this is a priority decision
that has to be taken as early as possible by your Government. The whole country
wants it to go. Once the Accord is abolished, the 13th A and the PCC set up
under that will also get abolished automatically. We all expected MR to do this
immediately after the 2009 when he had all the power including a 2/3 in
Parliament. Had he done that then no one
could have dared to contest it. But unfortunately he did not do it. Again he appears to promise the press today
that as soon as the General election is over they will have the PC elections. I
do not know whether he said so to garner the 2/3 and abolish it thereafter. If
that is his plan the whole nation will admire him ore that his victory over the
LTTE. I only hope he will not commit the same mistake he did after the 2010
Election.
Once the PCC are
gone all superficial Office holders such as the so called 9 Governors, 9 ‘Cheap’
Ministers, 45 Provincial Ministers and all such parasitic politicians who bleed
the nation to its bones will also go home relieving the burden they have
overloaded on the country. Thereafter every one of them will at least plant a
manioc stem that will do some service at least to a wild boar. The professional
public servants presently working in these Councils will have no problem as
they could be accommodated in suitable places in the public service until they
retire.
Another reason
why I argue for the abolition of PCC is the need to avoid a total disaster in
District Administration that will make any retrieval of governance in this
country impossible. Furthermore that will put an end to all divisive political
manipulations such as federal status, self-determination, self-rule of Muslims
and EELAM dreams of the Tamils. It will also save billions of rupees now being
spent for the upkeep of these monkey cages and piggeries called Provincial
Councils infested with monkeys and goats, a political appendage and a dead
weight around the nation’s neck that has burdened the country for the past 31
years and destabilized the total administration almost beyond recovery. Finally
it will also relive us from any future subversive Indian or Arabian invasions
and conspiracies hatched to divide this country on ethnic basis with a dream of
Indianization of this country or converting it to an Arab land as Hisbulla has
planned in the E astern Katthankudi area.
I call upon all
Patriotic people to make this request in one voice from the new President to
abolish these monkey cages and dens of thieves that have exponentially
increased waste and corruption and completely ruined the decent political
culture of this country for the past 31 years and multiplied separatists
tendencies and communal agitations dragging the nation to complete
disintegration in future on ethnic lines with no chance of redemption in future
I know it very
well that no political party, even the
UNP that invented it under J.R. or even those who were against them in 1987
will ask for their abolition, as they use these Councils members to net votes
at all elections for their political survival. But for the general public these
Councils are an eye sore when they see the way how public funds are been wasted
criminally on the upkeep of these useless lotus eater Governors, Chief
Ministers, Ministers, Members, plethora of officials and the institutions that
house them. Other than enjoying the luxuries of office, attending openings,
weddings, funerals school functions like sport meets, temple functions, and
various other social and private tamsas, roaming all over the world on pleasure
trips and running all over the country to show their loyalty to their political
masters, misusing public funds, and
collecting votes and funds for their political leaders in Colombo and herding
people for their meetings like May day rallies and propaganda meetings of their
masters in Parliament who in turn ruin the whole country and throwing their
weight on the innocent and helpless masses on the other hand, I ask these
parasitic creatures as to what service they have done to the people or the
country that pay their salaries and ill-gotten fabulous perks
Why can’t the SLPP (successor to SLFP), as a group who
constitutes the majority who opposed the 13th A in 1987 at least now agitate
for the abolition of this tragic national curse. The people hate this system
and curse them too. Now that the SLPP that has come to power with a resounding
victory already has the Pradesiya Sabhas, the live wires of Local Government in
its hand to organize the election campaign for them at the village and the
local levels there is no need for a Provincial apparatus for elections either.
Now that the
country has functioned smoothly without these parasitic and wasteful institutions,
almost for the past three years and has proved beyond all doubts their
uselessness there is no justification for their retaining. A reorganize strong
District Administration headed by professional administrators will ensure
better governance as it had been the indigenous system of administration in the
past. Even the British adopted certain aspects of this system to run the
country very effectively and efficiently for 133 years.
The Provincial
Councils have already become redundant and dysfunctional. As such if he SLPP
can get them abolished, its vote base will rise up exponentially at all future
elections. Therefore the SLPP will not
lose anything by getting them abolished. Instead people will definitely rally
round the party as a mark of appreciation and gratitude for relieving them of
this 31 year curse and disaster. Furthermore MR also can make use of this
golden opportunity to punish all those ungrateful rascals and double-dealers
who have betrayed him after the 2015 elections and send them permanently to
political wilderness. In this backdrop if the SLPP do this, I can assure that
the grateful masses who have suffered for the past 31 years under this curse
will rally round it in a manner nobody would have ever imagined. Besides increasing its vote base it will also
be doing a yeoman service by this country and the nation, for liberating this
country out of this wishful Indian trap that has already done enormous
political and economic damage to this country and that will definitely play the
main role in dividing and destabilizing this Island nation in future if we
retained them.
I can assure
you that the abolition of the Provincial Council curse and its umbilical code,
the Rajiv/JR Accord will not be second to liberating the country from the LTTE
in 2009 and it could be even a bigger achievement of higher historical
significance. It will definitely go down
in history as another historic landmark in the Rajapaksa legend that has
prevented this Island nation getting broken in to 9 Federal State of different ethnic groups fighting for its land ,water
and other resources that will finally make this country a hell on earth.
India also
cannot contest the abolition of the JR/Rajiv Accord a s it had already been
unilaterally broken by India at the very early stages, by not complying with
its obligations in the Accord. As such it has ceased to have any legal validity
as an international agreement signed between two countries
Finally now
that you have got also got a sweeping mandate to vital issues like repealing of
the 19th A and revising the electoral system by removing the preferential
voting, District representative system, removing the crazy National List and
reducing the number of MPP in Parliament to a meaningful level, say about 150,
and laying down qualifications for politicians like minimum education,
character, assets and residence within the electorate etc. so that returning to
the democratic practice of electing their representatives and just governance is restored once again in
this Island nation.
More over from
where are you going to get 1000 billion rupees to hold another election in few
months at a time the economy is at rock bottom and debt liabilities are sky
high? Isn’t it we are going to get into deeper economic crisis by having the
Provincial Councils? Isn’t it a game of from frying the fan to the fire?
Therefore both in short term and long term interest
the most wises thing the Government can do now is to abolish this national
curse, the Provincial Councils. That is the wish of the whole nation
