{"id":104586,"date":"2020-07-17T16:49:36","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T23:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104586"},"modified":"2020-07-17T16:50:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T23:50:17","slug":"ensure-2-3-majority-to-reinstate-the-past-glory-and-grandeur-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/17\/ensure-2-3-majority-to-reinstate-the-past-glory-and-grandeur-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensure 2\/3 majority to reinstate the past Glory and Grandeur \u2013 Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

By : A.A.M.NIZAM \u2013 MATARA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Upon returning to Sri Lanka he started an intensive media campaign\non this subject.   I reproduce below excerpts from this traitor\u2019s\nwritings and appropriate counter comments  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veteran journalist Malinda Seneviratne who was the Chief Editor of The Nation\u201d wrote on 5th<\/sup> July, 2009 that Dayan Jayatillake, with respect to the implementation of the 13th Amendment, points to two documents (a joint statement issued at the conclusion of discussions with a high-level Indian delegation and another by the UN Secretary-General. In both, there is mention of the Government\u2019s commitment to the 13th Amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He observes that some who oppose the 13th\nAmendment refer to Mahinda Chinthana but points out that Mahinda Rajapaksa can\nbe safely trusted to know the spirit of Mahinda Chinthana. In other words,\nDayan not only thinks the 13th is great, but trusts the President to deliver\nhis (Dayan\u2019s) Utopia. Nothing wrong in that of course! I, on the other hand,\nthink the 13th was brought about undemocratically, and proved to be a \u2018white\nelephant\u2019 and a distraction with respect to addressing and resolving real Tamil\ndemands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing to Daily Mirror on 4th<\/sup> July,\n2009, Dayan Jayatilleke states upfront I don\u2019t believe that the 13th as it\nstands compromises the unitary character of the state and adds that  \u2018The defence dimensions of devolution\u2019  isn\u2019t going to be \u2018full implementation\u2019; it\nwill always be \u2018minus\u2019 (since there was a de-merger of the North and East and\nhopes there will be a \u2018plus\u2019. As of now, \u2018police powers\u2019 appear set to be\nshoved into the \u2018minus\u2019 column while \u2018land matters\u2019 as of now are not \u2018threatening\u2019.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malinda Seneviratne (MS) comments that as\nmentioned above, the utterly undemocratic manner in which it came into being,\nsans discussion, in secret and with more than a little arm-twisting, all this\ncould be \u2018accepted\u2019 if it worked though. Some point out that the 13th has been\nlegitimated by the fact that its main opponents have opted to contest PC\nelections. Does it make it \u2018right\u2019, though? Does the 13th as \u2018solution to Tamil\ndemands\u2019 hold water (MS) asks? No. It is essentially a territory-based solution\nand such is unwarranted given that there are no \u2018Tamil grievances\u2019 that can\nreference territory. It is moreover a mechanism that has devolved (some) power\nto politicians. It is therefore for thugs and thieves, not ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS continues that some have argued \u2018it is part\nof the Constitution, so live with it\u2019. That\u2019s a cop-out answer. In that case we\ndon\u2019t need the APRC, we didn\u2019t need the 17th Amendment, we should not have had\nthe 1st Amendment to the 1978 Constitution and we should not have any more\nAmendments. It assumes that constitutions are necessarily perfect documents and\nthat time and society stand still. It is because something was thought to be\nflawed that its correction is attempted. If the 13th is flawed then it follows\nthat it should be corrected even to the point of trashing it if a compelling\ncase can be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayan\u2019s fascination with the 13th on the other\nhand includes but is not limited to consideration of that thing called\n\u2018geo-political realities\u2019 that hit us with a ton of bricks and precipitated the\ndeath of 60,000 plus young people in the late eighties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we are not in 1987 now. We don\u2019t have a\nGovernment enslaved to Western interests. We don\u2019t have a West that has the\nkind of compelling power it used to back then. Tamil Nadu is no longer a\ncompelling factor in how India sees Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True, the statements Dayan refers to show a\nGovernment that is certainly reluctant (or made to be reluctant) to trash the\n13th, but what a Government does or does not do can depend on the ability of\nthe people and the power of the relevant arguments to sway those in power. We\nlived through a time when a federal arrangement was thought to be inevitable.\nWe have suffered under 500 years of foreign rule. We were told that the LTTE\nwas a reality that will not go away and therefore we have to accommodate\nterrorism. Things changed drastically. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Rajapaksa takes even a drastic\ndecision on this issue, no one would be able to convince the country that he is\ngoing to bifurcate or betray the country. This is an opportunity that no Head\nof State in this country has been offered\u2019. Dayan says pretty much the same\nthing: \u2018President Rajapaksa has the trust of the Sinhalese to a degree that\nnone of his predecessors had; he can therefore carry the Sinhalese with him\ninto a settlement of the underlying and pre-existing issues.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is true. One can argue, however, that given\nthis power of sway, president Mahinda Rajapaksa can do what, I believe, he\nshould: trash the 13th and go for true \u2018reconciliation\u2019 and addressing of\ngrievance by revisiting the 17th Amendment, correcting its flaws and thereby\ngiving the respect to the citizen that has been denied and subverted by all his\npredecessors instead of dabbling in something that is archaic, undemocratic,\nwasteful and has nothing to do with the grievances that need to be resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayan Jayatilleke who has queer passion to serve\nthe Tamils and hinder the Sinhalese from exercising their legitimate and\ninherent rights, responding to Malinda Seneviratne says that the 13th amendment\nis historically significant and currently indispensable because it is the only\nstructural reform of the centralized Sri Lankan state which devolves power,\nmakes for some measure of autonomy and thereby provides a basis for the\nreconciliation of the Sinhalese and Tamil communities within a united and\nunitary Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says that the 13thy\nAmendment is the only such reform to take place exactly three decades after the\nabrogation of the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact of 1957 which proposed for\nRegional Councils. (It had to be\nabrogated because it was not discussed with the people and there was people\u2019s\nconsent for measures proposed in it)<\/strong> Those who say that the Indo-Lanka\nAccord and the 13th amendment were “hurried”and “externally\ncoerced” forget the fact that from another point of view, they amounted to\na Caesarean surgical intervention, bringing forth a power sharing solution that\nhad been thwarted from 1957, through the District Councils of 1966 and the Indian\nfacilitated negotiations of 1984 (APC\/Annexure C) to 1986 (December 19th\nChidambaram proposals). It is important to recall than none of these proposals\nfor moderate power sharing were voted down democratically. They never had a\nchance to be. This pro-Tamil poodle accuses that leaders such as SWRD\nBandaranaike, were besieged by extra-parliamentary lobbies and the\nparliamentary process aborted by extra-parliamentary agitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My strong support (“craze\u201d)\nfor the 13th amendment Dayan shamelessly says that is because it is already in\nplace (by fo<\/strong>rce and not with the consent of the majority of the people of this country<\/strong>\n) and does not have to be (re)negotiated. It has only to be implemented and Sri\nLanka\u2019s military triumph would be politically reinforced instantly. Tamil\nnationalism would be split between the hyper-nationalists who reject it and the\nmoderates who accept and participate, the Tamil Diaspora would be divided, the\nNorth-South gap would be bridged, a renewed cycle of conflict would be less\nlikely or possible, the impressive weight of India in the world system would be\nsolidly with us, (sheer imaginations and\nstupid hallucinations<\/strong>)) the international pressure on us would lift\nsomewhat, our allies and friends in the international system would be relieved\nand vindicated, external financing would be more readily available, the\nanti-Sri Lanka global campaign would be severely weakened and the attempt to\nencircle Sri Lanka internationally would be defeated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not any particular\nPresident I trust to deliver on the 13th amendment or its equivalent or\nimprovement. My point was that President Rajapakse can deliver because he is\nthe least vulnerable to a Southern backlash. (A stupid conclusion that this Colombo Baiyaa made thinking that he could\neasily fool the rustic Mr. Rajapajsa \u2013 a  man from the other side of the of the Bentara\nGanga.  He must remember that even a\nkitten that has not opened its eyes coming from other side of the Bentra Ganga\ncannot be fooled)<\/strong> This poodle states that he trusts that the challenge of\naccommodating Tamil identity and reconciling it with Sinhala and Muslim\nidentity will remain and that it will be necessary for any government to\nnegotiate with the Tamil parliamentarians as India will not go away and our\nneed for India in the face of western pressure will not go away either, and\nthat the 13th amendment, however elasticized, will remain the saddle-point\nbetween the Sinhala insistence on a unitary state and the Tamil demand for some\ndegree of self \u2013rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS asserts that Sri\nLanka with a working 13th amendment is a far cry from “Dayan\u2019s\nUtopia”, but it is a brake on a downward slide to Dayan\u2019s Dystopia of\nrenewed conflict in different forms, of a resumed narrative of lost\nopportunities, of civic violence, stagnation and decay, of a long and bitter\npeace and rueful mid- 21st century ruminations of “the path we never took\/into\nthe rose garden” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayan says that India\nwas not the cause for the deaths of 60,000 youths in the late 1980s and if Sri\nLanka had devolved power in 1957, 1966, 1981 (DDCs), 1984 (Annexure c) or 1986\n(Chidambaram), there would have been no Indian intervention. (Please note that this shameless foreign\nservile sycophant justifies the abhorrent illegal Indian intervention)<\/strong> If\nthe 1987 accord had been resisted by the JVP peacefully,(This abhorrent accord was not noly resisted by JVP but also by the SLFP\nand a massive sit-in protest headed by Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike was held in\nfront of the Pettah Bodhiya and as a continuation of this protest the SLFP\nboycotted the first Provincial Council Elections) <\/strong> there would have been no call for the Sri\nLankan state to defend itself violently and adds that both the LTTE and the JVP\nviolently opposed the 13th amendment and the North east provincial council and\nboth movements have been militarily defeated. It must also be recalled that the\nJVP took up the gun before a single IPKF jawan had appeared on Sri Lankan soil\nand Daya Pathirana was murdered in November 1986, and the entire left was under\nviolent siege for supporting devolution which was luridly portrayed as\nsecessionism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayan also attempts to\ndrag China also to the dispute and says Tamil Nadu matters less than it did\nwhile China matters more and the 13th amendment matters even to China, and that\nis why the official Sri Lankan communiqu\u00e9 following the discussions between the\nForeign Ministers of Sri Lanka and China twice mentioned Sri Lanka\u2019s\nreiteration of its commitment to implementing the 13th amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malinda\nSeneviratne in another article dated 14th<\/sup> Jult, 2009 states that Dayan\u2019s\ndefense of the 13th<\/sup> Amendment and his plea for its\nimplementation is predicated on the validity of the Tamil (chauvinist) demands,\nor, to put it another way, the erroneous and mischievous assertion of the\nequation that equates aspiration to legitimate demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\ndefends the hurried and coercively introduced 13th<\/sup> Amendment as\na necessary Caesarean surgical intervention to bring forth a power sharing\nsolution thwarted from 1957\u2032 and pats himself on the back for having predicted\nthe same.  He enumerates the advantages of going with the 13th<\/sup>,\npainting a happily-ever-after picture of internal stability, international\nbacking and communal harmony with an equally happy bridging of the North-South\ngap and a downing of the anti-Sri Lanka global campaign.  These are strategic\nbenefits which Dayan believes will accrue automatically if we implemented the\n13th<\/sup>.   He implies that pandering to Eelamist mythology\nand burning defensible historical transcript is a small price to pay for all\nthese goodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First\nof all, I don\u2019t think that the goodies are there for the taking.  There\nare no friends\u2019 or enemies\u2019 in the international, just entities playing cards\nas per self-interest. There is a give and take and there\u2019s a lot of\narm-twisting too. Dayan knows this and Dayan knows that India is not the\ndo-gooder that India likes us to believe she is.   That is however not an\nentity that was god-made and meant to be immobile from Day One to Day\nLast.  Things change.  To accept current realities as overarching\nforces best met with acquiescence is a legitimate option, but honour, dignity\nand intellectual honesty demand that error in perception be resisted. \nThat however, is not an important entry in the diary of a politician.  I\nbelieve it was one of the First Nations in the Americas that predicated policy\ndecision on a consideration of impact on the seventh generation down the\nline.  Resolving for aspirations that infringe on the rights of other\ncommunities and for grievances that can be addressed in other ways may appease \u201dinternational\npals\u2019 in the here-and-now but will amount to little more than shoving a bunch\nof garbage under the carpet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Dayan,\nso adept at meeting, countering and triumphing over Western mischief-making\nwith respect to Sri Lanka, is surprisingly meek when it comes to Eelamist\nposturing regarding history.Perhaps this is because he is fascinated with the\nnotion of  \u201dautonomous political space\u2019\nfor the Tamil people in the North and East.  I will go with \u201dpolitical\nspace\u2019 but there is nothing to support \u201dautonomy\u2019 as per defined\nterritory.  The provincial boundaries were arbitrarily drawn, to begin\nwith. The Eastern Province is demographically divided roughly into three equal\nparts, and in terms of territory, \u201dSinhala\u2019 areas far outweigh Tamil and Muslim\nareas put together.  As for legitimacy of claim following historical\nevidence, it is at best paltry.  The archaeological record does not\nsupport the thesis. We could of course set the take-off point closer to the\npresent, but then again, we do know that Chelvanayagam was not a Ceylonese,\nthat Ponnambalam Ramanathan\u2019s grandfather did not have an address in this\ncountry and we have to make note of the fact that the results of the first census\nwere surreptitiously \u201ddisappeared\u2019.  Oh yes, Tamil chauvinism has a long\nhistory and one that pre-dates the horrendous disenfranchisement of Tamils in\nthe estates and Bandaranaike\u2019s swabasha<\/em> adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayan\npoints out that our so-called\u201dfriends\u2019 in the international community want the\n13th<\/sup> implemented, citing statements made.  Even if we were\ngenerous and grant that all these statements were\/are made in good faith, the\nfact remains that they are based on their perceptions of our problem, something\nthat is largely influenced by three factors: a) strong and sustained propaganda\nby the Eelam lobby, b) an \u201dintellectual\u2019 community (mostly of Marxist-Leninist\nleanings) that was and still is quite quiescent, and c) governments and\npolitical leaders who were operating throughout in the here-and-now\nmode.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Bandaranaike\ncowed down to \u201dextra-parliamentary pressure\u2019, yes.  But it was not a\nmatter of going through with the Chelva-Banda pact or dumping it\nunceremoniously. There was a compelling argument for a instituting a\nreason-privileging exercise in considering \u201dTamil grievances\u2019. He could have\ninstituted a historical audit into claims and thereafter addressed that which\nwas legitimate and ignore that which was not. His successors could have too.\nThat they did not is a pity, and does not in any way make a case for Caesarian\nsection or the sanitization of belligerent bullying on the part of India. \nOr anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I\nagree with Dayan that the Sri Lanka state needs structural reform.  There\ncan be structural reform without compromising its centralized form. \nDevolution of power is not only antithetical to current global trends (for\nthose who are fascinated by the Global\u2019 with a capital G) it is not a\nnecessary precondition for reconciliation of Sinhala and Tamil\ncommunities.  That is like saying that the United States should devolve\npower to the African Americans, Hispanics and Asians in clearly demarcated\npieces of land in order to obtain reconciliation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There\nis nothing wrong in any community wanting legitimate political space, in\nwanting equal rights as citizens, but autonomous political space<\/strong> is\nanother matter altogether.  That can be an aspiration, sure, but not\ndelivering that aspiration is not a crime against humanity and not necessarily\nundemocratic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 All\ncommunities should have political space\u2019 to air grievances, assert identity\nand obtain relief where infringement occurs.  This requires an overall\ndemocratization of our institutions.  This is where my argument for the 17th<\/sup> Amendment\nis not the apple against the 13th<\/sup> Amendment orange as per\nDayan\u2019s characterization makes sense.  The 1978 constitution is anti-citizen, first and foremost and this is\nthe structural anomaly that needs to be addressed most urgently.  It\ndiminishes the citizen.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reconciliation\nis not about pandering to a historical claim.  Aspiration clothed as right\nmay excite those who like masquerades and cross-dressing of course, but a\nnation can do better than to go overboard with such things.   This is\nwhy we need to get to the basics, i.e. a historical audit of Tamil\nclaims.  If not we will condemn our children to deal with chauvinism and\nthe violence it tends to spawn.  We cannot afford, especially not after\nsuffering immense costs in eliminating the military avatar<\/em> of\nEelamist posturing, to concede constitutionally the rudimentary structures that\ncan later be the basis for a renewed journey towards Prabhakaran\u2019s objective.\nReconciliation, rather, is about coming to terms with realities, of privileging\nrespect, affirming equal rights for all citizens and providing the necessary\nspace for celebrating identity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By : A.A.M.NIZAM \u2013 MATARA Upon returning to Sri Lanka he started an intensive media campaign on this subject.   I reproduce below excerpts from this traitor\u2019s writings and appropriate counter comments   Veteran journalist Malinda Seneviratne who was the Chief Editor of The Nation\u201d wrote on 5th July, 2009 that Dayan Jayatillake, with respect to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aamnizam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}