{"id":106937,"date":"2020-09-23T15:40:32","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T22:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106937"},"modified":"2020-09-23T15:40:32","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T22:40:32","slug":"genealogy-of-concept-and-genesis-of-13th-amendment-a-reply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/23\/genealogy-of-concept-and-genesis-of-13th-amendment-a-reply\/","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy of Concept and Genesis of 13th Amendment \u2013 A Reply"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>N.A.de S. Amaratunga<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Prof. Gamini Keerawella (GK) in an article titled\nGenealogy of Concept and Genesis of 13<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment\u201d (The Island 16<sup>th<\/sup>\n&amp; 17<sup>th<\/sup> Sept. 2020) attempts to show that the 13<sup>th<\/sup> A\nwas not something forced on us by India, that it was a concept discussed by\npolitical leaders starting before independence and that India had to intervene\nas a midwife due to the failure of our political leaders to deliver their own\nbaby. He says It must be noted that at the outset the Provincial councils have\nto carry a certificate of illegitimate birth due to Indian intervention.\nHowever, the Indian role was just a midwifery role. The politically and\nideologically weak ruling class of Sri Lanka failed to give it a natural\nbirth\u201d. He further says It is important to note that even in 1940s the Tamil\nleadership had not taken the issue of Regional Council and devolution of power\nto regions into their hands\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It could be shown that the discourse among the\npolitical leaders about Regional Councils that GK refers to was a direct\nconsequence of the intransigence of the Tamil leadership which occurred when\nthe Donoughmore Report had recommended a population based franchise which would\neffectively make Tamils who hitherto had enjoyed parity with the Sinhalese in\nthe State Council, a minority in the government thereafter. This intransigence\nwas quite clear in the attitude of Ponnambalam Ramanathan who was considered\nthe leader of the Educated Ceylonese\u201d in the State Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From as far back as 1916 Ramanathan was against the\nappointment of a majority into the State Council by a popular vote. He together\nwith Ambalavanar Kanagasabe had been for some time engaged in communal politics\n(see K M de Silva, A History of Sri Lanka p 393). They did not like the idea of\nthe Sinhalese assuming their rightful place in the government as the majority\nin the country. The Donoughmore Report had recommended universal franchise, and\nin a last minute attempt to scuttle it, Ramanathan had even gone to London to\nrequest British authorities not to implement it. T B Jayah the leader of the\nMuslims too submitted a memorandum against the implementation of the Report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If this is not communal politics what is, one may ask.\nThis was the genesis of communal politics in Sri Lanka. Tamil leadership was not\nprepared to accept that the Sinhalese have to be given their due place in the\ngoverning body of the country. GK on the other hand attempts to make it appear\nthat Tamil leaders had no causative role in the genesis of the idea of Regional\nCouncils or devolution of power. Obviously Donoughmore Commission and Sinhalese\nleaders&nbsp; started talking about regional\ncouncils in response to the blatant presence of communal politics among the\nTamil leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GK has at length traced the genealogy of the concept\nand the genesis of the 13<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;\nAmendment beginning from the time of the Donoughmore Commission to the\ntime of&nbsp; Rajiv Gandhi&#8217;s parippu\ndiplomacy\u201d.&nbsp; However, when one discusses\nthe&nbsp; genesis of anything one must begin\nfrom the beginning and analyse the cause also quite thoroughly. Else the\nanalysis is totally inadequate, incomplete and lacking in conviction,\nparticular when one goes to the length that GK has gone in this instance. When\none talks about the genesis of a child for instance one doesn&#8217;t begin from the\npregnancy, one begins from the physical union of the father and mother which is\nthe first cause. GK has conveniently omitted to mention the first cause because\nthat does not fit into his argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GK has described in detail the several attempts made by\npolitical leaders to introduce regional\/provincial councils and how they\nfailed. He has not considered why they failed. Why did SWRD withdraw the\nproposals of the BC pact.&nbsp; Because he\nknew he has no chance of political survival if he disregarded the protests mounted\nby the priests. Same could be said about Dudley \/ Chelvanayagam pact. Why did\nJRJ withdraw the 10<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment ?&nbsp;\nAll these politicians knew they cannot survive if they antagonized the\nmajority community.&nbsp; They cannot do\nsomething that is unfair by the majority, something that would compromise the\nsingle sovereignty and the territorial integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why have the people given a 2\/3<sup>rd<\/sup> majority\nto this government and in the process kept out of the parliament those who were\nresponsible for the treacherous betrayals? They were concerned about the\nsurvival of the country as a single entity due to the antinational activity of\nthe previous government, its many treacherous deeds that impinged on the\nsovereignty of the people. People want a permanent solution to this problem,\nthey cannot live in fear for ever. Same fate would befall any politician who\nattempts to tamper with the people&#8217;s sovereignty and the territorial integrity\nof their country. SWRD, Dudley, JRJ had realized the possibility of this fate\nbut the leaders of the previous government had not and they are now in the\npolitical wilderness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rajiv Gandhi knew why JRJ would not implement what was\nagreed upon during their discussions. He knew he had only one option and that\nis to use force. Vadamarachchi operation gave him the opportunity he wanted.\nThis is why it is often said 13<sup>th<\/sup> A is something that was forced on\nus by India. Therefore it is not quite correct to say as GK does;&nbsp; The politically and ideologically weak\nruling class of Sri Lanka failed to give it a natural birth\u201d. The child would\nhave been the death of the parents had they attempted it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GK strongly endorses the 13<sup>th<\/sup> A as an\narrangement that strengthens democracy and thereby solves the ethnic\nissue.&nbsp;&nbsp; He says The dominance of\ncentralized political culture of the country has negated the true potential of\nthe provincial council system as another tier of democratic governance\u201d. He has\nnot explained why the country needs another tier of democratic governance\u201d.&nbsp; Cannot he think of some other method to\nsatisfy the Tamil demand for political power sharing and solve the ethnic\nproblem.&nbsp; Isn&#8217;t Sri Lanka too small to be\ndivided into nine political and administrative&nbsp;\nprovincial areas. Aren&#8217;t four tiers of democratic governance\u201d too many,\nredundant, costly and corruptible. Is it fair to ask the poor people to carry\nthis burden which is not of their making. If the political aspirations of the\nminority communities could be accomodated at the centre 13<sup>th<\/sup> A and\nthe PCs could be done away with. Administrative decentralisation is possible at\ngrassroot level. This is what the people want and why they have given a 2\/3<sup>rd<\/sup>\nmajority to this government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>N.A.de S. Amaratunga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>N.A.de S. Amaratunga Prof. Gamini Keerawella (GK) in an article titled Genealogy of Concept and Genesis of 13th Amendment\u201d (The Island 16th &amp; 17th Sept. 2020) attempts to show that the 13th A was not something forced on us by India, that it was a concept discussed by political leaders starting before independence and that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-n-a-de-s-amaratunga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106937","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=106937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}