{"id":107945,"date":"2020-10-23T21:11:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T03:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107945"},"modified":"2020-10-23T14:08:58","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T21:08:58","slug":"the-way-forward-after-20a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/23\/the-way-forward-after-20a\/","title":{"rendered":"THE WAY FORWARD AFTER 20A"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The\nSinhalese in independent Sri Lanka have been nationalistic, but never narrowly\ncommunalistic; they have never illtreated non-Sinhala minorities on the basis\nof race or religion. Those who are wallowing in a sea of misinformation having\nbeen swept there by tides of hostile propaganda over the decades, may bristle\nat this, but the truth must be stated. The nationalism of the Sinhalese is not\na construct of the last colonial era. Contrary to what Eurocentric theorists,\ntheir local clones, imperialist lackeys and their modern dupes believe, it is\nan inclusive nationalism. In their long history, the nationalism of the\nSinhalese has been synonymous with patriotism or the love of their country,\ntheir island homeland. The JVP of 1971 and 1987-89 shed blood in the name of\nthe country, not in the name of a race or a religion unlike respectively the\ndefeated LTTE and the recent NTJ. To point this out is not being communalistic;\nit is only reacting to a false criticism. The racists and the extremists among\nthe minorities raise false allegations of communalism against the majority\ncommunity to justify their own communalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today,\neven a section of the Sinhalese polity including some young members of the FB\ngeneration, seem to think that to be a nationalist is the same as being a\nracist. That misconception is largely because they are not well enough informed\nabout their own true history and truly admirable, multifaceted heritage, a\nlegacy that is enjoyed by all communities in common: the still functional parts\nof the ancient hydraulic system, archaeological remains that attract foreign\ntourists and earn foreign exchange for the public coffers,and many other\ntreasures. But anti-national individuals and agencies still censor Anagarika\nDharmapala, the pioneer national revivalist of the colonial era, as a hate\nfigure for ideologically rekindling, around the beginning of the 20th century,\nthe nationalist spirit of the patriotic Sinhalese that had been choked in the\ncourse of a number of popular uprisings by force of arms by colonial invaders\nfollowing the 1815 British intrigue. All the Sinhalese leaders who caused the\n1948, 1956, 1972, 2009, and 2019 restorative revolutionary watersheds to happen\nwere inspired by Dharmapala and were opposed by the real racists and received\nlittle support from non-Buddhist religious extremists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n\u2018divide and rule\u2019 policy of the British imperialists was naturally to the\ngreater disadvantage of the majority community than to the minorities, who in\nfact stood to gain from it. The British exploited the minorities to weaken the\nhistorical defenders of the land. It may be plausibly argued that they used\nthem as tacit allies to restrain the Sinhalese from rebellion, in return for\nprivileged treatment (although this was limited to an elite that politically\nmattered to them, while the majority of the dispossessed mixed masses\nconsisting of common Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims shared the rigours of\ncolonial exploitation without discrimination). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Particularly,\nthe racist leaders of the Tamil minority feared that a parliamentary system of\ngovernment where the Sinhalese would hold power because of their numerical\nsuperiority would mean a loss of their privileged status (hence the notorious\n50-50 seat allocation demand of G.G. Ponnambalam which was contemptuously\nrejected by the Soulbury Commissioners in 1946. All the overtures that\nSinhalese leaders from D.S. Senanayake to Gotabaya Rajapaksa made to the few\nbut powerful racists (among the minority politicians) who somehow manage to hoodwink\ntheir people and persuade them to vote for them have failed to convince them to\ncooperate wholeheartedly with the majority in making unitary Sri Lanka a strong\nsovereign state where they harbour equal stakes and enjoy equal rights and\nshare equal responsibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfalse allegation of Sinhala communalism finds a convenient platform in the\ndemand for the constitutional emasculation of the institution of the executive\npresidency (if complete abolition is not possible). This is because it is usually\na Sinhalese who stands a chance of getting elected as president by the pan-Sri\nLanka electorate. These minority politicians (the extremist few, not all\nminority politicians) propagate the idea that all Sinhalese are communalists,\nand that every president will be biased against their people.  But this is\na fallacy. Though, at present, there is no likelihood of a minority politician\nbecoming president because the minority polities are still mostly under the\nsway of racists and religious extremists, it is not an impossibility. If the\nnon-racist, non-extremist politicians that there are among them are allowed to\nemerge dominant, they certainly will find more favour with the average\nSinhalese voters than a conceited Premadasa or a clueless Sirisena, and a correspondingly\nmodest and knowledgeable Tamil or Muslim president will no longer be just a\ndream.  There are many examples from the past to illustrate the\npossibility of such an eventuality, but this is not the time for dwelling on\nthe subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unwarranted\ndilution of the powers of the executive presidency was what was achieved by the\ncontroversial 19A, which, effectively divided people\u2019s sovereign power between\nthe President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker. It was a three-headed\nmonster, as a government minister recently said. As a result of it the\nsovereign people had to put up with a severely dysfunctional parliament that\nbrought disaster to the country for an interminable four and a half years\nbefore it was finally dissolved by the President and a fresh Parliament\nelected.  The potential for the continuation of such a corrupt\nmalfunctioning parliament is greater when the executive power of the President\nto dissolve it is curtailed or is completely taken away. That provides a\nsituation open to exploitation by the Rishads and Hakeems of this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nIsland editorial\/October 20, 2020 made the following comment, which suggests\nthe despicable way they are ready to cock a snook at the sovereignty of the\npeople: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Bathiudeen\nbrought down the hurriedly formed Sirisena-Rajapaksa government, in 2018, by\nrefusing to vote with it in Parliament. That administration crashed, unable to\nraise a simple majority in the House. This time around, Bathiudeen can give the\npresent regime the kiss of death by voting for the 20A. If he and his four MPs\nvote for 20A, as expected, those who claim that he and the government have\nstruck a secret deal will be vindicated. The only way the government can avert\nsuch a situation is to engineer the crossover of some other Opposition MPs so\nthat it does not have to depend on Bathiudeen\u2026..\u2019  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\nis this Bathiudeen? He was one of the Muslims forcibly evacuated from the North\nas a result of Prabhakaran\u2019s ethnic cleansing policy. When Bathiudeen came down\nto Colombo he was a penniless youth with nothing but the worn out clothes on his\nbody, it is said. Today, he is a billionaire with palatial houses here and\nthere, and thousands of acres of land in his possession, with some more lands\ngiven to his relatives. He was able to help himself to such great wealth and\nalso indulge in philanthropy at the expense of the state  because he\nbecame a politician and managed to join the winning side continuously from the\nprevious MR government to the end of Yahapalanaya, and battened on the\nsuffering of the fellow members of his own displaced community. During the near\ndecade in power, he was charged by environmental groups with the devastating\ndeforestation of the Wilpattu forest reserve; he was  rumoured to be\ncomplicit in importing cocaine hidden among goods in CWE containers, illegally\nexploiting the ilmenite containing mineral sand deposits at Pulmudai for\npersonal profits, abusing the CWE to propagate extremist Islamist ideology, and\nhe was even accused of having connections with the Jihadists who carried out\nthe Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels.  When the police finally\nstarted looking for him to arrest him on the charge of having abused\nstate\/public property by transporting by CTB buses some 10,000 voters from\ntheir new places of residence to their old (for casting their vote a second\ntime it was alleged in the media) on the day of the presidential election in\nNovember last year. How is it that an extremely unscrupulous, originally\ninsignificant penurious politician has been allowed to invest himself with such\npower as the Island editorial has described?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis because the minority communalists who stick that label on the majority have\nbeen empowered by the existing faulty electoral system being abused, and the\nmajority community effectively disenfranchised in the process. Having to strike\na deal with political criminals or to \u2018engineer the crossover of some other\nOpposition MPs\u2019 as the Island editorial suggests in order to get 20A or any\nother nationally important piece of legislation through parliament, is a\nwretched proposition for any sovereign nation even to contemplate. But, isn\u2019t\nthere any prospect for the nation to reverse this unfortunate self inflicted\nanomaly? In my opinion, there is. It is to get rid of our own fear of adopting\nstrategies that might run the risk of being attacked as racist, Sinhala\nSupremacist, discriminatory towards minorities, contrary to international\nstandards, etc. We have to learn not to give a fig to such unfounded\naccusations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\npresent, the Sinhalese are scrupulously guiltless in this respect. Still they\nare treated as if they were the worst racists, human rights violaters,\nxenophobes, chauvinists in the world. Sometimes their own leaders criticise\nthem for being jaatiwadin, or racists as Premadasa and Sirisena have already\ndone: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former\npresident Sirisena was heard, at the Easter Sunday Attacks inquiry recently,\nreferring to racists among the Sinhalese. In a Twitter message, which was only\nin English and Tamil, but not in Sinhala, during the presidential election\ncampaigning period, SJB leader Premadasa charged that Muslims were subjected to\ndiscrimination at the hands of the Sinhalese! He toured the North, presumably\nto show the northern Tamils that he was a champion of Tamil rights. He was\ngiven a heroic welcome in Jaffna and he garnered many Tamil votes, too. But it\nis not that they fell for stratagems; they knew that he was ready to betray his\nown people for a mess of (electoral) pottage. Could a person who doesn\u2019t care\nabout his own kind be concerned about other people? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nalleged Sinhala racists are none other than the few monks and some young\nSinhala activists who are merely reacting to proven cases of harassment,\naggression, and subversion against them by some extremist elements from among\nthe minorities. Considerable numbers of young Tamils and Muslims are also among\ntheir supporters. Had the successive governments taken them seriously, the\nslaughter of innocents on April 21 could have been avoided. They represent\nmillions, but are they taken notice of? Are they given proper media coverage?\nGlobal media (international TV channels such as Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC, etc)\nbroadcast distorted news about them. There\u2019s no place for them on the You Tube,\neither. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntrue situation in the country is different from what is usually reported in\nthese media. Why did the nationalists win very nearly two thirds of\nparliamentary seats, with the racists and religious extremists getting fewer\nthan what they usually win? The result surprised even the nationalists. This\nshows that the Sinhalese electorate can decide the future of the country by\nthemselves. But they naturally prefer to do so with the participation of the\nminorities. If the Sinhalese MPs in parliament forget their partisan divisions\nand remember the patriotism of their ancestors who shed their blood to save\ntheir motherland for all its inhabitants, they will voluntarily help the\ngovernment to muster the two thirds majority required or even more for\nintroducing a completely new constitution when the time comes for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not\nless than the survival of the unitary state, the nation, the dominant Buddhist\nculture and the island territory is at stake.  The America-led West and\nIndia seem to have found a deus ex machina opportunity to further crank up\npressure on economically doddering Sri Lanka in the fast expanding mysterious\nBrandix Covid-19 cluster and in a court judgement given in UK that is\nfavourable to the LTTE rump still active there: It was reported in the media on Wednesday\n(October 21, 2020) that UK\u2019s Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission has concluded\nthat the Home Office decision to keep the LTTE  as a proscribed terrorist\norganisation was flawed and unlawful. So, the British parliament is likely to\nlift the ban on the organization in that country. Britain is one of the forty countries\nthat proscribed the terror outfit. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, this will\nmake little difference to the status quo, because the UK has practically always\nallowed its members to behave as if there was no ban on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So,\nall MPs in parliament, please forget your party, ethnic, religious and\ninterpersonal differences in the name of our motherland. At the time of\nwriting, the ad hoc 20A is to be put to the vote. It will be passed with\nnecessary amendments. It is good if this was carried out without the government\nhaving to strike secret deals with communalists or to engineer crossovers from\nthe Opposition (which would be a slap in the face of the voting public). The\nmore momentous responsibility that you are going to fulfill is  to create\na sound new constitution for our country that will save our nation from\nsquabbling geopolitical powers who are promoting their own separate national\ninterests at our expense, leaving us in perpetual political instability and\nendless economic misery. You Hon. MPs, especially the fresh thinking young\nones, owe our resplendent island homeland  no less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(PS:\nThe 20A was passed in parliament with 156 voting for it and only 65 against.\nThe votes cast in favour  exceeds the required two thirds majority by 6\nvotes. It is obvious that the government did not have to make undue special\novertures towards Muslim MPs. There were only 6 Muslim votes but they were not\ncritical, they were dispensable. It is clear that the Muslim MPs thrust\nthemselves on the government side without being asked. Probably, they did this\non the prior instructions of Hakeem (and Rishad as well). I think so because,\nabout two weeks ago, Hakeem  told media men that he wouldn\u2019t vote for 20A\nbut that the other members of his party would probably do so. The government\nhad better be careful: Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. The government, it\nseems, was short of only 2 votes for acquiring the required number of votes,\nwhich was 150. Those two votes came from Tamil MP Aravind Kumar and SJB\u2019s Diana\nGamage. The latter violated her leader\u2019s injunction, for which she must be\npraised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndrafting of a completely new constitution commenced two or three weeks before.\nThis will get into top gear now. The drafting committee is headed by the\nrenowned PC Romesh de Silva, and includes other legal luminaries such as\nManohara de Silva and experts in related fields such as geologist and\ngeopolitical analyst and commentator Prof. Gerald H. Peiris. They can be\nexpected to produce a document that will be as much acceptable to the minorities\nas it is to the majority.)   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala The Sinhalese in independent Sri Lanka have been nationalistic, but never narrowly communalistic; they have never illtreated non-Sinhala minorities on the basis of race or religion. Those who are wallowing in a sea of misinformation having been swept there by tides of hostile propaganda over the decades, may bristle at this, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107945","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=107945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}