{"id":110846,"date":"2021-01-20T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T00:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110846"},"modified":"2021-01-20T17:36:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T00:36:00","slug":"tna-has-asked-for-almost-a-separate-state-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/20\/tna-has-asked-for-almost-a-separate-state-2\/","title":{"rendered":"TNA has asked for almost a separate state"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

TNA has submitted its proposals to the Experts\nCommittee appointed to  draft a new\nConstitution. What they have asked for is far in excess of the devolution\npackage granted in the 13th<\/sup> Amendment. The powers that are demanded\nexceeds those granted to the states in India which is a federal country. They\nseem to have forgotten that they also must show some conciliatory attitude when\neverybody is talking about reconciliation and communal harmony. It takes two to\nTango. They must know what is possible and what is not. They must know that\nextremism begets extremism. There are on both sides of the divide people with\nextremist points of view on sensitive matters like land, language, religion etc.\nIf peace and harmony among communities are the desired goals of everybody,\nparticularly political leaders, they have to be more flexible. Asking for more\nand more following on the steps of SJVC who adopted a little now and more\nlater\u201d policy will not help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNA has asked for Regional Councils virtually with all\nthe powers except defense. Executive presidency is to be abolished and all\nexecutive powers are to be taken over by the cabinet of ministers. The\npresident would be a figurehead with no powers. The governor of the regional\ncouncil will be appointed on the recommendation of the chief minister with the\napproval of the council. Nature of the state obviously will not be unitary but\nunited. These powers if granted would be far in excess of those granted under\nthe    13th<\/sup> A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed regional council would obviously comprise\nNorth and East merged as envisaged in the original 13th<\/sup> A. These two\nprovinces were demerged by an order of the Supreme Court on the 16th<\/sup>\nOctober 2006 which declared that proclamations issued by President Jayawardena\ntemporarily extending the tenure of the merged North-Eastern Province were null\nand void and had no legal effect. The proclamations by JRJ were necessitated\ndue to the  fact that a referendum on the\nmerger was not held as required by the 13th<\/sup> A. It was well known\nthat the Muslims and the Sinhalese in the Eastern Province were against a\nmerger. However if a referendum had been held in the two provinces together the\nvote would have been in favour of a merger as Tamils would be a majority when\nthe two provinces are joined for the referendum. However the Sinhalese leaders\ndid not want to merge these two provinces as it would go against the interests\nof the Muslims and Sinhalese. TNA does not seem to have taken these issues and\ntheir implications into serious consideration. They seem to be still stuck in\ntheir four Thimphu principles. TNA must not appear to be on reverse gear when\nthe country is trying to emerge out of communal acrimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNA proposals have to be seen as an attempt to delink\ntheir areas of habitation as much as possible from the writ of the central\ngovernment. It seems that the proposal is to devolve to the Regional Council\nall powers and functions that can be carried out at the level of the regions on\nthe basis of the principle of subsidiarity\u201d. It is on the basis of a similar\nconceptual framework that the separatists have been agitating for an\nindependent state in the Northern and Eastern provinces since 1972. The\nprinciple of subsidiarity is defined as the principle that the central\nauthority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which\ncannot be performed at a more local level\u201d. Obviously subsidiarity may be\nsuitable for big countries but could be an unnecessary financial burden on small\ncountries like Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powers the TNA has asked for include those pertaining\nto land and police. Land is a subject under the 13th<\/sup> A that had\ngiven rise to controversial rulings by the Supreme Court. Once it held that\nstate land can be utilized by the Provincial Councils for their projects but\nlater in 2011 it ruled that state land \nshould remain under the ownership of the central government for the\nutilization at national level. Police powers had not been allowed to be taken\nover by the PCs though it is provided in the 13th<\/sup> A. These two\nsubjects if devolved could give a PC that has a centrifugal tendency much\nleverage to work towards its goal. For instance an independent police force\ncould engage in subterfuge and subversion with the connivance of the provincial\npoliticians. A terrorist who commits an act of terror in the South could escape\ninto the North and find refuge. We must not forget separatism and terrorism\nhave not been totally eliminated in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNA proposals tend to change the nature of the state\nquite significantly and also the single sovereignty of the people in Sri Lanka.\nIn the present constitution people’s sovereignty is reposed in the executive\npresident by people’s franchise. President may delegate his executive powers to\nother institutions such as the ministers and also in accordance with the 13th<\/sup>\nA to the governors he appoints to the provincial councils. In the proposals\nsubmitted by the TNA the governor is appointed on the recommendation of the\nchief minister with the approval of the council. Thus the main link between the\ncentral government and the council has been removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNA proposals have done away with the concurrent list\nof subjects that come under the purview of both the central government and the\nregional councils. This is another delinking measure that TNA wants to be\nadopted to strengthen the autonomy and independence of their regional\ngovernment. Such an arrangement would be federal in nature no matter what it\nmay be called.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what is worse is, it would be a federal state based\non ethnic demarcation which has not been very successful in countries where it\nhad been tried eg. Ethiopia, Pakistan, South Sudan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What takes the set of proposals beyond federal status\nis the demand for powers to deal directly with foreign countries for aid, loans\nand investment. What the TNA is asking for is almost a separate state. If all\nthese powers are granted their struggle to strengthen the case for the legal\nestablishment of a separate state would succeed to a great degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNA proposals if granted would have adverse effects not\nonly on Muslims and Sinhalese living in the North and East but also on Tamils.\nThese adverse effects would be felt mainly in the economic, social and cultural\nspheres. Tamils have a huge economic interest in the South, in the Sinhalese\ncommunity. Cordial relations between communities is essential for the\ndevelopment of economic connections. For instance the wholesale market in\nColombo in which the Tamils have a huge presence cannot thrive unless there is\ntrust and understanding among different communities involved in this business.\nA political rupture in the sensitive areas like land, language, religion could\naffect the consciousness  of these\ncommunities and disrupt the working relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Muslims and Sinhalese who live in the North and\nEast would feel that they have been made minorities and may be subject to\ndiscrimination. Such sentiments would not help reconciliation but promote\ndiscord. Social and cultural relationships will be hampered and the whole\ncountry may not progress very much socially, culturally and economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is time the TNA took into consideration the present\nrealities and also politics in the Tamil areas. Adopting a more extremist\nposture in an attempt to boost up its flagging popularity is not what is\nneeded. What is needed is a course correction and develop reconciliation\nstrategies that would be beneficial to the Tamils who live not only in the\nNorth and East but also in the Centre and the South so that everybody could get\ntogether in a peaceful and cordial relationship and develop their country in\nthe social, economic and cultural spheres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga\u00a0 TNA has submitted its proposals to the Experts Committee appointed to  draft a new Constitution. What they have asked for is far in excess of the devolution package granted in the 13th Amendment. The powers that are demanded exceeds those granted to the states in India which is a federal country. […]<\/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-110846","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\/110846","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=110846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}