{"id":131035,"date":"2022-12-30T18:09:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T01:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=131035"},"modified":"2022-12-30T18:09:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T01:09:24","slug":"lets-unpack-the-query-in-tamil-national-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/12\/30\/lets-unpack-the-query-in-tamil-national-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s unpack the query in ‘Tamil National Question’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malinda Seneviratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has called all parties to get together and solve what he calls the \u2018ethnic-problem\u2019 that has remained \u2018unresolved\u2019 for decades. Meanwhile, parties that claim to represent \u2018Tamil interests\u2019 have put forward a set of demands: a) stop \u2018land grabs in the Northern and Eastern Provinces by armed forces the state institutions while releasing all lands so acquired earlier by them in those two provinces, b) hold provincial council elections forthwith after implementing all provisions in the Constitutions and other laws in respect of power devolution, and c)  implement power devolution under a federal framework through a new Constitution are the three demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any private lands acquired by the state for military purposes should be returned to original owners provided that doing so does not compromise strategic interests. It is hard to imagine that there are \u2018strategic interests\u2019 that are vital that such an exercise should be ruled out. Using state lands for state-purposes is of course another matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State operations may one day be carried out entirely in virtual space. Maybe state institutions would one day be moved to floating facilities in the sea or in the sky. Until then, they need land and there\u2019s no logic in demanding that they should be located in or out of a particular province. Calling it \u2018land grab\u2019 is downright silly. The use of the term \u2018land grab\u2019 is interesting. A Freudian slip, in fact, considering the entire discourse of Tamil nationalism, sorry, chauvinism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding provincial council elections, on the face of it, is a legitimate demand. However, it is strange that these very parties have been conspicuously silent about elections not being held for years! It\u2019s almost as if they\u2019ve never been serious about devolution of power. More importantly is the fact that provincial council were set up illegally via a constitutional amendment forced on Sri Lanka by India in a do-it-or-else manner following the infamous dhal-drop by that country\u2019s Air Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third demand is fine: power devolution under a federal framework through a new constitution.  Anyone (including Tamil chauvinists who were vociferous approvers of terrorism and terrorists) has the right to demand anything. Whether such demands can be met is another matter. They can and should be considered. That\u2019s what one expects from a functioning democracy. There should be mechanisms for this and if such don\u2019t exist then they need to be put in place.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a problem though. Why federalism? Why devolution? On what basis? Grievances, did someone say? What grievances? And, if such do exist, what logic dictates \u2018devolution\u2019 as the one and only way of resolving them? Well, Tamil chauvinists are pretty thin on all this.  History is not on their side. Archaeology is not on their side. Demography is not on their side. Geography is not on their side. And even economics is not on their side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are serious problems with Tamil nationalism and nationalists.  Substantiation is not their thing. Ask them to do so and they twiddle their thumbs. Talk history and they dodge. Talk about demography and they pretend people and land don\u2019t go together. Talk solutions and they start shifting goalposts. Talk economics and the logic or otherwise of devolution (the Western Province has close to 75% of the country\u2019s GDP and if we played devolution-logic to the letter we would see the continued relative impoverishment of certain districts and provinces) and they will talk about human rights violations. Talk about human rights violations and they act as though it all happened in 2009 and that the LTTE was a band of angels.  Insist and they mutter ‘Darusman Report.’ Ask a few pointed questions about veracity of claim and they rant and rave about something else in the manner of artful dodgers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, when they demand devolution under a federal framework they are talking absolute rubbish.  Not too long ago, i.e. in November 2019, the people of this country voted at a presidential election. The winner and the candidate who came second together polled 94% of the vote.  Both pledged to uphold the unitary character of the state. The Tamil National Alliance supported one of these candidates, Sajith Premadasa. So what talk of federalism? If they were so principled, shouldn\u2019t those in the TNA and other \u2018Tamil\u2019 parties have disassociated themselves from any individual or party that did not espouse their cause or at least claim that they will consider a \u2018federal\u2019 constitution?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil National Question. That\u2019s what they like to call it. Question. That\u2019s the key word here. Tamil chauvinists do have a problem, a question. They really don\u2019t care about ground realities. They don\u2019t care about history. They don\u2019t care about demography. Yes, we need to say these things again and again, simply because the biggest question about Tamil Nationalism is this: \u2018why is the word \u2018substantiation\u2019 not in their vocabulary?\u2019 Why cannot they come out with the true dimensions of grievances and explain how \u2018devolution\u2019 and\/or \u2018federalism\u2019 resolves these? Why do they talk of \u2018unity\u2019 when that word is not \u2018constitutionable\u2019 and why do they fail to acknowledge that close to 100% of the voting population was not interested in federalism?  All these are questions. All questions that Tamil nationalists must answer but will respond with the kind of navel-gazing that they\u2019ve indulged in for decades which of course did nothing in improving the well being of anyone, including Tamil people in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the \u2018Tamil Question\u2019 then \u2014 simply a misnomer, a proposition of a racist and a land-grabber.  So when Wickremesinghe wants all parties to come together to resolve the ethnic-conflict, he should first get them to agree on the truth about this \u2018ethnic conflict,\u2019 which includes the lie that has been the political foundation of racist, chauvinistic, land-grabbing Tamil politicians and parties for decades.  As for the demands of \u2018Tamil\u2019 parties, the time has come to politely tell them, \u2018how about an audit of history or histories claimed, how about talking demography and geography, how about discussing voter behaviour and how about dumping the 13th Amendment because it was forced on Sri Lanka by the neighbourhood thug?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, more than one question. Easily answered. All of them. And, in answering, something could happen to the so-called Tamil Question \u2014 a problem of chauvinistic Tamils which can be easily resolved if the chauvinistic Tamils closed shop.  Shouldn’t have taken decades. Need not take the five weeks left until the 75th Independence Day celebrations. Five seconds should do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

malindadocs@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malinda Seneviratne President Ranil Wickremesinghe has called all parties to get together and solve what he calls the \u2018ethnic-problem\u2019 that has remained \u2018unresolved\u2019 for decades. Meanwhile, parties that claim to represent \u2018Tamil interests\u2019 have put forward a set of demands: a) stop \u2018land grabs in the Northern and Eastern Provinces by armed forces the state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malinda-seneviratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131035","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=131035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}