{"id":70458,"date":"2017-10-08T20:21:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T02:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=70458"},"modified":"2017-10-08T13:17:41","modified_gmt":"2017-10-08T20:17:41","slug":"this-13-a-war-is-not-winnable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/10\/08\/this-13-a-war-is-not-winnable\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This (13-A) war is not winnable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

C.Wijeyawikrema<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Buddhist war – I<\/strong><\/p>\n

This war is not winnable\u201d black-whites\u2019 theory lasted for over 30 years. Supporters of it marched in Colombo streets, with lotus flowers in hand, demoralizing soldiers will. According to Erick Solheim, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was the only top-level person in the government to say, this war is winnable.\u201d Yes, there was contribution from some Tamils, Muslims and Christians, but It was the poor Sinhala Buddhist village boys and girls who finished the 33-year war, with Gotabhaya at the helm. Credit goes to Mahinda R for appointing him for the mission, who in turn utilized Sarath F for the job. In 2005, MR won with a razor-thin margin because of the Sinhala Buddhist (and poor Catholic) vote, and the oxygen for a mindset to fight to the end was provided by monks and key Sinhala Buddhist leaders. For example, Ven. Elle Gunawansa did everything at the war front except taking a gun to his hands. For soldier in all different forces it was a noble task of saving the motherland. Yet, after the war victory, after enormous sacrifice, unfortunately, mismanagement with a black-white mentality crept in; thus, the end of one war paved the way for a beginning of a new paper and pen war. \u00a0Prabakaran was named a Tamil Keppettipola by Wigneswaran who has two Sinhala daughters-in-law and grandchildren. Citing four Tamil history professors, W says that the king Devanampiya Tissa was a Tamil king.<\/p>\n

Buddhist war \u2013 II<\/strong><\/p>\n

Civil mismanagement of Sri Lanka by black-whites from 1931 or from 1948 commenced again after May 19, 2009, after 3 short years of war management. The gun as a good tool was replaced by pen as a bad tool. When Tamils were calling MR, a Maha Raja, he forgot that the purpose of the use of gun was to rescue the country from mismanagement. His first act after kissing the soil at the airport tarmac should have been to abolish 13-A by a presidential proclamation. The land commission appointed in 1987 by JRJ recommended in 1990 to replace the 9-province artificial division of the island with river basin boundaries. This plus a Jana Sabha system to empower people freeing them from politicians\u2019 grip was the non-black-white, non-Christian path. The new paradigm. Instead, he ate a Ban Ki Moon and Manmohan Singh dead-rope. And, Sri Lanka thus entered the Buddhist war II, this 13-A war is not winnable\u201d war. With UNP deploying hardcore old Marxists to do the dirty federal job, a second Nandikadal looks beyond reach. But this black-whites\u2019 war, must be defeated, this time by a new Buddhist war, reminiscent of the 1873 Great Panadura Vaadaya.<\/p>\n

The local govt\u2026.<\/p>\n

Jana Sabhas or local government units that existed prior to 1978 are re-demarcated with river basin boundaries, will solve the issue of meaningful power devolution issue and will be a window to eradicate ethical and moral decline in the society, if members for them are elected on a non-partisan basis. A detail scheme of how based onpeople empowerment created and allowed to function on a non-partisan basis<\/p>\n

Why Buddhists kill?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The phrase, Buddhist war, is used as an explanation to Navaguna Vala\u201d (rosary beads) Buddhists, identified in the song by Nanda Malini.\u00a0 Christian Tamil Stanley Tambiah invented this theory of Buddhists betraying Buddhism to provide cover to anti-Buddhist activities in Sri Lanka. His supporters such as H. L. Seneviratna and Gananatha Obeysekara propagated this theory in the western world via their books replete with half-truths. The truth that Sinhala Buddhists are not even 0.001 of the 8 billion-world full of Muslim and Christian (and Tamil separatist) threat, got buried under this theory. It is this theory that is playing a major role in attacking and jailing socially active Buddhist monks as criminals. Tambiah knew very well that King Dharmashoka doctrine did not save Buddhism in India, and Buddhism cannot survive in a hostile world by preaching loving kindness to death. Monks behaving stupidly as crook politicians\u2019 cat\u2019s paw must be separated from the Buddha Sasanaya. I challenged Tambiah by email, on the falsity of his theory, but neither he nor H L Seneviratna responded.<\/p>\n

New questions-new answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two Buddhist wars were a result of asking wrong questions by Buddhist and non-Buddhist black-white politicians. Or they got new answers to the old questions. Instead, we need to ask new questions. Surprisingly, even the dedicated, rapidly growing, Sinhala Buddhist newer and younger leadership is still not asking new questions. Really speaking, they do not even have to ask questions, because they already have two new answers (solutions) before them. (1) In 1990, one answer was given by a land commission appointed by JRJ, a prisoner of Rajiv-Dixit 13-A debacle, to remove the 9-province artificial division by re-demarcating regions based on river basins. (2) Since 1932-48, there was a socio-economic-political-spatial solution applied so successfully by the late Ven. Kalukondayave Pragnasekara Mahanayaka Thero, the crime control and village reconstruction national movement with active participation of Muslims and Tamils. A modern version of this model, the Gami Diriya program was implemented successfully during 2005-10, without political interference. Both programs of 1932 and 2005 were sabotaged by black-white officers and politicians.<\/p>\n

The Gami Diriya program was supposed to be introduced to Jaffna area. The dedicated director general left for a UN job to implement a similar idea in another poor country. I met him and witnessed his disgust and anger against corrupt politicians. A divi naguma monster is now sitting on the country. Ammunition to win the 13-A war is there, if the emerging new leadership get rid of black-white residues among them and educate the voter, Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Christian. In the past, Sinhala Urumaya lost its mission because of enemies within. These two answers (solutions) must be taken directly to people, piercing the TNA separatist barrier. A Jana Sabha run by \u2018lower caste\u2019 Tamil groups is anathema to Sumanthiran, Sampanthan and Wigenswarans. Tamil householders do not ask police or land powers or a merger of N & E. They do not care if Devanampiya Tissa was a Tamil or a Greek. \u00a0For the next war, an Election manifesto with these solutions as election pledges must be distributed island-wide. An Action Committee of about 20-30 (shadow cabinet?) covering all key organizations against 13-A, should develop a program of action guided by the Asgiri Karaka Sabhava and other Nikaya Sabhas. \u00a0The 2002 Buddhist commission report is also important in this regard.<\/p>\n

Local Government Report<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1999, the report of the commission of inquiry on local government reforms (Abhayawardena Report), recommended going back to the old local government system with ward-based elections, abolishing the pradesheeya sabha thuggery. If this old local government system is rejuvenated with natural boundaries the concept of devolution and empowerment could be implemented through them. It is not the best like a GSN-level Jana Sabha system in identifying more minority-empowering natural units, but still better than a province-based unit which only create a local politician clique, exploiting Tamil ethnic cows. Providing spatial bases for Tamil identity or Tamil aspirations on this scale is the real Buddhist Middle Path because Dayan\u2019s middle path instill fear in the Sinhala mind for known reasons. For example, SJVC then talked about a Tamil homeland. Now in 2017, Wigneswaran talks about Tamils as the original race in the island and Tamil Buddhists reverting to Hinduism after a short break in history. Whether this is truth, myth or delusion, it does not matter. But this kind of mindset does not support the conciliation (unity) by division philosophy of either Dayan\u2019s or Jayampathy\u2019s or the 225-strong joke called the parliament.<\/p>\n

Euro-centric Black-whites<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tamilness in Sri Lanka became problematic in Ceylon first in the years, 1918-1923. It began with the Ponnambalam brothers realizing that soon they were going to lose the leadership role in Ceylon with the ever expanding \u2018threat\u2019 of more and more voters! After the Olcott phenomenon that began in 1880, and the Buddhist-Islam riot in 1915, Buddhist monks lost their socio-political clout to nobodies who became new somebodies. Therefore, the conflict arising out of Tamilness in Ceylon became a petty, Christian conflict between Sinhala and Tamil black-white elites. The so-called freedom fight was a fight for a foothold on the white ruling ladder for some government jobs. Freedom as removal of white man\u2019s anti-Sinhala Buddhist laws enacted since 1815 was never a concern until the 1956 Buddhist commission Report. It was Hitler who helped to get the freedom by petition.<\/p>\n

Buddhist Middle Path of reasonableness had no role in the Sinhala-Tamil black-white conflict in the 1930s or 1940s. One reason for this could be that the white masters managing and manipulating the drama knew discrimination with reason is not in conflict with rules of Buddhism. No two persons are the same but they deserve equal opportunity. The other reason simply was that non-Buddhist black-whites did not wish to change the status quo. We know that in 1958 the reasonable use of Tamil language Bill was opposed by black-whites led by JRJ and Dudley with a march to Kandy stopped at Imbulgoda by S D Bandaranayaka.<\/p>\n

Whether we like it or not, we cannot deny the fact that PMs and Presidents of Ceylon\/Sri Lanka acted as unreasonable, non-Buddhist black-whites in handing the Tamil separatist issue. Only exception perhaps was SWRD, but even he got confused mixing language issue with land issue. Giving land powers to politicians asking a homeland was suicidal and this was why Ven. Baddegama Wimalawansa opposed his pact with SJVC. Dudley went all the way allowing a Tamil in anywhere in the country a priority claim to land in N&E over a Sinhalaya living in the neighborhood where parcels of land was to be distributed.<\/p>\n

While the idea of moving the capital from Colombo to Anuradhapura appeared several times in the 1950s, lack of knowledge, wisdom or education could be understood as the reason for not thinking the unsuitability of the artificial 9-province division originated in 1832. CCS officers, Peradeniya professors and politicians in the 1950s all ignored this basic issue. The geography professor who should have been the researcher in this regard was silent despite land utilization projects done in England since 1940s by geography professors in London. Peradeniya was full of Tamil teachers, and no doubt they did not want to talk about this after the Federal Party floated the Tamil homeland myth based on 9-province division. So, I found one solitary research paper by the geography professor, K. Kularatnam, on the topic of Tamil influence on place names of Sinhala towns in the south!<\/p>\n

Those who created 1972 or 1978 private\/partisan constitutions did not think of the two answers mentioned above, despite the fact that the environmental concerns raised at the UNO level were invading Sri Lanka by that time. I say this because, I prepared the first UN-instigated environmental management law report for Sri Lanka at that time as an officer of the then National Science Council. At least after 1990 when a land commission report recommended re-demarcation of the island based on river basins, black-white regimes in power since then ignored it. R Premadasa who increased 4,000 GSN units to a mind-boggling 14,000 must be considered an idiot, just like JRJ moved the capital to a marshy land just 10 miles from the Colombo city old reclaimed marshy land. Which was more important, a bogus Buddhist ministry or a genuine concern for the protection of Sri Lanka? Paskaralingam who was so close to RP in secretly providing arms to tigers, who left the country secretly under unusual circumstances, the day after RP was killed, did not show RP the 1990 land commission recommendation. JRJ wanted a just society and RP built more stupas than any king lived in the island! From such madness the country fell into a period of package deals by CBK aimed at balkanization of the island using the 9-province Colebrooke division with an open plan to create a monoethnic Tamil region. It is in this historical context one ought to digest the gravity of MahindaR\u2019s failure to abolish 13-A, by a proclamation at the end of the war.<\/p>\n

\u2018You cannot legislate against geography\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why 13-A is a death trap is a topic that has generated volumes of material.\u00a0 For our purposes now, suffice it to state that as long as 13-A is part of our law, the country will not be safe from Eelam separatism.\u00a0 Prabakaran rejected it then and TNA rejects it now unless it becomes a new 13-A plus. This is where 13-A step-father Dayan Jayatilaka comes to the scene. Born as a Christian, this well-read Euro-centric Marxist is becoming increasingly a Buddhist literatus as the single locomotive pulling the 13-A burden. He is actually better than the other Marxist Jayampathi Wickremaratna at this game. Dayan presents a Buddhist 13-A. 13-A with a remerged N & E is Tamil extremism; opposition to his full (police+land) 13-A with de-merged N & E is Sinhala extremism. He has not read the Ummagga Jathakaya, so this latter arrangement is the Aristotle\u2019s mean! \u00a0The war killed Prabakaran as well as 13-A theory. Tamil people will not benefit from 13-A. They benefit if they are empowered, removing Tamil politician manipulating them, just like Sinhala politicians manipulating Sinhalayas.<\/p>\n

On the 13-A war, surprisingly, not a single Sinhala politician says it could be defeated. Wimal Weerawansa or Udaya Gammanpila does not speak against it anymore. Public interest lawyer, Nagananda Kodituawkku is the only person who said publicly that he will abolish this 13-A death trap, if he wins the next presidential election in 2020. This 13-A war is not winnable,\u201d theory is now 30 years old, and Jayampathi, the old Marxist of CBK\u2019s package deal fame is beyond the 13-A stage. He is talking about a new setup. His new constitution will create a more unitary\u201d Sri Lanka than it is now. But, CBK boasts that Jayampathi\u2019s constitution is exactly what she presented during 1995-2000. She is correct, because Jayampathy\u2019s more unitary than the 1978 thing has clauses to prevent separation. Why do you want such clauses unless his more unitary thing has things prone to or susceptible to division\/secession? \u00a0CBK\u2019s thing was a change from unitary to federal. Jayampathy created a divided-CBK path. And, after doing that, he says he has introduced several provisions as road blocks or brakes (safeguards) to prevent (or slow down?) the likes of Wigneswaran taking that path! The question is how can you unite by dividing?<\/p>\n

This war is not winnable crowd has become the new this 13-A war is not winnable crowd. Their game plan is clear. They put the unitary and foremost place to Buddhism words as baits while hiding the disastrous western-manufactured non-majoritarian traps based on race, language and religion, planted all over their new constitution to guarantee the certain death of the only piece of real estate available to Sinhala Buddhists. \u00a0Jayampathi\u2019s American sponsored multi-prone propaganda machine is so well-oiled that his latest client is the single elephant (no karaka sabha) Malwatte Mahanayaka. This is a foreign-designed grand plan, a counter force created to derail the Asgiriya Karaka Sabha efforts.<\/p>\n

LLRC in the past could not avoid mentioning the phrase Jana Sabha. Even the APRC majority report of Tissa Vitharana praised the Jana Sabha concept. Therefore, Jayampathy could not help, but mention Jana Sabha in his federal-prone scheme. But, the role given to them is that of advising the local pradeshiya sabha, which is a collection of local political crooks. This is an insult to that noble, democratic, consensual Buddhistic concept.<\/p>\n

While Jayampathi is still talking about Tamil moderates, Dayan no longer takes that path. He selected the Buddhist middle path that he really does not know. Buddhist Middle Path has eight elements, other than an Aristotle mean to meet the territorial psyche etched in some Tamil separatist about a Tamil homeland as Dayan repeats. A holistic perspective is needed. When TNA is demanding a merger of N & E, Dayan\u2019s plan goes out of the window.\u00a0 But he has other plans too. English language newspapers and the Colombo Telegraph website repeat, his middle path 13-A will save Sri Lanka from a future Indian-US naval blockade. He brings Fidel Castro\u2019s wisdom to dismiss the only dissenting view printed by an English language newspaper, retired geography professor G H Peiris\u2019, not knowing that Cuba had the services of loyal spies in USA. The best example was Miss Ana Belen Montes who as a key officer in the US Defence Intelligence Agency supplied Castro everything US was planning against Cuba for 16 years. She did it not for money but because of her desire to help victimized Cuban people. Her principles were such that when she found she was under surveillance, she did not want to escape to Cuba. It was this kind of heroism we saw with the Hasalaka hero.<\/p>\n

Buddhist paradigm vs. Black-white paradigm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not only Buddhist monks had no say in legislative matters, Buddhist laymen had no representation in the Legislative Council for a long time. When Anagarika Dharmapala tried to work with the Ceylon National Congress, he soon realized it was not possible. His socio-economic developmental ideas received no recognition, instead everybody under the colonial system worked in collusion to get rid of him. This crowd included new somebodies such as D S Senanayaka, and even D. B. Jayatilaka. \u00a0Dharmapala follower, Ven. Kalukondayave Pragnasekara floated a national crime eradication and rural reconstruction program with Justice Akbar and ASP Osmond de Silva, which became a successful model during 1932-1948, which he wanted to expand to cover all administrative districts in the island, but white and black-white establishment sabotaged it.<\/p>\n

It is this model that we must use to replace 13-A, along with the idea of replacing the artificial 9-province division with river basin regions recommended by the 1990 land commission report.\u00a0 This is the Buddhist paradigm, which will end the 13-A war defeating Lal Wijenayaka\u2019s and Jayampathis thus, putting the American and Indian plans on logs. I doubt if the late Ven. Soma knew about the 1990 land commission report or the Kalukondayave model. The LLRC, most probably did not know about this land commission report. \u00a0BBS did not utilize them. Before the flag or the name of the country, people must be provided with an agenda that meets their day to day wants and needs. People who are struggling to feed the family, school for children, medicine etc. will not worry about Halal meet or Wahabism until, one fine day in the near future, ISIS gunners enter their homes. It is the duty of the Sinhala Buddhist leaders to give leadership to these people. \u00a0Some educated men suggest creating a new 10th<\/sup> province covering the sea coast, instead of taking the shortest path readily available for the welfare of the people at grassroot level.<\/p>\n

In 2006 and 2009 respectively, I prepared two essays relating to the two solutions discussed in this essay. They appeared in the Island newspaper with maps in colour. Except for one or two typo errors, these essays, I think, are timeless. Links to these essays are given below.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.island.lk\/2006\/10\/25\/midweek1.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.island.lk\/2009\/02\/25\/midweek1.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The black-white argument of 13-A-anchored expansion of power sharing is based on the need of Tamils to achieve their national aspirations. Aspirations come naturally in a homeland, and the Tamil homeland is Tamil Nad. How many homelands a nation could afford to possess in this world? Was it not the rule, one homeland plus equality of personal opportunity outside it? Black-whites are deliberately blind to the ground truth that for the TNA leaders power sharing means full autonomy and the Kosovo path sooner or later. \u00a0Under an environmental, geography-based solution, there will be plenty of room for Tamil aspirations within a number of fairly large territories, without making Sinhalayas nervous about exceeding reasonable aspirational limits. Yalpanam region will be almost Tamil, but not mono-Tamil. The crocodile tears of Devanesan Nesiah from Australia that India will never allow an Eelam in Sri Lanka, thus contradicting DayanJ is simply Eelam propaganda in disguise. Does he not believe that Trinco harbor with a friendly Tamil TNA politician clique in Jaffna is an irresistible pricy catch for American dollars. The world knows how Modi was not given visa to enter U.S. as a chief minister, but received repeated personal invitation from the president after became PM.<\/p>\n

Of all the Euro-centric black-whites, Dayan is unique because he could poison Gotabhaya\u2019s mind into accepting his line of 13-A middle path. If the Eliya project does not consider the solutions proposed in this essay- 1933 Kalukondayave model, 1990 land commission recommendation plus the 1999 local government report- what is in store for the people after opposing the Jayampathy scheme? The Eliya group should establish links with the Asgiriya Karaka Sabha. The country knows constitutional gymnastics of other black-whites aimed at delivering a document to the satisfaction of USA, India and UNHCR. If they are successful in that task, this 13-A is not winnable war will go on until the next presidential election or the one after that. That is until America and India decide to divide the country because without foreign military support an Eelam cannot survive. Only path this could be avoided is the Buddhist reasonableness path guided by the monks. Just like in the past, militant Buddhism, disciplined, non-violent and informed, is the only answer to a country ruined by politicians.<\/p>\n

C.Wijeyawikrema<\/p>\n

Oct 8, 2017<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C.Wijeyawikrema Buddhist war – I This war is not winnable\u201d black-whites\u2019 theory lasted for over 30 years. Supporters of it marched in Colombo streets, with lotus flowers in hand, demoralizing soldiers will. According to Erick Solheim, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was the only top-level person in the government to say, this war is winnable.\u201d Yes, there was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-wijeyawickrema"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70458","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=70458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}