{"id":99320,"date":"2020-02-25T16:58:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T23:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=99320"},"modified":"2020-02-25T16:58:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T23:58:11","slug":"the-concept-of-separate-state-and-aspirations-of-tamils-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/02\/25\/the-concept-of-separate-state-and-aspirations-of-tamils-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"THE CONCEPT OF SEPARATE STATE AND ASPIRATIONS OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The\nconcept of a separate state is a confusing term to Sinhala and Tamil people in\nSri Lanka and it is more complex and baffled term to Muslims too in the\ncountry.  The term separate state defines\ndictionaries and encyclopedia on the internet using the arguments had between\nHindu and Muslim leaders before originated a separate country Pakistan.  The question is whether the concept separate\nstate is applied or could be applied to Sri Lanka in relation to Tamil\naspirations as it was applied to create Pakistan during the colonial era. I\nthink the answer is impossible as Sri Lanka has no environment that was existed\nin India during the colonial era and there is no wish of Sinhala, or, Tamil or\nMuslim people in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinhala\npeople have a question what is the meaning of Tamil aspirations in relation to\nthe delegation of power to provinces? Does the idea of Tamil aspirations have a\nrelationship to the term used to divide India and Pakistan during the colonial\nera? During the era of LTTE war, Norway and so-called Wester Peacemakers\nsuggested indirectly a two-state solution to Sri Lanka using an example of\nScandinavia as one country and two states of Norway and Sweden and the USA\nsuggested Quami Nasiriya to Israel and Palatine. The Tamil aspiration does not mean\nby India for Sri Lanka as it would be a clear threat to the security of India\nand the international community to respect the stand of India to maintain a\nsecure world without wars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nconcept of a separate state is not a simple idea that can be easily understood\nand the practical operations of separate states in the globe indicate that it\nis not an agreeable concept to all communities living in Sri Lanka relating to\nTamil aspirations in Sri Lanka.  This is\na complicated question, and ordinary Sinhala and Tamil people have no interest\nin talking about the Tamil aspiration as they have the struggle to make an\neconomically affordable life in the modern electronic era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nMr. Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India, Mr. Modi, the Prime Minister of India\nmentioned the Tamil aspirations and I am sure that Mr. Modi did not mean a\nseparate state as Tamil aspiration, but it meant the delegation of power to\nprovinces as stated in the 13th<\/sup> amendment of the constitution.  The conditions spelled out in the 13th\namendments have already implemented in the country except for limited areas\nsuch as police power, land management, and other areas.  Tamil people living in Sri Lanka have no big\ndeal about the devolution of power, but some who are living overseas use this\nissue as a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nread newspaper articles written by Sri Lankan experts\u2019 views on Tamil\naspirations and some experts mentioned that the constitution of Sri Lanka\nlimits the authority to distribute power to provinces under the unitary format\nand to go beyond the 13th<\/sup> amendment it needs constitutional change\nwith the approval of people through a referendum and such an approval may not\npossible in the current political environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nconcept of a separate state cannot be applied in Sri Lanka in a democratic\nframework and Prabakaran attempted by a bloodletting war with full knowledge that\nseparate state for Tamils would not be possible in Sri Lanka as more than 80%\nof Sri Lankans believe the idea of Mahatma Gandhi on a separate state that\n“I find no parallel in history for a body converts and their dependents\nclaiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock.”  However, some Tamil politicians are stuck\nwith the idea of Mohamed Ali Jinnah and attempt to demand the pound of meat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\nclearly understands that a separate state in Sri Lanka for Tamils will be a\nthreat to security not only for India but also for the Asian region.  In history, Sri Lanka had Ruhuna, Pihiti, and\nMaya, but they were not fully powered federal states and the Western invaders\nabolish such federal states as they strongly believed that such strong states\nwill be a threat to the unity and the unitary system of Sri Lanka. However, Sri\nLanka can delegate more power to provincial governments on a district basis\nwith the authority of the central government to cancel the authority when\ndistrict administration abuses the power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever\nchanges made in Sri Lanka; the government needs more than a two-thirds majority\nin the parliament to expand the delegation of power.  In terms of the 13th<\/sup> amendment the\ndelegation of power is based on provincial basis and if the delegation of power\nwould be based on district level more power beyond the 13th<\/sup>\namendment including police and land power could be granted to district councils\nand Neither Sinhala people nor Muslim people will object to such a delegation\nof power within a unitary form of state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nthe change of constitution needs more than three years as people needs to\ndebate various aspects of power delegation and potential impacts on such a\ndelegation. Most of the population is Sinhala and a large volume of Muslim\ncommunity also disagree with power sharing which may create problems to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npriority of the government should be economic development as many people beyond\nthe communal differences have economic predicaments and constitutional and\npower delegation are secondary matters to them. While economic development\ntasks are efficiently going on the constitutional matter could be considered\nand if the government gives the priority to constitutional and power\ndelegation, there wouldn\u2019t be a change and it might be achieved zero sum like\nyahapalana regime. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS The concept of a separate state is a confusing term to Sinhala and Tamil people in Sri Lanka and it is more complex and baffled term to Muslims too in the country.  The term separate state defines dictionaries and encyclopedia on the internet using the arguments had between Hindu and Muslim leaders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99320","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=99320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}