{"id":99718,"date":"2020-03-07T18:17:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T01:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=99718"},"modified":"2020-03-07T18:17:19","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T01:17:19","slug":"as-no-one-can-remove-13a-try-the-next-best-option-of-merging-seven-sinhala-majority-provinces-into-one-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/07\/as-no-one-can-remove-13a-try-the-next-best-option-of-merging-seven-sinhala-majority-provinces-into-one-province\/","title":{"rendered":"As No One Can Remove 13A, Try the Next Best Option of Merging Seven Sinhala-Majority Provinces into One Province"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It has been the dream and demand of\nall those who love Sri Lanka since 1987 to abrogate 13A. But it is never going\nto happen. No one has the courage or patriotism to do it. The worst option is\nto dream of no-13A while living with 13A. Each year that passes with the\ncurrent form of 13A, the island nation comes closer to dismemberment along new\nlines of separation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nworst offenders are those who demand removing 13A just to prevent anyone from\nchanging the situation even by a little by promising the impossible. This can\nbe perfectly explained by the pithy Sri Lankan proverb – \u0db1\u0ddc\u0d9a\u0dd9\u0dbb\u0dd9\u0db1 \u0dc0\u0dd9\u0daf\u0d9a\u0db8\u0da7 \u0d9a\u0ddd\u0daf\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4 \u0dad\u0dd9\u0dbd\u0dca \u0dc4\u0dad\u0dca\u0db4\u0da7\u0dca\u0da7\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca (it is like sending\nsomeone to source seven drams of a non-existent oil to perform a medical procedure\nthat is impossible to perform. The point is to distract the hapless person to\nmaintain the status quo and also to save the practitioner from blame).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having turned the North Tamil-only\nand giving them a separate administration and trying (but failing) in the East,\nIndia is now eyeing the Upcountry. Indian interference in the Upcountry has\nincreased astronomically since 2009. India builds Tamil-only schools,\nTamil-only hospitals and Tamil-only shrines in the Upcountry in a repeat of\nwhat it did to the north and east.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the entire Upcountry cannot be\nturned into what India and Tamil separatists call \u2018Malaya Nadu\u2019, the entire\nNuwara Eliya district can be made into it unless corrective action is taken\nnow. District based devolution accelerates this destruction as it gives Malaya\nNadu on a platter! It must never be attempted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ncan rationalize 13A as it is not going anywhere unfortunately. It was\nintroduced to fix the devolution demand of Tamils. So northern and eastern\nprovinces can remain as it satisfies the local and international devolution\ndemand. All other 7 provinces can be merged into one. It is insane to have 7\nseparate provinces outside the north and east as people in these areas never\nwanted devolution. They always demanded unitary status and unity. Provincial\nCouncil elections must be held for the entire province as a single unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinhala majority parts of Ampara\ndistrict and connecting corridors to Sinhala majority areas of Trincomalee\ndistrict can be merged with Badulla and Polonnaruwa districts respectively.\nThat will keep all powerful stakeholders under control despite some howling for\na short time. It will split the north from the east permanently with the large\nprovince wedging them. Most importantly it will take away Trincomalee Port from\nthe Eastern Provincial Council. Nuwara Eliya district will be unable to\ninfluence any provincial election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing provincial council\nboundaries follow British colonial needs of divide-and-rule. It promotes\ndivision and stops unity. The three province structure promotes unity among\nthose who are willing to unite and frustrates separatism. It also drastically\nreduces administrative costs. Instead of 9 provincial health, education, etc.\nministers there will be only 3. That is a 67% reduction in provincial\nadministrative costs and corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of anymore distraction\ntactics that feed on extreme demands that are not possible, this must be done\nas soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara It has been the dream and demand of all those who love Sri Lanka since 1987 to abrogate 13A. But it is never going to happen. No one has the courage or patriotism to do it. The worst option is to dream of no-13A while living with 13A. Each year that passes with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99718","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=99718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}