CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Solutions based on communal lines

S. Akurugoda

As per media reports, The UNP and SLMC had reached an agreement to contest the Eastern Provincial Council and to pave the way for the SLMC to propose a Chief Ministerial candidate.
According to the reports, the UNP who is vociferous on disarming the TVMP, had prior discussion with the TNA (the proxy of the LTTE) on the same issue. Ranil who has a proven record of coming into terms with the Terrorist group to grab power will explore further opportunities even to join hands with the grand mother of Satan ('Yaksayage Archchi) in order to achieve his goal in life, disregarding its repercussion to the country at large.

Rauf Hakeem, in addition to his 'communalist' politics, has proved resemblance in many ways to his UNP counterpart. Hakeem too will join hands even with the 'Yaksayage Archchi' if he could get something in return. Hakeem went to Prabhakaran and signed a MoU, strengthening the Terrorist leader's hands, while he was a Minister of Ranil's UNP government. Both leaders will do anything what the Norwegians wanted them to do. The speculations are that even the current agreement reached between UNP and the SLMC was backed by the Norwegians.

Meanwhile, the SLFP is reported to have come to an agreement with the other Muslim and Tamil parties and given quotas to Muslim and Tamil parties to enable those parties to nominate their candidates.

According to another news item appeared, Minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle has said that a Tamil or a Muslim should be made the Chief Minister in the Eastern Provincial Council. The Chief Ministership of the Eastern Province would be shared in rotation among a Tamil and a Muslim, according to the parties to the UPFA coalition currently contesting the Eastern Provincial Council Elections.
The above stories are a clear indication of the extent of communal politics in our country and how the parties formed on communal lines are playing in the in the field of political gambling.
Prior to the formation of SLMC, unlike the Tamils who had their own parties formed under racial basis, representatives from the Muslim community were elected as members of the two major parties, either the UNP or SLFP, thus maintaining communal harmony within the areas they were representing.

Today there are several parties formed on communal lines and on the basis of separatism. In order to win the elections and for their own survival, leaders of some of the parties (notably SLMC), are apparently following the footsteps of late Mr Amirthalingam and former TULF leaders when promoting communal feelings. While some are talking about traditional homeland for Tamils and autonomy, others are now talking about traditional home land or regions for Muslims and autonomy simply forgetting the fact that their majority is living comfortably outside the mythical traditional homelands and sharing the so-called autonomy with the other communities.
The more we have parties based on racial polarisation, the more are the chances of racial disintegration.

Solution to any form of conflict based on ethnicity, cast, religion etc in a country lies largely within each individual forming that society and not on the basis of polarisation based on ethnicity, cast or religion. Mutual respect, tolerance, equity etc are some of the individual responsibilities that should be cultivated and poverty alleviation, efficient decentralizing of the administration to the village level to address basic issues etc are some of solutions that need immediate attention of the government.
It is interesting to note that the political parties involved in the above political gambling, appear to have forgotten the 28% Sinhala population (according to 2001 census) and their rights in the East and the displaced people due to racial violence in 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1983. Unlike the Tamils who returned to Colombo or to their homes a few months after the riots, these Sinhalese people have never been able to return their homes.

The formation of regions and devolving political power on the communal basis without addressing the basic issues will strengthen the hands of the power-hungry politicians in the short term and aggravate the conflicts in the long run. So-called Solutions imported from various parties, whose interest lies elsewhere, will result in more expenditure and turmoil and, at the end, promote only the interest of those parties. Most of this population was permanently driven out from East.

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