“History teaches us that separate ethnic units are prone to battle for the extension of the land areas they occupy. The ongoing skirmish has taken the lives of many Sri Lankans. The East has been released from the stranglehold of the Tamil Fuehrer living in the North, who leads the insurgency. Now the naive APRC that appears tardy in understanding the predicament in which Lanka is trapped, is readying to confirm the North-East merger which was dismembered legally by the Supreme Court, while providing for a Muslim unit which the humble Muslims never demanded.”_________________________
by Sriyan Boteju
(April 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Opinion makers are guided by an element of zealotry. Minister Tissa Vitharane who chairs the APRC and is a claimant to Marxian thought should remember that Karl Marx’s central axiom was that nothing in the world remains static but was in a constant state of flux. In the days of his uncle, Dr. N. M. Perera, and other luminaries, Tamil leaders too adorned the political firmament of that time. There existed Tamils who were members of the SLFP, the LSSP, CP and other lesser parties. All were activists and avid supporters of the GOSL.
A few decades ago appeared Anton Balasingham, of Lankan birth, a migrant to Australia, who married a white Australian and migrated to England where he was granted citizenship. Safe in England he hatched a diabolical plan to separate the two Tamil speaking provinces from the rest of Sri Lanka. England watched the farce. Norway saw money it, financed the initial upsurge, and as a battle raged , capitalised by selling arms to the insurgents. A treacherous act against a sovereign state. Having eliminated the top Tamil leadership that stood for amity with the Sinhala majority through crass murder, Velupillai Prabahkaran assumed leadership of the insurgency. The LTTE, which acronym stood for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelaam, aimed at setting up a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka having failed in India, the home of the Dravidian Tamil. India having coerced Sri Lanka to amalgamate, the Eastern Province had its borders extended. Two provinces were designated the home of the Tamils, though the majority of Tamils and Muslims lived in the South, comprised of the seven remaining provinces.
History teaches us that separate ethnic units are prone to battle for the extension of the land areas they occupy. The ongoing skirmish has taken the lives of many Sri Lankans. The East has been released from the stranglehold of the Tamil Fuehrer living in the North, who leads the insurgency. Now the naive APRC that appears tardy in understanding the predicament in which Lanka is trapped, is readying to confirm the North-East merger which was dismembered legally by the Supreme Court, while providing for a Muslim unit which the humble Muslims never demanded. Sri Lanka comprised of Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala units will be the sure and certain road to constant bloodshed, war and intrigue, which arms manufacturing countries will welcome. Monetary commissions will swell the pockets of the sponsors. There is money in war!
The President has powers which he could use and not be guided by an outdated constitution. Sri Lanka of yore had no constitution to guide the rulers. Ad hoc decisions saw Lanka rise as the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’. England has no written constitution to hamper governance. Improvised District Councils; small units like local government bodies where no ethnic unit predominates should put an end to rivalry and ensure ethnic harmony.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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