By C. Wijeyawickrema –

“If Sir D.B. Jayatilleke became the first PM of Ceylon, the island’s fate would have been so different.” – Ven. Balangoda Anandamaitreeya Mahanayaka Thero

“UNP and SLFP destroyed Sri Lanka.” – Ven. Walpola Rahula (at a public meeting attended by both JRJ and Mrs. B)

Snakes wondering yonder!

It looks like president Rajapakse (MR) is getting what he has asked for even before the Wigneswaran election on the 21st. Like every other previous president or PM, he has become a prisoner in the hands of the Colombo black-white establishment, Marxists remnants and the owner-families and officers of the gold mine called the PC white elephant.  He did not want to remove 13-A because of these southern PC catchers. Rajiv Gandhi and Dixit wanted only one PC—the merged N-E province, the traditional Tamil homeland recognized in the Rajiv-JRJ 1987 agreement.  But JRJ thought he could outsmart the young race car driving pilot by extending the agreement to the other seven provinces also. Now in an ironical twist, MR has taken a decision to hold an NP election, to save the gold diggers of the southern PCs.

The day after May 19, 2009, any statesman who has seen the dark history during the period 1978-2005, would have removed the 13-A disaster by a military order (proclamation). Instead, the politician MR placated Ban ki-Moon and Manmohan Singh. If a Buddhist president wants to help Tamil refugees he does not need 13-A or Robert Blake’s help.  Because his Mahinda Chinthanaya Program (MCP-election manifesto) was based on the Middle Path (reasonableness doctrine) in Buddhism—Ask things reasonable; do not deny things reasonable; but do not be a stick in the mud when unreasonable demands made by minorities—MR could have done wonders. Thus, give us what Colombo gets is a reasonable non-racial demand made by Col. Karuna. MR could have done any number of home-grown things: (1) he could have resurrected the Gamsabhava as recommended by the Abhayewardhana Report on Local Government Reforms (Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1999) (2) he could have copied what Sarvodaya is doing to empower villagers (3) he could have rekindled the Rural Reconstruction and Crime Eradication Movement started by the late Ven. Kalukondayawe Pragnarama Mahanayaka Thero in the 1940s, since most of his (Ven. K’s) 99 point program is still valid today (Autobiography by him in 1970 pages 245-281).

Buddhist politics    

As part of MCP, and as the person who rescued Sri Lanka, after the King Parakramabahu VI, he could have started the next “this war is not winnable” war: getting rid of the country of its evil triangle—politician, officer, NGO.  For this, the dumping of the bahubootha JRJ thing of 1978 and the JRJ-RPremdas electoral jilmart were needed. But more importantly, as a Buddhist president there was a need to remove incentives that promote separatism: (1) Teaching Sinhala and Tamil in schools from grade I level, and (2) the demarcation of administrative unit boundaries on a language-blind basis. This means MR could have done another miracle of getting rid of the nine-province colonial setup which was done for colonial purposes. One purpose was to remove any influence, the once gotten cheated Kandyan feudal leaders had in the Kandyan regions who tried to be smart in 1818 (thus the five-province division of the island in 1832 by the Colebrooke Commission reduced the central province to look like a starving scare-crow.

It was OK for the colonial masters to ignore the fact that the island is a central highland mass with 103 rivers running radially toward the surrounding coastal plains, but the Euro-centric (Europe has superior solutions), black-white class in power since 1931 never thought of adjusting these administrative boundary demarcations to fit with country’s geography.  Because of physical geography, climatology and hydrology of Sri Lanka, river basins provide the best solution to spatial decentralization of power. This could have begun from the GSN unit level.  R Premdasa increased them from 4,000 to 14,000, god knows on what basis, but it was lunacy. If these GSN units are re-arranged to fit in with the ecology of the area based on geography and hydrology it will be an ecology-based system going upward from village-level to larger river basin-level allowing several Muslim and Tamil regional units demarcated not by language but by economic and environmental geography. With this approach, if a province-level unit is needed, then the river basin-based seven-unit demarcation proposed by the geographer Madduma Bandara in 1987 provides an ideal solution (Chapter 4 in Fifty years of Sri Lanka’s Independence: a socio economic review, edited by A.V. de S. Indraratna, 1998, p.83).

Contractor path to Maslow’s hierarchy of basic human needs

Instead of taking the Buddhist Middle Path of reasonableness MR allowed his black-white agents to follow the bribery path, bribing Tamils with material things. No one denies the need for strategic roads and bridges but people needed things done so that their individual and family wellbeing is uplifted. A carpet road is OK to see but a home on the side without water or a toilet is not a happy home. They should have been given a feeling of empowerment, that they are part of the decision-making apparatus at village level. This was the best answer to Robert Blake, Ban ki-Moon or Manmohan Singh. Hundreds or thousands of contractors invaded the area for big development projects with lucrative deals (Wars and after wars are good times to make money). What is the certificate GOSL got?  See what this approach has brought back by way of gratitude in the words of the candidate Wigneswaran, who lived in Colombo luxury with his two Sinhala daughters-in-law:

“Roads and other infrastructure projects are just showpieces (cost Rs. 393 billion).The roads have been put up with the help of foreign collaborations and donations. They have been most beneficial for the army to keep the electorate under control,”

One cannot blame W using such words, because he must have seen in Dehiwala how a large notice board lists what projects GOSL is doing at what cost in the Dehiwala area. This is so all over in the South boards with Rajapakse photos along with local political crooks’. This is cheap popularity using people’s own money as these are not private funds of politicians. UNP is using such bill boards as a sign of how much commission these crooks get.

Unfortunately even Abraham Maslow is against this Jaffna approach. Once people have their basic needs they think of higher needs like Kumar Ponnambalam’s aspiration idea. Tamils in Sri Lanka enjoy more rights than Tamils in Tamil Nadu or Canada or Australia or Europe. Now they have a basic human need satisfied, security. Now if one can come and tell them Prabakaran was the greatest Tamil hero, they can get foreign help to liberate the homeland, they must be ready to fight again, which Tamil will ignore it? Material things cannot override ideological intoxication. In USA poor people vote to rich Republican Party candidates, who remove their welfare and other benefits, because rich candidates tell the poor about how Democratic Party supports abortion, gay marriages, gun control and against Christian fundamentalism. None of these are true and when they come to power they do not touch these issues but for the past 30 years or so the country was going in that direction. The book, “What is the matter with Kansas: how conservatives won the heart of America” (2004) describes this phenomenon using the state of Kansas as an example.

Humans born form a mother’s womb gets their Jathikathvaya (national identity) from their mothers and grandmothers. A person with strong Jathikathvaya does not become a Jaathivaadiya (racist). Even those animals coming out of an egg has this tendency. That is why a kaputa ejects a baby koha. World Tamils are badly in need of a country with a UN seat. Most Tamils work as janitors etc. in white countries and for them even a dream of a Tamil country is important. If it is possible in Sri Lanka why not try it. With their voting power in western capitals and the miserable failure of Sri Lankan foreign service to counter Tamil propaganda they have a new hope. In order to control Chins USA has joined with India’s 300 million middle class and USA is behind in dividing Sri Lanka into two. This is not what the American people know or want but it is the American establishment, Corporate America which is behind it with the World Christian Organizations also taking an active role. Instead of the bible, sword or bottle those days now they use R2P.

Noriega and Saddam Hussein

When MahindaR roared from election platforms that as long as he is the president he will not allow a division of the island, one can think of what Panama’s Noriega and Saddam did in the past. One waived a sword in the air and ended up in a US jail. The other who shot a rifle in the air as defiance against George Bush was hanged in a most humiliating way.  American establishment was waiting for an opportunity to get a moral foot hold into the Tamil issue and MR is no match for it. America is the only country in the world which will drop food parcels and medicines into one part of a country and drop bombs or cluster bombs to another part of the same country. They drop friends like peanuts and select friends like butter depending on their countries long term interest. The Shah of Iran, Marcos, Din Diem, Mubarak and even Saddam and Gadhafi were US friends. Simply because American military gave intelligence information does not mean they will remain friends when larger geopolitical considerations require new solutions. JRJ learned this hard way when Ronald Regan refused help against Indira and Rajiv.

If Navanethem Pillay was that bad MR can imagine how bad it is going to be when a US-backed UN Security Council Resolution knocks at his door. He will not have Vasu, Rajitha, GL Peiris or even a Dilan Perera in the kitchen. But can it happen? Yes, because using its humanistic-moralistic face USA can get China and Russia neutralized in justifying to the world and the US Congress that GOSL is acting in an unreasonable manner. The law is an ass or those who use law make it an ass.  R2P law is an ass in the hands of USA and the white imperialist west.

Law is an ass

Wigneswaran (W) is using 13-A election as a Tamil referendum against GOSL. He is using 13-A to kill 13-A, a kind of cutting pork using a pork log. W has made it very clear that he wants self-determination, he will get foreign help. The more others say W and TNA manifesto violates the Bahubootha JRJ thing the better for the TNA cause. Ironically the court case just filed against it for violating the 6th and the 7th Amendments of the bahubootha thing is a blessing in disguise for W. TNA will show the world that their vote was a vote against the entire bahubootha thing. The president and his black-white yes men crowd are all in a pot warming up slowly, His federalist and separatist friends are massaging his ego to act bravely to do justice.

What is MahindaR doing?  He is running to catch a mirage. He does not know law is an ass or can be made an ass. One day very soon, a UN agency will ask him to implement the constitution that he says he is following. He said he has to hold elections because constitution says so. What does this constitution (13-A) say?

The Rajiv-JRJ agreement upon which 13-A was based will be relevant document in any international judicial/adjudication forum. China or Russia cannot stop this procedure. According to it a Tamil homeland in the East and the North is recognized. Rajiv said in Tamil Nad on his return after signing the agreement that he got for Tamils more than what Tamils had asked for. JRJ in turn said in the parliament that it is possible that Tamil 13-A area could extend to NCP and Uva P also. The manner that JRJ was humiliated and forced to sign the agreement by Dixit, how JRJ herded MPs in a hotel and kept even the cabinet in the dark, will all be irrelevant because law is an ass.

Simply because PC jokers in the south did not use 13-A power is no reason to deny it to Wigneswaran. Vasudeva is talking b.s. Law has no power unless it is backed by the gun. This time a Vartharaja Perumal will not come because W is no fool. W will invite American embassy officials and Canadian PM to Jaffna and they will ask MR to implement the constitution. 13-A is based on the 1935 Government of India Act which introduced the communal representation in India which culminated in a Pakistan. 13-A has all what is needed for W to take the Kosovo-Sudan-Scotland path. Was it for this that the Hasalaka Hero’s mother shed her tears?

With all the cards in his favor W is getting emboldened  and even delusional. First he said Prabakaran was the greatest Tamil hero. Then came the comparison of a killer of Tamils to Keppettipola Dissawe who was treated as a hero even by the British colonial government. His brain was taken to London for further research. W even went on to say that he is ready to use weapons to fight for Tamil freedom. This was what Tamil Gandhi or Tamil Moses SJVC said when he garlanded Siva Kumar, suicide bomber’s statute.  According to SWRD, SJVC was an honest man but delusional. W has so many other delusional agents to help him.

Because Sri Lanka is protected by gods, there is still time to come out of this international king maker’s mess. If MahindaR implements what LLRC recommended, empowerment of people at the lowest possible level (GSN) with non-political party people’s committees elected by each GSN unit with ecology-based political boundaries he can meet any challenge from any UN agency backed by USA. China and Russia can come forward then because the question then becomes Wigneswaran kind of Tamil politicians operating from Colombo getting jobs versus Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim people getting empowered to run their day to day affairs.  There is no Tamil problem in Sri Lanka. There is a spatial inequity problem affecting all ethnic groups and communities. The evil triangle thrives exploiting all the people except the rich and the powerful and the crook politicians. A plan on how to implement this system was presented to LLRC as evidence and Lalith Weeratunga agreed to study it. As a former Marga Institute director one cannot expect him to genuinely support a project of this nature other than paying lip service to fool all concerned.

*C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D. Email – cwije7@gmail.com