{"id":107964,"date":"2013-09-29T00:48:04","date_gmt":"2013-09-28T19:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=107964"},"modified":"2013-10-02T15:32:22","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T10:02:22","slug":"building-a-political-a9-highway-to-connect-the-old-south-and-the-new-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/building-a-political-a9-highway-to-connect-the-old-south-and-the-new-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Building A political A9 Highway To Connect The Old South And The New North"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rajan Philips<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rajan Philips<\/p><\/div>\n

The best post-election comment in my view was in the statement of TNA Leader, R. Sampanthan, wherein he said that \u201cthe results of this election offers everyone an opportunity which should be fully utilized in a positive manner.\u201d\u00a0 The principal actors in the utilization of this new opportunity are of course the Rajapaksa government in the south and the newly elected and TNA-led Provincial Council in the north.\u00a0 I am using the terms \u2018old south\u2019 and \u2018new north\u2019 merely in the context of the UPFA\u2019s now routine victories in the Northwest Province and the Central Province, and the TNA\u2019s overwhelmingly emphatic performance in the Northern Province.\u00a0 The congenital devolution detractors do not have to see any \u2018seeds of separation\u2019 in my allusions to new north and old south.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sampanthan\u2019s statement has categorically laid to rest the canard that the TNA is still nurturing separatism with the assertion that: \u201cThe democratic verdict of the (Tamil) people is clear. Within the framework of a united, undivided country, they want to live in security, safeguarding their self-respect and dignity with adequate self-rule, to be able to fulfill their legitimate political, economic, social and cultural aspirations.\u201d\u00a0 It is time to move on and leave behind those who insist on barking and braying. \u00a0What is needed is a new political A9 highway allowing the free flow of two way political and administrative traffic between the government in Colombo and the new NPC in Jaffna.<\/p>\n

The big question is if the Rajapaksa government will allow the new Northern Provincial Council (NPC) with C.V. Wigneswaran as the electorally mandated Chief Minister, to fulfill its constitutional purpose as a concurrent and co-ordinate arm of the state, created to enable provincial self-rule in an undivided country.\u00a0 The constitutional purpose cannot be clearer, although the contours of that purpose and their extensibility are subject to administrative decisions, judicial interpretation and future political agreements.\u00a0 These could go on forever, but nothing will go ahead unless the Rajapaksa government sincerely and honestly acts according to the constitution and allows the new Provincial Council to take office and function.<\/p>\n

Democracy and Elections<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any talk or action of dilution or removing provincial powers at this juncture will be counterproductive nationally, and costly to the government internationally.\u00a0 The Commonwealth summit could be a casualty if the government starts erecting road blocks to the new Northern Council.\u00a0 In such an eventuality, even the genial Commonwealth Secretary General will not be able to save the Rajapaksa regime from international and Commonwealth isolation. \u00a0Put another way, the government cannot claim that democracy in Sri Lanka is alive and kicking simply because an election was held in the North.\u00a0 The claim will be hollow if the government does not allow the off spring of that election, namely, the Northern Provincial Council to function as it should and under laws as they are.<\/p>\n

Talking about democracy and election, the Defence Secretary is continuing to be more longwinded than learned in his political \u2018tongue lashings\u2019 targeting the \u2018western other\u2019.\u00a0 Reportedly responding to the US Embassy statement that \u201cdemocracy is not simply about elections \u2026\u201d,\u00a0 Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has expressed indignation that \u201che had never come across an assertion which was as unfair as one which claims democracy was simply not about elections.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps a little bit of even internet reading should be enough to educate anyone that while elections are a central feature and a celebration of democracy, it is what goes on before, after and between elections that mostly characterizes a democratic society.<\/p>\n

In the same tongue lashing, the Secretary could have avoided embarrassing himself by not using German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s third term victory to vindicate Sri Lanka\u2019s 18th<\/sup> Amendment that removed the term limits on President Rajapaksa.\u00a0 He was trying to score a point against the US and those European countries who had criticized 18A, to \u201cdare challenge the German Chancellor\u2019s right to lead the country for a third term.\u201d\u00a0 Even a little knowledge could have saved much embarrassment, for in Germany the Federal Chancellor is only the Head of Government and not the Head of State, and is comparable to Prime Ministers in parliamentary democracies (as Sri Lanka was until 1978) who have no term limit but are subject to removal by party or parliament.\u00a0 Germany has a President (Joachim Gauk being the incumbent) who is the Head of State.\u00a0 He is elected by a procedure that is similar to India\u2019s, and cannot serve longer than two consecutive terms.\u00a0 The Rajapksas must either realize or be advised that the way to restore their democratic credibility is by repealing 18A and not by defending it because it is indefensible.\u00a0 On the other hand, repealing or diluting 13A will further ruin their credibility.<\/p>\n

Seize the post-election opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the minimum the government must respect 13A and not only allow the new Northern Provincial Council to be functional, but also develop a positive working relationship with the new Council.\u00a0 In fact, the government could deal at two levels to positively seize the post-election opportunity: administratively with the new Council in the North and politically with the TNA in Colombo.\u00a0 There is no need for grand illusions but even informal discussions between the President and the TNA leadership will help. \u00a0I have earlier invoked Churchill\u2019s phrase to describe the 1957 Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam (BC) Pact as an exercise in \u2018summit diplomacy\u2019, and suffice it to say there is a new opportunity for President Rajapaksa to try that unique method of SWRD Bandaranaike.<\/p>\n

I say \u2018unique method\u2019 because of all the Sinhalese government leaders, Bandaranaike was the only one who dealt directly and formally with the elected representatives of the Tamils.\u00a0 He may not have needed the famous advice in parliament of the late VA Kandiah, the Colombo Advocate and the first Federal Party MP for Kayts, that the Prime Minister must not try to \u201cby-pass the elected representatives of the Tamils\u201d to address the Tamil problem, but no other Sinhalese leader followed that sound advice.\u00a0 Even Dudley Senanayake, who emulated the BC Pact eight years later, preferred informal, gentlemanly, between-friends understandings to formal agreements.\u00a0 Every other leader tried political cooption and the distribution of cabinet portfolios rather than dealing formally with the \u2018four basic demands\u2019 of Tamil politics at that time: citizenship rights of plantation Tamils, language rights, regional autonomy, and to stop state colonization schemes in North and East.<\/p>\n

The political landscape is now different in regard to each of those four demands.\u00a0 The citizenship question is now mostly resolved albeit after the expatriation of about half a million of plantation Tamils to Tamil Nadu.\u00a0 Thanks to 13A, Tamil is now recognized as an official language and the regional autonomy has a foundation to build on. \u00a0Colonization schemes are now an accomplished fact and have transformed the electoral map in the East, while in the North there is a new land problem as a result of the threatened expropriation of private properties in the name of state security.\u00a0 Implicating the land problem and extending beyond is the disproportionate presence of the military as well as the continuing existential problems of the people in postwar conditions.<\/p>\n

It would have been infinitely better if an elected Northern Provincial Council had materialized directly as a result of the BC Pact, but there is one now after over fifty years of human blunder and history\u2019s caprice.\u00a0 The new Council presents a positive prospect and need not be turned into a pyrrhic achievement. \u00a0The way President Rajapaksa could emulate his party\u2019s founder is not by trying to enter into a new formal agreement but by starting to end the now well entrenched practice of political co-option of unaccredited Tamil political tramps and LTTE turncoats, and move towards co-operating with the duly elected new Council in the North.\u00a0 This will require a change of heart, if not mind, on the part of the Rajapaksa brothers.\u00a0 It is not clear if there will be unanimity among the brothers but one would hope that there will at least be a majority push among them for a positive directional change.<\/p>\n

The far more difficult task involves institutional culture shifts and adjustments from centralized authority and practices to working with provincial functionaries and initiatives.\u00a0 The existing Provincial Councils function as branch offices of political parties and as outstation offices of the central government.\u00a0 Changing from this status quo to systematically engaging and working with the new Council will require considerable learning as well as personal and organizational adjustments.\u00a0 The way to bring about these changes is by selecting and working on real issues affecting the people on the ground through the mechanism of the new Provincial Council.\u00a0 Put another away, the new Council should not be circumscribed by the experiences of the other Provincial Councils, but should be encouraged to chart its own paths in dealing with its own and unique challenges.<\/p>\n

For its part, the TNA leadership should allow the new Provincial Council to function as a genuinely representative forum of the people and not as a puppet of its parliamentary committee.\u00a0 The new Council is best placed to work out its own program of action based on real issues and their priorities.\u00a0 The presence of professionals and experienced administrators among the new Councillors augurs well for a productive inaugural term of provincial governance.\u00a0 Not all of them can be ministers but all the ministers should be people with a degree of expert knowledge and executive experience.\u00a0 This is a new beginning and it would be \u201cfantastic and absurd\u201d to try to solve the age old problems of gender and caste by ministerial appointments alone.\u00a0 Those who are not appointed as ministers should be encouraged to play an active role and contribute in ministerial committees.\u00a0 A Donoughmore-style committee system can be tried out in Jaffna, even though and ironically it was Jaffna that launched the boycott of the Donoughmore Constitution 82 years ago.<\/p>\n

The political A9 highway, just like any infrastructure highway, need not be built sequentially from one end to the other.\u00a0 It can be built in different sections at the same time and at different times addressing the specific conditions of each section.\u00a0 In the case of a physical road, the overall alignment, or trace, is functionally determined in advance of the detailed design and construction of different sections.\u00a0 The Thirteenth Amendment provides the overall alignment for the new political highway and it is up to the Rajapaksa government and the Wigneswaran Council to work out and implement the details of different sections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nBuilding A political A9 Highway To Connect The Old South And The New North - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/building-a-political-a9-highway-to-connect-the-old-south-and-the-new-north\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building A political A9 Highway To Connect The Old South And The New North - 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