{"id":125805,"date":"2014-06-12T12:11:34","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T06:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=125805"},"modified":"2014-06-18T02:29:52","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T20:59:52","slug":"autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/","title":{"rendered":"Autonomy For Bougainville \u2013 A Parallel For Tamils"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=S.+Sivathasan&amp;x=7&amp;y=7\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">S. Sivathasan<\/span><\/a> &#8211;<\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_85013\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/S.Sivathasan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85013\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-85013\" alt=\"S. Sivathasan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/S.Sivathasan-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/S.Sivathasan-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/S.Sivathasan-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-85013\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">S. Sivathasan<\/p><\/div>\n<p><b><\/b><b>Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Bougainville (B) Region comprises two large Islands of B and Buka, in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Archipelago. B is rich in copper and a mine was opened in 1969 in Panguna located in the central area. In 1972 a measure of autonomy was given to B. However in 1975 when a Constitution Planning Committee\u00a0toured the country seeking views, B conveyed its demand for secession.<\/p>\n<p>Copper promised wealth to a resource poor B, but when mining commenced PNG\u2019s relationship was exploitative. On profit sharing, there was violent disagreement between PNG government and B. PNG appropriated virtually all at 20% giving B, 0.5-2.0%. Unfair distribution incensed feelings which were further exacerbated by ethnic and linguistic differences between B and PNG. It sparked a 10 year civil war 1989 \u2013 1998, which claimed 20,000 lives and displaced 70,000. At present the population is 220,000 and it is fairly evenly spread geographically across B.<\/p>\n<p>Consequent to a ceasefire in 1998, the Bougainville Peace Agreement was signed in August 2001 between PNG and Bougainville Revolutionary Army. What followed was a constitution for an Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG). It was approved by the PNG Parliament in December 2004. It specified 3 branches.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>\u00a0 \u00a0 Legislative \u2013 Bougainville House of Representatives of 39 elected members and 2 ex officio.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>\u00a0 \u00a0 Executive \u2013 Bougainville Executive Council<\/b><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<b>Judicial \u2013 Bougainville courts including a Supreme Court and 7 High Courts<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In principle, the respective powers and functions shall be kept separate. The first election was held in 2005. The President was elected and the Vice-President was selected by the House of Representatives. The second election was in 2010. A referendum regarding Bougainville independence is set to happen in the period 2015 \u2013 2020.<\/p>\n<p><b>Papua New Guinea (PNG)<\/b><\/p>\n<p>PNG has a population of 6.5 million. B has 0.2 million (3%). Land area of PNG is 463,000 sq. km. B area is 10,050 sq.km. (2%). PNG is endowed with minerals and hydro carbon. Gold mining commenced in i989 while oil production started in 1992. Cocoa earns a sizeable revenue with around 16,000 tons of exports. Natural gas was estimated at 400 million cu. metres. GDP at official exchange rate is $ 16.1billion.<\/p>\n<p><b>Bougainville<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Bougainville being not so wealthy has placed her fortunes in the future. She views her redemption in secession, in which strategy she seems steadfast and uncompromising. Land Powers, Police Powers and Education are considered to be of crucial import. Greatest leverage is found in education and massive energy is devoted to developing it as is seen from the lengthy and comprehensive document prepared for education. To the challenge of marginalization an ethnic minority of less than 200,000 rose in revolt, lost 10% of their kin in a civil conflict lasting 10 years and have gone far towards redemption as they saw it.<\/p>\n<p>A referendum regarding independence is as close as just 1 to 6 years away. After the referendum what? Everything clearly seen, discussed in detail, path well demarcated and timelines drawn. Earnestness and exhaustive examination of subjects crucial for their future are evident in the Bougainville Peace Agreement of 2001 (55 pages). As important is the lengthy constitution for the Autonomous Bougainville Government (215 pages). The Bougainville Education Plan 2007 \u2013 2016 (90 pages) sets out the lines for society to grow in the near future. What is astounding is the amount of cerebral action to develop the future of two lakh people. The vision is to achieve integral human development to ensure that the citizens become more productive, entrepreneurial and are internationally competitive.<\/p>\n<p>In Sri Lanka University education is not for Provincial Councils even if the population of North East is 3 million. Education Policy is safe only in the hands of the centre. These were the obsessions dominating devolution in SL. They continue to be non-negotiable articles of faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cB Government\u2019s development strategy is to maintain the investment of its scarce resources on education and Human Resources Development\u201d. In the devolution exercise SL had none of this thought and NE was denied the resources ever to think of it. Only the armed forces receive a share disproportionate to need.<\/p>\n<p><b>Tamils Yet to Measure Up<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Where do we Tamils stand? The Federal Concept, the most practicable and the wisest, adumbrated in 1949, well articulated in the fifties and endorsed with a clear mandate in 1956 resulted in the BC Pact of 1957 and outlined regional autonomy. A more extreme stance since 1972 brought in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=13th+Amendment&amp;x=14&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">13<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment<\/span><\/a> in 1987 only to be dashed in 2009 together with extremism. We have been collecting our strands till today, but the direction is not clear yet to many.<\/p>\n<p>The writer sees his community enmeshed for inordinately long in the cocoon of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Self-determination&amp;x=9&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Self Determination<\/span><\/a> deliberations. Inability to get away from it had dried up fresh thought and stymied action causing malaise if not paralysis. Since May 2009, war crimes and accountability dominated discussion inland and out. With prolonged effort and since March 2014, Diaspora has secured that turf and has successfully engaged UNHRC for what it sees as relevant to its purpose. Widening and deepening devolved authority is now left to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=C.V.+Wigneswaran&amp;x=9&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the Chief Minister<\/span><\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Northern+Provincial+Council+&amp;x=9&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">NPC<\/span><\/a>. Political affairs have fallen in the hands of TNA, the acknowledged leadership of the Tamils in whom confidence is placed, trust reposed and to whom mandate is extended decisively and repeatedly. Where do we get from here?<\/p>\n<p><b>Homework Needed from Tamil Side<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When responsibility is neatly trifurcated as at above, what should the polity be engaged in? Outsource what is deemed as beyond us to India and wait for something to happen. Never will anything happen on its own volition is hard headed judgment. All protracted work has to be done by the aggrieved party. What Tamils need is money to give substance to power. Land amounts to nothing when funds are not available for development, alienation or settlement. Power over education does not mean a thing if there be no finances for school buildings, teacher recruitment or training.<\/p>\n<p>There is no need to elaborate on this elementary truism to cover all subjects. It has to be understood that when needs are spread over the entire spectrum of activity funds required for the Northern Province alone is in several billions. Has an exercise been undertaken to arrive at accurate or plausible statistics of need and actuality? If the centre has not done it, the Province should have done it. If neither has done it, both lose the day in the conference room of a foreign country. Facts and figures are the stuff of which negotiations are made.<\/p>\n<p>Over a period of time in the seventies and eighties well before devolution, there was financial decentralization at District and Provincial levels. All it meant was that the locus of accounting had shifted and was shifting from Colombo to peripheral capitals. When all these are lumped together a massive post devolution figure comes about. Nondescripts not conversant with the working of government will get flabbergasted at the colossal figures that appear and they are mistakenly construed as devolved.<\/p>\n<p>Truth lies elsewhere. To get a real picture province wise, pre-devolution financial statistics \u2013 say 1985 &#8211; have to be matched against the post devolution percentage increases \u2013 say 2012. In both cases expenditure and not allocation statistics should be utilized. The myth of devolution will be exploded. Armed with these statistics, those who say they are squeezed out should argue their case. It will then be seen that the North is impoverished for want of finances. This onerous task has to be completed to lend conviction to the demand for equitable distribution of financial resources, financial authority and financial responsibility.<\/p>\n<p><b>Bougainville\u2019s Pragmatism and PNG\u2019s Proactive Response<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A few instances from the Bougainville Peace Agreement of August 2001.<\/p>\n<p>The National Government (PNG) will mobilise funds for a <b>one-off Establishment Grant.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It is additional to all other grants.<\/p>\n<p>Restoration and Development Grants by <b>P<\/b>NG<\/p>\n<p>NG will provide grants to BG <b>till self-reliance<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The calculation and timely payment of the grant will be guaranteed by law.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>BG will be able to obtain foreign aid.<\/p>\n<p>National Government (NG) will approve foreign aid secured by BG<\/p>\n<p>NG will cooperate with BG by negotiating such international agreements for foreign aid<\/p>\n<p>For foreign aid, consultation mechanism and Bougainville representation on delegations.<\/p>\n<p>Power to decide on foreign investment applications.<\/p>\n<p>BG to establish its own administrative mechanism in relation to Foreign Investment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The 13<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment has served its purpose in SL of conning around wholesale for 27 full years and nearly 200 Council Years. Without any substance it has been less than an apparition. A drain on the resources, it has impoverished everybody empowering nobody. It has devolved no power to the provinces and least of all to the intended beneficiaries the North and the East. No more power has been extended than what existed prior. The Amendment is now a frayed instrument crying to be replaced.<\/p>\n<p>In the sea change that has overtaken India the co-architect of the Thirteenth Amendment, there lies a great moral duty to reshape it. The onus for defining the structure and the features is very much with the Tamils \u2013 initiative with the leadership, a call to stake-holders and participation by the people. Realisation must prevail that the endeavor is long haul, the task is arduous and there is no escape from it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":85013,"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-125805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Autonomy For Bougainville \u2013 A Parallel For Tamils - 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\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Autonomy For Bougainville \u2013 A Parallel For Tamils - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-12T06:41:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-17T20:59:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/S.Sivathasan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"417\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/\",\"name\":\"Autonomy For Bougainville \u2013 A Parallel For Tamils - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/S.Sivathasan.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-12T06:41:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-17T20:59:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/autonomy-for-bougainville-a-parallel-for-tamils\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/S.Sivathasan.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/S.Sivathasan.jpg\",\"width\":\"336\",\"height\":\"417\",\"caption\":\"S. 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