{"id":180049,"date":"2017-07-20T01:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T19:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=180049"},"modified":"2017-07-24T13:58:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T08:28:12","slug":"the-tnas-emil-savundra-method-of-constitution-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tnas-emil-savundra-method-of-constitution-making\/","title":{"rendered":"The TNA\u2019s \u2018Emil Savundra Method\u2019 Of Constitution-Making"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Dayan Jayatilleka<\/a>\u00a0\u2013<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka<\/p><\/div>\n

There was a famous or rather, notorious fraudster in the UK in the 1960s. His name was Emil Savundranayagam\u2014Emil Savundra for short. He defrauded fire, auto and marine insurance holders and wound up in jail, where he served six out of an eight year term –during which time he was also suspected of feigning\/self-inducing a medical condition. He died fairly shortly after release. I recall my father Mervyn de Silva<\/a> interviewing him as part of a special feature for the Sunday Times Insight Team <\/i>(London). Emil Savundra defrauded those poor citizens who thought they had fire insurance but found they had none.<\/span><\/p>\n

The stated aim of the new constitution or the constitutional reforms is to defraud the majority of the Sri Lankan nation, i.e. the Sinhala community, who are holders of an insurance policy which guarantees a unitary<\/b> state in letter and spirit, form and content. In short, it is to do an Emil Savundra on the majority Sinhala \u2018shareholders\u2019 of Sri Lanka.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you say one thing and do quite another, that\u2019s deceit. If you stick one label on something but sell quite another, then that\u2019s fraud\u2014a criminal act. Going by what TNA\u2019s MP Mr. MA Sumanthiran<\/a> has said on the record, that\u2019s exactly what the new Constitution is intended to do. Mr. Sumanthiran says that the content of the Constitutional changes will be federal but the label will not say that. <\/span>TV news showed Sumanthiran speaking in Jaffna, confirming that the Interim Report of the draft Constitution fulfils the two fundamental requirements of federalism though the term itself isn\u2019t used. If confirmation were needed he is also quoted in the state-owned Sunday Observer<\/i> saying \u201cThe new constitution will be based on the federal system although it will not be indicated in such terms\u201d<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, the wrapper will say one thing but the content will contain another thing. The wrapper will say unitary or won\u2019t say anything at all. The content will be federal. The Constitution will be a disguise or will be disguised: federal masked<\/b> as unitary. <\/span><\/p>\n

What is the purpose of this despicable lie and who is the intended victim? Why not call something by its real and true name? If a Constitution is going to be, in effect, federal in content and character, that must be for a reason. The obvious reason is that the drafters think that federalism is good. Then why don\u2019t they say it openly? Why unitary on the outside and federalism on the inside? Why this covert<\/i> federalism? Why not just come out of the closet and participate in a Federalist Pride parade?<\/span><\/p>\n

If federalism is sought to be introduced because it is good, then why not explain that to the people? Why hide<\/i> it under the unitary label? Is it because federalism is good only for some<\/i> but not for most<\/i>, and the constitutional changes are meant to benefit some<\/i>, not most<\/i>, few<\/i> not many<\/i> –and certainly not all<\/i>? Is it that for the fortunate few to have the benefit of federalism, the many have to vote for it without knowing that they are voting for federalism? What arrogant presumption, fused with the vilest dishonesty and fraudulence, is this?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The logic is disgustingly simple. The Sinhalese are allergic to federalism but the Tamils want it. The rational, intelligent thing to do would be to recognize that the Sinhalese are not a bunch of natives who are superstitiously scared of the word<\/b> federalism but have a legitimate anxiety about the concept<\/b> and content<\/b> of excessive, centrifugal decentralization, given the long chronicled history of this ancient nation and the geopolitical reality of Sinhala uniqueness and isolation in the global milieu taken together with the extreme proximity of Tamil Nadu and the resultant sense of vulnerability. It is an existential question. <\/span><\/p>\n

The solution is to find a compromise that represents a consensus between the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim positions; a compromise and consensus which must of necessity reflect the material fact that the Sinhalese are an overwhelming majority. But no, the makers\/drivers of the Constitution do not wish to do this. <\/span><\/p>\n

But why not? Because the intent<\/b> of the new Constitution is to be reflected in the content<\/b> — not<\/b> the wrapping and labeling– namely to give the Tamils a federal system. In short what is intended is not the protection and welfare of the country as a whole, but of the Tamil minority. Worse still, what is intended is not to give the Tamil people of this country what would be viable by virtue of also being acceptable to the majority –real devolution\/autonomy within a real unitary state– but to give the Tamil people outside this country, in Tamil Nadu and the Diaspora, what they wish, at least in the short run, for the Tamil minority of Sri Lanka!<\/span><\/p>\n

Smuggling is a crime. It is a crime that used to be widespread in the cradle of the Tamil Tigers, Velvettiturai. Now this criminal subcultural practice has been transferred to the realm of Tamil politics. Federalism is to be smuggled in disguise past the Sinhala majority by labeling it unitary, and handed to the Tamil minority. <\/span><\/p>\n

Why not call it federal or stay silent but keep it unitary in content? Why call it unitary but make it federal in content? Not that this would be OK, by why one lie and not the other? Why tell the Sinhalese \u201chey, look it says UNITARY here!\u201d while telling the Tamils \u201cpsst, Thambi, its REALLY federal\u201d? That is because the intention is not to fool the minority and grant something beneficial to all, still less to the overwhelming majority, but to do its exact opposite: fool<\/i> the vast majority and favor<\/i> the minority. <\/span><\/p>\n

The obvious counterargument that the TNA will use is that it insists on a referendum so that the Sinhala people have the right to endorse or oppose. But what will be placed before the people? A fake constitutional package which reads \u201cunitary\u201d and is actually federal! <\/span><\/p>\n

The practice of the Velvettiturai smuggler has now been escalated to the next level, of the Velvetitturai designed explosive device or booby-trap, such as the one that was meant to go off in Sri Lanka on an Air Lanka flight but actually exploded at Meenambakkam airport while on the luggage conveyor belt. The Constitutional package is rigged to detonate if rejected<\/i>. Either the Sinhalese vote \u201cyes\u201d in sufficient numbers (as on Jan 8<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> 2015) and federalism is safely smuggled through to the waiting Wigneswaran and Ananthi Sasitharan, which will then serve as a platform for a separate state or a pan-Tamil merger with Tamil Nadu (watch the Kurds) or the Sinhalese reject it and it \u2018detonates\u2019 as a plebiscite showing the world that the Tamil areas\/Tamil speaking areas voted for self-determination.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the TNA\u2019s preference for a new constitution and the inevitably attendant referendum is most likely to kill off the chance of implementation of the 13<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> amendment through an amendment and a two thirds majority, but for a community that produced and cheered on more suicide bombers than did any Islamic group, the tactic of suicide-bombing can be seamlessly extended to the political process. This suicide bomb of a federal Constitution labelled unitary, will blow up the TNA\u2019s UNP ally and partner as well. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While the duplicity and fraud about to be perpetrated on almost 75% of the country\u2019s citizenry establishes the sheer bad faith<\/i><\/b> of the makers of the new Constitution, the institutional matrix from which it emanates calls into further question the legitimacy of the entire enterprise. A 52 member Joint Opposition is not recognized as the parliamentary opposition. Thus the South is effectively disenfranchised. This disenfranchisement is enhanced by the dismissal of local authorities and the non-holding of overdue elections to those authorities. Not only is the new constitutional package sought to be introduced a counterfeit (federalism masquerading as a unitary state) but the very matrix it issues from is partly illegitimate. Thus the new Constitutional fruit is poisoned twice over.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While Sri Lanka is no theocracy, neither, regrettably, is it a secular state. More importantly and even more regrettably, it is hardly a secular society. Indeed it is a society in which religiosity and religious fundamentalism are manifest and pronounced. When the most influential strata of the clergy of the religion adhered to by almost 70% of the country\u2019s citizenry stands opposed to a drastic change of<\/i> or in<\/i> the Constitution and is therefore likely to campaign against it from every temple and on the streets at a Referendum, a shaky governing coalition must be irrationally self-destructive to proceed with its adventurist project. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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