{"id":185488,"date":"2017-12-13T01:12:51","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T19:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=185488"},"modified":"2017-12-17T23:59:06","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T18:29:06","slug":"choice-for-the-tamils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/choice-for-the-tamils\/","title":{"rendered":"Choice For The Tamils"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kumarathasan Rasingam<\/a> –<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kumarathasan Rasingam<\/p><\/div>\n

Article 1 of UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 recognises and grants the right of self-determination to peoples all over the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Section says: <\/span>\u201cAll peoples have the right of self-determination<\/a> by virtue of that right; they <\/span>freely determine their political status <\/span>and thereby pursue their economic, social and cultural development\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

This fundamental human right of peoples is rooted on the preservation of their equality of rights, opportunities and treatment. In pursuit of these objectives, they can choose this option on their own without any third party intervention or compulsion. <\/span><\/p>\n

People of different ethnicity, language, religion, history and culture posses this right to preserve and develop their identities, national consciousness is another mounting factor to claim this right, which allows them to form their own state and choose their own form of Government, which could be Union or Confederation with other similar states within a territory. This right is now recognised as a Universal Right exercisable by all the peoples who posses their own distinct characteristics.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Exercise of this right does not depend on any pre-conditions like oppression, discrimination and subjugation though these situations justify and invite international interventions, recognition and acceptance of their cause and decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as the Tamils are concerned, they are qualified as peoples within the UN definition of \u2018peoples\u2019 as they have been already recognised as people living in the North and East until the British conquest of Sri Lanka in 1798 and even later by the Bandaranayake-Chelvanayagam Pact of 1958, Oslo Accord 2002 and Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987.<\/span><\/p>\n

This being accepted as a universal right, it is fully exercisable by the Tamils, though the past 50 year history of Tamils which is spilling with ill-treatment, genocide, discrimination, denial of opportunities etc. makes their case for the exercise of this right rock proof and more just and right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another viable option for the Tamils is to call for a referendum to decide the best possible political solution. Referendum involves a general voting by the electorate on a simple political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as Tamils are concerned, a referendum would involve all the Tamil electorates to vote on a special political proposal or position to shape their political destiny. The political questions could be one of the following with answers of YES OR NO – OR NO OPINION:<\/span><\/p>\n

[1] A Federal form of Government or<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Separation \u2013 Independent sovereign State.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Unitary form of Government. <\/span><\/p>\n

In order to legitimately call for a referendum it is important for Tamils to gain the political acceptance of the Tamils through election success which endorse the right of referendum for a particular political question. Alternatively, International Community including UN can initiate same with the consent of Sri Lankan Government, if Sri Lanka refuses to consent. However consent of Sri Lanka is only a distant possibility, and the only hope is UN\u201ds Security Council to pass a resolution calling on Sri Lanka to hold a referendum confirming it to Tamil electorates. <\/span><\/p>\n

During the 1990s many countries resorted to this referendum which paved way for the creation of several independent sovereign states. Some of the countries which became sovereign states after a \u2018YES\u2019 referendum vote are as follows:-<\/span><\/p>\n

Eretria April 1993 separated from Ethiopia<\/span><\/p>\n

East Timor August 19991 separated from Indonesia<\/span><\/p>\n

Slovenia Dec. 1990 separated from Yugoslavia<\/span><\/p>\n

Montenegro Dec. 2006 separated from Serbia<\/span><\/p>\n

Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia \u2013 separated from Yugoslavia <\/span><\/p>\n

South Sudan 2011 separated from Sudan.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is to be noted that countries like Canada and Switzerland have constitutional provisions allowing referendum as a legal option, while Parliamentary Supreme countries like, United Kingdom can only approve referendum by passing legislation to that effect. French speaking state of Quebec in Canada held a referendum on October 30, 1995 to opt or reject to form a separate independent Government separate from Canada. The referendum voted \u2018NO\u2019 for separation. Likewise UK Parliament approved a referendum in 2015 for Scotland to decide the formation of an independent Scotland state. The referendum rejected the proposal with a 55% \u2018NO\u201d vote, However, moves are now underway in Scotland to initiate another referendum with the approval of UK Parliament.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sticking point is that in UK, another Parliament has the power to revoke and reverse the \u2018YES\u2019 referendum vote of Scotland by another parliamentary legislation. Unless and until constitutional guarantee is in place, a referendum with \u2018YES\u2019 result runs the risk of \u2018no effect\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, referendum can be initiated for constitutional changes like extension of Presidential term or no election for certain period. Late J.R Jayaweardenae resorted to referendum in 2000 to extend his term of office for six more years, without a general election.<\/span><\/p>\n

A referendum for Tamils can only succeed if the Sri Lankan Parliament approves it and also makes the necessary constitutional changes by making a \u201cYES\u2019 result by Tamils irrevocable under any circumstances. In that event only the referendum result will get international recognition. Other alternative is for the UN recognise it and pass a resolution to this effect calling for compliance from Sri Lankan Government to hold a referendum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly a referendum without the approval of a government, unless backed by international community or UN, runs the risk of being suppressed by a government using its central power and security forces, as happened in the 2017referendums in Turkey by Kurds, and Catalonia in Spain. The noteworthy and significant\u00a0 <\/span>matter of political \u2018Vaddukoddai Resolution\u201d of 1976 which called separate state for Tamils resulting from the 1977 general election which was in fact a referendum which got a massive YES endorsement from Tamils. <\/span><\/p>\n

Separation involves and aims at political independence based on race, religion, language or culture. In order to preserve one or more of the above, people who suffered from discrimination and\/or subjugation resort to this step as a last resort to keep alive and foster their identity while deciding n their own political way of life, <\/span><\/p>\n

Separate state is chosen by people as a group of individuals from another group which is usually larger, and differs by ways of language, religion, ethnicity, culture and even history. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA group has a right to separate if and only it has suffered certain injustices, for which a separate state is the appropriate remedy of last resort\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The recent history is replete with creation of numerous separate states based on ethnicity, language and religion.<\/span><\/p>\n