Z-scores and no-go polls in the north
Who was the politician who said there are known unknowns and then, there are unknown unknowns? Well, there are known blunders, and then there are the patently unforgivable ones too.
The Z-score was one such, and students have had to pay dearly on account of it.
It was an unfortunate one, and it is difficult to comprehend how politicians should not take part of the blame, because political decisions were made to release the GCE Advanced Level results despite the fact that there was no resolution on the confusing Z-score issue.
It is definitely a blunder of the magnitude that calls for a mea culpa - a mea maxima culpa, as they say. It should also be a starting point for the government to resolve that there shall be no more blunders of these proportions on any matter — be it education, governance, environment or any other.
But of course, such an admonition would be in the manner of the one made by a judge when the first motor accident was recorded more than a century back in the USA.
Said the erudite man delivering his verdict, “This was a horrendous blunder, and it should never happen again.”
Well, happen it did! If there is a blunderbuss tendency however among at least a section of the potentates in power, that trend is something that can be put right with due diligence.
It is not really the blunders that have been committed such as the vegetable crate fiasco or the Z-score fiasco that should be the real red flags that ought to be heeded.
What begs to be addressed on the other hand, are other pitfalls that are so visible that they should normally be avoidable. The Northern Provincial Council election is one of them.
A section of the joint opposition last week got together to demand Northern Provincial Council polls before elections are held for any of the other provincial councils that have been dissolved. Media minister Keheliya Rambukwella has meanwhile said that the government cannot have polls for the Northern PC because the province has not been ‘readied’ yet.
The problem is that, there are legal considerations and considerations of political prudence that get in the way of this argument. As S.L. Gunasekera, who by no means can be called a Tiger appeaser, has said, if it is in the Constitution, then it needs to be implemented.
This is the unalloyed truth, as S.L. is given to describe situations such as this colourfully. Austin Fernando, a former defence secretary, has written that the only reason polls are not being held for the Northern PC is that the government is bound to lose.
If the Northern Province is not ready for the polls, it has to be readied, and that’s self evident, stark reality. But one does suspect that all this has to do with the oft repeated presidential statement that he is “not going to give by other means, what the Prabhakaran wanted by means of war.”
Perhaps, a person who is noticeably vexed by this whole conundrum i.e.: that of justice and constitutionality posing a problem that might precipitate just that — a crisis of justice and constitutionality - is our Ambassador to France Dayan Jayatilleke.
Recently, he wrote to the newspapers to argue for an interim arrangement for the Northern Province, by which it can be taken to mean that he is not in favour of holding elections for that province perhaps on the same logic that has been spelled out by the president.
Any such arrangement to indefinitely put off these polls should be constitutionally legalized in parliament by a vote, or should if deemed necessary, be ratified by a referendum. However, that would be better than the limbo that now prevails, allegedly because the polls cannot be held as the north has not been ‘readied,’ according to the spokesman for government.
But any arrangement that makes the Northern Province separate from the rest of the country in terms of legal standing is bound to be problematic to say the least. There would also be the inevitable questions based on the morality of having a separate arrangement for the north when the rest of the country has functioning provincial council administrations.
So, what needs to be done then is to revisit the premise that the ‘North cannot be handed over to people who want Eelam by other means.’
If as Austin Fernando says, the government cannot win a poll in the north — and that’s possible going by the Local Government results — is losing an election tantamount to handing over the north to those who want Eelam by other means?
Surely, there is reason to believe that a thousand separate flanks would open up to realize the Eelam project with the Northern Provincial Council as a springboard. Well, then again, it may not be so — an elected Northern Provincial Council may put the brakes on the Eelam project, as it was intended to happen, because theoretically at least devolution of power would give the people of the north a measure of self rule that would curb the secessionist impulse.
But if the government believes that the 13th Amendment cannot be implemented for the north, then, there cannot be much of an excuse for not acting on that impulse and legalizing that position.
The government has the majority in parliament to legalize any arrangement, be it interim or otherwise that would prevent an election in the north. Irrespective of whether the government has made a pledge to India on implementing the 13th Amendment and holding elections in the north, a legalized arrangement for the Northern Provincial Council would have to be a better alternative than not having elections in that province for no reason.
As S.L. Gunasekera says, if it is in the Constitution it has to be implemented — and there aren’t many ways to get around that sublime, impregnable reality.
Who was the politician who said there are known unknowns and then, there are unknown unknowns? Well, there are known blunders, and then there are the patently unforgivable ones too. The Z-score was one such, and students have had to pay dearly on account of it.
It was an unfortunate one, and it is difficult to comprehend how politicians should not take part of the blame, because political decisions were made to release the GCE Advanced Level results despite the fact that there was no resolution on the confusing Z-score issue.
It is definitely a blunder of the magnitude that calls for a mea culpa - a mea maxima culpa, as they say. It should also be a starting point for the government to resolve that there shall be no more blunders of these proportions on any matter — be it education, governance, environment or any other.
But of course, such an admonition would be in the manner of the one made by a judge when the first motor accident was recorded more than a century back in the USA.
Said the erudite man delivering his verdict, “This was a horrendous blunder, and it should never happen again.”
Well, happen it did! If there is a blunderbuss tendency however among at least a section of the potentates in power, that trend is something that can be put right with due diligence.
It is not really the blunders that have been committed such as the vegetable crate fiasco or the Z-score fiasco that should be the real red flags that ought to be heeded.
What begs to be addressed on the other hand, are other pitfalls that are so visible that they should normally be avoidable. The Northern Provincial Council election is one of them.
A section of the joint opposition last week got together to demand Northern Provincial Council polls before elections are held for any of the other provincial councils that have been dissolved. Media minister Keheliya Rambukwella has meanwhile said that the government cannot have polls for the Northern PC because the province has not been ‘readied’ yet.
The problem is that, there are legal considerations and considerations of political prudence that get in the way of this argument. As S.L. Gunasekera, who by no means can be called a Tiger appeaser, has said, if it is in the Constitution, then it needs to be implemented.
This is the unalloyed truth, as S.L. is given to describe situations such as this colourfully. Austin Fernando, a former defence secretary, has written that the only reason polls are not being held for the Northern PC is that the government is bound to lose.
If the Northern Province is not ready for the polls, it has to be readied, and that’s self evident, stark reality. But one does suspect that all this has to do with the oft repeated presidential statement that he is “not going to give by other means, what the Prabhakaran wanted by means of war.”
Perhaps, a person who is noticeably vexed by this whole conundrum i.e.: that of justice and constitutionality posing a problem that might precipitate just that — a crisis of justice and constitutionality - is our Ambassador to France Dayan Jayatilleke.
Recently, he wrote to the newspapers to argue for an interim arrangement for the Northern Province, by which it can be taken to mean that he is not in favour of holding elections for that province perhaps on the same logic that has been spelled out by the president.
Any such arrangement to indefinitely put off these polls should be constitutionally legalized in parliament by a vote, or should if deemed necessary, be ratified by a referendum. However, that would be better than the limbo that now prevails, allegedly because the polls cannot be held as the north has not been ‘readied,’ according to the spokesman for government.
But any arrangement that makes the Northern Province separate from the rest of the country in terms of legal standing is bound to be problematic to say the least. There would also be the inevitable questions based on the morality of having a separate arrangement for the north when the rest of the country has functioning provincial council administrations.
So, what needs to be done then is to revisit the premise that the ‘North cannot be handed over to people who want Eelam by other means.’
If as Austin Fernando says, the government cannot win a poll in the north — and that’s possible going by the Local Government results — is losing an election tantamount to handing over the north to those who want Eelam by other means?
Surely, there is reason to believe that a thousand separate flanks would open up to realize the Eelam project with the Northern Provincial Council as a springboard. Well, then again, it may not be so — an elected Northern Provincial Council may put the brakes on the Eelam project, as it was intended to happen, because theoretically at least devolution of power would give the people of the north a measure of self rule that would curb the secessionist impulse.
But if the government believes that the 13th Amendment cannot be implemented for the north, then, there cannot be much of an excuse for not acting on that impulse and legalizing that position.
The government has the majority in parliament to legalize any arrangement, be it interim or otherwise that would prevent an election in the north. Irrespective of whether the government has made a pledge to India on implementing the 13th Amendment and holding elections in the north, a legalized arrangement for the Northern Provincial Council would have to be a better alternative than not having elections in that province for no reason.
As S.L. Gunasekera says, if it is in the Constitution it has to be implemented — and there aren’t many ways to get around that sublime, impregnable reality.
