A Compatible Governing System & Mutual Trust Needed To Unify The Divided Island Nation
By S. Narapalasingam –May 19, 2016
Dr. S. Narapalasingam
In my previous article, ‘Conundrum: Sinhala Nationalists Against Federalism But Pushing for Separatism’, I explained how the demand for a separate Tamil State in Sri Lanka emerged and emphasised the need to unite the divided nation for the welfare of all ethnic communities in the island. A suitably reformed governing system fostering national unity must be deemed fair by all the communities in the country. Equally important is the change in the attitude from mistrust to confidence in co-existing as equal partners in the multi-ethnic island with regionally diverse dwelling pattern. The governing system must not ignore the inherent demographic features of the country’s 9 provinces.
The fact that the Sinhalese are not the major ethnic community in the Northern and Eastern provinces should not be a cause for concern to the Sinhala patriots. There is no real basis to think empowered Sri Lankan Tamils residing in these two provinces will be a threat to the ethnic majority residing largely in other provinces. In the modern world, there is also no basis for an ethnic majority in a sovereign country to feel unsafe because their language is exclusive to them unlike Tamil language which is also the mother tongue of the people in Tamil Nadu , south India. The real attachment of Sri Lankan Tamils is to their motherland and not India. Alienation of Sri Lankan Tamils is not the way to safeguard the future of the Sinhalese residing in Sri Lanka. In my earlier article, I have emphasised the fact that Sri Lankan Tamils do not consider Tamil Nadu in South India as their homeland. The Tamil Nadu factor is imaginative. It has no basis in the modern world. In fact, the future of Sinhalese will be safe in a united Sri Lanka with the unity arising from the real feeling of sons and daughters of the same motherland. The present governing system ignores the regional difference in the traditional way the two major ethnic communities reside in different parts of the island.
The fact, the Sinhalese and Tamil communities have their roots in the different States in the island that existed before the British captured the entire island is well known. For administrative convenience, British government introduced the unified system, respecting the traditional dwelling pattern of the Sinhalese and Tamils. Kandy was the last territory that came under the British rule. The Kandyan kingdom was different from others not only because of its location in the hill country but several Kandyan kings were Tamils. Even the wife of the last Sinhalese king of Kandy, Narendrasinghe was a Tamil from a royal family in South India. In ancient Kandy, the language of the court was Tamil. Even the high ranking Sinhalese officials in Kandy were fluent in Tamil. It is the social and cultural differences between the Kandyan and low country Sinhalese that prompted S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in 1925 to suggest a federal system for Ceylon.
