Cautious Route To Devolution
Austin Fernando
After former Chief Minister (CM) Varatharajah Perumal issued the unilateral declaration of independence about twenty-five years back, as a devolutionist, I reminisced that had he remained as Chief Minister (CM) without acting so, many later problems of the Provincial Councils (PCs) could have been solved viably. Today, I project that CM CV Wigneswaran has got similar or even greater opportunity to achieve power sharing.
Mavai Senathirajah’s prescription
Lately, Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA’s) Member of Parliament (MP) Mavai Senathirajah has told The Hindu that the priorities of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) are to: (1) ensure that lands destroyed in the war be reclaimed and livelihood programmes introduced; (2) pass laws to bring resources for development; and, (3) give the Tamil people the right to self-rule. For these he expected international support – especially Indian. Also, CM Wigneswaran has reiterated calls for self determination for Tamils, within a united Sri Lanka.
I believe that NPC will perform following the TNA Manifesto. If the TNA Manifesto was only to win elections, its purpose is already served. But, can the NPC implement the Manifesto in totality, irrespective of sensitivities? If the TNA and the NPC think power sharing is convenient, they are mistaken. They will learn the hard way from the central bureaucracy, whom I call Saddnatha White Elephants. (Please refer-https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/provincial-white-elephants-and-saddantha-white-elephants-in-colombo/)
Land and livelihood issues
Let me look at the lands and livelihood issue – the first priority of MP Senathirajah.
The Manifesto raises the issue of acquisition of lands by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL). It speaks of ‘acquisition for military purposes;’ ‘forcible acquisition of lands’; ‘shared sovereignty’ to be ‘necessarily be over land’; ‘lands seized by the government without due process’; respecting ‘the rights of private property owners’ and ‘restore such lands to the rightful owners’ (MP Senathirajah himself included!); ‘…draconian regulations on land acquisition and reoccupation’ depriving Tamils’ rich agricultural lands – a bagful of grievances. TNA complains these as rights violations and Tamilnet continuously repeated specific incidents to prove it. They drag in pro-Muslim interests and anti-Hindu and anti-Muslim incidents and make the cases more complex.
