Attention Please; The Greatest Obstacle Confronting The New Govt
R.M.B. Senanayake
What is the greatest obstacle confronting the new Government in enacting good policy? In my opinion it is the review of the working of the Provincial Councils. Ranil was the first and only political leader to realize the implications of the Provincial Councils for the South. Won’t the devolution of power to the Provincial Councils render redundant a large National Parliament and a large central government? Can the southern politicians be entrusted with more power? Can they be expected to act in a civilized law abiding manner to provide a civilized civil administration? The present behavior of the Southern Provincial Council Members casts grave doubts about it? I am not even sure hat the present generation of Tamil politicians will act in a civilized manner ensuring a just and fair civil administration in the North. They must prove themselves as law abiding citizens committed to the national state. The educated Tamils of the past have largely gone to the West. But the Northern Provincial Council may have to be tried out with the limited functions and powers they have been entrusted with already. The obstacles in their path have to be removed by replacing the Governor and bringing the staff under the Chief Minister for dual control is anathema to good public administration. The right of the IDPs to return to their lands is recognized by the United Nations and will have to be implemented. The military in the North must be scaled down but trust must be built up by the Tamil politicians that they have given up demand for Eelam and accepted the national state. For a start the military should be debarred from intervening in civilian activities and confined to barracks. As for police powers for a start only Tamil speaking policemen should be deployed in he North. Even in the UK there are village policemen who are no part of a centralized police service. As Dr Frank Silva has pointed out the single centralized police service was only introduced by the British colonial ruler in 1865. Perhaps a separate rural police service may be recruited locally but they may be part of the central government and not of the Provincial Council.
The PCs are required to resolve the Tamil minority problem. The Muslims of the East want a separate kachcheri in Kalmunai or Akkaraipattu which will deal with them in Tamil and eliminate the costs of their travel and say in Amparai where the language of administration is Sinhala. There is nothing wrong in the demand and should be conceded. Remember there were only 9 Kachcheris during earlier British rule.. Then kachcheris were set up for Districts for the convenience of the people. The Muslim demand for a kachcheri cannot be called a demand for a separate state as misinterpreted by the Sinhala Buddhist extremists. As for the PCs in the Sinhala speaking South, Ranil suggested asymmetric devolution. He will have to explain the concept to the leaders of the other Sinhalese political parties and obtain consensus to what he has in mind. The P.C politicians have shown themselves quite unworthy of power for they seem to be plain thugs and criminals. If they are to be given the same powers under the 13th Amendment then the national Parliament will have to shrink to about 100 MPs the most.. The Executive of the Central Government would also have to shrink. This issue should deserve the attention of Ranil on a priority basis. The Northern P.C has been stymied by a Governor who is exercising the powers conferred on him by the Provincial Councils Act which go beyond those of the 13th Amendment. The 13th Amendment would have to be made operative and the powers of the Governor under the Provincial Councils Act should be amended. A clarification is also necessary between the powers of the Governor and the Chief Minister.