Restructuring Sri Lanka as union of Sinhala Rata and Tamileelam
The inability of Sinhala rulers to provide a peaceful and democratic government for the Tamil people and their virtual dependency on the military rule to handle the affairs of state in the Tamil North East, is the result of usurpation of the constitution and state of Sri Lanka by the Sinhala Volk. The persistence with which it has opted to subordinate the democratic institutions of Parliament, Judiciary, Public Service, the Armed Services and the Police, and the immense
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by A.R.Arudpragasam
Views expressed in this article are author own
Views expressed in this article are author own
PART 1
The Impossible Idea of Unitary State of Sri Lanka
( March 25, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The achievement of the objective of a unitary polity encompassing the whole island of Sri Lanka has been a prime interest of various monarchs and rulers throughout history. The idea, in spite of its noble nature, has brought more misery and suffering to the people of the island than any actual benefit. The process of achieving a unitary state has always led to the suppression of peaceful life of peoples of the island, leading to perpetual war.
Very often the ambitions of the monarchs to wield power over the whole island brought in foreign powers causing great harm to the sovereign rights of the people of the island.
In latter days, the aspiration of seeing Sri Lanka under one umbrella, was achieved under the British rule. Since the subjugation and annexation of the Kandyan Kingdom to the maritime areas in 1815, the whole island of Ceylon became one colonial outpost under the British Crown. This lasted until February 1948, when Ceylon became an independent nation and ever since has suffered a constitutional crisis unable to stabilise itself as a democratic polity.
Can this problem be resolved through dialogue between the various conflicting interests? Can stability be brought through external mediation? In spite of all earnest efforts, the attempts to find an answer to these questions and reestablish peace and harmony to an island, which gave meaning to the word serendipity, has not seen the light of the day for the last hundred years.
The idea of unitary state with a strong centre, under a supreme Parliament claiming to articulate the will of the entire people of Sri Lanka, though inspire a seeming rationality, has cast a substantial section of the population outside the constitutional and political process and brought the to a state of revolt seeking self-determination and statehood.
The proposition of a unitary Sri Lanka has definitely favoured the fortunes of the more numerous community, the Sinhala Buddhists, said to number about 69% of the whole population, and has facilitated the imposition of their will over the others. In repercussion of this, where the Parliament imposed permanent disabilities on the Tamil people, the Tamil people rejected the idea of unitary state vehemently and demanded a separate political arrangement for the articulation of their free will, so as to fulfil their desire for a democratic and just governance.
