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by Oscar E. V. Fernando

The peace process mainly deals with the two major communities in Sri Lanka. Let us take a look at its peoples and then touch on the much talked of Interim Administration.

The peoples making up the two major communities perhaps originating from the same roots in India, looking almost the same in features, although speaking two different languages, lived in harmony for ages past. An age when both communities played cricket together, shared satirical dramas such as 'He Comes from Jaffna' and 'Well Mudliyar, How'. What is even more is, that they were able to laugh at themselves, and at each others expense.

Incidentally, staging these two dramas throughout the country perhaps with suitable translation of the script will go a long way for peace. Even some of the LTTE hierarchy would be able to continue wearing that broad smile continuously, without stopping at jerky and uneasy intervals. Why is there this estrangement between the Sinhalese and the Tamils? Though politicians, of both democratic and terror variety are certain of the answer, and use it to their advantage, unlike statesmen, the two communities at large are not, as they are busy earning their bread and butter. Very little can be said of the butter though.

Take the case of Tamils. They were mostly concentrated in the arid land of the North that needed much hard work to cultivate. But cultivate they did most admirably. In this situation, when missionaries offered to open up schools in the North they accepted it willingly, but not so the Southerners. They therefore became well versed in English, and had a head start over the Sinhalese during foreign rule. And so they had the plums of office both in the public and mercantile sectors.

A Tamil politician of yore made an apt statement to the effect that the Northerners cultivated their brains and the Southerners cultivated their lands. Estrangement between the two races, rarely, or never witnessed before granting of independence to Ceylon, thus started, and like rubbing salt on a wound, some Tamils considered themselves superior in quality to the Sinhalese. In addition to this situation, the area of Sri Lanka they occupied was just eighteen miles away from that part of India with a huge Tamil population.

This has brought about not only certain political aspirations, but also a certain amount of security in the minds of Tamils and a sense of insecurity in the minds of Sinhalese, who have only one motherland and no fatherland, with an ethnic affinity, that they, will eventually turn out to be a minority in a regional sense. What a long shot it is in deed, from the disdain shown to some minorities by some world communities!

There was a paradigm shift in the status quo of Tamils when parochial forces blossomed in the South in the late fifties. Riots broke out killing and maiming Tamils in the South, culminating with the 1983 riots spurred by the killing of the thirteen Sinhala soldiers in the North. We have read enough of this and mulled it in our minds over and over again.

Thus a small voice of Tamil Arasakathchu which impliedly was a concept of power devolution to the North, heard even during the State Council days, turned into Fifty Fifty power base for the two communities, and then a form of federalism, turning into Eelam as a separate state and then again Eelam without a separate state. Now we are quibbling about an Interim Administration with a peace process stalled half way through when the whole purpose of the PP was to devolve some form of power to the North.

Let us now see what happened to the Sinhalese who were so industrious with their astonishing feats in the fields of irrigation, agriculture and construction. Sinhalese had been in a stupor and some are still in it when compared to the glory that was. Let me quote from R. L. Brohier, a member of the Dutch Burgher community which once ruled Ceylon and who was working in the Survey Department from 1910 to 1949 when he would have traveled the length and breadth of the country. In his book 'Discovering Ceylon', he suggests that this stupor came about with the reforms Colebrooke Commission initiated in 1832 that abolished the Rajakariya system that means the Kings business. In the chapter 'The portrait of a people', he goes on to say:

"It is doubtful whether any member of the Colebrooke Commission which made the recommendation for the abolition of Rajakariya ever appreciated what reaction it would have on a people steeped in tradition, who had grown lethargic under it, and were out of harmony with the modern economic trends. It struck at the very root of those liberties which it was meant to preserve by removing the compulsion on the owner of a share in a co-operative concern to contribute his quota of work in furthering its object."

He further says:

"From this time on, thousands of small tanks which had battled against, and had survived earlier historic cataclysms, steadily deteriorated, their spills choked, bunds eroded and channels silted, but worse was to follow."

There is a theory that Rajakariya was a slavish system or forced labour. He says: "I have often been asked; What actually does Rajakariya mean? The commonest mistake is that of thinking it was forced labour, exacted under the lash of a task-master; as in the building of the Pyramids of Egypt. The Pyramids were ushered in a dynastic period dating from 3200 to 322 B C. Basawakulam, the first big tank in the Raja Rata of which we have definite information, was built in 300 B C. In other words Ceylon's civilization was established twenty two years after the Pharaonic period had ended."

He also says:

"What is even more pertinent is that at the beginning of the 3rd century B C, Buddhism with its enlightened philosophy had reached Ceylon and received the homage of the Kings. It would seem therefore completely wrong to associate the barbaric lash of the task master with Rajakariya."

Thus, is described the pristine era of the industrious Sinhalese. It certainly was not due to the lash of a taskmaster but the industry of the Sinhalese that brought about all these feats to gain the appellation for Ceylon to be the 'Granary of the East'. Could we say that some Sinhalese in our villages are still in stupor as they are still out of harmony with the modern day economic trends.

We can however see that they are stirring out of the stupor when we see the performances of the youth who are now breaking world records in the field of sports etc.

Perhaps the peace dividends with the private sector as the engine of growth taken to the villages might now have that Gam Udawa effect envisaged by Ranasinghe Premadasa who felt the pulse of the peasants, and was interested in re-awakening the village, that being the same concept as 'Regaining Sri Lanka' of the present regime. Both attempts are to bring the country out of the stupor. Do we see some Southern politicians wallowing in, and basking themselves in this stupor, regardless of its detriment to the country?

In the midst of these impending developments that would regain the past glory of the Sinhalese, why is there a hasty and a jerky call for an Interim Administration to the North and the East? Do we simply smell a rat here?

Interim Administration

It is very probable that the structures we now see in the LTTE controlled areas are only the tip of the iceberg, and with just a spark of an Interim Administration, the complete structure could be ignited to the surface.

Not a task of eighteen months though! This could certainly not be grudged and it could very well be a model for the South too. The South being what it is today. But how this administration interim or otherwise, relates to the central government and also its implications with the growing ethnic affinity with some sections of Tamil Nadu in India, together with demands for sovereignty at sea and the increasing Sea Tiger attacks even from beneath the sea, between the borders of Tamil Nadu and the North of Sri Lanka, (here we are not sure from which end of the border it originates) are matters to be looked into carefully before any form of administration is given.

Whether it should be an Interim Administration or a powerful and properly represented committee to look into the disbursement of funds for the rehabilitation of the North, pending a final proposal of power devolution, is for the powers that be to decide.

However, it has to be stated, that much huffing and puffing is going on about the memo with regard to proposals intended for the ongoing discussion for an Interim Administration, that is suddenly pressed for by the LTTE.

This now is the latest attach on the peace process by the South, whilst the LTTE is busy building up its Sea Tiger cadres, and those in the South are shadow boxing on land! When will some in the south realize that the Government has reiterated on several occasions that no final power will be devolved on the North without being discussed in Parliament and a decision given by the people at a referendum? The resultant delays would only give the LTTE much needed leeway for future preparations at a stage when time and money seem to be running out for the Sinhalese.

This is more than what the LTTE may want! In the meanwhile the effects of the peace dividends may change the whole course of history and also the attitudes of all communities in Sri Lanka, with the definite view for a better future, whilst the ceasefire agreement is in effect. Are we so blind as not to see the obviously separate agenda pursued by both sides of the negotiating teams, or is it sheer political expediency, that appears to be suicidal to the entire South? One can however understand the unfavorable attitude of the leftist politicians on the peace dividend issue.

That such a powerful committee is a must can be concluded when we see the lethargy and the bureaucratic bungling in the South that was pointed out very forcibly in a news report of a Sunday paper of August 3rd.

Much has to be expected from DEP that is the current distance learning programme for the bureaucrats of the country.

A committee, represented by the GOSL, World Bank, LTTE and other communities living in the North and East, is a must also because of the present corruption in the South, that is due to commerce and trade practices over ages past, unlike in the North, where the future is yet to be seen, when this area too becomes a hub of commercial activity, gradually devoid of an autocracy. But an administration, interim or otherwise, done in such hurry, frenzied by this gold rush, without detailed and careful discussion of controls such as Central Bank, Attorney General, Auditor General and Judiciary among many other subjects, being identified in relation to the central government, seems rather indiscreet to say the least.

The least of all questions could be as to who will audit the fund for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the North, in an Interim Administrative set up? We do hope that the donor countries would give serious thought to this, especially in the context of possible weapons build up, although most members of all communities are awaiting to enjoy the fruits of this aid programme, especially for the war devastated North.

It is now time for all communities to look beyond the well, as well as the past and march forward for a better future, thinking as Sri Lankans and with suitable power devolution to the provinces in keeping with ethnic aspirations, within and certainly not beyond!

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