Lanka as a single united country

Pronouncement by the President at the recent opening of Sri Sambuddhathva Jayanthi Mandira at Thunmulla that ‘Lankan has the strength to forge ahead as a single united country solving the problems as a nation’ is indeed timely and clears a lot of uncertain air at a time detractors of the nation are attempting to exploit the cloudy atmosphere created by the Darusman Report.

Study of the country’s history will reveal that whenever the Center of the country was weak there had been anarchic tendencies on regionalism and this has always resulted in mayhem and chaos in the country. This fact has even been quite palpably evident in the 30-year phase the country has just been through. For 30 years we had a regional despot who tried to usurp all the power he desired with the help of his communal sympathizers abroad.

Central government

It was an era where peace became the first casualty not only in the country as a whole but worst still in the region that was said to be on course for ‘liberation’. In fact the situation in the region controlled by this ‘sole representative’ was such that if not for the good office of the central government the people who lived under this liberator would have died en mass for want of food and shelter. Fortunately this country has been through with that phase and now it is time to look forward for the future sans minority and regional inhibitions.

However, for sometime now we have been toying with the idea of ‘devolving’ power to the territories as an answer to the ‘ethnic problem’ that is said to exist in the country and the 13th amendment is said to be designed to achieve that. The term ‘Devolution’ according to the Webster’s third new International dictionary (1961) is defined as “the delegation or transfer of work or power from the central administration to a local or regional one.” The use of the term delegation should be noted here as delegation is the empowerment of a subsidiary by the lawful power to attend to a specific task. What is important in this however is that both power and accountability are transferred in an appropriated quantum, with the original body losing neither authority nor accountability.

That, then being the meaning of ‘devolution’, Sri Lanka need not initiate new legislation or even the 13th amendment is not required to devolve power because even before the Provincial Councils were introduced the country always had a sound mechanism for devolving power in its administrative structure, with the following bodies in place.

14 Municipalities (for major cities in the country).

38 Urban Councils (for smaller cities in the country).

183 Pradeshiya Sabhas (for rural electorates)

25 District secretaries (for every administrative district)

249 Divisional Secretariats (for every electoral division).

Local administration

These institutions were introduced after having realized the need to delegate authority to Divisional levels for local administration on a functional basis to facilitate civil well being and their creation was not prompted by racial considerations to placate politicians. Of these, the first three categories are made up of elected representatives while the last two are officers appointed by the state.

All these agents necessarily have to work within the framework of the state which means that the law in Hambanthota (South) cannot be different from that in Kegalle (Center), because there is only one legislature in Sri Lanka i.e. the Sri Lankan Parliament. There is thus uniformity and we all live in one country with devolved power.

If this is what we mean by ‘devolution of power’, it is time that we realize that we do not need new legislation in this regard as we already have the mechanism in place to implement devolution and it is only a matter of increasing or decreasing the quantum of devolution. Thus if some person or body is now clamouring for ‘devolution’ such clamour would be because some ‘ignoramuses’ know not what they are clamouring for. Equally, if there are persons or bodies who maintain opposition to devolution they too should look up the dictionary and realize the futility in objecting for something that has been tried and tested over the years.

Reign supreme

The reality then is, even though these racially motivated ‘devolutionists’ appear to demand ‘devolution’ they are in fact demanding much more than just evolution. If not there is no need for this issue of two lists of subjects on which power could be exercised, one list of subjects for the Central Government, and another list of subjects for the Provincial Government.

This means that the Central Government may have to abdicate its power with regard to the subjects mentioned in the ‘Provincial list’ and the Provincial Government, in turn, may do as they please on those subjects. In this way, are we really bestowing power to the people or are we creating a set of regional despots who would reign supreme for a limited period as allowed by the proposed transfer, 13th amendment or whatever?

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