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Thursday, 4 April 2013

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A POST WAR LESSON IN POLITICS

The Jayalalithaa hijinks in India and the inevitable fallout of that situation, is having its still more inevitable repercussions with the more vocal sections of Sri Lankan society particularly among the Sinhala majority, making their views known loud and clear.

There are calls for boycotts on Indian made Maruti cars - made in op-ed columns in English language dailies. There are calls also, to pull out all Sri Lankan players from the IPL.

Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera has made his own contribution to the evolving discourse by echoing the sentiments of the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, about what he says would be the precipitate action of holding Northern Provincial Council elections, if they go ahead as planned.

Giving his reasons, he says that the people of the North are not quite weaned away from the fear psychosis, resultant from decades of conflict. Though they have in no uncertain terms rejected the idea of a separate state by refusing to join the crazy clamour originating from the direction of Chennai, these people are yet unable to make independent decisions for themselves, due to the overbearing presence of the TNA, the known quisling of the Tamil Tiger rump groups.

A Northern PC election he says is tantamount to implementation of the 13th Amendment which he says should be repealed.

That the 13th Amendment was forced upon us seems to be a settled principle in the continuing dialogue among the Sinhala intellectual elite in Colombo.

It would be hard to argue with that. Forced or otherwise, it remains a part of our constitutional document. As S. L. Gunasekera himself once said, if it is in the law books, it cannot be observed in the breach.

Of course the 13th Amendment, with the two thirds majority that the government has, can be removed or surgically excised legally, from our constitutional document which is what Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera advocates.

The problem with that may be that what India gives, India might not want taken away so easily.

Curiously, the Sri Lankan government can in one way, disown the LLRC report as there is no binding force in law that the LLRC be implemented, but the 13th Amendment remains part of our constitution, and cannot be similarly wished away unless there is a further constitutional amendment.

But, Dr. Gunadasa contends that the TNA which has been a quisling of the Tigers and is now being perceived as being in tow with the Tiger rump, has not proved its bona fides. In veiled fashion, some top level TNA leaders have been continuing to make arguments for separatism, even though the official TNA position is that the party’s separatist agenda has been given up.

Advocating separatism is against the Sri Lankan constitution and MPs for instance are required on oath to affirm that they will not promote the cause of secession.

In a court of law, the TNA’s bona fides on this score might not stand to scrutiny, and taken together with the fact that the situation in the North can be categorized still as ‘post war transitory’ there is a good case as any for the government to desist from holding Provincial Council elections in the North. But that prognosis is as far as local politics is concerned.

The plain truth is that in the international community – so called of course – there is (no doubt an unwarranted) call for Sri Lanka to carry out all constitutional provisions mandated in the 13th Amendment.

That’s why the decision making political establishment is between an unenviable rock and a hard place. Dr. Gunadasa’s apprehensions about the unraveling of war gains may be correct. He says the 13th Amendment in effect is Eelam through the back door.

The TNA has not, bona fide, shown that things could be otherwise. But the Geneva resolutions etc., seem to be guiding us in the direction of Eelam without one shot. What then is the solution in the face of this vexed dilemma?

A plan has to be devised to neutralize this undue international pressure, but that’s easier said than done. The least that can be said for the moment, is that yet, fortuitous circumstances may intervene in the future. We live in hope.

British Duplicity in ‘The PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS in Sri Lanka’

The West won the world not by superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non Westerners never do.’ Samuel. P. Huntington as quoted by J.B. Muller in his dissertation Anglophiles, Eurocentric Arrogance and Reality –The Island November 5, 2010.

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Priyani Anoma Abeyasekera nee Tennekoon :

Fond Memories Of A Student

It is not often that the life of a student offers his or her teacher a source of inspiration in responding to diverse challenges through the journey of life. Amidst the banality that represents much of the rhythm of daily routine, a life well lived, in keeping with the most exacting standards, spreading light and joy all around, satisfying to oneself and to all who are touched by one’s example, is truly to be celebrated.

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