Editorial

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By the Government's own official version trotted out by the Media Minister, voting on the Bill was postponed because. there were more than 50 amendments to the Bill. On that very basis, who could dare say this important Bill was well considered? Whenever dangerous clauses were pointed out proponents would say "oh! these changes could be made at the 3rd reading" , meaning the committee stage. That is not how the fundamental law of any country ought to be drafted. On the run, so to say. But we know that whatever the official version, the actual reason for the withdrawal of the Bill was that the Government could not muster the 2/3rd majority required to have the Bill passed. A last minute rush to change the electoral system also ran into trouble for the same reason - not because there were more than 50 amendments to that as well.

So governments can try to fool all the people all the time. But the rationale that emerges in this much ado about nothing at the end of it, is that these reforms are "too much" for the Sinhalese masses and "too little" for the Tamil political parties. We for our part, believe that as long as devolution is going to be ethnic- related, this issue is going to persist, putting the mutli - ethnic multi-religious peoples of this country against one another.

We therefore, welcome the new Prime Minister's opening remarks on his assumption of office on Thursday. He has made clear that the issue of terrorism and the LTTE is a military question. Whatever discrepancies or discrimination that the ethnic minorities have in Sri Lanka, have to be addressed separately. Once we separate the two, the clouded issues will probably be clearer. Despite running the risk of being accused of glorifying J. R. Jayewardene, we need to say that the 1981 introduction of District Development Councils was possibly the closest to what the majority would find least objectionable.

In the District Development Council, the unit of devolution was a district which we believe is a workable unit in a small country like Sri Lanka. In addition the word development emphasised the economic development aspect of the council rather than the ethnic aspect.The Sinhalese by and large even if grudgingly, accepted this as a mid-way approach to devolution. It was just that J. R. Jayewardene's own Government was responsible for destroying what it created.by disrupting the Jaffna DDC elections and not seriously implementing the plan.

When India got stuck into the Sri Lankan issue, its main negotiator Gopalaswamy Parthasarathi was reported to have impressed on the Tamil leaders in Sri Lanka that the "substance of the Tamil demands would need to be woven into a scheme without the emotive content , or the terminology, which could trigger Sinhala resistance". Then the same Mr. Parthasarathy argued with Mr. Jayewardene for a larger unit of devolution than the district, saying it would result in "an augmentation of power and resources."

That was the contradiction. That was the bone of contention. The Indian-backed Tamil parties wanted a larger unit as an "augmentation of power"- more than resources. Now the Tamil parties - may not really be the Tamil people - say their alternative to a separate state is a joint North and East council which comprises 1/3rd of this country. Is it not natural that this would trigger Sinhalese resistance as we had seen in 1956, 1966, 1987 and now 2000, but significantly, not in 1981 when the DDCs were introduced. We believe that the more this country thinks ethnic, breathes ethnic and talks ethnic this crisis is going to keep the ethnic brew boiling in the pot, aggravating ethnic hatred amongst our peoples having deep suspicions and deep resentments among peoples, dividing this once resplendent country into another ethnic hell-hole of the world.

We need to take a leap out of this ethnic mind-set, if we can. 
 
 

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