Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

29 June 2017                                          

Confidentiality or Transparency?

The recent conflict between the Tamil Politicians in National Parliament and the Tamil Chief Minister of Northern Province who in essence is more an Administrator than a Politician, is a model version of the National problem. It is also a conflict between the requirements of  Confidentiality and Transparency.

As per latest news report  Mr. Wigneswaran contributed to the debate as follows:

[Instead of giving the Tamils adequate power devolution and uniting the Northern and Eastern Provinces to constitute a single Tamil province, the Sri Lankan government is trying to foist a half baked political solution, he charged.

Top government ministers have said that devolution will not go beyond the 13 th.Amendment of the present constitution, he noted.] - Wigneswaran says Tamil leaders involved in Colombo’s anti-Tamil conspiracy – at  newsin.asia

The 13^th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution provided as follows through article 154A:

 (3) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding provisions of this Article, Parliament may by, or under, any law provide for two or three adjoining Provinces to form one administrative unit with one elected Provincial Council, one Governor, one Chief Minister and one Board of Ministers and for the manner of determining whether such Provinces should continue to be administered as one administrative unit or whether each such Province should constitute a separate administrative unit with its own Provincial Council, and a separate Governor, Chief Minister and Board of Ministers.

As per my interpretation of the above, Northern  & Eastern provinces could be united through Parliament. The challenge is whether Tamils have strong enough Administration to effectively manage and produce outcomes to confirm self-governance of a Unit that is more valuable than the sum of the individuals making up the body of that Unit. If Mr. Wigneswaran seeks to be the first Premier of such merged unit as indicated through ther formation of Tamil People’s Council – he ought to have confidentially resolved internal conflicts in Northern Province – as we do in family. It’s often difficult to achieve the height needed, due to our temptations to be pampered at the political level – a weakness in Southern Sri Lankan Politicians also.

As per the above report:

[Recently, 15 members of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), along with some opposition members, had wanted to move a No Confidence Motion against Chief Minister Wigneswaran for the partisan way in which he handled the inquiry into corruption charges against four Ministers. The appointment of the inquiry committee had also been illegal, they said. The inquiry committee ought to have been a Select Committee of the NPC  and not a set of outsiders.

After the dispute was “settled” because of the intervention of some religious leaders and foreign diplomats, Jaffna District MP, M.A. Sumanthiran, demanded  that the terms of reference of the fresh inquiry into the conduct of the ministers should include charges against all the five members of the Board of Ministers, including the Chief Minister.]

Given that the Provincial Council came into birth due to the militancy of  Tamils, its laws and principles need to flow from that issue of Devolution of Power. By submitting the ‘No Confidence Motion’ to the Governor – those Councillors were effectively avoiding that mandate. Bu taking their side – Mr. Sampanthan and Mr. Sumanthiran were also confirming lack of commitment to the above provision in the  13^th Amendment.

Mr. Sampanthan and Mr. Sumanthiran may lack the sensitivity to appreciate the position that Mr. Wigneswaran is in. To me, my parallel is marrying into a Vaddukoddai family driven by ‘habits’ local to their area – which often fails to show a logical connection between cause and effect.  One even said ‘Thottil Palakkam Sudukaadu Mattum’ / Habits learnt within family come with us to the cemetery. This means they do not want to change. That’s their right but to exercise that they need to remain within their ‘local area’. That the basis of electing government based on majority vote. If those votes were based on Belief – we would be self-governing. Those who seek the higher intellectual pathway need Administration to live at the higher level. This to my mind is the essence of the conflict between the NPC councillors above and Mr. Wigneswaran who is naturally used to the higher pathway – even though he may not always be marked right as per that pathway. I am reminded of the ‘justification’ by one of my supervisors – after I resigned from the University of NSW  - ‘ We both have the same goal but our pathways are different’. His was political like Mr. Sumanthiran’s and mine was Administrative like Mr. Wigneswaran’s.

My Vaddukoddai sister in law who migrated to Australia due to my efforts – tried to takeover Administration of her brother’s intestate estate and towards this she went into the mode when she was homemaker in their family after her mother passed away. That is an effects based calculation driven by desire for control. To be valid within family – the lady needed express certification by all those she claims to have groomed. That is when the relationship gets completed at that time at that place for reasons of harmony. Many of the members have since passed away and hence there is no mandate for her to use that ‘outcome-based’ claim. As per the Law of Thesawalamai which the folks of Vaddukoddai are also bound by – the most eligible brother had the right to ‘internal family administration’. Amongst them, one who provided more and benefited less ranks first. Between Mr. Sumanthiran and Mr. Wigneswaran – Mr. Wigneswaran who became Judge ranks above Mr. Sumanthiran who is only a practicing lawyer.

A judge is comfortable with higher structures through which processes need to flow – for the judgment to earn its dignity. National level politicians getting openly involved in Northern Province Administration, is in Breach of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers between belief based Politics and Administration based on Discriminative thinking through Common Theory / Law. All our claims – through Vaddukoddai Resolution as well as Militancy – are based on Belief – sometimes only claims and not real belief. Mere claims amount to hearsay.

Once we remove hearsay from politics – True Belief becomes the Natural Base of our Administration. As per that base, total  outcomes would equal total costs. When a political party with second highest number of votes is in Parliament – the ‘gap’ is expected to be filled by greater contribution through Administration – to provide a level playing field for merit. Hence Zero start in Democratic financial management. The Judiciary often fails the test of Democracy – due to carrying forward ‘history’. Both sides to the Jaffna conflict failed to have a zero start. But Mr. Wigneswaran’s pathway appealed more to the educated Tamil than those of the Councillors who had the Political support Colombo Tamils – that Mr. Sampanthan and Mr. Sumanthiran have become as Leaders of Opposition in National Parliament.

To uphold that position, they need to be much stronger in Administration than the average Politician from South who is complacent often due to being pampered by their leaders who play the number game.

The best way through which Colombo Politicians representing North and East could continue to defeat the Opposition also by majority race is by growing tall through Administration, using global principles. This requires foregoing equal level political benefits and ploughing back into Reliable Structures. No outcome must be taken or shown without going through Due Administrative process as per the law and internally as per one’s Truth. Without this Devolution becomes welfare handout of status which the Colombo Tamil politicians seem to have resigned themselves to. 

Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council, to my mind, is the ‘Project’ through which we Sri Lankans could become more Democratic in Administration. By being Transparent during process we have confirmed the need for our Politicians to get educated about Confidentiality needed at process stage if we seek to ‘show’ independent outcomes. The guide is within the Doctrine of Separation of Powers. Those who seek external credits need to keep their ‘special’ processes confidential from outsiders – as both sides to the war did when they were winning. Those who seek internal strength must ‘see’ no external credit especially through practice of processes.

In Democracy, folks at grassroots level need to have knowledge of completed outcomes that have gone through highest structure in their environment – so their home administration would be strengthened. The rest would distract them from Peace & Harmony – especially if they seek to Administer through majority vote before exhausting the Administrative facilities available to them. That is what happened in Northern Sri Lankan Politics.