Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
22
January 2019
Democracy a Foreigner
in Sri Lanka
[These words, ‘where every
prospect pleases and only man is vile’ written long ago about our country
by Bishop Reginald Heber, were resented by me when I first read them, as a
schoolgirl, as I felt they were unfair. But when one looks at happenings today,
I feel he was a visionary far ahead of his time in his thinking and writing.
Our country is among the most beautiful in the world, we have been called
Emerald isle, Pearl of the Indian Ocean and other most descriptive adjectives.
Our nation’s beauty is reflected in nature’s incomparable canvas created by
God, our creator in the verdant varying shades of green of trees and foliage,
sapphire blue into turquoise of the ocean, the glorious vibrant sunsets, the
golden sands.] Ms Ilica Malkanthi Karunaratne in her Daily
Mirror article ‘Ingratitude,
hypocrisy brought the worst traits of our national character.
The statement ‘our country is among the most
beautiful in the world’ is denial of Sove
reignty. The Sri Lankan National
Anthem does not relate to other nations and rightly so. As a Sri Lankan, Ms
Karunarantne ought to be offended by the above expression by Bishop Reginald
Herber. Gandhi was and responded as
follows:
["My own experience in my travels throughout
India has been to the contrary ... [Man] is not vile. He is as much a seeker
after truth as you and I are, possibly more so"]
Gandhi is our Independence heritage. Gandhi
renounced earned opportunities to live comfortably, to identify with majority
Indians – who were poor in status and/or money. One who becomes an heir of
Gandhi will produce more heirs of
Independence. An independent person would not relate to those outside
her/his circle of belief. Those with dual citizenship are prevented by law from
representing Sri Lankans in government due to the risk of indiscriminately
relating one country to the other. Truth morally authorises us to be governors
of both in common as well as individually within each country. In the Sri
Lankan context in terms of communities governors are entitled to represent both
individually and in common. But not executives.
The Provincial governors for example are actually
appointed executives. The Chief Minister is both governor and executive. The higher
the position, the greater the governing power needed to develop natural
harmony. Governing power develops natural pathways to sharing strengths and
weakness. The more a person in governor’s position seeks and/or uses administrative
powers – the stronger the confirmation of weak governing power – as President Maithripala Sirisena demonstrated recently.
If Mr Sirisena is elected President again, to my
mind, that confirms that majority Sri Lankans are not self-governing. By 2015,
we had not manifested the true characteristic of Mr Sirisena in that position.
Had Mr Sirisena been self-governing prior to 2015, he would have been
comfortable in the governing part of the position of President. But the
manifestations since October have reliably confirmed that the person above him
is the law to Mr Sirisena. That comes
from dependence of express votes to get to the high position. The greater the
dependence on express votes – the greater the need for a senior intermediary
between the law and the official. This was Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa for Mr
Sirisena. The Truth we need to face is
that to majority Sri Lankans including Tamil politicians, Democracy is a
foreign system.
Being Truthful does not mean that we are Democratic.
Recognizing the other’s right to read us as per their Truth confirms Democracy.
As a democratic person I assess Mr Sirisena as an undemocratic person. Mr Ranil
Wickremesinghe and Mr Sampanthan are more democratic than Mr Sirisena because
they did not use the law prematurely. They facilitated the truth to manifest Itself by the directly affected
persons and that is the value of democracy.
Ms Ilica Malkanthi
Karunaratne using Bishop Reginald Heber’s conclusion, to my
mind is in breach of the fundamentals of the Constitution that blocks Dual
Citizenship holders from contesting elections. As per those fundamentals – we cannot
inter relate but only intra-relate. Most Sri Lankan politicians with active knowledge
of English law, but promoting
traditional pathways have dual citizenship mind-structure instead of common
mind. Hence their policy contributions would lead to getting the user nowhere.
Recently, the Daily News presented as follows through its report headed ‘No to Federalism, NE amalgamations’:
[Eventhough Tamil parties
have not extended any support towards Sri Lanka’s constitutions, expressing
their ideas regarding various proposals for the formulation of a new
Constitution is a welcome democratic feature, State Enterprise, Kandyan
Heritage and Kandyan Development Minister Lakshaman Kiriella said.]
Tamils did contribute actively to maintaining the Sovereignty of
Sri Lanka – which is the core purpose of the Constitution. Prior to 1972,
Tamils contributed as Equals to the British. After the British who also failed
to appreciate the value of minority contributions – especially, the 50:50 claim
by the Hon GG Ponnambalam Tamils have
contributed to the real constitution by confirming that they reject the Sinhala
only law, followed by Buddhism foremost article - which structures denied the
true self-governance path that many Tamil leaders had followed.
The presence of two contradictory articles in the one
constitution confirms the risks of dual-citizens making policies in one country
or the other.
Daily News reports further as follows:
[For the first time in
the country’s history, the TNA had accepted the unitary state concept and Article 9 of the Constitution which
offered a pre-eminent place for Buddhism.
“What had been presented
in Parliament was not a Constitution but constitutional proposals made by
various parties and individuals and eminent persons for clause by clause
discussion only.
“It was after then that
a draft constitution would be formulated.
“Although some quarters
alleged that there were attempts to divide the country, the UNP would never
agree to any such underhand moves since they loved the country,” he said.
“Had we implemented
power devolution immediately after independence, the country would have never
experienced a cruel 30 yeas war. In the 1950s the Tamils demanded only language
rights rather than separation.]
Those who accept Article 9 of the Constitution
confirm that they are not democratic and that they are not self-governing.
Whoever accepted that from within the TNA is a traitor – at community as well
as national levels. TNA’s job is to Oppose through its own Truth experienced
through a path independent to that of the Government. That is the power that elevated Tamils to Equal Opposition in National
Parliament –through also Sinhalese voters also, confirming the invisible powers
of Truth that recognizes the common value of Tamils who endured hardship in that
part of the Earth, called Sri Lanka. If TNA did accept Buddhism foremost
article – then they invoke internal separation between Tamils as:
Those who are junior to Buddhists and those who are
Equal to Buddhists. Mine is certainly with those who are Equal to Buddhists.
If the above presentation by Mr Kiriella is false – then TNA’s first
duty is to take action against Mr Kiriella for promoting separation.
Otherwise we would conclude that Democracy is
foreign to Tamil National Alliance also.
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