{"id":80675,"date":"2022-12-24T00:27:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T04:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80675"},"modified":"2022-12-25T00:28:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-25T04:28:55","slug":"if-consensus-cannot-be-reached-on-whether-a-tamil-or-sinhala-small-party-candidate-will-serve-on-the-council-what-hope-does-achieving-a-solution-for-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80675","title":{"rendered":"If consensus cannot be reached on whether a Tamil or Sinhala \u201csmall\u201d Party candidate will serve on the Council, what hope does achieving a \u2018solution\u2019 for the \u2018ethnic problem\u2019 in two months have, we may well ask?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

Kishali Pinto -Jayawardene<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carrots tossed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the form of release of a few Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) political prisoners and return of lands to displaced owners in the North and East have given rise to unseemly jubilation on the part of Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil political leadership or what passes as the \u2018leadership\u2019 today.<\/p>\n

Are these \u2018gains\u2019 worthy of mention?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be clear, one is not being facetious in saying this. On the contrary, it beggars belief as to how the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) can cheerfully parade such trifles let alone to hold forth on the same to the national media with disconcerting ease. To put it bluntly, out of the mountainous promise of a roundtable on the \u2018ethnic problem\u2019 initiated by the President, we have the mouse of potential release of fourteen PTA prisoners being \u2018discussed. <\/p>\n

We are informed with suitable grandeur that this is to coincide with Sri Lanka\u2019s soon approaching 75th Independence Day Celebration early next year. Alongside, the President has \u2018requested\u2019 all political parties to come to a \u2018common agreement\u2019 to provide a solution to the ethnic problem by that time. <\/p>\n

The grand irony of all of this is, of course, profound at many levels. Not the least of this is the reference to a \u2018solution\u2019 to the \u2018ethnic problem\u2019 in a magical period of less than two months. To be kind, this is a frivolous approach to the existential dilemma of the Sri Lanka State which has paralyzed this nation for much of its post-independence years.<\/p>\n

This \u2018ethnic problem\u2019 which the Government treats as casually as tying its collective shoelaces has, we must not forget, led to thousands of lives lost from the majority community as well as the minorities, fractured societies leading to deep mistrust fostered by racist political ideologues and hopelessly perverted the Rule of Law. <\/p>\n

That perversion was contributory to the acute economic crisis that the country faces today. The election of unfit rulers to the seat of the Presidency was brought about by this pervasive racist political agenda.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What is there to celebrate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ideally we should not \u2018celebrate\u2019 the Independence anniversary at all if common sense ruled the day. Christmas celebrations may well take place at Colombo\u2019s hotels but the message of peace and compassion that was the core of the teachings of Jesus Christ is notably absent. <\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s society grows more brutalized day by day as bestiality reigns and human being are strangled, shot at and down in broad daylight with state mechanisms either ineffective or part of the process of non-accountability.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the President\u2019s communications team (if not the President) should have been more alive to the idiocy in even framing such an outcome along the lines of an \u2018Independence Day Celebration.\u2019 <\/p>\n

One wonders as to the target audience of such rhetoric, it is hard to believe that even newly come observers of the country\u2019s complex political dynamic, with all possible good intentions, will uncritically fall for this tripe. <\/p>\n

Certainly the mass citizenry, battered to near extinction by endemic gross corruption which still runs unchecked despite the collapse of the economy, with worse beckoning in 2023, will only be scornful.<\/p>\n

While the Government\u2019s antics are understandable, it is far less easy to understand asinine chortling from Tamil political parties over release of a meagre amount of PTA prisoners. <\/p>\n

Apparently, these are convicted prisoners whose releases are being \u2018considered\u2019 by the (in principle, problematic) device of Presidential pardons. But if ever we talk about bandaids not sufficing to cure a prolonged and systemic cancer of the Lankan governance system, this must be it. To parade these as democratic \u2018gains\u2019 makes a mockery, to put it mildly of sustained struggles to mitigate the more formidably cruel aspects of the PTA.<\/p>\n

Focus on substantive issues needed<\/strong><\/p>\n

The PTA is now being utilised with force and effect against student protestors who spearheaded the \u2018Aragalaya\u2019 bringing into sharp relief, the response of the Government to any form of activist dissent, North or South. In the meantime, families of the disappeared and journalists in the North and East are still being surveilled by the military, called to account for even the slightest attempt to criticise state actions.<\/p>\n

Against this backdrop, Tamil political parties should abstain from trumpeting about the release of PTA prisoners by presidential pardons, holding these out to be great achievements.<\/p>\n

Instead, they are better advised to focus attention on ensuring that their unfortunate constituencies are not terrorised by rogue military officers and on insisting that the PTA is replaced by a well adjusted Counter Terrorism Act. <\/p>\n

This should not reflect the agonizing draft CTA proposed by the Wickremesinghe government during the\u2019 yahapalanaya\u2019 period replete with vague definitions and obsolete offences though peddled by some of Wickremsinghe\u2019s enthusiastic supporters at the time as \u2018progressive.\u2019<\/p>\n

As we must recall, this draft CTA was withdrawn in the face of public outrage following its contents being leaked to the public domain. Later, an adverse court ruling followed at the time. <\/p>\n

Recently the Government has announced that a further revised CTA would be placed before the public early next year but what its contents are, remain a mystery. This is not the way to go on a matter as divisive as a proposed CTA. The public must be taken into confidence on its contents, these are not laws that should be drafted secretively.<\/p>\n

Show committed governance reform first<\/strong><\/p>\n

To do so is to invite unhappy public reactions from both sides of the nationalistic ethnic divide. We have learnt this to our cost only too well. Even so, that same modus operandi is followed, inviting the same consequences perchance. Meanwhile talks on the \u2018constitutional issues\u2019 are ongoing. Perhaps it is only in Sri Lanka that such \u2018talks\u2019 can be taken seriously when there is little evidence on the ground that existing constitutional safeguards are being implemented with any sign of seriousness.<\/p>\n

High on that list comes the wearisome affair of the Constitutional Council under the 21st Amendment, which was welcomed by some as a start to rejuvenating shattered governance institutions. The quality and calibre of (political) appointees to the Council inspire little confidence in the body while the (non-political) nominees are yet to be finalised. Meanwhile an unseemly squabble has arisen over the \u2018ethnic character\u2019 of the representative of the \u2018minority parties\u2019 with Tamil parties insisting that this should be a \u2018Tamil representative.\u2019<\/p>\n

Other opposition parties have put forward their \u2018Sinhala\u2019 representative in counter. Novel solutions are being proposed for this conundrum, including one suggestion that each of the two representatives may \u2018divide\u2019 the time to be served between them. <\/p>\n

This would be hilarious if it was not such an acute pointer to the breakdown of parliamentary consensus on which the very working of the Council is premised. <\/p>\n

If consensus cannot be reached on a candidate to serve on the Council, what hope does achieving a \u2018solution\u2019 for the \u2018ethnic problem\u2019 in two months have, we may well ask?<\/p>\n

\u2018National reconciliation\u2019 for whom?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moreover, the larger point is as to how \u2018national reconciliation\u2019 can even be conceptualized at this point when the political leadership has shown no signs of reform, no indication that it seriously takes the task of governance reform, including putting a credible Constitutional Council into place. Is that fundamental paradox between reality and rhetoric so difficult to grasp? <\/p>\n

Should spokespersons for minority parties make themselves a laughing stock by parroting on \u2018progress being made\u2019 when the contrary stares us in the face?<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, a question was raised in these column spaces as to whether this talk of \u2018national reconciliation\u2019 amounts to just \u2018horse trading with minority parties\u2019 amidst bargaining for power with no national gain?<\/p>\n

That question must be repeated with force.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Kishali Pinto -Jayawardene Carrots tossed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the form of release of a few Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) political prisoners and return of lands to displaced owners in the North and East have given rise to unseemly jubilation on the part of Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil political leadership or what passes as …<\/p>\n

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