SRI LANKAN CONSTITUTION DESIGNED BY THE BUDDHIST SINHALESE IS OF THE BUDDHIST SINHALESE AND FOR THE BUDDHIST SINHALESE

In any Sri Lankan court of law, the Sinhalese-controlled state of Sri Lanka could challenge, defeat or reject any claims from the Tamils for their fundamental rights. This is due to the inadequacy found in the Sri Lankan Constitution which the Buddhist Sinhalese had framed without containing provisions for the protection of the rights and aspirations of the different ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

No guarantee or assurance for equality is embodied in the constitution, and without any reservations it had been designed in such way that the Tamil community can totally be treated as a subjugated race and dominated by the Sinhalese community racially, religiously, linguistically, culturally and territorially.

Population wise, in Sri Lanka, the majoritarian Sinhalese community is the most numerous and exercises its powers and privileges untramelled over the minorities. The Sinhalese community by virtue of their majoritarian status and voting strength could arrive at any decision of their own at any referendum or in Parliament and defeat any opinions or proposals voiced by the Tamil community with regard to their aspirations and fundamental rights.

Sinhalese representatives in the legislative assembly can enact any law or frame any constitution unilaterally at any time to the advantage of the Sinhalese community only, by their voting strength and defeat any opinions or proposals put forward by the legislative representatives of the Tamils. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that the Republican Constitution of 1972 robbed the minorities of even the scanty safeguards against discrimination provided under Section 29 of the Soulbury Constitution introduced at independence in 1948.

The Sri Lankan constitution, in effect and in force, is partial towards the Sinhalese and discriminatory towards the Tamils. In view of this, it should be evident to all that the constitution and the laws that govern the country are defective and replete with flaws and snags and that the ensuing aggressive rule by the Sinhalese community over the Tamil community is not democratic.

It is now a peremptory requirement that the constitution and the laws of Sri Lanka should undergo a complete restructuring to satisfy the rights and aspirations of all of the people of the country not just the Sinhalese and of the needs of the day. Nevertheless, the heartless in the Sinhalese community did not allow even humanitarian aid to reach Tamil victims of the tsunami disaster, and only tough talk and tough measures by the international community can bring relief and redress and this will not take place unless and until the international community gets involved!

After years of struggle to achieve remedies to the shortcomings of the constitution, a Cease Fire Agreement was signed on 22 February 2002 by the parties involved to halt the prolonged internecine ethnic war. The peace brokering co-chairs to the peace process subscribed to it and with the coverage of the world media to make it known to the entire world, the people of Sri Lanka sighed with relief.

However, the government's intelligence operatives conspired to entice Karuna, one of the most trusted commanders and confidants in the LTTE and who had been under investigation by them for corrupt practices in the movement. He has now betrayed the struggle and slipped into the hands of the Sinhalese armed forces to cover up his misdeeds in the movement. In order to escape torture and death at the hands of the Government forces for his past actions against them, he has had to commit his group to support government forces with clandestine murder and assassination of Tamil parliamentarians and other civilians in the East. On his assurance that he would damage the reputation of the LTTE and pursue his vendetta against it until it is crushed, the governt forces have decided to exploit the situation and to extract the inner secrets of the LTTE from Karuna to wreak vengeance on it. They pardoned him giving him refuge to function as a renegade in their Para military group, which basks in corpulent remuneration with all perquisites and privileges of the state and colludes with the aggressive Sinhalese armed forces to suppress the freedom struggle of the Tamils.

Sinhalese leaders are shedding crocodile tears alleging that the LTTE is recruiting child soldiers and some foreign governments are taken in by this propaganda. The concern by everyone shown for Children is welcomed, especially for Tamil Children who are under 18 and over 15 who have survived the murderous Sinhalese and Indian forces for the past 19 years since 1987 IPKF troops were invited by the GOSL. They turn a blind eye to the fact that by the prolongation of the ethnic war without a lasting solution, men, women and children are killed, maimed or mangled with the destruction of their properties, besides leaving children orphaned and men and women widowed in tens of thousands, while even now more than 30,000 families are displaced because of the army occupied areas in contravention of the Cease Fire Agreement.

International communities should vie to intervene appropriately and constructively to promote peace and harmony by the implementation of vital clauses of the Cease Fire Agreement by the parties concerned in order that violence does not escalate any more and the ethnic conflict does not assume the spectre of genocide of Tamils.

Tamils are not waging a war against the Sinhalese by trespassing into the Sinhalese territory. With democratic protests and demonstrations against inhuman occupation, Tamils are only struggling from within the territory of the Tamil homeland to get it extricated from the Sinhalese armed forces that aggressively maneuver hegemonistically to suppress and subdue the Tamils by being within the Tamil homeland depriving the Tamils of their rights.

The incumbent President captured power, with the help of the extreme Sinhala Buddhist elements after jettisoning all the agreements with the Tamils for peace by prioritizing war. He promulgated his policies called “Mahinda Chinthanaya” which emphasizes “no Norway, no federal constitution, no right to Homeland, no self-determination, no nationhood for Tamils, no PTOMS, no recognition as sole partner in negotiation and no Oslo as venue for talks” via his election manifesto itself.

It is enigmatic and incomprehensible to us why the Sri Lankan government is amassing sophisticated weaponry and armaments. They could very well, by settling the contentious issues with the Tamils in the country avoid the colossal wastage of money spent on weapons and utilize it for the development of the country.

Sri Lankan armed forces are not capable of waging a war to overpower any country in this world other than the Tamil community within Sri Lanka. Even during the insurgencies of the Sinhalese JVP extremists in the Sinhalese areas, the governments’ forces never resorted to indiscriminate attacks by way of aerial blitz and strafing and shelling from naval ships as done in the Tamil homeland.

Look at our neighboring country India, which is a multi-linguistic and multi-cultural country. There, anyone could become the President or Prime Minister of the country or the Chief Minister of a State, irrespective of his or her language, religion or state. Even the national anthem of India is in Bengali. Would there ever be a situation like that in Sri Lanka?

Federal unity is a system of government in which several states or provinces unite but keep considerable control over their own internal affairs. Even when the Tamils are prepared to accept a system of government under federal unity, the Buddhist Sinhalese governments, who are well versed in maneuvering successfully to prejudice the international communities by foisting on them the misconceived idea that the Tamils stand only for a separate state; hoodwink and camouflage them by sidetracking the fact

Never on earth would the Sinhalese community volunteer to devolve any rightful power to the Tamil community, as they are xenophobic towards them. As the Sinhalese politicians have biased the minds of the Sinhalese community, they all are obsessed with a jingoistic attitude. Hence, it is evident that the ethnic interests and aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka will never materialize.

As a community is free to determine its political status by virtue of the right to self-determination, let the Tamil community pursue its economic, social and cultural development. Let it safeguard its own traditions and language in conformity with United Nations' Charter, together with accepted International norms and standards, and establish its self-autonomy, self-determination, self-identity and national liberation from the Sinhalese community without any further clashes with them.

The onus and moral responsibility of forging an amicable settlement is incumbent upon the British who unfortunately are the authors of our human tragedy. It also devolves on other international countries with deep-seated democratic principles, and also with the peace brokering and human rights organizations who all are fully aware of the causes for the racial violence and human rights abuses against the Tamils in Sri Lanka. They should have already acted to exert their influence and pressure to ensure that the parties concerned enact a reasonable political framework that recognizes the Tamil need for a self-government, which only could satisfy the political aspirations of the Tamils.

Failing which, they should had paved the way for the separation of Tamil Eelam amicably, as done recently in the year 2002 with regard to that of East Timor; and done the needful to recognize the existence and independence of Tamil Eelam. Even the British Government and the IRA had reconciled their differences and arrived at a settlement.

We can have Two States In Our Country Sri Lanka, which is Approx.65,610 sq.km. Now. A few of the UN Member States are actually smaller than Sri Lanka at 65,610 sq.km. as at present; and even either the future Sinhalese Sri Lanka approx. 46,777 sq.km. or the Thamileelam approx.18,833 sq.km., are larger than the following (in order of Area): Fiji, Kuwait, Swaziland, East Timor, Vanuatu, Qatar, Gambia The, Jamaica, Lebanon, Cyprus, Brunei, Cape Verde, Luxembourg, Comoros, Mauritius, Singapore and so on.

By: J.P. Santhiapillai
1st March 2006