From: chee1a1@Rosie.UH.EDU (Subash S Jayawardena)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: fair representation (was re: re: imagine)
Date: 23 Nov 1992 02:29:49 GMT
Organization: University of Houston
Reply-To: chee1a1@Rosie.UH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: rosie.uh.edu


In article <1992Nov20.200109.3126@sunova.ssc.gov>, (Soundranayagam) writes:
>
>I do not understand the point Subash makes about Thuraiappa.
>

My point is that if "we" (JVP, LTTE or evrn the UNP) eliminate the people
who want to be a part of the government through the democratic process,
then how can we expect a fair representation in the Parliament?
Since the original article was so anti-Sinhalese, I used only the name of
Thuraiappa, whom may be the first Tamilian victim got killed because he
worked with the government.

>I do not think that it is correct to compare the United States and Sri
>Lanka. The USA has a highly decentralized system: Federeal government,
>State governments, County governments, City governments etc.  Los Angeles
>riot did not engulf the whole nation into turmoil.  It was confined to a
>local region, even though there was a potential threat of spilling over to
>major cities with similar problems.
>

USA has a highly centralized system. I agree. But, it is not divided in line
with the different races. It happened to consist of so many states mainly
because it grew slowly from a union of about 13 states at the beginning.
People migrate a lot, due to many reasons, within this country, unlike in
Sri Lanka.  Though there are some places I personally don't want to live 
in USA, if I am willing to face the consequences, I can move anywhere 
in this country to live in. I am talking about the racial/religious
intolerance.

And please don't forget that the Federeal Government and the Supreme
Court did most of the work to bring down the racial intolerance in this 
country. Many Southern states had to be forced to comply with those
steps. If the Federal government did not play its part at that time, I
don't think this would be a country I want even to visit. So, in my
opinion, the more decentralized the system is, there will be much more
discrimination towards the minorities. There are Tamil speaking people
outside the North and the East!

>
>In Sri Lanka, a minor dispute between a Tamil or Muslim and a Singhalese in
>Colombo can become a riot in the capital and quickly spread everywhere. 
>For the most part the north and east will remain quiet, untill the
>government declare curfew and unleash the Sri Lankan (Singhalese) army. 
>After that Tamils are not safe in any part of the country, including their
>own home, I mean really home built with four walls, not the north or east.

If you are talking about 1983 or 1987 riots, I have to correct you. Both of
them started not because of "a minor dispute between a Tamil or Muslim and
a Singhalese". In '83, the riots followed the killing of 13 members of
the army, which was the highest number got murdered in a single ambush,
up to that date. In '87, the riots followed the Indo-Lanka pact, which
was not welcome by many of the groups.

Before you take me wrong, I am not justifying what happened in '83 or '87.
I didn't like it. I still don't like it. I don't think I will ever like it.

I don't think anybody is safe in Sri Lanka tooday, because of the
present war and/or the police state we have. (Prasad's modified Bill of Right
speaks of the second, very well).

>
>Federelism is not segregation; decentralization of government, including
>the police. The security forces (army, navy and airforce) stationed in the
>north and east should reflect the make up of the local population.
>
>Sri Lanka never had a national party or national leaders. They were all
>either Singhala or Tamil or Muslim parties.  By constitution, Sri Lanka is
>a Budhist country and only a Budhist can become a national leader.  Well,
>if he or she call himself a Budhist Sri Lankan, then he or she cannot be
>national leader. What I mean by all these is that elimination of cultures
>other than Singhala Budhist is written in the constitution.

It was a long time after I read the Constitution or its numerous amendments. 
I totally disagree with the special position given to Budhism in the
constitution. I wish ours was a secular country. As far as I remember, there
is no requirement for the national leaders to be Buddist. I don't recall even
a requirement of being a "born in Sri Lanka" type Sri Lankan citizen, to be 
the president of the country.

Sri Lanka had already shown had it is ready for a leader irrespective of the
gender or the cast. There may have been non-Buddist leaders, but I am not
sure about that. (I know Kotelawala didn't like some monks. But it doesn't mean
that he was a non-Buddist). It would have been just a matter of time before
we had a non Sinhalese leader. But, with the present distrust among the
ethnic groups, it may take a long time to see that happening. What we have
(or atleast what we had :-( ) was a Constitutional Democracy. So, if there
was a non-Buddist/non-Sinhalese politician, who could convince the majority
that he is the best person to lead the country, I don't see a reason why
he could not get elected. But, if one had advocated separatism before, then
it would be atleast very difficult to get the endorsement of the majority
of the people of the country.

If the politicians really wanted the people in North and East to be usefully
represented, they should have joined one of the two major parties of the
country. They didn't do that, because then there would be  no assuarance that
they will get re-elected almost automatically. Instead, they promoted political
parties with highly localized political agenda and thus alienaed the people
from the North and East. That's why we don't have a fair (and useful - to the
people in the North -) representation of the North in the Parliament.

(Being a part of a party is not to endorse all of it's policies. If one
really wants, he or she can work towards changing the unacceptable policies).


Subash

________________________________________________________________________________

Subash S Jayawardena

Subash@uh.edu
(713)-743-4338
________________________________________________________________________________