BALASINGHAM'S CON FEDERATION
Last week in these columns we argued that the statements by the LTTE in Tamil and in English are different and they cater to the Tamils and the Sinhala people respectively. The statements and speeches in English are in general to deceive the Sinhalas and are not for the so called international community limited to the Anglo Saxon Christian countries and their running dogs Scandinavian Christian countries, who are the allies and the sponsors of the LTTE in particular and the Tamil racists in general. The Federation or the federal government to which Balasingham has agreed in English is nothing but a 'con' and in that sense it is a con federation. The LTTE would not agree to anything less than a confederation as Prabhakaran has said on many occasions. So it is confederation in Tamil that could be easily dissolved into two countries with Norway and the other Scandinavian countries first and then Canada, Australia, New Zealand and finally UK and USA, recognising Eelam and con federation in English to fool the Sinhala people.
Some newspapers including "Lanka" and "Lakmina" have received copies of an alleged draft of a constitution that proclaims a confederation. Extracts from the draft "constitution" have been published and what is envisaged is clearly not a federation. The administrative apparatus that pretends to be the government of the country would no doubt deny this draft of the "constitution", if they have not done so already by the time this appears in print. The dentist or the "dath dosthara" who is known as the "nodath dosthara" (the doctor who does not know) would point out that the above newspapers are sympathetic to the JVP and the SLFP but that explanation would not satisfy most of the Sinhala people who have no faith in the "government". The majority of the Sinhala people who voted for the PA and the JVP at the last general elections are now more than ever convinced of an agreement between the UNF and the LTTE.
The words federation or federal government with respect to the LTTE mean a confederation, just as much the words "historical habitations" in the Indo Lanka agreement meant "traditional homeland" for them. The LTTE since the Indo Lanka agreement have not used the words historical habitations. In fact I do not know on how many occasions even India, who came out with this formulation, used the words "historical habitations" during the last ten years or so. All, including professors who argued then that historical habitations were not traditional homelands, had forgotten "historical habitations" until the Norwegians of all people used those words in their statement on a federation. Perhaps knowing that it is a con federation they wanted to rely on the equally 'con' term "historical habitations". The statement that has been issued by Norwegian government on the talks between the "government" and the LTTE has said: "the parties agreed to explore a solution founded on the principle of self determination in areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka".
The SLFP who "invited" the Norwegians have issued a statement on this con federation pointing out a number of inconsistencies. According to the Indian foreign secretary who visited Sri Lanka recently, the President has expressed her doubts on the so called peace process the dynamics of which had been described by Dr. Pelis in an interview reported by Pinadi Saamasinghe (is he related to Pinsendu Balusinghe of the International Centre for Studies on Non Existing Dynamic Systems?) in the Saturday Magazine of 14th December 2002. It is a classic case of "redda asse nai dagena kanavo kanavo kiyala kegahanawa" (having got snakes under the garment, and then complaining of snake bites). The Norwegian snake is under the "government", if not the garment, and it is the PA that has to be blamed for initiating the "process". However, the PA still tries to claim credit for starting the "process" which is moving at an alarming speed increasing the entropy (a measure of disorder) of the system. Having initiated the process how can they say that they are for peace but against the process. They should now disown the "process" after revealing what and who made them to invite Norway.
I have no intention of analysing the statement by the SLFP. What is interesting is that Norway in their statement refers to the "principle of self determination in areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking". Though they have not spelt out this elusive self determination, whether it is the internal variety or the external variety they speak of historical habitation of Tamil speaking. However, when Prabhakaran referred to "the right to internal self determination that is denied to our people", "The Sinhala people should not be an obstacle to the Tamil people in achieving their aspirations of living in their own land under their own rule" etc., in his birthday speech, did he think of the Tamil speaking or the Tamils? I am afraid by introducing the concept of "areas of historical habitation of Tamil speaking peoples" India made a blunder and opened the pandora's box. The north and the east are historical habitations of the Sinhala people before of anybody else. The Sinhalas have been living in these areas ever since they became Sinhala during the Pandukabhaya period. There are historical as well as archaeological evidence to establish this fact. The Sinhalas have been living continuously in these areas even upto and after the time of the British occupation. As late Prof. Vimala Wijesuriya has shown even if Yalpana Vaipava Malai, written at the invitation of a Dutch official, is taken to be a serious book, it only establishes that Sinhala Buddhists had been living in the Jaffna peninsula during the Dutch period as well. The present Koviars and Nalavars had been Sinhalas who were later absorbed in to the Tamil culture. There have been insurrections by a Punchi Banda and other Sinhalas against the Arya Chakravarthi kings who were not from Tamil speaking areas in India. The present day Tamils in the Jaffna peninsula are descendants of Vellalas and others who were brought from South India by the Dutch, descendants of Sinhalas who were absorbed into the Tamil culture and also probably descendants of Kerala soldiers who came with Magha and Chandrabhanu. In any event the Tamils cannot establish a continuous existence for themselves even in Jaffna even from the days of Arya Chakravarthins.
In the eastern province the position is even less favourable as far as the Tamils are concerned. The present day Muslims have a continuous existence in the eastern province from the time of King Senerath who settled them in certain coastal areas when the former were harassed by the Portuguese. The Tamils have a continuous existence in some of the coastal areas in the eastern province from a latter date not going back even into the Dutch period. It is the Sinhalas who can show a continuous existence in the present eastern province going back to the Pandukabhaya period. Even at present the Muslims and the Sinhalas constitute more than seventy percent of the population in the eastern province. The Sinhalas posses more than fifty percent of the land in the eastern province and for India to have said that the northern and the eastern provinces were not historical habitations of the Sinhalas was a betrayal of the Sinhalas by that country. It has to mentioned that while Muslim settlements in the eastern province could be considered as "colonisations" by the Sinhala kings, the Tamil settlements in that province have to recognised as "colonisations" by the British, while nobody colonised the Sinhala people who have been living there continuously at least for two thousand four hundred years as Sinhalas. India can still make amends for this blunder by recognising the history of these two provinces, as established by historical and archaeological evidence and by not giving into the propaganda by the Tamil racists with the connivance of the western Christian countries who are after not only destroying the Sinhala Buddhist culture but the Muslim and even Hindu cultures as well.
Even if one were to accept that the northern and the eastern provinces were the historical habitations of the Tamil speaking one could not justify a federal solution based on that. At the outset it must be mentioned that the LTTE is only paying lip service to the Tamil speaking. It is clear from all the statements and the speeches made by the LTTE terrorists that they are referring only to the Tamils and not to the Tamil speaking. Prabhakaran's Tamil nation by any stretch of imagination would not include the Muslims whether they are speaking Tamil or not. Prabhakaran only continues a policy initiated by Ponnambalam Ramanathan and practiced by SJV Chelvanayakam of having the Muslims under the yoke of Tamil supremacy. The Muslims have always had a better relationship with the Sinhalas than with the Tamils. Even today Muslim MPs are returned by electorates in the other seven provinces by the Sinhala peoples though the Muslims in most of these districts and electorates constitute a minority. However, it is the Sinhalas who are branded as Chauvinists and not the Tamil racists whose aspiration is to dominate the Muslims in the eastern province failing ethnic cleansing.
The Tamil racists, according to late GG Ponnambalam, have graduated from grievances to aspirations. According to Prabhakaran the aspiration of the Tamils is "living in their own land under their own rule". Prabhakaran uses neither Tamil speaking nor historical habitations. He does not use the words traditional homeland either. He has "graduated" from all these terms to "their own land" and "their own rule". Tamil racists with the assistance of the west first propagated the view that there were injustices. When they and their friends were asked to name these grievances they could only give the example of the non availability of certain forms in Tamil. When it was pointed out that if that was the problem all that the government had to do was to make these forms available in Tamil the Tamil racists had no option but to "graduate" to aspirations. It was clear from the very beginning that it was a question of aspirations and not of grievances.
The aspirations of the generation of Ramanathans was to be the leaders not only of the Vellalas and the Tamils, but of the Muslims and the Sinhalas as well. The British who were behind Tamil racism supported the Tamil racists in their endeavor. The Tamil racists opposed more representation for the Sinhalas in the legislative assembly and universal franchise as it would have resulted in more Sinhala members being present in the state council. Having failed to realise their aspiration to be the leaders of the Sinhalas and the Muslims as well, through manoeuvering at the centre, the Tamil racists under the leadership of Chelvanayakam turned to the east and the north. They wanted a separate state and as a first step asked for a federal state. This was in accordance with the "little now more later" policy of Chelvanayakam. However, there was something that they could not explain. If the Tamils had grievances then those should have been common to all the Tamils living in the island. Even at that time nearly fifty percent of the Tamils lived outside north and east (now this figure has risen to more than sixty percent and the Tamil racists did not allow a census in certain regions this year in order to prevent this fact becoming official) and a separate state or even a federal state would not have solved the so called grievances of the Tamils living outside the two provinces. This went on to establish that the solution they wanted was not a solution to the problem of the so-called injustices. It was obvious that there were no injustices as such and the Tamil racists were only interpreting the minute fraction that the Sinhalas, especially the Sinhala Buddhists had been able to win from 1956 to 1962, of the rights that they lost during the colonial period as Tamil grievances. Needles to say that the west and the western media and their intellectuals supported the Tamil racists in this regard. In any event the solution was not in tune with the problem and the Tamil racists finally had to admit that they had only aspirations. As Prabhakaran has said the Tamil racists aspire to establish an Eelam and the so called grievances do not come to the picture. The aspirations are independent of the "grievances".
The west is fully behind the Tamil racists in general and the LTTE in particular. The recent handing over of high powered transmission equipment imported in the name of the Norwegian ambassador, to the LTTE with the assistance given by Austin Fernando is a case in point. In another country the ambassador would have been deported immediately. A number of weekend papers in Sinhala had given the place at which the discussion on handing over took place, the name of the police officer assigned to escort the container containing the equipment, the vehicle numbers and names of the army officials involved. Austin Fernando is obviously acting under the orders of the "government" that is governed by the west.
Balasingham's con federation would satisfy the aspirations of Tamil racism and the west is helping them to kill two birds with one stone. They use Tamil racism to weaken if not destroy Sinhalathva and to destabilse the South Asian region. The equipment that the Norwegian ambassador gifted to the LTTE would be used by the terrorists who have some connection with Veerappan and extremist parties in South India to broadcast their "vision" to Tamil Nadu. The con federation would lead to an Eelam that could finally lead to a Dravidastan that the Indian Tamil separatists have been dreaming for decades.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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