NO DE MERGER NO SOLUTION
It is very likely that the merger of the northern and eastern provincial councils, and the merger of the northern and the eastern provinces will hold the centre stage in finding a "solution" to what is popularly known as the ethnic problem in the country. Mr. Anandasangaree and many other Tamil leaders want the two provinces be merged on the assumption that the two provinces constitute the Tamil homeland, traditional homeland of the Tamils, historical habitats of the Tamils etc. There may be Tamil leaders who are prepared to drop the merger of the provinces, if a federal state is established, the two provinces becoming two "states" in such government.
As has been mentioned in these columns the historical habitats of the Tamils is one of the two myths on which Tamil claim for federalism is built, the other being that the Tamils were not given their share in "governing" the country, apparently since 1931, when Sri Lankans were given franchise. However, what is not realised is that the Tamils had more than their share of "governing" since the establishment of the legislative assembly in the thirties of the nineteenth century, and Tamil leaders such as Messrs. Ponambalam Ramanathan, Ponambalam Arunachalam were considered as the leaders of the entire nation, surpassing the Sinhala leaders. In the academic and the professional worlds the situation was not much different. The other distinguished member of the Ponambalam family, Ananda Kumaraswamy was considered as the foremost intellectual produced by the country, Mr. Muthukumarswamy being the first person to be knighted by the British in their empire. Mr. Ponnambalam Ramanathan was considered to be the leader of the Sri Lankans and his brother Mr. Arunachalam was elected as the first president of the Ceylon National Congress. They were invited by the Sinhala people as the chief guest, guest of honour, and to deliver the key note address, in today's parlance on many occasions including prize - givings at Buddhist schools. However as has been mentioned when the Tamils began to lose their privileges due to the majority being represented by majority members in the legislature, as it should be, they started agitation against the Sinhalas with the connivance of the British. They began to talk of injustices and of course their (more than) share of power, and later of aspirations. If they were not given their (un)due share of power at the "centre" they wanted power to manage their own affairs in the "Tamil homeland".
The merger of the two provincial councils in the northern and the eastern provinces is not the same as the merger of the eastern province and the northern province. The provincial councils can be merged without merging the two provinces but not vice versa. The provincial councils are there to exercise some legislative power devolved to the provincial councils. The provinces have other functions as well and these functions could be attended to by officials, pradeshiya sabhas, urban councils, etc. The Indo Lanka accord, which was imposed upon us by the self appointed viceroy Dixit, temporarily merged the two provincial councils, but the two provinces continued to function separately. There was one governor for the two provinces as there was only one provincial council. Now the Supreme Court has decided that the way the provincial councils were merged was illegal, and as such there are two provincial councils with two different governors, though the same person is the governor in one province and the acting governor in the other province. Apparently a previous attempt by the President D. B. Wijentuga to effect the de merger by issuing a gazette notification was prevented by the then Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The Tamils claim that the merger of the two provinces is one of their aspirations. Now the pertinent question is simply because it is an aspiration of the Tamils (assuming that it is an aspiration as claimed by some Tamil leaders) is the government obliged to affect it. In general is it a necessary requirement that the aspirations of the Tamils (and the Muslims) as claimed by them be fulfilled? Then how about the aspirations of the Sinhalas? Are the Sinhalas not supposed to have any aspirations at all? If the Sinhalas state that their aspiration is to see that the two provinces remain de merged then whose aspirations should be fulfilled by the government? The governments are there not to fulfil aspirations of groups of people, whether ethnic or not, simply because such groups demand that they be fulfilled. A necessary condition for fulfilling such demand, especially when there are counter claims, is to ascertain if the demand is reasonable and could be justified.
The two provinces together with the other seven provinces were established by the British only in 1889, and the Tamils in the two provinces do not have a history going up to the sixth century B.C., as claimed by their leaders. The Tamils in the northern province of today are descendants of Sinhala people who had been living there, Velakkaras and those who were brought by the Dutch for their tobacco cultivation in the seventeenth century. The Tamils in the eastern province are descendants of those who were brought by the western powers even after that, and the Muslims are descendants of those Muslims who were settled by king Senerath during what is known as the Portuguese period by the Historians. The eastern province had been part of Ruhunu Rata from very early times, Ruhuna, Maya and Pihiti being administrative "provinces" (ratas) during the time of Sinhala kings. Sri Lanka or Helaya or Sihala Deshaya as the country was known in the ancient times was an eksesath rajya (state). An eksesath rajya differs from a unitary state in one respect. Unitary states are centralized states both legislatively and administratively, while eksesath states are centralized states only legislatively. Sri Lanka historically has been an eksesath state (rajya) until the British made it a unitary state by making the country a centralized state with respect to administration as well. The Sinhalas should have no problem in giving up the British unitary state but not the time tested eksesath state of the Sinhala kings.
Further as we have said on number of occasions, more than fifty percent of the Tamils in Sri Lanka live outside the northern and the eastern provinces, and of the people in the two provinces the percentage of the Tamils is less than sixty five percent. This is in sharp contrast to the situation prevailing in India, where the vast majority of the Tamils live in Tamil Nadu, and a vast majority of the people living in Tamil Nadu are Tamils. The presence of the Sinhalas in the interior of the eastern province has been ignored by the Tamil leaders when claiming that northern and the eastern provinces constitute the traditional homeland of the Tamils. The Tamils (and the Muslims) are confined to the coastal belt of the province and the Sinhalas have been living in the interior from ancient times going back to the days of King Pandukabhaya. Even today there are a number of grama sevaka divisions in the eastern province with more than ninety percent of the population being Sinhala. With all these facts there is no way that the Sinhalas will agree to a federal or non federal state with the two provinces merged. Even if a unitary state is accepted by the Tamils if the provinces are merged, the Sinhalas would definitely oppose it.
More than anything else it is the merger of the northern and the eastern provinces that would encourage separation. The Sinhala people have opposed most of the so called solutions from the Bandaranaike - Chelvanayakam onwards, mainly because there was provision for merger of "rata sabhas" and other such bodies. India has apparently told a delegation of the TNA, the proxy party of the LTTE, that they are for merger of the two provinces. India has no business to interfere with the internal matters of Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lankan government should not bow down to these external pressures. India or any other country should be told firmly that there is no historical or any other fact that justifies this Tamil "aspiration", except the aspiration to separate if they want. The aspiration to manage their own affairs is not justified at least for two reasons. Firstly the claim that the Tamils were not given their "due share" of power is not proved. Secondly even if one were to concede that the Tamils should be given the opportunity to manage their own affairs, then the Tamils in the tea plantations, and those in the western province also should be given the same option. It could mean demarcation of grama sevaka divisions as ethnic enclaves that would only worsen the situation. Why the Tamils are so concerned of the merger of northern and the eastern provinces in the name of managing their own affairs only arouse suspicion, and the Sinhala people would never agree to such "solutions". The Tamils should not consider the view of a minority of NGO Sinhalas who advocate the merger as the opinion of the Sinhala people and continue to be misguided on this issue.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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