so, from a strictly political science perspective (reinforced by my exerience with the vardarajah perumeal adminstration) i oppose tokenistic devolution as well as excessive devolution.

let’s stick to — and push for — the full implementation of “13″.

Why i say Annandasagaree now belives Eelam is not acheivable , the day that LTTE assasinated Shri Rajive Ghandhi the greatest son of India, when his body was in flames he knew the corpse of Eelam too went with the same flames.
Well the International community earlier had sympathy soon after 1983,all that is lost now, for killing innocent pilgrims at Anuradhapura bombing secred tooth relic in kandy,massurcering innocent civilians and mothers and babies, while sleeping in their villages during nights,killing buddhist priests at Arantalawa, the international community fully aware its the Tamil tigers who are responsible. The Eropean Union branded LTTE as trrrorist organisation after killing the oxford educated Kadragammer who is a Tamil respected by presidents and priministers of all over the world.The IC knows the tiger do human smuggling,drug trafficing arms dealings, fraudsters of credit card all over the world, and are languishing in jails today.please refer Dr Ranjan hoole adress to the Tamil diaspora in canada which i quoted from Srlanka Guardian 19/08/08.
Iam quite happy that atleast Kauna, Pillayan who is responsible for many murders in the east now have embraced democracy, as they know that terrorism is not accepted in a civilised society to achieve goals.

Sam your Eelam is only a dream , for your informationthere will be many sovereign states in india if call for referandums and plebicites, read Dr. Ranjan Hoole s adress to the Canadian Tamils, he is a interlectual man go for some settlement that is acceptable to tamils muslims and sinhalese so that all can live together Tamils are my friends we lived togther in Batticalo for many years at Bar road which i cannot forget.

I am surprised that you still use the term minorities to denote a community of people. Tamils are not anybody’s minority. Nor are Sinhala a minority language in Asia. A language is a language, so are communities irrespective of their numbers. It is best, in discussion of ethnic conflict, to let the term “minority” to voting in parliaments or any other group meetings where those who lost have less votes than who won.

The concept of devolution of powers assume that, in the case of Sri lanka, the powers are visted in the Sinhala majority that forms the gosl. “Sharing of Powers” is a better term because it assumes sharing between equals. To me it is commonsense. I think many others have expressed these ideas elsewhere. I think Sanjana does not use the term minorities when he refers to the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The problem with Sinhalese is they “buy out” Tamil politicos in position. If the South is sure that the Tamils do not want Tamil Eelam, why can’t the governemnt ask the UN to hold a referendum in the North East to see the popular demand of the people there ?

You know the answer. That is why you do not speak about it.

Karuna and Pillayan has categorically will have to say that they do not want Eelam because they are the mouth piece of Mahinda Rajapakse, who popped him from nowhere to power.

.They want the Colombo to decide what North East Tamils should get. Don’t you see a slave there !! He is not interested in rights of even his own people. He is only interested in pleasing the master !!!

You say that the ” TULF leader former Member of the parliament for Killinochchi is one of the signitary to the Vaddukkoddy convention has appealed to Prbhakren to to give up this unachievable dream of Ellam”

If he did not believe in Tamil Eelam why did he sign it in the first instance ? Is he not a real fake ? It is such fakes that have made Tamils to be more slaves and the Sinhalese to be very oppressive. The problem has deteriorated to this level because of such fake politicos.

He is not the “leader of TULF” per se. He is a rebel who holds that position because of the “judiciary” of the goverenment. If he does not say it he will fail to make the Tamils to be more slaves.

Starngely, you see only few rebels who support your views. I repeat again let us ask for a referendum in the North East to see what the people want. Pillayan, Karuna and Sangaree are not the only persons living in the North East.

The East is yet to be liberated. It is in the hands of a prar military. North East will be liberated only when people there start to rule themselves under a sovereign Tamil Eelam. As I said earlier, let us wait and see what would happen.

“Seriously, can you propose something, in or out of the box, that is reasonable which the Tamils and Sinhala will agree on???”

Perhaps.

The Sinhalese ideally want no devolution, because for them devolution adds another layer of useless politicians who waste precious resources. The Tamils want devolution for their areas, but they have not thought out very well what form it should take (which is one reason among many why there are stuck with the LTTE).

What is needed is a flexible model of devolution that will give devolution to ***only those areas which desire it.*** To my knowledge there are two countries that have followed this concept- UK and Spain. Both are unitary states which pursued devolution to meet minorities’ needs. In my view Spain’s example has the most to offer SL.

“Karuna has said no need of addtional police powers, in my opnion 13th A is quite enough adressing our issues and all powers should be vested with central goverment., areas what they need is economic devlopment.”

Although I do not consider Karuna an expert of constitutional matters, he is correct that economic development is key to winning back the east. The problem is that the 13th Amendment, enhanced or otherwise will not bring development to the east or any other part of Sri Lanka.

“haven’t all you guys missed my listing of a position outside the box, namely perspective No 8, argued for most recently and lucidly by prof Nira Wickramasingha?”

Actually if you look closely at my first post, you will see that I did not miss #8. However, in your own article you said:

“This brings us to positions 3, 4 and 8. The last is probably the most attractive but seems unrealistic at the moment.”

I saw no point in discussing an idea that you yourself had rejected. That left us with 3 & 4, a choice between the totally failed status quo that nobody in SL likes yet you endorsed, and an enhancement of the totally failed status quo which you called a “stretch.”

I will say this about Nira Wickramasinghe’s ideas- if the Tamils feel that they are a 2nd class or inferior community in SL due to Sinhala apathy/ignorance, then you can forget about any sort of devolution or 13th Amendment as a conflict resolution mechanism. We would be better off with no devolution and retrieving the pre-13th Amendment unitary state.

The basic structure of the 13th Amendment fails to address many things, including: 1) the unit of devolution and 2) how these units will be self-sustainable and not dependent on Colombo (see my post to The Under Dog). The Province is not the ideal unit for many reasons. It was originally designed by the British in the 19th century to administer the colony and was later replaced/updated by the District to better serve the people. Today the administrative machinery of the country is located at the District and Division level, not the Province. Nor is there any sense of Provincial identity- a “North-Central pride” or “Uva identity” that merits devolution based on Province.

For the Tamil perspective, the 13th Amendment plus or minus does not answer the question of N-E merger or demerger. The Province, much like the rest of the 13th Amendment, is useless.

“I think (hope) the imbalances could be rectified in a good free market economy.”

Believe me I don’t get any joy or delight out of disagreeing with you- if you were correct and federalism is a magical solution that will synchronize all communities and class groups into harmony and remove all misgovernance then I would be a total federalist fanatic. My skepticism if not total opposition to federalism is not based out of any fear of Tamils but rather the growing research on federalism and governance in the developing world.

Erik Wibbels wrote his book ENTIRELY to demolish the myth that federalism and free market are a magical winning combination for developing countries (incidentally his specialty is Latin America and he probably is not familiar with Sri Lanka.. also he is not a leftwing socialist). If you have a serious interest in federalism then I would highly recommend reading either his book (which is unfortunately very expensively available on amazon.com, maybe a nearby university library will have it) OR a book by Jonathan Rodden called “Hamilton’s Paradox” which covers a lot of the same ground and is much cheaper (although I prefer Wibbels’s book).

“But what if John Keells (which company is registered in colombo) had to pay taxes from their hotels to the provinces they are located in; what if the rice basket areas added a sales tax to the rice going to the other provinces, etc. Also, I think untapped resources could be tapped if the provinces are given full control of them–such as the ports in the east, south (maybe even the north).”

Your suggestion that tax authority should be highly devolved to the regions resonates with Wibbels’s and Rodden’s prescriptions- the regions must have the ability to levy and collect (not merely collect) their owntaxes to pay for their spending and rely as little as possible on the central govt. Imagination at the regional level is necessary for the regional govts. to find revenue sources. Unfortunately, there is a catch:

The raising of all these various taxes does not jive with the free-market ideal of less taxes. If John Keells had a choice between investing in a unitary state where it would have to pay only the central govt. versus a federation where it has to pay off two separate governments, which country would it choose? Additionally, how would poor regions like Uva which have neither natural resources or tourism for a tax base be able to fend for themselves?

To put it in very simple terms, federalism is expensive: you have to pay for not one government but multiple governments with all the attendent extra overhead, administration etc. that makes federations overall more inefficient than unitary states. Now don’t get me wrong- if this inefficiency is acceptable for all the communities- Tamils, Sinhalas, Muslims etc.- then I think it is a price worth paying. But nobody, not even the Tamils will support a system which is inefficient to the point of uselessness (i.e. Dayan’s 13th Amendment Classic).

“Perhaps the north might consider building a bridge to Tamil Nadu (won’t that scare the nationalists!).”

Actually most of the SL Tamils I know would totally oppose this and one friend even told me that he would blow it up if it occurred. I don’t know what the TN Tamils would think but those in the Tuticorin area would prefer to dredge the Sethusamudram Canal than build a bridge.

“Also, perhaps we could have a federal tax of some sort that goes to the central government, which hopefully would send more money to the places needing it (assuming there is balanced representation in the center too)”

This is exactly the sort of thing which Wibbels and Rodden say would ruin a developing federation. Regardless of whether “balanced representation” (if such a thing is realistically possible) exists and apportions central revenue “fairly,” any revenue which the central govt. hands over will be treated as “free money” by the regional governments, and there will be little accountability in how such money will be spent. Instead of being used for sustainable development, regional governments in poor countries tend to waste it to provide jobs and contracts for cronies. The same thing happens at the central level when the govt. gets free handouts from the IMF, World Bank, ADB etc., but the central govt. tends to have less-politicized bureaucracies than regional governments.

Take a look at ANY federation (rich or poor) and you will see that the poorer regions tend to be more corrupt and wasteful. The reason is NOT that poor people are stupid and like to vote for criminals. The reason is that these poor regions tend to be more reliant on outside aid and the people will vote for those who have the best access to resources.

Rodden in his book had a case study of GERMANY of all countries, a fabulously wealthy nation that has the highest subnational debt in the EU and is having problems upholding its commitments to Maastricht. That is because the Lander (regional governments) get all their money from the central govt. and the poor regions like Saarland and Bremen are more wasteful.

Therefore, any political solution we suggest or think should restore the injustices inflicted to the Tamils thus far, from the year 1956.

Any people cannot restore any inflicted injustices unless they know genuinely the wrong done to someone else. Self analysis is vital for remorsefulness.

The Sinhalese politicos and the Sinhalese owned media have developed, over the past 60 years, a “culture of injustice” to Tamils and are arrogantly holding on to it. Resultantly, there is a united Sinhalese refusal to grant the legitimate right of the people of NE to rule themselves. SL is deaf to any advise from others.

SL was thrown out of the UN Human Rights Council because the government and the Sinhalese do not want to listen to anybody, even if it is pertaining to justice to grant human rights to Tamils. IIGEP experts, appointed by the Commonwealth, with a view to install a proper and equitable justice system, had to abandon their work for lack of willingness from the government.

When the Sinhalese are unable or unwilling to think justly and walk humbly, liberty cannot come at all to the people living in the areas of NE.

We all should understand clearly that what happened in 1948, when Ceylon became a dominion under Britain was the creation of the union of three earlier kingdoms. The union was a marriage brokered by Britain.

When the South unilaterally declared SL to be a republic in 1972, with constitutional contents unjust to Tamils, the Tamils realised that the marriage was not working at all and decided in 1977, by popular vote, to create Tamil Eelam. The marriage was not working because of “a dominant and stubborn husband”. From 1977 upto now there are no meanigful signs that the marriage would ever work. Because of failure to institue timely divorce, the husband is even cruely beating up the wife and children !!! There is a violent and cruel War.

There are only two possible options when nations come to a “point of no return” in unworkable marraiges of nations.

Firstly, there is the option of an “amicable divorce”. More than 100 years ago Norway and Sweden boldly took that decision. That decision was highly appreciated by Lenin. About 50 years ago Malaysia and Singapore took the same decision for an “amicable divorce”. All the “divorced” countries are doing very well now. SL has the option to decide as to whether NE should be amicably divorced.

Secondly, there is the option of “violent break up”. If amicable divorce fails, the second option becomes inevitable, if the husband nation is adamant and stubborn. This happened within 50 years in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. SL should realise that the second option is more hurting than the first one.

Courage and wisdom are required to bring about “amicable divorce” in the island instead of doing things for “a violent break up” resulting in hatred, enmity and destruction. The pertinent question is “Do we have a strong leader capable of doing just that? My answer to the question is an unequivocal “NO” .

you can’t come up with the most outrageous sayings and not back them with a source. that makes them pure fiction. obviously you are neither a good journalist nor decent academic, because those two categories are innoculated against such procedures.