Democracy
certainly does not mean that the majority opinion should be neglected. One may
call it majoritarianism or anything else but no government should or could
ignore the views of the majority. It also does not mean that the minority
opinion should be neglected and it is up to the government to decide on the
policy considering all the opinions. However, that does not mean that all
opinions could be implemented as it would result only in chaos. In any event
governments in so called democratic countries are elected by the majority and
not by the minority, especially when the minority opinion is dictated by the
foreigners. .
What is
the majority opinion of the country on the 13th amendment and the
LLRC report. The Sinhala majority may not agree with all that I have expressed
on these matters, but I am aware that the vast majority of the Sinhala opinion
is against the 13th amendment and do not want the LLRC report to be
implemented in full. Even if the government has previously said that it would
implement the thirteenth amendment plus and the LLRC report the government has
the liberty to change its policy taking into consideration the majority
opinion. After all there is no government or political party in the world that
has maintained the same policy over a period of time and any political party is
entitled to change its policy if those who vote for the party want it so.
The SLFP
has changed its policy over the last sixty three years or so. It is true that
the language policy of the SLFP was not Sinhala only at the inception of the
party though the Sinhala Maha Sabha was the organization that Mr. Bandaranaike
formed following the Hindu Mahajana Sabai of the Tamil leaders. It is also true
that the SLFP and the LSSP won the same number of electorates at the 1952
general elections held soon after the formation of the SLFP. The so called
political analysts think that the parity of the LSSP was accepted by the
Sinhala people over the Sinhala only policy of the SLFP. What these pundits
forget is that in 1952 the SLFP did not subscribe to the Sinhala only policy.
As we
have maintained the Sinhala nationalism is bottom up and it is the people who
determine the policies of the nationalist parties. In 1952 as far as
nationalism was concerned the Sinhala people were under the impression that the
UNP was nationalistic as in their opinion it was that party that won
independence to the country. The LSSP and the CP were also considered as
nationalistic by some Sinhala people including some Sanga Veda Guru, since the
two parties were involved in anti colonialist struggle. Probably the people
were not aware or not informed properly that as far back as 1943 the CP had
declared that the Sinhalas and Tamils were two nationalities that had existed
in the country for thousands of years. In 1952 the Sinhala people were
“confused” regarding nationalism (not in the western sense. Western nationalism
is associated with capitalism and nation states but Sinhala nationalism had
been existence at least from the fifth century if not from the time of
Pandukabhaya), and no nationalistic party had evolved to satisfy the needs of
the inherent nationalistic policies of the people. The Sinhala nationalism was
brewing outside the political parties and the leaders of the movement had been
the ordinary men and women who were the inheritors of the nationalistic
independence movement of Keppitipola Disawa and others in 1817-18. The Ven. Bhikkus including those who were behind
the Panadura Vadaya, Anagarika Dharmapla belonged to this movement and the names
of the Bhasha Premis of the thirties, people such as L H Mettananda of Ananda
Vidyalaya, though Colonel Olcott was of different category, come to the mind
when one thinks of the nationalistic movement of the Sinhala people.
It is
clear that the SLFP that had its ears to the ground listening to these ordinary
people changed its policy and adopted Sinhala only policy. The result of this
change was manifested at the Minneriya by-elections, which the SLFP won with a
handsome majority an year or two before 1956. The SLFP has been going along this
nationalistic path winning the 1956 general elections and then the 1960 July
general elections under Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike. However the UNP credentials
for nationalism (again not in the western sense) had not been lost under Dudley
Senanayake, and even J R Jayawardhane subscribed to nationalism with his
Dhrmishta Samajaya concept. The anti Sinhala nationalists tried to change the
course of the SLFP by importing Chandrika Kumaratunge from her self exile in
England, with the support of the west, and the leftists who by this time had
become left out also joined the Chandrika bandwagon and some left out leftists
including a few ministers in the present cabinet thought that the “ashcharya”
had already begun. To cut a long story short all these dreams were short lived
and the SLFP began a journey back to its nationalistic policies under Mahinda
Rajapakse.
However,
on various occasions the President Mahinda Rajapakse had been under pressure
from the west and India, and though he stood up to them very bravely, including
the case when the west wanted him to allow Prabhakaran to escape with their
assistance, in certain instances probably not knowing the strength of Sinhala
nationalism may have talked of thirteen plus and LLRC report. As we have mentioned number of times LLRC is
only a committee appointed by the government and its report is not a report of
the government. The government is not compelled to implement the entire LLRC
report, whatever some left out ministers of the cabinet and so called intellectuals
in various fora may in their enthusiasm to satisfy their western masters and
the associated thinking pattern, and the government has to listen to the
Sinhala opinion before it listens to Navi Pillai and the rest in Geneva.
The
Sinhala opinion is against the full implementation of a report compiled by
people who need grass for their feet, and the government should not betray the
opinion of the Sinhala people to satisfy few ministers and the west. If these
ministers and others are not given nominations at the next general elections
they would not be able to come near the vicinity of the Parliament either as
elected MPs or nominated MPs from the so called national list. They do not have
an opinion of their own even to consider as they only repeat ad nauseam what
they had learnt from their moth eaten Marxist or Socialist books which never
became outdated for the simple reason that they were not “dated” anytime in the
history of the last two centuries. The thirteenth amendment too has outlived
and its time that the government rethinks its position of it in the light of
Wignesawarn’s satisfaction at the decision by the Tamil Nadu government to
release the murderers of Rajiv Gandhi though he was the official architect of
the thirteenth amendment.
Jayalalitha
has different ideas and together with the TNA it is clear that now they are
thinking of a greater Eelam with Tamil Nadu and the Northern
province of Sri Lanka
forming a mini Chola empire in South Asia with
the assistance of the west. Some pundits may tell us of geopolitical realities
(when there is no reality as such there cannot be geopolitical realities,
except ambitions and expectations of political animals with political minds)
and claim that in the presence of China
the west would not support a divided India
The
Rajapakse “regime” cannot ignore or betray Sinhala opinion and it is clear that
at present the political parties other than the SLFP have no place in Sri
Lankan politics as they are not nationalistic. The elections to the provincial
councils in the absence of by-elections to the parliament serve as such and the
opinion expressed at these elections is somewhat a resemblance of that
expressed at the by-elections at Minneriya in the fifties.
Nalin De Silva
28-02-2014