New thinking on elections and minority claims

This refers to my recent letter, published in The Island, on the question of reconciliation between the Sinhala and Tamil communities. Since it can be misconstrued by some of our ultra-nationalists, and even by well-meaning educated persons, I wish to add something more to it, which is in the nature of safeguards and caveats. I received emails from two retired medical specialists, living overseas, one in full agreement with my views, the other somewhat non-committal.

The main line of my thinking about the riddle of the merger of the North and Eastern Provinces, is related to the pact between the Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and the Tamil leader Chelvanayakam and Regional Councils proposed by the late PM, Mr. Bandaranaike as a solution of the Tamil problem and an antidote to the oppressive repercussions of the Sinhala only Act, on the Tamil speaking citizens of our country. At that time, if my now ageing memory serves me right, the proposal of the late PM got shot down by a fast carried out by some Buddhist monks, supported by some English-speaking Sinhala leaders.

Some of the safeguards I have in mind to forestall a Sinhala cry of ‘dividing the country’ are as follows.

1.Elections to the NE Council should be held not on party lines, nor on ethnic or racial lines, but on the basis of individual worth, their “personal worth” be it educational attainments or assets and other achievements as in entrepreneurship. A new scheme of elections is proposed, where some electors will be entitled to more than one vote. The rationale underpinning this seemingly outrageous proposal has to do with the current unwise scheme of elections, where the majority of voters in the Ratnapura District have chosen to send a convicted criminal to Parliament, while an educated electorate in the Colombo district did the correct thing and voted out a Prime Minister and a Minister of Finance, both of whom are suspected to have helped themselves to billions of Rupee funds.

This new method is based on the educational levels of the voters. For example, a voter with less than the O/Level will have one vote, one with O/Level will have two votes. Those with A/Level three votes, those with diploma or equivalent, four votes, those with a degree, or professional qualifications, five votes and those with post graduate, or equivalent level qualifications, will have eight votes, and so on. Income tax payers also should have extra votes.

2. Police powers should be retained by the centre. Leaving arms and ammunition in police stations in the new amalgamated NE Province could be a temptation to the residue of LTTE rebels still living in hiding.

3. Land matters should be left to a separate Commission. No racial, religious or social group should have special rights and privileges.

4. It is well known that Tamils, Hindus or, to a lesser extent, Christians, are believers in the discriminatory social hierarchy of castes, and as such they tend to discriminate against their brethren of lower castes. Furthermore, Tamils, in the north, consider their brothers in the east as persons of lower status. This was one of the reasons for the split between Prabhakaran and the Karuna and Pillayan duo. There is no such problem among the Muslims and Sinhalese, although the latter also have an antiquated hierarchical system among them, activated especially on ceremonial occasions like prenuptial visits/bargains, marriages and wedding table protocol. The caste system is strictly observed by one Buddhist sect, a matter that goes against the Constitution. Regrettably, the two main Sinhala caste groups have done little to eliminate this unbuddhistic inequity.

5. Since there could be opposition to the settlement of displaced persons or poor landless people of the country or even to the establishment of places of religious worship intended for minority religious groups in the NE ( which does not exist in the rest of the country), the Land Commission or the Central Government should be empowered to be the final arbiter on such matters. The Tamil or Muslim homeland theory needs to be banished from our history. In an age of global systems there should be no place for minority ethnic/religious groups to find niches for themselves.

LEO FERNANDO

Pitipana, Negombo