A response to Dushy Ranatunga:

A Kandyan unit to satisfy the aspirations of the Kandyans

H. M. G. B. Kotakadeniya.

KANDYAN SINHALESE: Dushy Ranatunga writing from London to your esteemed journal, on July 11,2006, in his article 'Call the Tigers bluff and move to checkmate' whilst advocating devolution of power to the Muslim and Tamil minorities, has also propounded an alarming theory that a separate unit of devolution be established to satisfy the aspirations of the Kandyans.

This is the first time that I have observed an eminent writer and contributor to the current debate on the national question, mention the Kandyan Sinhalese as a separate entity which has aspirations not shared by the entire Sinhalese race in general.

Mr Ranatunga must be aware that there was no identity called 'Kandyan Sinhalese' until the advent of colonial rule in Sri Lanka after 1505 AD. Until then, Sinhalese who inhabited any part of the country were Sinhalese, sharing common cultural-social-religious ethos and values and dedicated to the commitment of upholding the sovereignty of the Sinhale Nation.

But after the maritime provinces came under the suzerainty of the western colonial marauders and after the seat of Sinhala royal power moved to Kanda-Uda-Pas-Rate, the British colonial rulers referred to the Sinhalese toiling under their yoke as Low country Sinhalese and those Sinhalese who lived in the Kingdom of the King of Kandy as Kandyan Sinhalese.

This is an artificial bifurcation of an ethnic entity which otherwise held together as one cohesive and strongly bonded unit with a common cultural heritage.

The British, following their devide et empera policy, did their best to drive a wedge between the so-called Kandyan and the Low country Sinhalese by bestowing official recognition to the division by various overt and covert and also dubious means which included the strategy of treating the Kandyan Sinhalese as a separate community in the official Census conducted by the Government.

That being the historical truth, it is absolutely unwarranted on the part of Mr. Ranatunga to treat the Kandyan Sinhalese as a community entertaining distinctive aspirations not shared by the other Sinhalese. The aspirations of the Kandyan Sinhalese are quite unambiguously enshrined in the Kandyan Convention of 1815, which principally was the protection of the race, religion and culture of Sinhale.

Sinhale was the name by which our country was known at that time which came to be Anglicized and corrupted to be referred to as Ceylon by the colonial exploiters and thereafter by those natives to whom the reins of power were handed over by the British.

The aspirations of the 'Kandyan Sinhalese' referred to above are identical with those of other Sinhalese living in other parts of the country. Those sacrosanct ideals are applicable even today and the Sinhalese continue to sacrifice their life and limb, upholding those ideals.

An environment conducive for all citizens to live in peace and harmony cannot be promoted in this small country by accentuating the petty differences in communities that make up this nation.

The Muslims of this country never asked for devolution of power before their survival as a distinct minority group was threatened by Prabhakaran, who made a vain attempt to destroy their identity by encompassing them in the broad term 'Tamil speaking people'. This jiggery-pokery has now been exposed as it has been definitively established that the terrorist objective is to establish a mono-ethnic (Tamil) fascist state in the North and the East.

Mr. Ranatunga's utopian and idealistic notion of devolving power to administrative units for Northern Tamils and Batticaloa Tamils, separately, is not pragmatic, since any power devolved to Tamils in these two provinces, will be enjoyed exclusively by the Tiger terrorists, if such devolution is effected before the total elimination of terrorism in the North and East of the country. If such devolution is granted to the north and the east dominated militarily by the tiger terrorists, the next step would be the declaration of Eelam.

Mr. Ranatunga further advocates, separate administrative units for Indian estate Tamils and multi-cultural configurations for Colombo and Trincomalee. Mr. Ranatunga must understand that there are no Indian Tamils in the estate sector any more and that they are all citizens of this country.

They have been in the main stream of politics ab-initio, and are represented in the National Parliament and Provincial Councils and other local bodies. It is disconcerting to note that Mr. Ranatunga who lives in London, which is a multi-ethnic city, recommending separate administrative units for Colombo and Trincomalee on account of their multi-cultural configurations.

His recipe is a recipe for disaster since the assumption that underpins his exhortation is that the only panacea for our ills is to make our people live in compartments, ruled by their own ethnic potentates.

Above all, the specious and puerile advocacy of a division in the ranks of the Sinhala community deserves unqualified condemnation.

What this country needs today is a strong central government (backed by a invincible and professional military) which can guarantee democracy and human rights and concomitant economic and social rights to all her citizens.

The Constitution and the administrative district boundaries should never be amended to pander to the diabolical designs of terrorists and scheming NGOs and alien interlopers who are motivated only by economic gain.

This is the plank on which Mahinda Chintana thundered and came to be endorsed at the last Presidential elections. Changes and amendments, if any, must be effected only if the peace-loving citizens of this country, clamour for them.
