Federalism: A Mechanism For Citizens To Be Close Partners In Sri Lanka

By Ayathuray Rajasingam -January 28, 2014 

Ayathuray Rajasingam

History has shown that there have been disputes culminating in wars and people have witnessed that the world is full of cruelty and injustice on account of the greed for power and wealth. The continuing wars on various pretext claimed untold numbers of human lives and destruction of properties. The main issue is what have the war achieved other than shattering the lives of peace loving citizens who wanted to be close partners in their countries.

The wars between countries in Europe eventually compelled Nations to realize the outcome of crimes against humanity. Having realized the disrespect shown to human rights that has ended up with the destruction of several lives, especially the weak, the League of Nations and the United Nations demonstrated the need for protection of weak States and the need for various races to live peacefully with the majority community. With the passage of time, it is history that centuries old rivals such as Germany and France have become close partners in regional organizations known as the European Union. Similarly, all races have become close partners in the Canadian society as well as in other Federal countries. The growth of democracy in Europe was a gradual transformation of process which eventually laid the foundation for Federalism as a means of bringing various communities together in an atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood.

Unfortunately in some Asian developing countries, politicians have utilized the concept of democracy for their own benefit to rule as a dictator, resulted in the collapse of various institutions. Even religion was politicized. Since most of the military officers lacked the legal educational qualifications, civil officers find it very difficult to work when military officers fail to grasp the constitutional issues because of the egoistic attitude of the military officers as well as of the ruling politicians. In Sri Lanka the search for solutions to the problems faced by the Tamils rests on establishing a Federal State where the minority Tamils could enjoy equal rights in par with the Sinhalese and share each other’s values. Federalism has the force of getting rid of egoism on account of the co-ordination of the shared powers between the Federal and Provincial governments. The key element is to establish trust and confidence among all parties. Political leaders who have studied law should have known the difference between Federalism and Separation. Unfortunately the political leaders are always concerned in deviating the attention of the people and mislead them by playing the tune that they will not allow the country to be divided by external forces, (when, in fact, no one is interested in such division), without answering the difference between Federalism and Separation. Thus the ethnic issue becomes an unfinished symphony because of the attitude of the ruling political leaders who are an obstacle for the Tamils and Sinhalese to be close partners in a united Sri Lanka.

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