Needs of the people, not greed of politicians

The Indian Prime Minister asked the visiting Sri Lankan President last week to “fully implement” the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Coming as it does after suspending Article 370 of his own country’s Constitution vis-à-vis Jammu and Kashmir and in the throes of a new controversy over an amendment to its citizenship laws, the request seems ironical.

Article 370 might not be on ‘all fours’ with 13A, but both are based on the same premise, if not fears, that they are a platform for a separate state. In August this year, the Narendra Modi Government brought Jammu and Kashmir entirely under the Indian Constitution and run from New Delhi.

In arguing its case, the Modi Government said that henceforth New Delhi will be responsible for the economic development of J & K and that there will be no privileges on land ownership.

Northern Sri Lanka also has its own peculiar land ownership laws and President Rajapaksa has said that it will be his government’s responsibility to economically develop the North and East and that would be his priority rather than quibbling over devolution issues that have gone on ever since Independence.

What has 13A bestowed upon Sri Lanka other than a Provincial Council system that serves neither man nor beast? Even the Northern PC did nothing other than pass resolutions to placate the Diaspora and ended up under Presidential rule without a hum from those who originally demanded such a council.

Provincial Councils were meant to be the nursery for the national Legislature. But the quality of councillors speaks for itself. With a few exceptions, it has only seen the emergence of a new breed of politicians who have neither a vocation nor a profession worthy of mention. This resulted in a third-tier of politicians at the local government councils who were mostly either bodyguards of the PC members, village thugs, three-wheeler drivers, illegal sand miners and the like.

Those political parties in the South which went on the streets in 1987 opposing the Indian forced devolution system are now demanding elections for it to feather their own nests rather than in the national interest.

There’s no serious quarrel whether certain powers should be devolved from Colombo to the rest of the country. It has long been done administratively through Government Agents of yesterday only for their powers to be gobbled up by political authorities -and now, the Provincial Councils.

Whether the District should be the more appropriate unit of devolution, and whether the country can do minus party-nominated candidates is up for discussion if administrative efficiency is the key rather than political power.

Being a military officer, the President knows how the chain of command works from headquarters to the soldier. That’s the military though but in a civil administration the 13A model just does not work and a new model in consultation with, and the concurrence of, the elected representatives is imperative.

The needs of the people in the provinces should be served, not the greed of politicians.