In fact it was the leader of the Tamil Congress, G G Ponnambalam who laid a streak of strong communalism in the minds of the Tamils with his empty pie in the sky 50-50 demand when he could have canvassed support for a decentralized political structure for the country. But no sooner he was offered a cabinet position in the government that he bitterly opposed, he capitulated and the Tamil Congress split up.By: Satchi Sithananthan
(Consulting Editor for Lanka Guardian)
The Federal System is not a monster that separates, divides and wrenches asunder peoples and nations. In Sri Lanka, partly due to the Federal Party’s visionless and unfortunate Tamil version of the name Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (the Ceylon Tamil Kingdom Party) when it split from the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and mostly due to mischievous racists elements who actively promoted discrimination against the Tamils, the term federal system became synonymous with separation and a symbol of threat to the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.
In fact it was the leader of the Tamil Congress, G G Ponnambalam who laid a streak of strong communalism in the minds of the Tamils with his empty pie in the sky 50-50 demand when he could have canvassed support for a decentralized political structure for the country. But no sooner he was offered a cabinet position in the government that he bitterly opposed, he capitulated and the Tamil Congress split up. The splinter group, evidently for want of an appropriate identity became the Federal Party in line with the deep-seated political emotions Ponnambalam himself had nurtured. The Federal Party wanted an identity of self-respect and dignity as a community in its own right. Hence the Tamil version that gave a different perception altogether.
The federal system is an ideal one for countries that are multicultural. Some of the stable democratic states in the world either have a federal structure or are states where the central government has delegated considerable authority to self-governing regional governments. France , though in principle a unitary state, is an excellent example of the latter. Italy has twenty such regions of which five enjoy autonomous status. The Republic of China has twenty-two provincial councils and five autonomous states apart from two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau .
While Spain has seventeen autonomous communities, Britain has in recent times established a great deal of decentralization for Scotland and Wales . Other countries in Europe that have federal systems are Austria , Belgium , Germany , Serbia and Montenegro , and Switzerland . There are two principal communities in Belgium and the federal system has proved quite a success in that country.
In Sweden where they have a Finnish minority in some districts, and wherever they constitute a considerable ratio of the population, Swedish and Finnish languages and cultures enjoy parity of status.
There are full-fledged federal states on every continent. In Asia India, Pakistan and Malaysia are federal states. Australia has six states and two territories. In the Pacific even such small island nations such as Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap have come together as the Federated States of Micronesia . In the western Indian Ocean , Comoros much smaller than Sri Lanka , has a federal system. In tiny Seychelles , the principle of decentralization has enabled the creation of a modern day country of city states and this is for a population of only 70,000 people with an Afro-Asian and European heritage.
On the African continent Nigeria , Ethiopia and South Africa are federal states and in the Middle East seven emirates have combined as one super state, the United Arab Emirates . Even the pretty and petite twin-island state of St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean ’s well known for its medical school that attracts students from many parts of the world has a federal system.
Papua New Guinea has twenty highly decentralized provinces, and Palau has sixteen states. In Russia , the largest country in the world in respect of territory, there are a variety of decentralized administrative systems that also include several republics, in fact as many as twenty one. Altogether the Russian administrative system has a mosaic of one hundred and six decentralized bodies linked to the federal capital in Moscow but each vested with considerable powers of administration. Bosnia and Herzegovina come under the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.
On the North American continent, all three countries are federally administered; Canada , USA and Mexico . In Canada both English and French are official languages, even though only the province of Quebec is considered French and the rest English. Argentina , Brazil and Venezuela are federal states in South America .
Apart from federal systems the other forms are unitary, presidential republics of which some are federal, parliamentary democracies with some federal states as well, constitutional monarchies, commonwealth realms, semi-constitutional monarchies like Bahrain, Jordan and Morocco, absolute monarchies, theocracies like Iran and the Vatican State, one-party and no-party states and there is one military junta state, Myanmar (Burma). Two states remain undefined, Somalia plagued by warlords and Haiti .
A country with multiracial and multi-religious communities in defined geographical regions is ideally administered under a federal system. Sri Lanka which has had a three kingdoms heritage before it fell under the boots of Iberian, Boer and English colonial adventurers should have opted for a federal system from the time of independence. Unfortunately, at that time the people who held the reigns of power constituted a group of powerful elite of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, and Malays who lived an isolated life within the Colombo Seven confines of splendour, power and privilege, the habitat of the Brown Sahibs.
The vast majority of people who lived in Sri Lanka ’s small towns and rural areas were to these elite the common herd, the hoi polloi, on whose blood, sweat and toil these Colombo Seven denizens prospered. The entire country was like a vast serfdom for them helped by the vicious class and caste hierarchies that were exploited to the hilt. When the masses began to sense political power, some nurtured by grass roots political activism led by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and some whipped up by politicians who resorted to rabid communalism to seize political power like Solomon Bandaranaike in 1956, a lovely country became hooked to racist chauvinism and ethnic terrorism.
This can only be neutralized by bringing together all the Sri Lankans, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others into the political arena that will ensure the dignity and self-respect of every community by being active and enlightened participants in determining their respective destines but as a united force. A federal structure offers the best opportunity to achieve this ideal. One day or other the pride and the pack must cease their hunting mentality and the feast of the hyenas must come to an end.
The Federal System is not a monster that separates, divides and wrenches asunder peoples and nations. In Sri Lanka, partly due to the Federal Party’s visionless and unfortunate Tamil version of the name Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (the Ceylon Tamil Kingdom Party) when it split from the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and mostly due to mischievous racists elements who actively promoted discrimination against the Tamils, the term federal system became synonymous with separation and a symbol of threat to the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.
In fact it was the leader of the Tamil Congress, G G Ponnambalam who laid a streak of strong communalism in the minds of the Tamils with his empty pie in the sky 50-50 demand when he could have canvassed support for a decentralized political structure for the country. But no sooner he was offered a cabinet position in the government that he bitterly opposed, he capitulated and the Tamil Congress split up. The splinter group, evidently for want of an appropriate identity became the Federal Party in line with the deep-seated political emotions Ponnambalam himself had nurtured. The Federal Party wanted an identity of self-respect and dignity as a community in its own right. Hence the Tamil version that gave a different perception altogether.
The federal system is an ideal one for countries that are multicultural. Some of the stable democratic states in the world either have a federal structure or are states where the central government has delegated considerable authority to self-governing regional governments. France , though in principle a unitary state, is an excellent example of the latter. Italy has twenty such regions of which five enjoy autonomous status. The Republic of China has twenty-two provincial councils and five autonomous states apart from two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau .
While Spain has seventeen autonomous communities, Britain has in recent times established a great deal of decentralization for Scotland and Wales . Other countries in Europe that have federal systems are Austria , Belgium , Germany , Serbia and Montenegro , and Switzerland . There are two principal communities in Belgium and the federal system has proved quite a success in that country.
In Sweden where they have a Finnish minority in some districts, and wherever they constitute a considerable ratio of the population, Swedish and Finnish languages and cultures enjoy parity of status.
There are full-fledged federal states on every continent. In Asia India, Pakistan and Malaysia are federal states. Australia has six states and two territories. In the Pacific even such small island nations such as Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap have come together as the Federated States of Micronesia . In the western Indian Ocean , Comoros much smaller than Sri Lanka , has a federal system. In tiny Seychelles , the principle of decentralization has enabled the creation of a modern day country of city states and this is for a population of only 70,000 people with an Afro-Asian and European heritage.
On the African continent Nigeria , Ethiopia and South Africa are federal states and in the Middle East seven emirates have combined as one super state, the United Arab Emirates . Even the pretty and petite twin-island state of St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean ’s well known for its medical school that attracts students from many parts of the world has a federal system.
Papua New Guinea has twenty highly decentralized provinces, and Palau has sixteen states. In Russia , the largest country in the world in respect of territory, there are a variety of decentralized administrative systems that also include several republics, in fact as many as twenty one. Altogether the Russian administrative system has a mosaic of one hundred and six decentralized bodies linked to the federal capital in Moscow but each vested with considerable powers of administration. Bosnia and Herzegovina come under the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.
On the North American continent, all three countries are federally administered; Canada , USA and Mexico . In Canada both English and French are official languages, even though only the province of Quebec is considered French and the rest English. Argentina , Brazil and Venezuela are federal states in South America .
Apart from federal systems the other forms are unitary, presidential republics of which some are federal, parliamentary democracies with some federal states as well, constitutional monarchies, commonwealth realms, semi-constitutional monarchies like Bahrain, Jordan and Morocco, absolute monarchies, theocracies like Iran and the Vatican State, one-party and no-party states and there is one military junta state, Myanmar (Burma). Two states remain undefined, Somalia plagued by warlords and Haiti .
A country with multiracial and multi-religious communities in defined geographical regions is ideally administered under a federal system. Sri Lanka which has had a three kingdoms heritage before it fell under the boots of Iberian, Boer and English colonial adventurers should have opted for a federal system from the time of independence. Unfortunately, at that time the people who held the reigns of power constituted a group of powerful elite of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, and Malays who lived an isolated life within the Colombo Seven confines of splendour, power and privilege, the habitat of the Brown Sahibs.
The vast majority of people who lived in Sri Lanka ’s small towns and rural areas were to these elite the common herd, the hoi polloi, on whose blood, sweat and toil these Colombo Seven denizens prospered. The entire country was like a vast serfdom for them helped by the vicious class and caste hierarchies that were exploited to the hilt. When the masses began to sense political power, some nurtured by grass roots political activism led by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and some whipped up by politicians who resorted to rabid communalism to seize political power like Solomon Bandaranaike in 1956, a lovely country became hooked to racist chauvinism and ethnic terrorism.
This can only be neutralized by bringing together all the Sri Lankans, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others into the political arena that will ensure the dignity and self-respect of every community by being active and enlightened participants in determining their respective destines but as a united force. A federal structure offers the best opportunity to achieve this ideal. One day or other the pride and the pack must cease their hunting mentality and the feast of the hyenas must come to an end.
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