Language-blind regional development units

8/7/2019 Language-blind regional development units

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Language-blind regional development unitsby C. Wijeyawickrema,

LL.B., Ph.D.

All human progress has depended on new questions rather than on new answers to the

old questions.

Alfred North White Science and the Modern World, 1925

The story of water is the story of man [woman].

Question: Is it possible to take a water resources management approach in devolving power(empowerment) to masses (village-level) and to politicians (regional-level)?

Answer: The size and type of the devolution unit both at micro (village) and macro (region)

levels is a key issue in this regard. Part I of the answer is discussed below.


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Under the Colombo (colonial) paradigm, a group of Colombo ruling families tried to provide

answers to an "old problem" that they themselves had created. They mismanaged the

separatist demand by a sub-group of Colombo Tamils. Since the early 1920s these Tamilseparatists had direct links with the Dravidasthan separatist movement in South India and

expected to benefit from British views such as "India is a myth" and "India has two nations"

(India and Pakistan). With the colonial divide-and-rule policy, local British governorsManning and Hugh Clifford aided and abetted the separatists in this sinister design (ref.

Communalism and language in the politics of Ceylon, Robert Kearney, 1967, p. 37 and the

1977 TULF election manifesto).

Fortunately, the colonial masters in London refused to apply the two nation theory to Ceylon

(Donoughmore [1927] and Soulbury [1944] Commissions; Donoughmore Report, pp. 92-93,

Soulbury Report, pp. 66-67). Instead, they left the colony with a system of checks and

balances and a fine 1947 Constitution which in turn was based on the previous "MinistersDraft". The Colombo politicians of UNP, SLFP, CP (Mos-cow party), LSSP (bangawewa

party), UNF and PA destroyed this system and in 1978 ended up with a "bahubootha"

vyawastava. In desperation, looking for quick fixes, they even addressed the terrorist

negotiator (Anton Balasingham) as "His Excellency". The tiny island ended up with many

Antho-Jata-Bahi-Jata (mega) problems.

The Colombo crowd faced several humiliating slaps such as the 1987 Indo-SL Accord (fromIndia), 2002 CFA (from Norway) and 2003 ISGA (from Tamil terrorists). Albert Einstein

once said, "the significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking

with which we created them". Yet, the Colombo crowd continued to look for answers to their

old question, "how can we continue the kolambata kiri, apita kakiri [milk for Colombo,melon for us] social, political and economic system even if that means the breaking up of Sri

Lanka"?

The 2005 Presidential Election saved Sri Lanka by a razor-thin margin. The life-sacrificing

ground work of the Ven. Gangodawila Soma Thera and the JVP-JHU support empowered the

rural forces of the SLFP under a new midwife and the Pancha Maha Balavegaya (PMB) of

the 1956 fameburied after 1959 and almost killed after 1978was resurrected, and a new

paradigm"Mahinda Chintanaya (MC)"is struggling with birth pains.

Indian model or Pondicherry model?

How can Colombo families as well as non-Colombo masses enjoy the fruits of freedom,

peace and prosperity where the entire island is the homeland of everybody? How can the law

provide equal opportunities for all its citizens? How can Sri Lanka avoid trying to legislate

against geography? What are the "legitimate Tamil grievances which should be

accommodated within a devolution plan?"

The size and type of the devolution unit both at micro and macro levels depend on the

purpose of (and motives for) devolution. In India, in 1956, language was taken as the basis in

deciding the size at the macro level because prevention of further uncontrollable


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statistics.gov.lk, 2002 data). Until the 1990s it had about 4000 GSN divisions, which is now a

mind boggling number of 14,009. By selecting river basins/watersheds as the lowest PRI-

type administrative unit for Sri Lanka this GSN number could be decreased to anecologically appropriate, socially equitable and economically efficient number. The water

tanks inventory prepared by the late Chief Justice Hema Basnayake could be useful in this

regard.

Failure of the Indian F model

It took India 50 years and nine Five Year Plans to finally accept the failure of the Indian

model of language-based state demarcations, and to grant constitutional teeth to Panchayati

Raj Institutions (PRI) by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments of 1993. Indian FiveYear Plan documents are replete with information on the socio-economic failure of the

Indian model (ref. Planning Commission, Government of India: Five Year Plans,www.planningcommission.nic.in/plans). The Indian constitution could not make a significant

dent on the misery and poverty of millions of Indians living in villages other than creating a

super rich affluent class living in Delhi and state capitals who receive praise in books such as

The World Is Flat.

The language-based homelands path became a formula of "feeding a cancer to cure it" for

India. Original 13 language-based states are now increased to 24 (on map 2 each black dot is

a state capital). This slippery path has no end in sight. Just to give two examples; in Assam

the Indian army is fighting with the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam (DailyNews, September 27, 2006). In Tamil Nadu, Pattali Makkal Katchi leader S. Ramadoss is

demanding a separate state within Tamil Nadu for the Vanniyar castes. As a reaction to thisdemand the Dalits in Tamil Nadu are also demanding a separate state. Unlike Sri Lanka,

Tamil Nadu is large enough for such separate states (ref. www.hinduonnet.com, Frontlinevol. 19 [17] August 17, 2002).

Indian model and river basins

During the colonial period some native and foreign engineers made proposals to demarcate

India on the basis of its major river basins. In this regard it is useful to compare the majorriver basins map of India (map 5) with a similar map of Sri Lanka (map 1). It is not easy touse rivers as boundaries for Indian states because India is so big and it is a sub-continent

comparable in size to Western Europe.

But India has come to wrestle with river basins from a new state boundary-nullifying

perspective. Rivers do not respect language boundaries and water resources are a state

government subject. But if the Delhi government decides to manage water shortages andwater conservation issues as a national priority then states borders become insignificant. Just

like India is excited about its PRI path (for the past 11 years) it is even more excited about its

mega Inter Basin Water Transfer Link Project (map 6). The Indian President, Indian Supreme

Court and the Indian government are all promoting the project that will cost between 112-200

billion USD. There will be 30 water links. The project has already started and is expected to


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be completed by 2016 (Central Water Commission, http://cwc. nic.in; National Water

Development Agency, http:// nwda.gov.in).

River basin model for Sri Lanka

One of the first major river basin management plans in the modern world was the Tennessee

Valley Authority in USA. The TVA model was copied for the first time outside USA in Sri

Lanka to develop the Gal Oya Valley in the Eastern Province. In Gal Oya as well as later

with the Mahaweli project local views to undertake them as smaller projects rather than mega

projects were ignored to unwanted misery and suffering to the people. However, the

Mahaweli project has now become the water resources anchor of Sri Lanka. There are 15

river basins now considered as the Mahaweli Project Area (Transformation towards

Mahaweli River Basin Management Authority, P. T. Senaratne and D.C.S. Elakanda, 2004).

On map 1, Professor of Geography C. M. Madduma Bandara (chapter 4 in Fifty years of Sri

Lankas independence: a socio-economic review, edited by A. D. V. de S. Indraratna, 1998,

p. 83; The Island, February 7, 2001) has proposed Seven River Basin Regions (this writer

superimposed the Eelam boundary on his map). They are: 1. Yalpanam 2,

Rajarata,3.Dambadeni, 4. Mahaweli, 5. Digavapi, 6. Kelani and 7. Ruhunu.

Under this scheme each unit has access to the sea. Yalpanam is totally within the boundary of

Eelam and Digavapi is also largely within Eelam borders. No one unit is exceptionally largercompared to other units. As stated earlier the beauty of this kind of demarcation is that the

lowest unit (PRI-village-GSN unit) is ecologically linked with the largest unit and any

religious and language promotion activities could take place independent of the boundarylines of even the highest seven spatial units. On the other hand at the lowest level the ancient

trinity could be transformed into a multicultural trinity of village/town-tank/oya-church/mosque, where one village/town community does not have to suspect another

village/town community for infringing upon each others aspirations. If the rain water falling

on to the two sides of the roof of the Ginigathhena police station goes to two rivers, Kelani

and Mahaweli, it does not matter if Tamils, Muslims or Sinhalese live below.

As the Supreme Court decision which declared the merger of N-E null and void states, theequal protection of the law unifies people on the basis of the Rule of Law (unlike the divisiveethnic yardsticks such as language, religion or caste). A system of water resources-based

administrative units ideally fits with this Supreme Court thinking.

It is unfortunate that the university teachers, the social science unit of the National Science

Foundation or other numerous NGOs in Sri Lanka have not shown any interest in the concept

that map 1 has proposed. This writer found only two newspaper articles on this subject in thepast. (River basins as administrative divisions, L. M. Samarasinghe, President Soil and Water

Conservation Society of Sri Lanka, Daily News, November 14, 2005; Devolution and water

flow, V. R. Nanayakkara, Former Forest Conservator, The Island, September 25, 2006).

Because "The World Is Flat" (economic liberalization) only for the rich, and for the poor "the


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world is flood" (global warming) it is important that lawyers and constitutional experts listen

to conservationists and geographers who take a holistic perspective on human-environment

conflicts.

Documents

Language-blind regional development units