Nominating TNA National list MP Sumanthiran to the newly created Parliamentary Council under the 18th Amendment, by Opposition Leader and UNP MP Wickramasinghe, was rightly rejected immediately by Sumanthiran himself and by the TNA also. Wickramasinghe was rightly condemned too, for his stupidity and slimy politics by other political observers, in a round of disgust and dismay. The reason was apparent. The 18th Amendment is seen as wholly anti democratic by most in progressive politics and the TNA did not want to be part of a Rajapaksa scheme, they opposed.
That done, the TNA announced a Committee of their own to sit with the Rajapaksa regime in overseeing Northern resettlement and rehabilitation. The Committee comprises of 07 MPs including Sampanthan, Suresh Premachandra, Senathirajah, Adaikilanathan, Shritharan, Selvarasah and Sumanthiran. This is an agreement reached not with President Rajapaksa, but with Basil Rajapaksa on 23 August. Thereafter BR had left to India, according to Sumanthiran who spoke to “Nation” on 29 August, asking them to submit the names to President. The TNA expect their nominated names to be co-opted to some sort of a joint mechanism, that would help them oversee resettlement of Tamil IDPs in the Vanni.
Before that, the TNA officially met with President Rajapaksa, on the eve of his departure to India in early June this year, over 03 months ago. It seems the TNA meets the Rajapaksa brothers, only when they leave to India. It seems also, that TNA is expecting India to deliver palatable answers for their problems, through this Rajapaksa regime. Could they gain anything from such contractual, collaborative politics ? Especially with this Rajapaksa regime?
Its stupid for TNA to sit with this Rajapaksa regime in overseeing resettlement now. By now, the government has sent a massive number of IDPs to their villages, almost empty handed. As Sumanthiran told “Nation”, these IDPs have been sent with “certain roofing materials, tin sheets, certain poles, tarpaulin sheets and some bags of cement” and expected to live with them. That being the situation in the Vanni, it is regretful to say the least, that the TNA stayed for over one year, till all those people were sent out of camps, to seek a joint mechanism with Basil, in overseeing resettlement and rehabilitation. Now when the TNA announces their 7 member committee, its less than 25,000 IDPs in camps, from the original 300,000 plus that was held behind barbed wire, in Chettikulum.
This alone proves, the old TNA brigade led by the triumvirate, Sampanthan, Suresh and Senathirajah known in Tamil circles as the “Triple S”, is now out of gear and drained of political thinking. What are they planning to oversee? What resettlement and what rehabilitation? Has the Rajapaksa regime drawn up a plan or a programme for resettlement and rehabilitation of IDPs in the North – East, for the TNA to oversee its implementation? Who helped draw it and what allocations are available for any resettlement and rehabilitation?
We know the Delhi administration has pledged some LKR 1.2 billion for Northern rehabilitation, 50,000 houses included. There is also a 520 MW coal power plant in Sampur that has displaced 1,600 Tamil families, who have not been provided with any decent alternatives. Delhi has previously signed an agreement for railway transport improvement in the North, including rolling stock.
This is certainly not, how the TNA should accept rehabilitation for their own kith and kin, for whose devastated lives the TNA is also responsible. These pledges, grants and aid, whether from Delhi or Beijing, should be servicing and fulfilling components of a clearly designed programme for rehabilitation. It is not for Delhi to decide and Colombo to accept 50,000 houses. Its the rehabilitation programme that should decide numbers, sizes and their locations, with a system, a criteria, to select beneficiaries. That goes for all decisions on rehabilitation and reconstruction, that a clear programme would have to include.
Today there is no clear indication to the people, to society, as to who does the planning and on what priorities. No one knows who is responsible for what and where the monies go, in resettlement and rehabilitation in devastated North – East. The present minister of “Resettlement” is Milroy Fernando, who very recently claimed the number of internally displaced people are more than the actual numbers previously recorded. The present minister of “Rehabilitation” is DEW Gunasekera, who does not appear to be doing any outside prison reforms. Yet the TNA has to work with Basil Rajapaksa, who is only the minister of Economic Development.
This certainly explains where political power lies with this Rajapaksa government, but it does not necessarily explain where a programme for resettlement and rehabilitation is and who has funds for that. It is this clenched power with the Rajapaksa regime with no systems and programmes, the TNA would first have to politically encounter and challenge. Though very much late for resettlement, there is every purpose in still campaigning for a “Comprehensive Programme for Reconciliation and Rehabilitation” to be presented in parliament with financial provisions.
Approved in parliament for two major reasons. One, it has to be a well debated, open programme that all citizens would know about in detail. Two, it is not only the Tamil and Muslim people who have a right to know how much money is available and for what rehabilitation in their areas and for reconciliation. The Sinhala South has a right to know all of it as well, as money that is spent on all of it is public money. It is a parliamentary approved programme the TNA could thereafter monitor when implemented.
Politically the best is to lay down a condition that all rehabilitation activities identified in a parliamentary approved comprehensive programme, should be carried out by the North and East Provincial Councils. Tsunami rehabilitation and construction is one disastrous experience of centralised rehabilitation and reconstruction that totally ignored the PC system and left the people uprooted for years and some are still neglected. PCs have all the powers necessary for rehabilitation and reconstruction, devolved to them that includes,
- law and order in the provinces
- planning and implementation of provincial economy
- education
- health
- agriculture with necessary extension services
- housing and construction
- social services and rehabilitation
- rural development and
- co-operatives
This PC system, with all its drawbacks and timidity one may talk about, is still a closer apparatus to the affected people than the centralised Colombo State. The centralised Colombo State and its agencies under the Rajapaksa regime can not say they are any better, except in waste and corruption. At least they have been proved inefficient in accounting the IDPs, with Minister Fernando saying in Vaharai alone there are 200 unaccounted for refugees. Whole North could definitely have more ?
The East remains ignored as always. The lobby had been and is always a Northern lobby. This is also a reason to have a wide spread, well discussed programme for both N-E provinces. It would then allow those Eastern province representatives to see where they are in rehabilitation and reconciliation.
Thus it would be much saner for the TNA to campaign for a parliamentary approved rehabilitation and reconciliation programme, implementable under the North and East Provincial Council authorities, instead of Rajapaksa’s crude projects with popular Sinhala tags like “Negenahira Navodaya and Uthuru Vasanthaya”, inefficiently let lose from Colombo with much waste and corruption.
What the TNA immediately need though, is a draft “programme for rehabilitation and reconciliation”, and a new team to head the campaign from Colombo. A new team with a new perspective, that no more keeps the TNA dependent on Gandhis and Chidambarams in Delhi and the only Rajapaksas in Colombo.
Similar Posts:
