Prosperity through “Gramarajya” and “Federalism” of TNA leadership

By Kusal Perera

“The TNA firmly believes that sovereignty lies with the people and not with the State. It is not the Government in Colombo that holds the right to govern the Tamil people, but the people themselves. In this regard the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka is flawed in that power is concentrated at the centre and its agent, the Governor …

Power sharing arrangements must continue to be established as it existed earlier in a unit of a merged Northern and Eastern Province based on a federal structure …

Devolution of power on the basis of shared sovereignty shall be over land, law and order, enforcement of the law so as to ensure the safety and security of the Tamil people, socio-economic development including inter-alia health, education, higher and vocational education, agriculture, fisheries, industries, livestock development, cultural affairs, mustering of resources, both domestic and foreign and fiscal powers.” (A few quotes from the TNA election manifesto – August 2015)

 

Contradictions with manifesto

In stark contrast to what the TNA articulates as “power sharing” through a federal system for the prosperity of Tamils and the whole country, a concept paper for “village development” by the Wickremesinghe Government as quoted in ST (13 December, 2015) has these administrative changes to be made effective with the new Budget for 2016 approved by Parliament and implemented possibly before local government elections sometime next year.

“The Government has proposed the establishment of 2,500 Gramarajya Development Centres for planning and implementation in taking forward economic, social and cultural development activities in villages.”

What it would mean if implemented is these village-based centres will usurp all responsibilities the TNA manifesto says the remerged North-East should have as a unit of devolved power in a single united country. Details about these GSKs as quoted by ST from the concept note are;

“The Gramarajya Development Centres (GSK) will cluster villages, administratively bring together four/five GNDs under its purview. This will transform the village level administrative structure into a two-level arrangement, the GNDs remaining the primary level of government administration and the GSK as a collective of villages.”

“The role of the GSK will be to link, horizontally the development efforts and activities of the villages and vertically, the service deliveries of the central government, provincial council and the Pradeshiya Sabha with the villages. The GSK will unify service delivery and establish a village development results framework that will link village level development needs with planning and implementing public sector service deliveries.”

The Wickremesinghe Government meanwhile has collared the TNA leadership to sit in District Coordinating Committees (DCC) as chairmen of these committees that will oversee the workings of GSKs. Selected TNA Parliamentarians Sampanthan, Sumanthiran, Adaikkilanathan, Kodeeswaran, Srinesan, Senadhirajah, Nirmalanathan and Sivamohan will co-ordinate supposed development in their districts, for the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena Government in Colombo.

How does this decision of the TNA leadership to accept DCC chairs, offered by PM Wickremesinghe in his attempt to centralise “rural development” through village clusters, go along with the TNA’s firm belief that “it is not the Government in Colombo that holds the right to govern the Tamil people” but the people themselves with power devolved beyond the “flawed 13 Amendment” and as before in a remerged North-East Province?

 

Flawed pragmatism

It is not only the 13A that is flawed. The pragmatism of the TNA leadership is also flawed. This concept paper, despite its keywords – “pro poor”, “village development”, “service delivery”, “bottom-up integration”, “pooled funding” and the like – is about bringing all villages directly under the Central Government in Colombo through far worse politicising in the future than even now. Grama Seva Niladharies (GSN) are directly under the Department of Public Administration and, even under 13A, remains a subject of the Central Government and will remain under the Central Government to have the proposed GSKs working. The never-ending poverty alleviation program “Samurdhi” that has over 30,000 staff working at village level is also under the Central Govt. and has nothing to do with PCs and hitherto devolved power. They would also work with GSKs once established.

PCs are also made subordinate to district MPs through big money doled out to them from the Central Government Budget. These allocations were used by PM Wickremesinghe during the “100 Day program” to undermine the NPC, an issue rightly raised by CM Wigneswaran with President Sirisena. That prompted Wickremesinghe to go on record saying: “I don’t discuss Jaffna with Wigneswaran. I discuss with the TNA in Parliament.” It is that PM Wickremesinghe who is not bothered about devolved power to NPC, who decided to increase the Decentralised Budget (DCB) allocation to every MP from Rs. 10 million annually to Rs. 15 million from year 2016. MPs can use this money for what they decide as “development” in their districts. That would give them leverage over GSKs too and forget PCs.

 

Decentralised Budget for district development

DCB, as it is known, is a totally warped and erroneous scheme for two good reasons. One, it is wrong to allow legislators, people who make laws to handle public money for that leads to corruption and it has. Legislating and money handling cannot be and should not be left in the same hands for that sole reason. Two, MPs are not there in Parliament to handle district development. Since the 13th Amendment, all responsibility of provincial development is left with PCs and MPs are there for policy making at national level. Therefore, whatever money is available for district development should be channelled through PCs and not through MPs.

Added is the fact, MPs have proved they are totally dumb in understanding what rural development is. None of the projects funded by MPs through DCB allocations since 1973 have made any noticeable contribution to district development. If, for instance, Hambantota is taken as a case of blundered development since independence, added to billions and billions of rupees taken on loan and spent on “development projects” planned from Colombo by the Rajapaksa regime like the Sooriyaweva international cricket stadium, Ranminitenne cinema village, Mirijjawila dry zone botanic garden, Hambantota international conference hall the largest in whole of South Asia, the Mattala international airport and the Hambantota port, MPs in the district have on their own spent a total sum of Rs. 815.5 million under the DCB from 1979 up to 2013 and had achieved nothing in terms of “development”.

That is no different in other districts and it is these MPs who are now brought in charge of village development, side-lining PCs that are constitutionally responsible for provincial development. The “increased workload” of MPs that PM Wickremesinghe is talking of, is the involvement of MPs in his proposed 2,500 village based development through “collective of villages”. It is for this reason Wickremesinghe is proposing to increase from 3 to 18, the personal staff presently allowed for MPs. It would not only be salaries for 18x225 staff members the people will have to bear, but their travelling, phone calls and office expenses too. That in turn would not only be heavy expenditure to be borne by the people, but a huge ad hoc bureaucracy of 4,050 men and women outside public administration and responsible to their respective MPs only.

In effect, what PM Wickremesinghe is attempting to establish is an alternative power structure to the PCs, directly handled by the Colombo Government through MPs. This proposed power structure will be politicised through MPs, allowed more and more money through DCB allocations that cannot be termed or called “bribes”. The rational would be, GSKs linked to Divisional Secretariats and the local government bodies are more “village centric” and therefore more democratic given “a village level institutional platform for community to come together and engage with service providers”.

This will be his answer for power devolution that would satisfy the Sinhala South for that will not be devolving power to the North-East as articulated by the TNA in their election manifesto, will not necessitate a re-merger of North and East and PCs could thus be allowed a natural death. His answer for the Tamil people would be, power devolved to villages where all can be part of power sharing and not just politicians. Yet the question would be, will such “villagised” power linked to centralised State structures governed from Colombo, answer the question of power sharing as equals with dignity. Reason for the TNA demand for devolved federal power in a united country, although their MPs could chair District Coordinating Committees.

 

Tamil aspirations unanswered

The whole issue of the State being centralised and run by Southern Sinhala politics would remain as it is and Tamil aspirations left unanswered. The whole issue of accepting Sri Lanka as a multi-cultural society that should evolve as an inclusive nation respecting and accepting diversity in a plural, secular united country would remain comfortably ignored for the benefit of Sinhala extremism.

How will the TNA leadership find answers to these, while accepting and partaking in Wickremesinghe’s 2,500 Gramarajya Development Centres? The TNA leadership will have to decide soon, how far they could go pinning their hopes on a government that is silent on major issues like militarisation, law enforcement, land and the PTA. How long can they piggyback a Government that clearly says: “No federalism; only a Unitary State”, expecting to negotiate a “workable and a durable political solution, acceptable to the Tamil people” to say it in the words of Sampanthan? Election manifestos perhaps don’t mean anything after the votes are collected to enter Parliament. Wonder what these DCC chairmen in North and East would tell the Tamil voter, come next local government elections in a few months.