President Ranil Wickremesinghe has come up with a more practical solution to what is generally called the ethnic problem than what he suggested during the recent budget debate in Parliament. During that debate, he called on the members of Parliament to get together to solve the ethnic problem before the 75th Independence Day which falls on February 4, this year. However, while addressing a gathering at the Jaffna Durga Hall on Sunday to mark the National Thai Pongal ceremony, he said that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would be implemented fully in the coming two years. 

When he said that the ethnic problem would be solved before February 4, he was promising to achieve an unknown target, as the solution to the ethnic problem is not something agreed upon by the relevant stakeholders. It has been a question that has been discussed between and among various groups including delegates of foreign countries since 1940s. Therefore, nobody took the President’s promise to resolve the issue before February 4 seriously, since it is obvious that putting an end within two months to a problem protracted for more than 80 years is impractical. 

That does not mean that since it has been drawn-out for eight decades it cannot be solved or it needs another eight decades for it to be resolved. It did not see its end thus far, because it has been very sensitive and complex. Sometimes, if stakeholders are genuine and considerate of others’ views and sensitivities, they could arrive at a common ground which would be a “win-win situation” within a short period of time, but not within two months.

Tamil political parties which responded to the President’s suggestion were more practical. They said, “Okay, let’s first do what is already agreed upon, before January 31. Release the lands occupied by the armed forces and other state agencies; release the remaining prisoners who are under the custody of the authorities for fighting for a separate state. Implement the 13th Amendment fully. Then, let’s come to an agreement over the final solution to the ethnic problem.” However, the first three tasks apart, their demand for arriving at an agreement over the final agreement within January 31 was also impractical. 

For the 13th Amendment to be implemented fully, the Tamil politicians since 1988, have been mainly demanding the completion of the operative part of the devolution of land and police powers to the provincial councils. Police and land powers have already been devolved to the provincial councils by the Constitution, but for those councils to use those powers, the government has to make those powers operative by way of constituting a Provincial Police Division under a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and a National land Commission. This could be done just with the stroke of a pen.

However, it was the suspicion of Tamils using these powers to achieve their separatist objective that has prevented the successive governments from constituting the said provincial police division and the land commission, since the passage of the highly controversial 13th Amendment in November 1987. Only time will tell if President Wickremesinghe would be able to allay fears among the majority community and sign the relevant gazette notifications to complete the operation of the said Amendment. 

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa too promised to grant Tamils a solution called “13-plus” which was in fact ambiguous. He gave this promise even during the last Presidential election. However, his party, first the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and then the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has been so nationalistic that some of its leaders were against even to the 13th Amendment, leave alone granting a “plus” additionally.  

The practicality of demands by the Tamils as well as the promises by the successive governments has been a major glitch in the resolution of the ethnic problem in the country. After the collapse of several pacts with the governments in the 1950s and 1960s, the Tamil leaders sought to carve out a separate state within the territory of Sri Lanka for Tamils. They either demanded this as a bargaining tactic or without understanding the geo-politics of the South Asian region. 

The LTTE, which might not have realized this, as the outfit had consisted mostly of rural youth majority of whom were school dropouts, but the authors and pioneers of the Tamil Eelam concept were educated and well connected with the Indian politics. They should have realized the impracticality of the demand at least after India unequivocally told, far back as 1988 that it would never allow creation of a Tamil State in Sri Lanka adjacent to its southernmost state which is linguistically close to the proposed Tamil Eelam. 
Political parties can create popular slogans to attract voters, but what is most important is the practicability of them.