The people of Sri Lanka have suffered the pain of three decades of terrorist violence, not knowing if their lives would be snatched by a Tamil Tiger, a suicide bomber, a bomb planted in a bus, train, or shopping centre, or a remote-control claymore bomb, as they went about their day-to-day living.
Today the peace-loving citizens of all the constituent communities see a new era emerging as the security forces regain their land and eliminate the Tamil Tiger killers.
It has been noted that Canada has always advocated a federal model to resolve ethnic differences, thereby perpetuating the ethnic divide. That will lead in the future to more of what has been experienced, as it would encourage the separatist forces to use their semi-autonomous devolved unit as a springboard to separation, for which an armed struggle has been waged for the past 30 years, including suicide terrorism.
A workable alternative, which is currently being discussed by expatriate Sri Lankans and patriots in Sri Lanka, is to afford the minorities a new deal to share power at the centre, and at the same time scale back the proposed devolution units made up of the present districts, which could easily be serviced through the existing district secretariats without unduly fattening the bureaucracy. The minorities that complain of majority community domination at the centre, which wields the greatest amount of power, could now be drawn into parliamentary select committees and special experts committees for each and every ministry, where they will play a role in the day-to-day governance by having a say in the development of policy, planning, implementation, and monitoring stages with respect to every single program undertaken by government.
Thank you.