This by no means should surprise the people with some common sense. It’s quite possible that none of them, crossed over to the government benches on actual political issues. Every one of them is reported to have had very personal reasons to leave the UNP, but those would never be publicly said. This was more than evident as all of them had many political differences with and accusations too against the government, Mahinda Chinthanaya, the PA leadership and also against individuals who matter in the government. None of it changed for the better on the government side. Why do they now want the very person whom they jettisoned as a failure to join a National government as its Prime Minister ?

This needs to be said clearly and precisely. Every crossover negates the core essence of representative democracy in a proportional representative system where the voters have to first elect the party. With that said, it should now be said the proposal for a National government is only a short cut to accommodate all who want to cross over. A comfortable attempt to look decent in being part of "centralised" political power without the consent of the people. Cross-overs and jump-overs in the present parliament only denote a power struggle between two contending power blocs in the South, relevant to the South and affecting the South to partake in centralised power. These political manoeuvrings may have their impact on Tamil politics in deciding how soon a "separate state" would finally evolve and only on that. The TNA is out of all this political jugglery, perhaps wondering how they are still in the same parliament with these Southern politicians.

The attempts at crossing over and proposals for coalescing "nationally" do not in any way discuss, nor do they ever take into consideration the issue of "DEVELOPMENT" in a democratic South at least. All through almost six decades of centralised political power since independence, the issue of "development", to put that in terms of Tamil politics, the right to decide the fate of our people had never been a serious issue in the South. This most important aspect of politics is being pushed into an unholy compromise as a war with those who kept asking for their right to develop their own area. It's projected as a patriotic war. A National government at that, again with centralised power that distracts all issues of development though the talk is of nationalism. In all these years of centralised power, "development rhetoric" delivered absolutely no results despite colossal amounts pilfered and wasted.

Take a look at what has been left in the South with such centralisation of power in the hands of our patriotic politicians over the past decades. According to the Department of Census and Statistics that released the survey, Poverty In Sri Lanka - Issues And Options / Year 2006, [quote]"….with all the governmental interventions to reduce poverty, analysis of surveys conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) shows that substantial poverty and under nutrition among children still remains, though there is gradual reduction. With all the welfare programmes that have been implemented during the last few decades by the successive governments, Sri Lanka could have done better." (page / 06) [unquote] There is more that needs to be added from the same source. [quote] "…..in certain Districts, outside the Western province, such as Hambantota, Badulla, Monaragala, Ratnapura and Kegalle the percentage of population below poverty has remained more than 30 percent during the 12 year period covered by the three surveys." (page / 14) [unquote] Which means there has been no development during the last 12 years. Not that there had been any before.

The quality of education and the benefits derived by the population through education is very clearly written into this quote in the same survey by the DCS as follows. [quote] "In-depth analysis shows that in the poorest Divisional Secretary Divisions, around 75 percent of the Heads of Households are engaged in own account work, mainly in agriculture or related activities and around 90 percent of Heads of Households in these Divisions have not reached even G.C.E.(O/L) education." (page / 27) [unquote] It also says inadequacy of water and more so drinking water is a major problem in the dry zone areas.

On the other hand, if one calculates the amount of money that is spent by these politicians annually, it is staggering. Take for instance the district of Hambantota where the people elect 07 MPs at every election. Each of them spends Rs.05 million every year from the Decentralised Budget, supposedly for development. Which means in Hambantota district every year, Rs. 35 million is disbursed for supposed development work. From year 2002, they have spent Rs.210 million. Let's not forget that there are other allocations too for a district through State institutes and also through other special development projects funded by agencies like ADB, UNDP, JICA, GTZ, USAID etc. How many billions would have been spent during these past 06 years alone in Hambantota district, not counting the Tsunami rehabilitation work ? How many billions more would have gone down the drain or to some unknown bank accounts, where 25 MPs in the 03 Southern districts spent Rs. 125 million every year over the past 06 years ?

One should not forget that this centralised system carried through foreign funded Integrated Rural Development Programmes (IRDP) from 1974 July onwards in 19 districts that left out the North and definitely swallowed up hundreds of billions of rupees. What rural development they achieved is more a tragedy than a joke. The worst is, this centralised system does not even have the capacity to utilise funds allocated and in all IRDP's the funds utilised have not exceeded 31% from the committed total.

With all that and for all those reasons, there is substantial poverty and under nutrition among children. Poverty remains more than 30 percent. In the poorest Divisional Secretary Divisions, around 75 percent of the Heads of Households are engaged in own account work and around 90 percent of Heads of Households in these Divisions have not reached even G.C.E.(O/L) education. Water is scarce.

Is it not better therefore, for the South to leave this centralised governing system, a failure in every sense and ask for a federal system of governance within which the Southern polity could have a say over development planning and finances in their own poverty ridden areas ? A system that would make governance more participatory instead of this failed representative democracy ? Our representative democracy is a proven farce in this society. Once a political representative is elected, people lose the right to question his or her role thereafter and the very meaning of representation is lost. That is what the present parliament is all about. A parliament sans the sovereignty of the people.

The opportunity to have political power in close quarters with a participatory system was created for the South by the Tamil people when they campaigned for power sharing rejecting centralised power. If the South was willing to be part of that discussion to design a new system of governance in a single country where power could be provincially utilised for provincial development, Rs 125 million that is spent through the decentralised budget every year in the South would be enough money to raise many worthy development projects along with all other allocations that also go waste.

Unfortunately for the poverty ridden South, they opt to fight the very people who provide an opportunity for them to plan and design their own development. So, may the triple gem bless them patriots.

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