Talk:Politics of Sri Lanka

Untitled
Government Clerical Service Union (GCSU)is one of the oldest trade unions in sri lanka started from 1920.

The government led by Srimavo Bandaranaike, issued a Treasury circular No 560 of December 1961, which stated that government servants appointed since 1956, should obtain minimum proficiency in the official language - Sinhala, to retain their posts, as well as to earn their annual salary increments and promotions. Meanwhile, Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi called upon Tamil government employees not to study and work in Sinhala.

At the time, the Government Clerical Service Union (GCSU) was one of the oldest trade unions that had been formed to look after the interests of clerical servants in government service. When the government started harassing the Tamil government servants to acquire proficiency in the Sinahala language, the GCSU, which was dominated by the Sinhalese leadership, failed to come to the rescue of the Tamil officers. Thus, the government successfully managed to break one of the oldest and most powerful trade unions in the country.

After the introduction of Sinhala as the official language, a few Tamil officers anticipated such a calamity and organized the Arasangam Servaiyar Sankam - the Government Service-people Association - in the early part of 1959, and this in turn led to the organization of Arasanga Eluthuvinaignar Sankam - Government Clerical Service Union (AES), a pioneer trade union set up on a linguistic basis to fight for the cause of the Tamil officers.

The AES was followed by Arasa Kooduthapana Ooliyar Sankam - State Cooperation Employees Union, Pukaivandip Pakuthi Ooliyar Sankam - Railway Workers Union, Pukaivandip Pakuthi Eluthuvinaignar Sankam - Railway Clerical Service Union, Anjal Eluthuvinaignar Sankam - Postal Clerical Service Union, Tamil Aasiryar Sankam - The Tamil Teachers Trade Union, Thuraimuga Tholilar Kazhagan - Harbor Workers Union; Netsanthaip Paduththum Sabai Ooliyar Sankam - Paddy Marketing Board Workers Union, Ilankai Tholilar Kazhagam - Ceylon Labor Union for Plantation Sector Workers. A total of 17 Tamil trade unions emerged and by 1976, all of them came under an umbrella organization, called Tholitsangankalin Kooddu Sammelanam - The Tamil Trade Unions Federation, with X M Sellathambu, the Member of Parliament from Mullaithievu and a leading member of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, as president and I T Sampanthamoorthy, a veteran Tamil Trade-unionist, as the secretary-general.

Earlier, Chelliah Kodeeswaran, K Sivanandasundaram, R Balasubramaniam, T Somasundaram, Adiyapatham, Aiyer and many others who left the GCSU, inaugurated the Arasanga Eluthuvinangar Sankam. Kodeeswaran was elected as the president of the Arasanka Eluthuvinaignar Sankam. He refused to sit for the Sinhala proficiency examination and filed a case against the government at District Court of Colombo, challenging the validity of the decision to stop the annual increment of his salary, under the Treasury circular and the Official Language Act of 1956.

The Tamil trade union drew its inspiration from the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi. The party not only patronized the trade union, but also rendered all the necessary assistance to it. S J V Chelvanayakam, the leader of the party, put the AES in touch with M Thiruchelvam, a former solicitor-general and a Queen's Council. "Murugesu Tiruchelvam, QC, was formerly solicitor-general [a legal, not political appointment] in the Bandaranaike's government. When he and his brother M Rajendra [later head of the Civil Service] came to Ceylon as students, their father entrusted them to the care of Chelvanayakam, who guided them in their education. There was strong affinity and bond of affection between Tiruchelvam and Chelvanayakam. Before independence, Tiruchelvam had been a friend and associate of the Legal Secretary and later Chief Justice of Ceylon, Sir Alan Rose, and the two of them were the main draftsmen of the 1947 constitution. According to Tiruchelvam, Rose said, 'You cannot trust these rascals - we had better state everything in lucid language [in drafting the constitution].'" - S J V Chelvanayakam and the crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947 - 1977 by A Jeyaratnam Wilson - page 98.

This page is only half a description....
I find this Politics page completely unreal: given that Tamil militias are in de facto control over large areas of the country this fact needs to be covered, and covered in some depth. To put this another way, the page describes at length the operation of the parliament, the major Sinhalese parties etc - but fails to deal with the very important that their authority is entirely *nominal* over a significant portion of the country. Again, the constitution may *state* that it is effective over the entirety of Sri Lanka and that there are X number of political subdivisions, but if these facts are simply untrue as a matter of political reality, a page that is supposed to describe political reality ought to explain that the constitution is in regards some areas, nominal or at most 'de jure' only. It ought to also say something *in as much detail as possible* about how the Tamil-held areas are in fact governed. Otherwise its just a copy-and-paste job of the official State line - and as silly as would be a page on Myanmar that just tells you that 'constitutionally, the country is a socialist democracy'. Someone give us the facts please. --84.9.112.72 02:31, 13 August 2005 (UTC) (Dan)


 * they are not "in de facto control over large areas of the country ", they only control about 36 DS divisions, and the government administrative structure is fully intact in these 36 DS divisions in the north & east, the only fact to consider being that the civil service also takes orders from the ltte in addition to government orders. - suren

factual errors
i corrected the following errors in this article

1. sri lanka only has 25 districts. 2. there are only 8 provicial councils (one for each provice + one for the combined north & east provice). 3. TULF has abosolutly no relation with TNA, and it does not support the LTTE.

"Most of the LSSP and CP members gathered in their famous Trade Union the Government Clerical Service Union (GCSU) ..." This is inaccurate. The LSSP-affiliated unions were grouped in the Ceylon Federation of Labour (CFL) and the Government Workers Trade Union Federation (GWTUF). The former included the Commercial and Industrial Workers Union, the Lanka Hotel Employees Union, the United Corporations and Mercantile Union and the Lanka Estate Workers Union (LEWU), the 2nd largest union of Plantation Employees. The latter contained the Railway Workers Union and the Ratmalana Railway Workers Union (which was for workshop employees). The two federations were required because Government employees could not be in politically-affiliated unions. The CPSL unions were grouped in similar federations. 220.247.240.241 17:23, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Hi, I have an question: Why is Srilanka's official name "Democratic Socialist Republic of Srilanka"? Is this country a socialist country?

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