By: Amrit Muttukumaru, TamilCanadian.com, June 5, 2004
The southern polity has largely toyed with the Tamil National Question. The only possible exceptions could be the 1957 Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact and the August 1995 Devolution Proposals initiated by Prime Minister Bandaranaike and his daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga respectively, where there was a reasonable attempt to address the issue. Even this, both father and daughter could not persevere with, since political expediency got the better of them. Sadly, subsequent versions of the Kumaratunga proposals have been a pale shadow of the original proposal. It needs to be stressed that the much vaunted peace initiative of the UNP led administration for two years had absolutely no commitment on its part in terms of any specific proposal.
Even the LTTE’s Interim Self Government Authority (ISGA) proposal which was on the table from the 31st of October 2003 did not elicit a serious response from the UNF for more than three long months up to the time of the dissolution of parliament in February 2004. An over-riding reason for this crisis festering for several decades is that the south have never been inclined to truly grant the Tamils parity of status with the Singhalese. This is apart from this issue being a handy tool for political expediency in the quest for political power. Every trick in the ‘book’ and more often outside it has been used to prevent this from happening. This is largely true even today. Another dimension to this, is wishful thinking that somehow or other the Tamil National Question can be sorted out, by granting the minimum ‘concession’ to the Tamils due to the coercion exerted on the LTTE by countries such as India and the United States.
This is why there is so much puerile expectation being placed on the ‘Karuna’ and ‘Indian’ factors and now all the hype due to the ‘Congress’ phenomenon. Another is the U.S. sponsored ‘war on terror’. The sooner it is realized that these are essentially illusory assumptions, the better it will be for this hapless country and its people who surely deserve better.
‘Karuna’ Factor
Die-hard Sinhala nationalists and others as well were gleefully expecting the Karuna ‘rebellion’ with covert help from the armed forces, to result in the break-up of the LTTE which would once again enable short changing Tamil grievances and aspirations. Of particular interest to them is securing the East for the government. The East after all is today the real bone of contention of the ethnic problem. Highly distorted population statistics and history are being trotted out to dilute Tamil dominance in the East.
They conveniently ignore the inscrutable fact that until aggressive State sponsored colonisation with overwhelmingly Sinhala settlers, the population of the Eastern province was overwhelmingly Tamil speaking. Even as recently as in the 1946 census with the benefit of the early days of colonisation, the Sinhala population was only under 10 % while the Ceylon Tamil population was 47% and that of the Ceylon Moors was 39 %.
In spite of the Karuna ‘rebellion’ being largely snuffed out in a matter of a few days, many are still holding onto this expectation. There is speculation that remnants of Karuna’s cadres and mercenaries such as the ‘Razik’ group, operating out of army camps are eliminating some high profile eastern academics, senior journalists and LTTE cadres in the east. That this if proven to be correct, will greatly compromise the present peace initiative seems to be of little or no concern to influential sections of the southern polity.
Extradition
In a similar vein, there is much excitement that the newly installed Congress led government in India will make things difficult for the LTTE by demanding the extradition of its leader for alleged complicity in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. This is clearly an exhibition of astonishing ignorance and naïveté. It indicates inter alia, a lack of understanding of the current realities of Indian politics where the Congress led United Progressive Alliance is highly dependent on the 40 legislators provided by the Democratic Progressive Alliance from Tamil Nadu (39) and Pondicherry (1). The role played by Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s General Secretary, V.Gopalswamy better known as Vaiko towards this success is significant with his particular appeal to the youth. Vaiko’s clear empathy for the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka is too well known to be ignored. It is no accident that a key demand of DMK leader Karunanidhi for cooperation with the Congress is the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) under which Vaiko was incarcerated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalitha for two years for publicly speaking in support of the LTTE.
Apart from this, it should be appreciated that the Congress party has to demonstrate tangible economic benefits especially to the huge rural based disadvantaged sections of India’s population, who have been left behind in the process of economic liberalization, while at the same time keeping the momentum of economic growth. This is no easy task with time of the essence and the BJP breathing down its neck. Under these circumstances of real politik, the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi in particular, are most unlikely to dissipate their energies on a politically risky, long drawn out and uncertain extradition adventure. Besides, the extradition option due to its inevitable severe military implications, is likely to have a high political cost to make it impractical, due to the attendant instability to both India and Sri Lanka not to mention its governments. This will also most likely have a political fallout in Tamil Nadu with further unstable consequences both at the State and central levels. Such instability would be the ideal platform for Muslim militants to capitalize on not only in the context of the Kashmiri impasse but in the wider context of the clumsy U.S. led war on terror and its implications. After all, India is home to the second largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia.
Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi’s view of the larger picture devoid of pettiness is witnessed by her choice of a Sikh for prime minister, after she herself renounced this coveted position, even though it was a Sikh that was responsible for the assassination of her mother-in-law, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
U.S. Intervention
Another aspect of wishful thinking is that the U.S in pursuance of its ‘war on terror’ will ultimately use its ‘shock and awe’ strategy on the LTTE. In this assumption, firstly, they seem to have overlooked considerations such as the still largely unaddressed grievances and aspirations of the Tamils, geo-political realities, differences in the terrain and most critically the resilience of the LTTE. They also seem to have overlooked the disastrous consequences of this strategy in Iraq which in terms of loss of lives and galloping costs is proving to be unbearable to the United States. This is apart from its other negative fallout on U.S. interests in the region and worldwide. Out of sheer desperation, the sole superpower has been forced to squirm its way back to the U.N. to seek multinational sharing of the Iraqi burden both in terms of troops and finance.
The U.S. is extremely stretched throughout the world mainly due to its own misreading of the depth of the feelings and aspirations of the hundreds of millions of deprived and disgruntled people whose toes the U.S. is literally stamping on with impunity. Apart from all this, the U.S which already has its hands full with different brands of Muslim militancy from groups such as al –Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Jemmah Islamiyah, Islamic Jihad and others are most unlikely to voluntarily open new fronts and thus confront groups fighting increasingly intolerable injustice be it economic, political or social . Not for a moment are we condoning any form of violence from any source, except to make the point that state ‘terrorism’ for whatever reason is more reprehensible than other forms of the same malaise. This point appears to be conveniently overlooked in the discourse on ‘terrorism’.
Parity
The southern polity is under the misguided delusion that the LTTE agreed to a ceasefire from a position of weakness mainly due to the implications of the U.S. led ‘war on terror’ as a response to 9/11. Selective amnesia has made them forget that the LTTE declared an unilateral ceasefire as far back as December 2000, long before 9/11! This was spurned by the PA government in pursuance of its disastrous and dubious ‘war for peace’ policy. When the LTTE once again unilaterally initiated another ceasefire in December 2001 soon after the formation of the Wickremesinghe administration, it was from a position of unprecedented military strength. They had humiliated the armed forces of a ‘sovereign’ state by not only routing it in so-called impregnable fortifications such as Elephant Pass but more importantly had commandeered heavy and long range artillery and other potent armaments which have a significant military and political bearing. By these maneuvers they had also to a telling extent drained the south of its will to fight. The cease fire was also initiated at a time when the country’s finances were at a precarious position due to terrible mismanagement and corruption. It still continues to be under severe strain. To the credit of the Wickremesinghe administration, it was reciprocated this time around.
It is not sufficiently appreciated that the entire peace enterprise is primarily based on the parity of military power and the spirit of partnership between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, reinforced by the LTTE’s actual control of vast territory in the north and east of the country. In the vast territory in the north-east effectively under LTTE control, the LTTE has several quasi-state structures actually in operation notwithstanding imperfections. On the subject of imperfections, what example does the rest of the country in terms of its appalling governance extending even to the apex judiciary and with its rule of law in tatters give in this regard? Parliament has literally become a circus! The buffoonery surrounding the election of the speaker of parliament is an example of this. The sordid drama of the ‘Hakeem Affair’ with its squalid allegations and counter-allegations also involving the president, some ministers and parliamentarians is another case in point.
Conclusion
The ultimate wishful thinking in some influential sections in the south is that the elimination of the LTTE leader Pirapaharan would bring the curtain down on the LTTE. This is as naïve and ludicrous as the assumption that al Qaeda and Islamic militancy will evaporate after the elimination of Osama bin Laden. It could even be assumed that the demise of Pirapaharan could make Tamil militancy much more dangerous and unpredictable due to its likely splitting into several groups led by ‘warlords’.
The current peace process have all the hallmarks of another act of perfidy based on raw political expediency. It would appear to this writer that apart from other prerequisites, a critical pre-condition for peace talks and its success is the demolition of various prejudices and injustices- some of them incredibly petty. For example, although the country’s first test match after attaining ICC status was played at the Tamil Union’s ‘Sara’ stadium, this ground has subsequently been virtually ignored by cricket administrators while lavishing tremendous resources on the Sinhalese Sports Club while also sparing nothing in commissioning new cricket grounds both in Colombo and the outstations. Even the country’s flagship cricket tournament which for several decades was known as the ‘Sara Trophy’ was suddenly changed overnight to the ‘Premier’ cricket tournament! Tamils are even today petrified to enter a police station even for a simple traffic offence. They are still expected to sign statements written in Sinhala which they do not understand! Similarly, when the dreaded checkpoints were in operation until recently, the Tamils were mortified to be stopped at such places. Discrimination in employment still takes place both in the public and private sectors albeit in more insidious ways. Tamils continue to be disadvantaged in their dealings with government departments. However unpalatable, these are current realities. At the same time, not withstanding all this, the LTTE should fast track its transition to a responsible political organization and be sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the people of the NorthEast.
Originally posted June 6, 2004