by V. Gunaratnam, November 17, 2004
sangam.org/articles/view2/640.html
The Sri Lanka government’s peace motives remain a puzzle to this day, because of the endless roadblocks and delays the peace process has been subjected to. Twenty long and bloody years have gone by since hostilities began, but the Sinhala leaders still can’t find it in their hearts or minds to stop playing politics with people’s lives and the country’s fortunes.
Great Expectations Destroyed
There were great expectations in 2001 when the UNF initiated the peace process and kindled the hopes of millions yearning for the tranquility of peace, and a better life. In the first flush of the calm people enjoyed, it was like manna from heaven. But the euphoria didn’t last long. The promise of peace and prosperity was quickly snuffed out in the clutches of Kumaratunga. She destroyed the peace momentum and goodwill that had been building up by stoking Sinhala fears about the division of the country. A democratically-elected UNF majority government was sacked in a blatant abuse of the democratic process, and in its place the gullible Sinhalese elected Kumaratunge’s UPFA coalition to power in 2004.
The minority UPFA government is too weak and unstable, however, to pursue peace, kept in power only by a patchwork of fractious small parties, and a Marxist JVP stridently opposed to the peace talks. With a flagging economy and $4.5 billion in aid frozen until talks are resumed, every good thing peace brought is fast dissipating away.
Humanitarian Concerns
Sivarajah Sashikala in Nilaveli refugee camp
The Tamils have to confront the cold truth that the current volatility of the political and economic situation is not helping the peace process at all, and must start developing a new strategy to urgently tackle the enormous humanitarian task facing them.
It is astounding how a simple demand for equality has defied political resolution for so long, and escalated into a terrible onslaught on the Tamils, with such tragic humanitarian consequences. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are still living with the barest of life’s necessities to sustain them. An untold number of destroyed homes, hospitals, schools, temples, farms and infrastructures remain devastated and a burden on society.
This is at the heart of the immediate problem facing the Tamils, and why the Sri Lanka government must move with the utmost urgency to restart peace talks and give the ISGA swift passage, so that rehabilitation and reconstruction work can start. Agreement on the ISGA would be an enormous confidence-building step, and the springboard to negotiations on self-government. But standing in the way is the formidable figure of Kumaratunga, armed with the enormous powers of the presidency.
The Kumaratunga Enigma
Kumaratunga became president in 1994 with much goodwill from all sections of society, including the Tamils. In fact, it was her husband who was the first to make the perilous journey into Tiger country in search of peace, but with his assassination by JVP elements, peace became an elusive commodity in Sri Lanka. Soon after her election Kumaratunge appeared to undergo a strange metamorphosis, and lost her appetite for peace. But her metamorphosis didn’t stop there.
She tried strenuously to impose a solution with her “War for Peace” by pummeling the LTTE into submission, but failed because of the inextinguishable will of the Tamils to stand up for life and liberty, despite facing great odds against an army with far superior numbers and firepower.
Kumaratunge’s record speaks for itself. In her ten years as president she has never gone beyond rhetoric to engage the Tamils in peace talks. Even now, the adventure with Karuna, and the looming defence pact with India, are nothing but provocations against the LTTE, not measures meant to advance peace. Nobody believes she is driven by any deep desire for peace. Let her not be judged, however, by what she has or has not done to the Tamils alone.
In all the years of Kumaratunga’s presidency since 1994, the country has seen nothing but ethnic strife, death, destruction, poverty, economic decline and political chaos. Every institution over which she holds sway has been bent to her will. There is nothing to redeem her presidency, anything with a beneficial purpose or value. Today if Sri Lanka languishes near the bottom of the ladder, by any international measure of a progressive democracy, we don’t have to look beyond Kumaratunga!
A Matter of Trust and Confidence
We have already noted what’s been going on under Kumaratunga’s presidency, but even the most generous evaluation won’t be enough to say it passes the acid test of good governance. Her time in office has been a catalogue of monstrous power plays of a presidency that has lost its purpose and gone astray. It’s the stuff of banana republics, and that’s what Sri Lanka has been reduced to by this president.
In her world, the presidency means power. Protected by the impenetrable armour of the office, Kumaratunge continues to rampage through the political scene like a rogue elephant, stamping down on everything in her path in a relentless quest for political power. While she does this, the peace talks remain stalled and the nation drifts aimlessly in troubled waters.
How do the Tamils trust or repose confidence in someone with her record? What can we expect from a president who has never been able to rise above partisan politics and be a true president of all the people? Where is the benign force for good born of the culture, tradition, and teachings of the Enlightened One?
Today the most urgent tasks facing the nation are the pursuit of peace and the alleviation of poverty, in that order, because without peace nothing else can be accomplished. But what is Kumaratunga’s overriding priority? She is quite preoccupied with her strategy to remain in power by whatever means.
Constitutional Shenanigans
One thing is clear. Constitutional experts and scholars are agreed that only parliament has the power to change the constitution, with the specific votes stipulated, and pass the changes into law. It’s also asserted that a constituent assembly, without the UNF and the TNA who represent about half the electorate, would be a violation of the constitution.
Notwithstanding this, Kumaratunga is moving against the strong current of legal opinion to try and get her way, raising fears about the complicity of other forces to give planned changes the stamp of legality they inherently lack.
Any attempt to change the constitution through the backdoor is bound to have disastrous consequences for the country and Kumaratunga. She herself could face impeachment for participating in an illegal process. As for the UNF and its allies, they are not going to stand by and see power snatched away without a fight. Tensions are already building up as she moves to extend her presidency beyond December 2005, on the strength of a secret swearing-in that supposedly gives her another year in office.
Sauce for the Goose
The big question is how the LTTE and the Tamils could be reacting to attempts to change the constitution without their participation. While the UNF can be left to fight its own battle in the south, the LTTE could use the old ‘sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander’ argument to contend that the Tamils could do the same. If a government, founded solely on a Sinhala majority vote, violates the constitution via a grossly deficient constituent assembly mechanism, the Tamils could do the same for themselves, because the TNA’s overwhelming majority in the northeast would give them the same right to adopt their own constitution to serve their purpose.
If such a scenario were to unfold tomorrow, the Tamils could forcefully argue that the violation of the constitution by the Sinhalese “left them no alternative but to exercise their own right of self-determination under international law.” The world would hopefully respond positively, because of the history of the conflict, and the failure of successive Sri Lanka governments to solve their problem for fifty years and the colossal humanitarian problem caused by genocide.
Free at Last!
The possible outcomes for the Tamils are quite clear. If Kumaratunga violates the constitution in the manner discussed, she would drive Sri Lanka to the brink of political chaos and violence. But it would be a godsend for the Tamils, finally giving them the instrument for exiting from the clutches of the intransigent Sinhalese. It would give them the freedom, indeed the right, to solve the peace puzzle on their own: to secede altogether or work out some other autonomous self-governing mechanism of their choosing.
Unless political sanity returns to the Sri Lankan political scene pretty fast, and Kumaratunga buckles down to the task of making peace with the Tamils in earnest, we might be reaching the point of no return, and the time might be approaching when we might want to say something we have had on our minds for a long, long time. Goodbye and good luck Sri Lanka! Long live Tamil Eelam!