By N. Sathiya Moorthy
President Rajapaksa has begun well. He told Parliament that it was his duty now to protect the Tamils and meet their political aspirations. He has promised a ‘home-grown solution’ in this regard – which is what it should be. To work on the ground, such a solution should however carry conviction with the Tamil population. It was in the absence of such an effort that the Tamils had to look elsewhere, and sought and obtained external facilitation.
The Government’s task is cut out. As President Rajapaksa had outlined at the conclusion of the war in the East, demilitarization, democracy, development and devolution are the “Four D’s” that should help the Sri Lankan nation to re-integrate the Tamil people without side-stepping them or seeking to absorb them into ways that they did not seek. This is as much necessary as devolution of political power, but the latter too in ways that they understand and by means that they can touch, feel and enjoy.
There cannot be any prioritization in the implementation of the “Four D’s”. They have to move together if the Government has to deliver – and also has to be seen as doing so. If democracy is a means to an end -- that is devolution -- so is de-militarization a means to demonstrate that democracy is safe and sound, and does not flow any more from the barrel of the gun. Independent of which of the political parties decide to contest the local government and Provincial Council elections in the North that President Rajapaksa had promised even before the war actually ended, the Government has to ensure that they are as free and fair as the democratic world has known them to be.
De-militarisation, for instance, is an area where the average Tamil could be made to feel less threatened than he might have been earlier. It does not have to mean that all military installations, old and new, have to be wound up. Independent of insurgencies of the LTTE kind, every nation has had military camps and Air Force installations across Provinces and regions, to meet daily demands and logistical requirements. In doing so, the Government could also evaluate the man-troops ratio under the new circumstances, and find productive but non-intrusive ways of redeploying them. Various UN agencies could be of help.
Involved in the process of demilitarization is also the need for greater humanization of the police force which, after a break, was`designated an adjunct of the Defence Ministry after President Rajapaksa assumed office. He can thus initiate the normalization process by transferring the police administration back to the Interior Ministry, where it anyway belonged. It may only be a gesture – but that gesture could also be a beginning.
In a way, this would also facilitate speedier transfer of Police powers to the Provinces, as promised under the Thirteenth Amendment. With the Sri Lankan Government reiterating its resolve on the Thirteenth Amendment and indicating a fresh look at the process at talks with a visiting team from the Indian neighbour, one can now hope to see pro-active measures on the ground in the coming days and weeks.
The Indian team was followed a day later by UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. Both have reiterated their pledge to help restore the lives that had been lost to the Tamils in the country for decades now. Other nations are also in the queue, though their concerns and priorities may be different – and hence may have to be differentiated. That President Rajapaksa clearly indicated the desirability of a ‘home-grown solution’ without outside interference should not be lost.
There are ways in which the Sri Lankan society can facilitate the normalization process. Much of the mutual suspicions between the Tamils and the Sinhalese on the one hand, and the Tamils and the Muslims on the other, flowed from inter-personal relations, where separate identities got the better of the common national identity.
It is sad that in this hour of national reconciliation, certain Ministers should continue to harp on ethnic divisions and military defeats that are centuries old. With the name of the religion getting muddied in the post-Independence conflict, the prelates may now consider revisiting the issues and redrawing the lines that divide the individual and the State – if only to help re-harmonize inter-identity relations, to suit a modern democracy that Sri Lanka has been. The civil society has a role to play in this.
The Tamils have been hurt, yes, but they too may need to introspect as to where and how their earlier generations might have faltered, in pushing the Sinhala majority to a corner from where they could only hit back with the kind of ferocity that did not belong to their religion. Separation is not the answer as individual societies in Sri Lanka, as elsewhere, are driven with divisions and contradictions. There will thus be no knowing where one would end and another begin, if one went deeper. The North-East divide, independent of the de-merger, is not an exception. It is rather the rule.
This author says "Much of the mutual suspicions between the Tamils and the Sinhalese on the one hand, and the Tamils and the Muslims on the other, flowed from inter-personal relations, where separate identities got the better of the common national identity" This is completely incorrect. The interpersonal relationships between Sinhalese and Tamils, Moslims and Tamils have been great. It was the LTTE which ordered the Muslims to leave Jaffna with a just a few hours notice. It was the LTTE which ethnically cleansed Jaffna of the Sinhalese. Same thing happened in the East. There have been bloody race riots in the south, but the Sinhalese haven't ordered us to leave Colombo. Even those Tamil leaders who talked of Tamil Homelands probably never intended to leave their pleasant homes in Bagatalle Road or Alfred Place or Ward Place. There were no inter-personal problems when the Tsunami came. Individual tamils and Sinhalese have mutual friends in both communities. But the LTTE wanted to cut such bonds to achieve its Apatheid-like Eelam idea. Although tamils distrust the government, the days when they supported the LTTE are over. We are fed up of the war.
Nadesan is right on target. Evan at present, with all the doings of LTTE and the counterattacks, good interpersonal relationships are still on going.
Perhaps, the era of race riots are over. As the attacks on A'pura and the Temple of the Tooth did not ignite riots, nothing ever would.
Mr Moorthy knows well that the Tamil politicians (I don't mean the LTTE) have had no love of democracy. Their illegitimate demands from the early 20th century are well known. What the British wouldn't give them then, they attempted to get by force. The demands are still the same, and they are still illegitimate.
The Ealam fantasy needs to be eradicated from the Tamil mind before Sri Lanka can become a safe home for all of us.
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