The way the government has handled the post-war situation since May 2009, makes the intentions of the administration very clear in terms of the political future it envisages for the country. In his rhetoric, President Rajapaksa has repeatedly assured that none -- no ethnic or religious group -- is to be left behind in the process of rejuvenating and rebuilding the nation “newly freed from the clutches of terrorism”.
Nonetheless, one who reads the subtext of the narrative over the last two months, would discern that the government’s mood is to remain inert in regard to addressing the minority problem politically, while evidently seeking to adopt increased military measures to administer the northern and eastern territory of the country which consists largely of Tamils as well as Muslims -- much to the dismay of the two communities.
Of course, finding a political solution isn’t the acutest of problems we are confronted with at this juncture. The war has left a large number of the population - nearly 300, 000 people - homeless, inflicting on them enormous suffering and placing them in a precarious predicament. Alleviation of their plight should undoubtedly be given the foremost priority.
Political discourse
However, the force of the systematic formulation of the post-war atmosphere is such that it has hardly left any adequate room for a constructive political discourse that would lead us to a stable point where harmony and peaceful coexistence among different communities could be rediscovered.
Three particular events that took place during the course of last few weeks could be cited as examples that best illustrate the government’s mindset as far as solving the national question is concerned:
* President Rajapaksa’s recent interview with The Hindu newspaper in which he stated that offering a political solution is possible only after the next presidential election.
* Invitation extended to Minister Douglas Devananda, leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party to join the ruling SLFP
* The termination of contract of Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at Geneva - an articulate scholar and an advocate of the 13th amendment to the constitution as a political solution.
Of all three, the first is the most explicit act that shows the stark absence of enthusiasm and commitment on the part of the government to end the conflict politically.
A close examination of the apparently innocuous invitation extended to Minister Devananda to join the SLFP would reveal that it is yet another attempt by the government to further consolidate and concentrate political power at a central point.
Eastern experience
The government learnt a ‘lesson’ from the experience in the East. It contested the eastern provincial council election in 2008 in alliance with the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulihal (TMVP) and allowed its leader S. Chandrakanthan to become the chief minister only to find the latter defying the government, and unwilling to abide by the strictures it imposed on the provincial administration.
Constitutional experts have pointed out that the 13th amendment which governs the power allocation to the provincial councils is so structured that the movement of power would be always centripetal -- moving toward the centre from the periphery. The executive power is vested with the governor of the province whose appointment is at the sole discretion of the president. In effect, these arrangements meant that the elected chief minister and his associates would be left with no option but to function as mere puppets of those ruling at the centre. Yet, in Chandrakanthan’s case, he has made his discontent heard in the public sphere as well as the media. And it has been a cause for concern for the government.
Provincial poll
When and if the IDPs are resettled in due course in the Northern Province, the government would then have to conduct the provincial polls there too. In asking Devananda who on earlier occasions has expressed willingness to renounce his parliamentary seat in order to become the chief of the provincial administration, to join the SLFP, the ruling party has sought to ‘rectify’ the ‘mistake’ it made in the eastern province. A chief minister who is a SLFP member, as opposed to the leader of a Tamil political party, would dance to the tune of the centre with more accuracy, precision and perfection.
It is speculated that Dayan Jayatilleka’s removal from the ambassador post had to do with his espousal of the 13th amendment. If there is any truth in this speculation, then the chances of any structural reforms being introduced into the existing system are bleaker than many would have thought.
The point that needs to be considered here is that a system that seeks to reduce democracy to one party dominance can no longer be democratic. It is by recognizing the diversity and pluralist nature of a nation that one can build up unity. If there is anything to learn from the defeat of the LTTE, it is precisely that. We can of course, never let anyone downplay the importance of unity or reinforce notions of fragmentation and secession. For there to be progress and development, there ought to be unity.
And that is what necessitates the political assurance from the majority to the minority. Such an assurance has to be offered with a sense of solidarity and brotherhood recognizing the other’s rights to self-dignity and autonomy.
‘Elitist Tamils’
There are those who argue that it is the “elitist Tamils” that clamour for power sharing and not the “ordinary people”. A caution needs to be made in this regard that it is the elitist stratum of the dominant side of the ethnic divide with similar interests that comes up with this spurious claim. To insinuate that the ordinary masses are incapable of ruling themselves amounts to an inexcusable affront. If there is political ignorance among the ordinary people, it is the plunderers who deprived them of due education that are to be blamed; not those who were plundered. As Bertolt Brecht, the renowned German poet and playwright said, it is “those who steal rice from the table” and “lead the country off a cliff” that “call ruling too difficult for ordinary people”.
The fact that Tamils as a community are said to be incapable of defining their political aspirations goes on to show the extent to which the space for democratic discourse has been shrunken by the fascist atrocities of the LTTE. And the biggest challenge facing the Tamils and the Muslims is to find how they can ensure that none else replaces the LTTE in the future and encroaches upon the ‘spaces’ they are entitled to - both in the abstract and the concrete sense of the word.
(LAKBIMAnEWS 26. 07. 2009)
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