By Derek Flood
Independent Journalist,the-war-diaries.com
Sri Lanka is not many things to many people. It does not have a possibly jeopardized nuclear weapons cache; it is not a majority Muslim nation addled by a lingering Bush-era war nor is it the stage for a celebrity scandal of any sort. What Sri Lanka is to those who care, is a humanitarian disaster and a human rights catastrophe on a grand scale. How grand a scale you ask? As of yet we cannot know, due to the Sri Lankan government's policy of barring independent journalism from the war-fighting area and there is little public objection outside of Tamil expatriate communities in the West and among Indian Tamils to the north. Sri Lanka is a different kind of war than Americans are conditioned to hearing about in the last decade but it is an equally vile and draconian one nonetheless.
After the shelling of hospitals inside the war zone, today President Obama finally spoke out on a situation that is considered by most in the internationalist community to have no impact on American foreign policy. Sri Lanka's conflict does contain a wide international dimension, particularly in the Commonwealth states, but without either ethnic side lobbying in Washington and lacking significant domestic diaspora here in the United States, the cries of its people fall on deaf ears. In a rare bit of humanitarian-speak on a war with no pipeline project on the horizon, the President stated: "Without urgent action, this humanitarian crisis could turn into a catastrophe." Obama is behind the curve on Sri Lanka. Though he did not forecast any kind of serious political solution in his remarks, the president should be commended for raising the issue at all amidst the current clutter of crises in a situation of such wretched desperation. Obama asked the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms while failing to provide any possible incentive to do so. "Now is the time to put aside some of the political issues that are involved" Obama went on to say. However, in a war driven by such bitter ethnic politics, it is highly unlikely the Sri Lankan government will stop short of its long sought prize of destroying the Tigers as a formal fighting force on the island. Tamil fighters, who famously wear cyanide capsules around their necks in the event of capture, will fight to the last man (or child soldier). Velupillai Prabhakaran, the demagogue of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is a brilliant and ruthless military tactician but is not thought to be a particularly rational actor who can be easily dealt with the arena of international humanitarian law. The fact that President Obama did not address the political and military leaders in the war directly by name alludes to the notion that the White House does have the political will or expertise to intervene to stem the azure tide of the Indian Ocean from turning blood red.
According to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, "It is a disgrace that this war is being waged without independent journalists present. With a major humanitarian crisis and war crimes clearly taking place, the government must heed the international community's calls for a ceasefire and for better access for humanitarian workers and journalists."
Unlike the broken states of Afghanistan and Iraq, Sri Lanka has a very active tourism industry and aggressively courts well-to-do vacationers. No matter how bad the violence in the remote north and eastern parts of the island has been since the war began in 1983, Western visitors have not only failed to abandoned the place, rather they have invested quite heavily in its less restive west and south coasts. Go to a bar around the capital and you will meet plenty of people from Northern and Central Europe, many of whom proudly own businesses in the country that run the gamut from garment factories to bars to hotels catering to other Europeans.
Though those immersed in the expat scene generally spend their time very far from the frontline, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have, through the implementation of suicide terrorism, often brought the war to the streets of Colombo. In this silent war, Westerners are relatively safe since the war contains no inherent
anti-Western dimension. Attacking or injuring outsiders has no tactical utility for either side in this conflict. The government has needed to keep attracting those with hard currency that help keep it afloat while the LTTE is adept at manipulating Western public opinion and using the West in its fundraising efforts to perpetuate their well-organized war. Several developed nations have taken the lead in trying to mediate the Sri Lankan civil war in recent years, particularly the Norwegians, who are often agitated by their domestic Tamil communities to intervene.
A defining element in the war is not of one religion in Huntingtonian terms but of the emphasis of religious difference between the two communities. Islam, which has been vilified by many pundits and politicians in the U.S. and in the E.U., is not a convenient scapegoat in this war. The belligerents in this case are a Buddhist-led government and secular Hindu rebels while the island's minority Muslims and Christians are caught in the middle. The LTTE's goal has been to formally secede from the Sri Lankan state by creating a homeland called "Tamil Eelam," a de facto independent entity that, until very recently, maintained the characteristics of a functioning bureaucracy. The notion of a Tamil refuge received ideological succor from their ethnic brethren in South India's Tamil Nadu state. Separated by the narrow Palk Strait, Sri Lankan Tamils are closely knit by both familial and cultural ties to their Indian counterparts. Delhi dances awkwardly around this war to its south. Indian elites have not forgotten that eighteen years ago the LTTE killed the grandson of Jawarharlal Nehru, India's political founder; while at the same time the central government does not want to stir the ire of a crucial vote bloc of 60 million Tamils in one of the country's largest states during an election cycle.
As a cohesive group, the LTTE is the world's most proficient employer of suicide terrorism. The Tigers clichéd terrorist superlative is that they are alleged to have killed not one but two world leaders, Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gadhi in 1991 and Ranasinghe Premadasa, President of Sri Lanka in 1993, and are the only non-state organization to do so. American readers may likely think al-Qaeda would hold such a position rather than a fiercely organized group of quasi-Marxist Hindus hiding in the jungle in the middle of the Indian Ocean. But Marxism and Hinduism have given way over the decades to pure Tamil linguistic and ethnic nationalism. Both the LTTE and those legitimate members of Tamil civil society accuse the Colombo government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa of being Sinhala or Buddhist "Chauvinists". Perhaps the single greatest motivational factor in the instigation of the northern and eastern Tamil rebellion has been language. The government sparked the uprising by trying to insist Sinhalese be the only official language for its citizens as well as enshrining Buddhism in the constitution in a crude attempt at revitalizing the island's pre-colonial past. Though the government claims the Sri Lankan army is fighting for the reunification of the country, I saw propaganda posters pasted up around downtown Colombo depicting Buddhist monks blessing ethnic Sinhala soldiers as they prepare to head off to the battlefront.
The Rajapaksas are not wasting their time with any hearts-and-minds style rhetoric. Additionally, the acquiescence of the Buddhist clergy plays into the LTTE's cultish leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's I-told-you-so doctrine of Colombo as a racist, uncompromising regime that has it in for his people. Alongside the elimination of his Tamil competitors, the tone of discourse from the central government and the actions within the framework of its domestic military policy serve only to reinforce Prabhakaran's insistence that the Tamil Tigers are the sole protector of the Sri Lanka's Hindus. Now as Prabhakaran makes his last formal stand in a now miniscule, truncated version of the zone over which he had ruled, the future of the island's Tamil population remains in question. Meanwhile President Rajapaksa remains crassly unapologetic as Colombo's goal is finally within reach.
While the Sri Lankan government appears to be close to consolidating its territorial hold on the country's turbulent northeast, a massive humanitarian drama, largely unseen by the international media, is unfolding. Earlier this year, Dr. Palitha Kohona told PBS's Tavis Smiley that his government was not allowing journalists into the war zone because it was "not safe" and that it is imperative that Colombo's "guests in the country do not come to any harm." But it is precisely the job of journalists to put themselves in harm's way in order to get the story out. Though the international community and the UN have been far from totally complacent on the issue, there does not seem to be enough of an outcry from the larger global public to gain traction with the ruling Rajapaksa brothers. Tamil pop star M.I.A. has claimed there is an ordered genocide being conducted against the island's large Tamil minority. While there is not yet any supporting empirical evidence for such a genocide claim, Sunday's mass casualty attack taking some 380 civilian lives demonstrates both the ferocity of the war and the dearth of diplomatic leverage to stop it. As an impotent Security Council looks on, this "Bloodbath" continues to bleed. Aid workers and journalists must be let into, or make their way into, Sri Lanka's killing fields so that we have been deprived of the right to say we did not know.
Showing posts with label sri lanka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sri lanka. Show all posts
An ‘Ausgleich’ for Sri Lanka: Equalization - not Devolution
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Sinhala,
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Elangai Naganathan
With the end of the war in sight Sinhala opinion on the next step of the Nationalities Question (or “ethnic issue”, if you will) is firming up. At best it is in favour of the implementation of the 13th Amendment with the Concurrent List being devolved without conditions. At worst it is for the unitary state intact and inviolate.
I have had intimations from several quarters some of them being my very dear friends that Sinhala opinion is hardening on this issue. “Well”, they seem to say “you Tamils have tried your worst to destabilize our Sinhala state and our position in it as the de jure and de facto rulers of the country. Terrorism and conventional warfare have failed you. Now take what is offered and be done with it”.
The Nationalities Question, however cannot be put away so easily. I know that the term “nation” is denied by many sections of Sinhala opinion to the Tamils of the North and East. Instead “community” is offered as an alternative. “Nation” it seems is a concept reserved for the Sinhala people in Sri Lanka. This school concedes that the Tamils the world over are by the standard definition of the term entitled to nationhood, but their land space for exercising that claim is Tamilnadu - not Sri Lanka.
An interesting feature of this belief is that ironically its most vehement proponents are precisely the leaders of those communities whose inhabitancy of the island does not go back further than the 15th century. I refer to the K, the S, the D and all those artisan communities scattered over the south and west of the country whose “ge” names are redolent of a Dravidian origin and who began settling in this country in the latter stages of the Kotte era. The iron laws against miscegenation installed in the Sinhala social system have guaranteed that these latter - day additions to the Sinhala stock remain as pure-blooded and red-blooded Tamils as ever their forebears were. They may have been acculturated but not assimilated.
There is, therefore, a paradox in the Sinhala persona. The pluralism of Sri Lankan society is more complex than generally thought to be. It is intrinsic in the very concept of “Sinhala”. Who, indeed, is a “Sinhala”? As we have seen, there are several levels of Sinhala and some of them are vicarious if not spurious, but contain elements that are proportionately ferocious in their Sinhala-ness. This is the central dilemma facing particularly the more educated members of this group and which some of them have sought to sublimate by an intense anti Tamil paranoia.
This is true of the “Gang of Four” who broke up the consensus of the Special Panel on Constitutional Reform by their minority dissenting report and by carrying tales about the functioning of the panel to their leader. But as we have seen their role as presidential advisors-in-extra-ordinary is in question. Are they “Sinhala” ? Therein lies the rub. All this, however, begs the question of whether this group of advisors or their leader want a settlement of the question, whether constitutional or otherwise.
The Tamils of the North and East may be “down” now, but they are not “out” yet. Bodily they maybe overcome, but in spirit they are not defeated. Like the Jews after 40 years in the desert of the Negev, the present generation of Tamils in the North and East have emerged after 30 years of warfare as hardy and warlike people, like the Sabras of Israel. Some Sinhalese may believe that the fragmentation of the Tamil body politic in the East today, is an omen for the rest of the Tamils, providing the government with more pawns for its political chess board. But this view ignores the most important stake - holders in the game, namely, the Tamil people. With the onset of normalcy the Tamil man thus far voiceless will once again take charge of his political destiny. Quite simply the Tamil man, woman and child will place their trust in the Grand Old Party, the Federal Party or its successors of today, as they did in the last general elections at which they freely voted in 1978, having returned a full slate for the TULF from all the Tamil constituencies, thus making Mr. Amirthalingam Leader of the Opposition.
“But what about the Muslim factor?” some may be heard to ask. This approach ignores the realities. Firstly, both in the north and east, relations between Muslims and Tamils have always been good. In fact the retrenchment of the LTTE from the political scene erases the last barrier between the two parties by permitting the 5 lakhs of Jaffna Muslims who have been IDPs for the past two decades to return home. The Muslims not only of Tamilnadu but of all South India have traditionally enjoyed good relations with their Hindu neighbours. The Sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda and their feudatories straddled across much of present - day Andra Pradesh and Karnataka, extending to Tamil Nadu as well eg. the Nawabates of Arcot and the Carnatic. Tamil is a recognized language of the Holy Koran and its commentaries. It is taught at the famous Al Aqsar university in Cairo. Prominent Muslims both lay and clerical have been reputed for speaking Tamil as eloquently as the best Tamil speakers. Interested parties seeking to create discord between the Tamils of the North and East and the Muslims will be sadly mistaken.
The more relevant question is where will military victory leave the Sinhala people and government. The tide of anti-Sinhala sentiment is rising high in Tamilnadu and will reach the proportions of a tsunami. The favourite hunting ground of any South Indian state on the rise has been Sri Lanka - South India’s back yard. That syndrome remains unchanged.
The recent Bombay bomb attack has shown that Central India is as vulnerable as the North. Pakistan is a ticking time bomb waiting, to explode at any moment. She is implacable as long as the right of self determination of the people of Kashmir is denied. The Congress Party’s resolution for Hindustani as the sole national language, instead of Hindustani and Urdu as the joint national languages of independent India created Pakistan. Urdu has been and still is in South India the lingua franca. It is the old story of “Two languages one nation; one language two nations”. When will the Sinhala ruling class ever learn?
The days of North Indian hegemony are numbered. Indian helplessness for two whole days with her 200 commandos facing just 12 Islamic youth in the Bombay bomb attack is unworthy of a great power. The Union of India will not survive such shocks and surprises for long. An Irredentist movement in the North and East of Sri Lanka will find a spontaneous echo in Tamil Nadu. That is about the last thing India will want to happen. The general reaction of the Sinhala people, particularly the government and its select advisors, to the end of the war will create a “Sudetenland” situation that can have but one ending, the fragmentation of the Sinhala state”.
There is also the factor of the Tamils of Indian Origin as they now style themselves. Proud of their Indian origin, they are no longer interested in identifying with the Sinhala state. The inhuman statelessness into which they were thrust by the repulsive Sirima - Shastri Pact has left behind bitter memories on both sides of the Straits that will come to haunt those responsible namely the SLFP and the Indian Congress, respectively. The new generation of the Tamils of Indian origin is burning its boats with the Sinhala unitary state and with it the baggage of its erstwhile power - hungry and money - grasping leaders. The Tamils of Indian origin have an international dimension, as their membership is to be found everywhere in the world. They have held several hugely successful congresses in different cities of their diaspora and are politically alive and active. They are a double-edged sword that could cut both ways - into the Indian Union and the Sinhala unitary state as well.
Unlike the Tamils of the North and East, who similar to the Sudeten Germans are demographically compact, the Tamils of Indian Origin, like the Germans of West Prussia and Poznan, are scattered, but where concentrated are found in the best tea -growing districts of Maskeliya and Nuwara Eliya. Every South Indian state in its expansionist phase has exhibited a fascination for practising a ‘Lebensraum’ in Sri Lanka. In fact the immigrant South Indian communities referred to previously may well represent the vestiges of previous experiments of a similar nature. In the context of the weakening of the Centre and the strengthening of the States in India, an ambitious South Indian leader may well avail of the opportunities latent in the “Sudetenland” and “West Prussian & Poznan” situations simmering in Sri Lanka, to execute an “Anschluss”.
What can the Sinhala people and their government do in such a situation? Their only hope lies in an “Ausgleich” in the fashion of the celebrated instrument of that name of 1867 by which the stability of the Austrian empire was guaranteed by invoking the principle of Equalization on the basis of Parity, unconditional and unqualified.
An Ausgleich has the supreme advantage of being flexible and adaptable. There is no need to stick to the Dualist Austro - Hungercan model. It can be Triplist or Quadruplist. Such an adaptation would firstly meet the claims of the Muslims and Tamils of South Indian Origin, not to mention the Kandyans. Secondly it would provide a stepping stone to a broader union with South India, of which the Sinhala people will be the best beneficiaries. After the Sethu Samudram Scheme is implemented there will be nothing left to take of Sri Lanka. From being a “back yard.,” she will become a “back water” as well. The historic ports of the North and East will rise again and flourish; Those of the South and West will fall into desuetude.
The comprador, Import - Export economy installed by the British favouring the South and West will be shut down. The land - owning and capitalist classes that it nourished will be finished.
Under the classic Dual Monarchical model it was possible for the P.M. of Hungary, Count Felix Andrassy, to be Foreign Minister of Austria - Hungary. We can be guided by this precedent in devising a Dual or Triple Sovereignty in this country. An overarching level of government will be needed to provide a focal point for the union of the states, as was furnished in Austria by the Hapsburg emperor. Such a position could be rotational between the states. One could even contemplate a moveable capital - one time Kotte, other times Kandy, Maskeliya, Jaffna, Batticaloa or even Chennai. The possibilities, are limitless. For that matter, the Ausgleich template would serve the Union of India too, if the need arises.
Let the panel of experts be speedily reconvened and a quick constitutional revision be put in place, if the Sri Lanka state is to survive, let alone be stabilized. Let not the moment of triumph being savoured by all levels of Sinhala society and government. be turned into a moment of truth for them.
With the end of the war in sight Sinhala opinion on the next step of the Nationalities Question (or “ethnic issue”, if you will) is firming up. At best it is in favour of the implementation of the 13th Amendment with the Concurrent List being devolved without conditions. At worst it is for the unitary state intact and inviolate.
I have had intimations from several quarters some of them being my very dear friends that Sinhala opinion is hardening on this issue. “Well”, they seem to say “you Tamils have tried your worst to destabilize our Sinhala state and our position in it as the de jure and de facto rulers of the country. Terrorism and conventional warfare have failed you. Now take what is offered and be done with it”.
The Nationalities Question, however cannot be put away so easily. I know that the term “nation” is denied by many sections of Sinhala opinion to the Tamils of the North and East. Instead “community” is offered as an alternative. “Nation” it seems is a concept reserved for the Sinhala people in Sri Lanka. This school concedes that the Tamils the world over are by the standard definition of the term entitled to nationhood, but their land space for exercising that claim is Tamilnadu - not Sri Lanka.
An interesting feature of this belief is that ironically its most vehement proponents are precisely the leaders of those communities whose inhabitancy of the island does not go back further than the 15th century. I refer to the K, the S, the D and all those artisan communities scattered over the south and west of the country whose “ge” names are redolent of a Dravidian origin and who began settling in this country in the latter stages of the Kotte era. The iron laws against miscegenation installed in the Sinhala social system have guaranteed that these latter - day additions to the Sinhala stock remain as pure-blooded and red-blooded Tamils as ever their forebears were. They may have been acculturated but not assimilated.
There is, therefore, a paradox in the Sinhala persona. The pluralism of Sri Lankan society is more complex than generally thought to be. It is intrinsic in the very concept of “Sinhala”. Who, indeed, is a “Sinhala”? As we have seen, there are several levels of Sinhala and some of them are vicarious if not spurious, but contain elements that are proportionately ferocious in their Sinhala-ness. This is the central dilemma facing particularly the more educated members of this group and which some of them have sought to sublimate by an intense anti Tamil paranoia.
This is true of the “Gang of Four” who broke up the consensus of the Special Panel on Constitutional Reform by their minority dissenting report and by carrying tales about the functioning of the panel to their leader. But as we have seen their role as presidential advisors-in-extra-ordinary is in question. Are they “Sinhala” ? Therein lies the rub. All this, however, begs the question of whether this group of advisors or their leader want a settlement of the question, whether constitutional or otherwise.
The Tamils of the North and East may be “down” now, but they are not “out” yet. Bodily they maybe overcome, but in spirit they are not defeated. Like the Jews after 40 years in the desert of the Negev, the present generation of Tamils in the North and East have emerged after 30 years of warfare as hardy and warlike people, like the Sabras of Israel. Some Sinhalese may believe that the fragmentation of the Tamil body politic in the East today, is an omen for the rest of the Tamils, providing the government with more pawns for its political chess board. But this view ignores the most important stake - holders in the game, namely, the Tamil people. With the onset of normalcy the Tamil man thus far voiceless will once again take charge of his political destiny. Quite simply the Tamil man, woman and child will place their trust in the Grand Old Party, the Federal Party or its successors of today, as they did in the last general elections at which they freely voted in 1978, having returned a full slate for the TULF from all the Tamil constituencies, thus making Mr. Amirthalingam Leader of the Opposition.
“But what about the Muslim factor?” some may be heard to ask. This approach ignores the realities. Firstly, both in the north and east, relations between Muslims and Tamils have always been good. In fact the retrenchment of the LTTE from the political scene erases the last barrier between the two parties by permitting the 5 lakhs of Jaffna Muslims who have been IDPs for the past two decades to return home. The Muslims not only of Tamilnadu but of all South India have traditionally enjoyed good relations with their Hindu neighbours. The Sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda and their feudatories straddled across much of present - day Andra Pradesh and Karnataka, extending to Tamil Nadu as well eg. the Nawabates of Arcot and the Carnatic. Tamil is a recognized language of the Holy Koran and its commentaries. It is taught at the famous Al Aqsar university in Cairo. Prominent Muslims both lay and clerical have been reputed for speaking Tamil as eloquently as the best Tamil speakers. Interested parties seeking to create discord between the Tamils of the North and East and the Muslims will be sadly mistaken.
The more relevant question is where will military victory leave the Sinhala people and government. The tide of anti-Sinhala sentiment is rising high in Tamilnadu and will reach the proportions of a tsunami. The favourite hunting ground of any South Indian state on the rise has been Sri Lanka - South India’s back yard. That syndrome remains unchanged.
The recent Bombay bomb attack has shown that Central India is as vulnerable as the North. Pakistan is a ticking time bomb waiting, to explode at any moment. She is implacable as long as the right of self determination of the people of Kashmir is denied. The Congress Party’s resolution for Hindustani as the sole national language, instead of Hindustani and Urdu as the joint national languages of independent India created Pakistan. Urdu has been and still is in South India the lingua franca. It is the old story of “Two languages one nation; one language two nations”. When will the Sinhala ruling class ever learn?
The days of North Indian hegemony are numbered. Indian helplessness for two whole days with her 200 commandos facing just 12 Islamic youth in the Bombay bomb attack is unworthy of a great power. The Union of India will not survive such shocks and surprises for long. An Irredentist movement in the North and East of Sri Lanka will find a spontaneous echo in Tamil Nadu. That is about the last thing India will want to happen. The general reaction of the Sinhala people, particularly the government and its select advisors, to the end of the war will create a “Sudetenland” situation that can have but one ending, the fragmentation of the Sinhala state”.
There is also the factor of the Tamils of Indian Origin as they now style themselves. Proud of their Indian origin, they are no longer interested in identifying with the Sinhala state. The inhuman statelessness into which they were thrust by the repulsive Sirima - Shastri Pact has left behind bitter memories on both sides of the Straits that will come to haunt those responsible namely the SLFP and the Indian Congress, respectively. The new generation of the Tamils of Indian origin is burning its boats with the Sinhala unitary state and with it the baggage of its erstwhile power - hungry and money - grasping leaders. The Tamils of Indian origin have an international dimension, as their membership is to be found everywhere in the world. They have held several hugely successful congresses in different cities of their diaspora and are politically alive and active. They are a double-edged sword that could cut both ways - into the Indian Union and the Sinhala unitary state as well.
Unlike the Tamils of the North and East, who similar to the Sudeten Germans are demographically compact, the Tamils of Indian Origin, like the Germans of West Prussia and Poznan, are scattered, but where concentrated are found in the best tea -growing districts of Maskeliya and Nuwara Eliya. Every South Indian state in its expansionist phase has exhibited a fascination for practising a ‘Lebensraum’ in Sri Lanka. In fact the immigrant South Indian communities referred to previously may well represent the vestiges of previous experiments of a similar nature. In the context of the weakening of the Centre and the strengthening of the States in India, an ambitious South Indian leader may well avail of the opportunities latent in the “Sudetenland” and “West Prussian & Poznan” situations simmering in Sri Lanka, to execute an “Anschluss”.
What can the Sinhala people and their government do in such a situation? Their only hope lies in an “Ausgleich” in the fashion of the celebrated instrument of that name of 1867 by which the stability of the Austrian empire was guaranteed by invoking the principle of Equalization on the basis of Parity, unconditional and unqualified.
An Ausgleich has the supreme advantage of being flexible and adaptable. There is no need to stick to the Dualist Austro - Hungercan model. It can be Triplist or Quadruplist. Such an adaptation would firstly meet the claims of the Muslims and Tamils of South Indian Origin, not to mention the Kandyans. Secondly it would provide a stepping stone to a broader union with South India, of which the Sinhala people will be the best beneficiaries. After the Sethu Samudram Scheme is implemented there will be nothing left to take of Sri Lanka. From being a “back yard.,” she will become a “back water” as well. The historic ports of the North and East will rise again and flourish; Those of the South and West will fall into desuetude.
The comprador, Import - Export economy installed by the British favouring the South and West will be shut down. The land - owning and capitalist classes that it nourished will be finished.
Under the classic Dual Monarchical model it was possible for the P.M. of Hungary, Count Felix Andrassy, to be Foreign Minister of Austria - Hungary. We can be guided by this precedent in devising a Dual or Triple Sovereignty in this country. An overarching level of government will be needed to provide a focal point for the union of the states, as was furnished in Austria by the Hapsburg emperor. Such a position could be rotational between the states. One could even contemplate a moveable capital - one time Kotte, other times Kandy, Maskeliya, Jaffna, Batticaloa or even Chennai. The possibilities, are limitless. For that matter, the Ausgleich template would serve the Union of India too, if the need arises.
Let the panel of experts be speedily reconvened and a quick constitutional revision be put in place, if the Sri Lanka state is to survive, let alone be stabilized. Let not the moment of triumph being savoured by all levels of Sinhala society and government. be turned into a moment of truth for them.
And Then They Came For Me
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No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.
I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.
Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.
But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience.
The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us.
The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.
Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic... well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you'd best stop buying this paper.
The Sunday Leader has never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority view. Let's face it, that is the way to sell newspapers. On the contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For example, we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka's ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For these views we have been labelled traitors, and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.
Many people suspect that The Sunday Leader has a political agenda: it does not. If we appear more critical of the government than of the opposition it is only because we believe that - pray excuse cricketing argot - there is no point in bowling to the fielding side. Remember that for the few years of our existence in which the UNP was in office, we proved to be the biggest thorn in its flesh, exposing excess and corruption wherever it occurred. Indeed, the steady stream of embarrassing expos‚s we published may well have served to precipitate the downfall of that government.
Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tigers. The LTTE are among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations ever to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting them mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is forever called into question by this savagery, much of which is unknown to the public because of censorship.
What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen - and all of the government - cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall.
It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.
The irony in this is that, unknown to most of the public, Mahinda and I have been friends for more than a quarter century. Indeed, I suspect that I am one of the few people remaining who routinely addresses him by his first name and uses the familiar Sinhala address oya when talking to him. Although I do not attend the meetings he periodically holds for newspaper editors, hardly a month passes when we do not meet, privately or with a few close friends present, late at night at President's House. There we swap yarns, discuss politics and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here.
Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the SLFP presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well known were your commitments to human rights and liberal values that we ushered you in like a breath of fresh air. Then, through an act of folly, you got yourself involved in the Helping Hambantota scandal. It was after a lot of soul-searching that we broke the story, at the same time urging you to return the money. By the time you did so several weeks later, a great blow had been struck to your reputation. It is one you are still trying to live down.
You have told me yourself that you were not greedy for the presidency. You did not have to hanker after it: it fell into your lap. You have told me that your sons are your greatest joy, and that you love spending time with them, leaving your brothers to operate the machinery of state. Now, it is clear to all who will see that that machinery has operated so well that my sons and daughter do not themselves have a father.
In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it.
Sadly, for all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days, in just three years you have reduced it to rubble. In the name of patriotism you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other President before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child suddenly let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child could have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of its citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.
As for me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not travelled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands. Others walk in the shadow of death that your Presidency has cast on the freedoms for which you once fought so hard. You will never be allowed to forget that my death took place under your watch. As anguished as I know you will be, I also know that you will have no choice but to protect my killers: you will see to it that the guilty one is never convicted. You have no choice. I feel sorry for you, and Shiranthi will have a long time to spend on her knees when next she goes for Confession for it is not just her owns sins which she must confess, but those of her extended family that keeps you in office.
As for the readers of The Sunday Leader, what can I say but Thank You for supporting our mission. We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I - and my family - have now paid the price that I have long known I will one day have to pay. I am - and have always been - ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.
That The Sunday Leader will continue fighting the good fight, too, is written. For I did not fight this fight alone. Many more of us have to be - and will be - killed before The Leader is laid to rest. I hope my assassination will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration for those who survive to step up their efforts. Indeed, I hope that it will help galvanise forces that will usher in a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland. I also hope it will open the eyes of your President to the fact that however many are slaughtered in the name of patriotism, the human spirit will endure and flourish. Not all the Rajapakses combined can kill that.
People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted. Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm
The end of Prabhakaran?
By B Raman
There have been understandable scenes of jubilation in Colombo and other Sinhalese majority areas of Sri Lanka [Images] over the occupation of Kilinochchi, which used to be the administrative capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE [Images], by the Sri Lankan army on January 2.
These scenes bring to one's mind similar scenes one witnessed after the US army moved without resistance into Baghdad vacated by Saddam Hussein's [Images] army in 2003 and shortly thereafter President George W Bush [Images] proclaimed 'Mission Accomplished.' Almost six years later, the violence still continues in Iraq. His proclamation of 'Mission Accomplished' has kept haunting him since then. Shortly after the US troops entered Baghdad, I had pointed out that the US army's entry into Baghdad marked the end of one phase of the war and the beginning of another.
So too in Afghanistan where the Taliban [Images], whose death was proclaimed with fanfare in December 2001, rose from its proclaimed grave and staged a comeback causing much bleeding and destruction. The fighting is still going on in Afghanistan.
To mention all this is not to underestimate the significane of the LTTE's loss of control over Kilinochchi after remaining in occupation of it for 12 years, but to stress the inadvisability of premature claims of victory in unconventional conflicts between a State actor and a non-State actor.
The re-occupation of Kilinochchi by the Sri Lankan army will naturally add to the pride, confidence and morale of the Sri Lankan army. This does not mean that it will necessarily undermine the motivation and morale of the LTTE. Its motivation and morale would have been undermined if it was an unexpected rout for the LTTE. From all indications, it was not.
It was a denouement for which it had prepared itself and the Tamil population of the area on which it depends for support. It has lost territory whose gain was symbolically important to the Sri Lankan army. But this does not mean the end of the LTTE's campaign of insurgency-cum-terrorism.
The end of the LTTE's campaign will come not when it loses an important piece of territory, but when it loses the support of the Tamil people in the areas still controlled by it and in the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.
In an unconventional warfare, there is no victory day when the war definitively ends with the adversary vanquished once and for all. Victory comes invisibly when the insurgent or terrorist organisation either realises that continued fighting or violence is no longer a viable option as it happened in Mizoram or when it totally loses the support of the people on whose behalf it claims to be fighting the State as it happened in the case of Khalistani terrorism in Punjab.
We must be proud of our political leaders. They did not indulge in scenes of jubilation when Laldenga, the leader of the Mizo National Front, sought peace talks with the Government of India in 1975. Nor did they indulge in triumphalism when they realised by the end of the 1990s that the Khalistan movement has withered away without their even realising it due to the aversion of the overwhelming majority of the Sikhs to the movement.
Turning points in unconventional warfare are brought about not through the force of arms, but through the force of wisdom. Arms do play an impiortant role if they are wielded with wisdom. One is yet to see such signs of wisdom in Colombo. The turning point in Sri Lanka will come the day the Tamils realise that V Prabhakaran has become a liability for their cause and get rid of him.
If there is to be real peace in Sri Lanka, the end of Prabhakaran has to be brought about by the Tamils themselves and not by the Sinhalese army. Has that day been brought nearer by the entry of the Sinhalese army into Kilinochchi? One has to keep one's fingers crossed.
There have been understandable scenes of jubilation in Colombo and other Sinhalese majority areas of Sri Lanka [Images] over the occupation of Kilinochchi, which used to be the administrative capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE [Images], by the Sri Lankan army on January 2.
These scenes bring to one's mind similar scenes one witnessed after the US army moved without resistance into Baghdad vacated by Saddam Hussein's [Images] army in 2003 and shortly thereafter President George W Bush [Images] proclaimed 'Mission Accomplished.' Almost six years later, the violence still continues in Iraq. His proclamation of 'Mission Accomplished' has kept haunting him since then. Shortly after the US troops entered Baghdad, I had pointed out that the US army's entry into Baghdad marked the end of one phase of the war and the beginning of another.
So too in Afghanistan where the Taliban [Images], whose death was proclaimed with fanfare in December 2001, rose from its proclaimed grave and staged a comeback causing much bleeding and destruction. The fighting is still going on in Afghanistan.
To mention all this is not to underestimate the significane of the LTTE's loss of control over Kilinochchi after remaining in occupation of it for 12 years, but to stress the inadvisability of premature claims of victory in unconventional conflicts between a State actor and a non-State actor.
The re-occupation of Kilinochchi by the Sri Lankan army will naturally add to the pride, confidence and morale of the Sri Lankan army. This does not mean that it will necessarily undermine the motivation and morale of the LTTE. Its motivation and morale would have been undermined if it was an unexpected rout for the LTTE. From all indications, it was not.
It was a denouement for which it had prepared itself and the Tamil population of the area on which it depends for support. It has lost territory whose gain was symbolically important to the Sri Lankan army. But this does not mean the end of the LTTE's campaign of insurgency-cum-terrorism.
The end of the LTTE's campaign will come not when it loses an important piece of territory, but when it loses the support of the Tamil people in the areas still controlled by it and in the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.
In an unconventional warfare, there is no victory day when the war definitively ends with the adversary vanquished once and for all. Victory comes invisibly when the insurgent or terrorist organisation either realises that continued fighting or violence is no longer a viable option as it happened in Mizoram or when it totally loses the support of the people on whose behalf it claims to be fighting the State as it happened in the case of Khalistani terrorism in Punjab.
We must be proud of our political leaders. They did not indulge in scenes of jubilation when Laldenga, the leader of the Mizo National Front, sought peace talks with the Government of India in 1975. Nor did they indulge in triumphalism when they realised by the end of the 1990s that the Khalistan movement has withered away without their even realising it due to the aversion of the overwhelming majority of the Sikhs to the movement.
Turning points in unconventional warfare are brought about not through the force of arms, but through the force of wisdom. Arms do play an impiortant role if they are wielded with wisdom. One is yet to see such signs of wisdom in Colombo. The turning point in Sri Lanka will come the day the Tamils realise that V Prabhakaran has become a liability for their cause and get rid of him.
If there is to be real peace in Sri Lanka, the end of Prabhakaran has to be brought about by the Tamils themselves and not by the Sinhalese army. Has that day been brought nearer by the entry of the Sinhalese army into Kilinochchi? One has to keep one's fingers crossed.
Sri Lanka troops enter rebel Tiger Political HQ
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The Tigers have been waging a long campaign for independence for Sri Lanka's minority Tamil community. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the violence since 1972, making it Asia's longest running ethnic conflict.
Sri Lankan forces have been fighting their into Tamil Tiger rebels stronghold in the island's north for last two months.
Sri Lanka's defence Secretary confirmed that Sri Lankan security forces have fought their way to the perimeter of the Tamil Tiger political capital of Kilinochchi in the island's north.
Sri Lanka's military says soldiers have entered the Tamil Tiger rebels' de facto capital Kilinochchi in the north for the first time in a decade.
Senior military officials said troops had entered the town from three sides.
On Thursday, the military said it had seized the strategically important junction of Paranthan, a crossroads north of Kilinochchi.
There has been no word from the rebels but earlier this week, they said they were successfully defending the town.
The Sri Lankan army has been advancing towards Kilinochchi for months.
Troops fighting their way towards the town have faced determined resistance for months.
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