Timely Measure

“What matters is the ‘devolution’ of power to the people that the elected bodies are supposed to accord. However, the March elections were boycotted by the Tigers and almost all Tamil parties except the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (which won the election) of the Karuna faction that is seen as a traitor to the Tamil cause. The May elections, too, are expected to be boycotted by the major Tamil parties, who, along with the Tigers, believe the measures are too little, too late.”
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(April 01, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) There are reasons why Israel should suddenly be feeling proud of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government now has a clear edge over its chief adversary, the Tamil Tigers, who are once again hoping for peace talks to give them a break from the State’s sustained military onslaught. And Sri Lanka may yet manage to push through its ‘political solution’ more successfully than Israel can ever hope to do. President Mahinda Rajapakse has already taken the first step towards the goal by holding elections for the district-level local bodies in Batticaloa in March. He intends to follow this up with the provincial council elections in the east in May before thinking of an interim government in the still Tiger-infested north.

On the face of it, the initiatives are laudable, especially since they come after an almost two decade-long hiatus. They aim to give the north and east what a 1987 Sinhala-majority parliament had decided as the “maximum” devolution of power possible. There is no longer any talk of the merger of the provinces that had also been promised during the time, acted upon, and then struck down by the supreme court last year. The merger, supposedly, is no longer an issue.

What matters is the ‘devolution’ of power to the people that the elected bodies are supposed to accord. However, the March elections were boycotted by the Tigers and almost all Tamil parties except the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (which won the election) of the Karuna faction that is seen as a traitor to the Tamil cause. The May elections, too, are expected to be boycotted by the major Tamil parties, who, along with the Tigers, believe the measures are too little, too late.

It is thus doubtful how much popular representation the bodies will have. There will also be persisting doubts about the ‘effectiveness’ of the power thus received, given the strong objections of the government’s allies to any concessions granted to Tamils. Mr Rajapakse may have managed to wrest the consent of the Sinhala parties like the Janatha Vimukti Perumana to the provincial council elections, but they may be expected to give trouble as usual. After all, the holding of elections alone cannot guarantee the return of peace.

The steps towards self-governance cannot be successful without a more substantive participation of the Tamils in the process, and that includes the Tamil Tigers as well, no matter how much the government wishes them to perish.
- Sri Lanka Guardian