Looking Beyond 'Military Victory'

by N. Sathya Moorthy

(October 20, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) For the first time in a long time, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has felt the urgency and need to comment personally, and in public, on the evolving situation in the Sri Lankan ethnic issue. Colombo should find a negotiated settlement, and not look for a 'military victory', he has said in the context of the current groundswell of public mood in southern Tamil Nadu.

It is easy to dismiss Prime Minister Singh's observations as flowing from concerns for the stability of the coalition Government that he heads after MPs from Tamil Nadu threaten to quit. The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu is a leading partner in the Singh-led Central Government, and heads an electoral alliance in the State in which Singh's Congress party is a junior partner.

Today, the Sri Lankan Government seems bent on converting the military advantage of two-plus years into a decisive 'military victory'. When a 'military victory' becomes a goal in itself, even a 'militarist solution' would sound meaningful. And the international community abhors a 'militarist solution'.

Shorn of cosmetics, the 'military victory' in the Eastern Province has thus far offered only democratisation and mainstream as solutions. The Thirteenth Amendment, the 'welcome first step' towards a meaningful political solution, is nowhere near implementation.

Neither President Mahinda Rajapaksa, nor the Sri Lankan State, alone is to blame for this. The intransigence of the LTTE on the one hand and the inability of the residual sections of the moderate Tamil polity to stand up and get counted as one, on the other, have created a vacuum. The current concerns in Tamil Nadu and of New Delhi have their origins in this.

With APRC Chairman Tissa Vitharana repeatedly asserting that 90-95 per cent of the work is behind them, it may now be a good idea for the Government to start involving the TNA in the negotiations.

If the LTTE is willing to lay down arms and join the process, it should be welcome. If not, the LTTE should be encouraged to let the TNA represent its interests and concerns. The international community has a duty to ensure this much.

For its part, the Government could go to Parliament with an interim report of the APRC for national debate, discourse and decision-making. At the end of the day, the President has his majority in the House, the UNP too favours power-devolution, and even hard-line parties like the JVP and JHU are not opposed to greater powers for the Provinces.

Where the 5-10 per cent differences exist within the APRC, such issues could be taken up on a later date. The mood and modus of the parliamentary discourses on an interim report could well end up guiding the APRC as well.

Definition and re-definition of the 'State' is one issue over which there are differences within the APRC and within the larger Sri Lankan society and polity as a whole. Neither is it an insurmountable problem, nor should a political solution to the ethnic issue hinged on to the same, to be able to delay it.

The APRC, Parliament and the judiciary are all competent to address the concerns of all communities and also all sections of the Sri Lankan society. What is of immediate relevance and need is the need for the Government and the Sinhala polity to project and promote the 'inclusive State' structure.

Prime Minister Singh has not stopped with reference to 'military victory' and human rights. In calling for a 'negotiated political settlement', he has also reiterated the traditional Indian 'respect' for the 'sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka'. India is the only country to do so at every turn.

For his part, President Rajapaksa did try and meet the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. He followed it up with an emissary to her political rival M Karunanidhi when the latter became Chief Minister. In time, Karunanidhi facilitated a meeting between the TNA leadership and Prime Minister Singh. He did not indulge in polemics.

On the face of ceasefire demands from Tamil Nadu, President Rajapakse has reiterated his Government's resolve to continue the military offensive to end LTTE terrorism. Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa, a brother of the President, has said, "There must be a reason for ceasefire." He has indicated that the President will be ready to meet the Tamil Nadu leaders, "if they are willing."

The last time the LTTE came up with a peace proposal, the Sri Lankan Government of the day rejected the ISGA plan. In the eyes of then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had signed the CFA with the LTTE, the ISGA proposals fell short of the known LTTE demand for a 'separate State' – and would have led to one.

Today, the LTTE and the TNA need to come up with proposals that are realistic and not mere rhetoric. Tamil Nadu and India can facilitate it. The Sri Lankan leadership needs to demonstrate that "Sri Lankan Tamils are Sri Lankan citizens… It is our duty to solve their problems… our problems."

Colombo cannot stop with rhetoric either, which is what has whipped up concerns in Tamil Nadu, and in the rest of India. They cannot be singled out, either.

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The writer is Director of the Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation, the Indian policy think-tank headquartered in New Delhi.- Sri Lanka Guardian