Putting Peace Process Back on the Track

By N Sathiya Moorthy

(January 26, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) With the visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon to Sri Lanka last fortnight, efforts are now required for putting the peace process back on the track, to try and find a political solution to the vexatious 'ethnic issue'. The responsibility for doing so rests not on external players but on the domestic polity – Tamil and Sinhala – and more so, on the Sri Lankan State.

The Indian visit was long in the making, considering that the domestic polity in southern Tamil Nadu had been publicly urging New Delhi to despatch Pranab Mukherjee, the External Affairs Minister, to Colombo with a stern message on the military situation and the consequent human sufferings. That cannot be said of the subsequent visit by Yasushi Akashi from Japan. Unlike Menon, who held discussions on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, Akashi, by the very designation as the special peace envoy of his Government on the Sri Lankan ethnic issue, had his job clearly cut out.

It may be easy to dismiss the Tamil Nadu sentiments as part of the domestic political exercise aimed at the upcoming elections to the Indian Parliament. Conversely, the Tamils on both sides of the Palk Strait could be overwhelmed by the 'umbilical cord' relationship, forcing the Tamils in India to feel the pain and deprivation of their brethren in Sri Lanka.

Indian concerns and interests would always require that New Delhi helped sort out the ethnic issue through a negotiated political settlement that addresses the legitimate concerns of all communities in Sri Lanka, starting with the Tamils, within a united Sri Lanka. None in Sri Lanka can fault those concerns. Nor do they need to look at India with the kind of suspicion that had vitiated the atmosphere not just in terms of bilateral relations but equally so in the Sri Lankan domestic situation.

The increasing neutralisation of the LTTE by military means may soon create a political vacuum in the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. There are elected representatives of the Tamil community, but some of them, like the Tamil Nationalist Alliance (TNA), need some nudging and reassurance, to be able to consider participating in the political process.

The formal abrogation of the cease-fire agreement (CFA) in January 2008 by the Sri Lankan Government meant the exit of Norway as the peace facilitator. On the Tamil front, the CFA pertained to the LTTE. Colombo often asserts that the LTTE are not the only Tamils – rather, the LTTE are terrorists, not Tamils. A militarily weakened LTTE cannot continue to arrogate to itself the 'sole representative' status. It does not flow that the missing trust between the Tamil and Sinhala polity could resurface without any trace of mutual suspicions.

The Government's purported position for involving the elected representatives of the Tamil community makes sense. It is now confined to Parliament, where the representation of the Tamil-speaking people is divided across the aisle. That includes the representatives of the Tamil-speaking Muslim community.

To the extent that a multi-layered elected representation for the Tamil-speaking people would help understand and address specific issues of power-devolution, the process too should be encouraged. Provincial Council elections make greater sense, as it would take Tamil elected representation to as close to the grassroots as can be possible under the circumstances.

Political entities like the TNA – and the SLMC on a different score – need not shy away. By entering the electoral process at the provincial-level, the TNA would only be lending greater credibility to the Tamil political voice in peace negotiations. In political terms, their purported ability to win free and fair elections to the Provincial Council, if demonstrated, would carry a message of its own, loud and clear, particularly in an era without the LTTE's military might.

The issue of de-merger and re-merger can bother the TNA. For them to boycott the Provincial Council polls on this score, as they did in the East, would only render their voices silent. Contesting and winning the elections, instead – if that is the voter mandate – would give them a greater leverage at negotiations.

In the eyes of the international community, such a course would invest greater credibility on the Tamil political efforts. Circa 2009 is not the same as 1956, when the post-War world was immersed in itself. Minus the LTTE brand of militancy/terrorism, the international community had no two opinions on the legitimate Tamil cause. It has no reason now to back out.

Time was when militancy hijacked the leadership of the Tamil society from a failed polity. The course and content of the militancy contributed to worse failures. Yet, it did exhibit the possibilities and options available to the future generations. The noise of militancy had muffled the voices of political reason, in between. The TNA and the rest of them all should know it – and act accordingly.

The peace initiative however rests with the Government. It is more so in the context of the power-devolution package that would be on offer. By self-determined deadline, the APRC was to have completed the process by the end of last year. Like the last time round, the initiative may have passed on to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. This time last year, he declared that that the Thirteenth Amendment was an interim measure. He now has a promise to keep – and, more than as a promise.

The writer is Director, Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the Indian public policy think-tank, headquartered in New Delhi. email: sathiyam54@hotmail.com . The articl an originally published by the 'Daily Mirror, Colombo based daily news paper. - Sri Lanka Guardian