Economic costs of war will haunt us for a long time

By Dr. Vicramabahu Karunaratna

(March 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Among the Sinhalese drugged by chauvinism, there is jubilation over the outcome of the war and the victories of the Sinhala soldiers. President Rajapaksa himself led the celebrations setting an atavistic tone that has done little to dispel the dominant perception that Lanka is Sinhala and the Sinhalese are Lanka. This unfortunate perception is second nature to several influential Sinhala politicians but anathema to all others including large sections of Sinhala people who positively support a pluralistic Lanka.

On the other hand, many Tamils, not all, are dejected by the defeat of the LTTE. Almost all the Tamils, even those who are not supporters of the LTTE, are concerned that the Rajapaksa government will use the defeat of the LTTE to deny them equality. Lankan Tamil politics has never been as confusing as it currently is. Nor has it been as existential - their land has been scorched, tens of thousands of civilians are caught in the crossfire, and several more are living in a virtual state of misery in the North and East.

The Lankan Tamils in the diaspora are not set apart from the goings-on in the old country. They are often considered by the Mahinda regime to be a big part of the problem, because of their support of the LTTE, and by the same token they will have to be considered to be a part of the solution. No one has the right to tell them to find federalism in Canada or settle down in Tamil Nadu. Their stakes in their country of birth will not be removed regardless of where they are and what happens in the war. The age of globalisation has ensured that.

Besides the Sinhala and Tamils, the Muslims and Upcountry (or Kandyan) Tamils have their own political silos. The Muslims are no longer the group to be tagged “Tamil speaking people” by Tamil political leaders at their pleasure, dispensed with by the LTTE for tactical purposes, or used as vote banks by the Sinhala political parties at their convenience. The radical Muslims are a democratic force to reckon with and will be a formidable presence at future constitutional tables.

Upcountry Tamils

The Upcountry Tamils, finally citizens after fifty years in political purgatory, are coming free of the old paternalistic and now corrupt yoke of the CWC. They sit atop what is still a vital sector of Lanka’s economy, and have issues to be addressed and voices to be heard that cannot be substituted for by some inept backbench presence in an oversized cabinet of ministers. When connected with the urban proletariat it will be one of the most formidable powers in Lanka.

The results of the recent elections in the Wayamba and Central Provinces show not only the sheer dominance of chauvinism among the Sinhala, but also the voting cleavage along communal lines. About 70% of the Sinhala people including a solid proportion of the Sinhala Catholics in Wayamba have voted for the Rajapaksa government while about the same proportion of Muslims and Upcountry Tamils mostly in the Central Province voted against the government.

This communalism was there before the LTTE was born. In fact it was its exacerbation over thirty years following independence that produced the LTTE. Sinhala idiocy believed in the illusion that merely by eliminating the LTTE, Lanka would solve all its pre-LTTE problems. The dream of eliminating the LTTE has also given rise to facile economic expectations that the mere defeat of the LTTE will propel the Sri Lankan stock market to go through the roof and carry the real economy with it!

Whatever the outcome of the war it will not by itself lessen the task of resolving the pre-LTTE political problems. On the contrary, the economic costs of war will stifle Lanka for a long time to come. Global vultures will prey on us years to come. We have to get together and rise up against these vultures and their agents to clear the path to solving our problems. -Sri Lanka Guardian