David Cameron asks "Will Colombo make Peace" ?

By Gam Vaesiya, Ottawa, Vanada

Prof. Cameron, writing in the Globe and Mail of April 3rd 2009, Toronto asks
"Will Colombo make Peace"?

But it takes at least two to make peace.

(April 12, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Tamil National alliance (TNA) in Sri Lanka has rejected invitations (10 April) for talks with the Indian Foreign Minister Shivashankar Menon. The TNA rejected a similar invitation from the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

David Cameron teaches "political science" at the University of Toronto and took part in Sri Lanka's peace talks from 2002 to 2004 as a member of the Forum of Federations. So he his far more informed about the Sri Lankan situation than the typical "citizen of the street". However, political science is only a science by appellation, and hence his discussion needs re-examination, particularly because his analysis ignores a number of very important parameters which are missing in most discussions of the conflict in Sri Lanka. The zeitgeist of the discussions of the 2002 era was molded by two groups. One group consisted of the upper-caste Colombo Tamils who were the empowered group during the British era. They had become the mouth piece of the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LLTE), and have been named "Thimpu Tamils" by Sebastian Rasalingam, a dissident Tamil writer ( see ). The other group was the representatives of the Sri Lankan government, largely drawn from the Christian-educated Colombo upper classes. It is this zeitgeist that David Cameron and the "international community" (IC) is most familiar with.

Karuna's secession

The international community as well as the Government and LTTE peace negotiators were all surprised by what David Cameron records in the following manner: "A devastating blow was delivered to the LTTE in 2004, when the Tigers' eastern military commander, known as "Colonel Karuna," broke with Mr. Prabhakaran and set up a competing movement in the northeastern part of the country. This destroyed the Tigers' claim to represent all of the north and northeast of Sri Lanka, and radically undermined its military strength. The Karuna faction began to work covertly against the LTTE with elements in the Sri Lankan army."

Why did no "political scientist" predict this? After all, the strength of any science is that it studies a system, and builds up enough knowledge to make useful predictions. Societies are so complex that political scientists rarely use quantitative simulations to test their beliefs - they just hold forth. They usually miss the underlying structural features, and by force of events seize upon the most talked of features. Karuna's rift was not fore-seen as the structural nature of Tamil society was ignored in most deliberations of the conflict in Sri Lanka.

Contrary to the stance taken by the elitist Colombo leadership, Tamil society is neither monolithic nor homogeneous. It is a strongly stratified system where each stratum rules the lower stratum. The upper-crust Vellalar caste has its own fine distinctions, with the "first-class Tamils" being the ruling class that had dominated Tamil politics since the 19th century. Even in the decade prior to independence from the British, the leading Tamil politician, Ponnambalam Ramanathan, led delegations to London, with the hope of getting the Colonial office to include the caste system as the legislated law of the land. The opposition of the elitist Colombo Tamils to the "low-caste" Tamils who worked in the tea plantations was such that their citizenship, proposed by the Donoughmore commission, was sabotaged not by just the Kandyan Sinhalese, but most forcefully by the Tamil leaders themselves. Some high-caste Tamil leaders like Peri Sundar considered it an utter indignity to run for office in competition with low-caste Tamils. The Tamil-casteism of the pre- independence era was replaced by Tamil-nationalism and Tamil racism when dealing with the Sinhalese, but the underlying casteism did not go away.

Just as the hill-country Tamils were "low-caste", so were the Eastern Tamils of "Mukkuva" extraction. The Upper-caste Jaffna Tamils demanded suzerainty over all Tamils with the proviso that the hierarchy be respected. The Eastern Tamils and the Hill-country Tamils were regarded as "subject castes" by the Thimpu Tamils. However, the leaders of the Eastern Tamils, or the hill-country Tamils, living within the multi-ethnic societies that prevailed in the Eastern and Central provinces, rejected the hegemony of the Jaffna-Colombo elitist axis. Thus the political proposals of G. G. Ponnambalam to the Soulbury commission (equal division of the legislature between the Sinhalese and the Tamils), or the "traditional Tamil homelands" concept of S. J. V. Chelvanayagam, annunciated at the Maradana meeting of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) in 1949, were rejected by Thambimuttu and other leaders of the Eastern Tamils, as well as by Thondaman, the leader of the Hill-country Tamils.

Most Muslims in Sri Lanka are also Tamil speakers. T. B. Jayah, the Muslim leader had also rejected the political stance of Ponnnambalam, as well as Chelvanayagam, although Ponnambalam arrogantly assumed the mantel of "spokesman for all Tamils" when appearing in front of Soulbury.

Thus Karuna's rift is a historical continuation of an old rift that discerning political scientists and historians could well have expected. Karuna found that Prabhakaran, having assassinated the Colombo leadership and hijacked its nationalist movement, also assumed the hegemonic mindset of that elitist class. This was the case even though Prabhakaran came from a Karaiar smuggler's village, viz., Vellvettithurai (Vaeli-vaeti-thara). The LTTE treated the Eastern province as its "colony", to draw resources, recruit child soldiers, and tax the people for its war effort. Karuna simply emulated his leader Prabharkaran who rejected the Elitist Colombo Tamils. He in turn rejected the LTTE hegemony over the Eastern Tamils.

The claim of "Traditional Tamil homelands".

The historian Michael Roberts has presented a detailed discussion of how the claims to "exclusively Tamil homelands" (ETH) in the North and the East came to dominate the dynamics of the Sri Lankan conflict (J. South Asian Studies, vol xxvii, p87-108, 2004; ). Historically, these claims are highly overblown and the Sinhalese as well as the Tamils can claim occupation of these lands from time time, especially after the 8th century CE, with the Jaffna kingdom limited to the Jaffna peninsula, then known as "Vaeligama" (in Sigiri Griffiti, and Valikamam in some old maps). A. J. Wilson, a political scientist who was Chelvanayagam's son in law, also stated that ETH became the dominant doctrine of the Tamil nationalist movement. ETH gradually hardened to claim that the North and the East were exclusive Tamil Homelands and that the Sinhalese and Muslims were invaders who have to be driven away. Of course, most Tamils of the early 1950s did not accept this extremely racist position. The Ilankai Thamil Arasu kadchi (IAK) took care to talk of federalism in its English language presentations and its more moderate leaders were probably federalists. The ITAK may have remained an ultra-racist fringe party but for the death of D. S. Senanayake and the rise of the Sinhala only movement. Also, although there was much moderate thinking among the Sinhalese polity, they did not trust the "federal party" with its "Arasu" (Sovereignty) cry uttered in Tamil. The Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam (BC) pact, the first attempt at devolution of power, was doomed to failure . Even after the pact was signed, instead of attempting to build bridges between the two communities, the ITAK engaged in tar-brushing Sinhala street names, car registration plates, and launching acts of civil disobedience. The Sinhalese groups countered with nationalist marches and a demand for the abrogation of the BC pact. The abrogation of the BC pact was actually celebrated even by the ITAK in Jaffna!

David Cameron writes: "if it had been possible, in short, for members of the Tamil community, as Tamils, to participate in the life of their country, the history of Sri Lanka over the last 60 years would have been very different." However, with the concept of "the need to drive the invaders from the Traditional Homelands" fully entrenched, the Tamil leaders chose a path of separatism rather than "participation in the life of the country".

All this was cheered on with glee by westernized Colombo society which had began to hate the "Sinhala Buddhists" who had dis-empowered them in 1956. The attempt at a coup d'etat, led by right-wing Christian groups was the climax of this movement. They, and their journalists finally sided with the Tamil nationalist movement due to their antipathy towards the Sinhala-Buddhist groups.

The ITAK worked hard, aided and abetted by their Sinhalese counterparts who held diametrically opposing points of view, to polarize the thinking of the people. The Tamil parties were far more successful in this, and the ultra-nationalist doctrines of the ITAK became mainstream thinking among the Tamils., with the Vaddukkoddei (Batakotte) resolution (1976) spelling out the need for the creation of a separate Tamil states, Eelam, if necessary by an armed struggle. The Hill country Tamils, and the Tamil speaking Muslims refused to approve the Vadukkoddei (Batakotte) resolution or join the Tamil United Liberation front (TULF).

This resolution officially accepted that Tamil political action would deviate from the moral, democratic path and let the end justify the means.

Meanwhile, Chelvanaygam himself, and Amirthalingam, the leader of the TULF, had been busy building up militant groups who were ready to take up arms. The Pulip Padai (Army of Tigers) had in fact been launched in Trincomalee on the 12th August 1961, with the full knowledge of Chelvanayagam. In a later phase, Sivakumaran, a militant who introduced the use of cyanide to evade capture by suicide, had several meetings with Chelvanaygam. Thus the "Gandhian" image cultivated by some some members of the ITAK was possibly sincere or just another tactic in the struggle to "free the homelands" from the invaders.

Given such a powerful clarion call, and given the bulging demographics of the Tamil youth population of Sri Lanka, it was inevitable that anyone who attempted to compromise on the ETH doctrine by federalism or devolution of power would be eliminated as traitors. This was the fate of many Tamil intellectuals and politicians, ranging from Amirthalingam, Neelan Thriruchelvam and Kadirgamar. Even Rajeev Gandhi was eliminated because he would have established power devolution instead of separation.

The democratic mandate won by the TULF in 1977 was nullified by the LTTE which eliminated the TULF leaders. The LTTE began a full scale war, partly funded by India. The upper-caste leaders of the Tamils, the progeny of the Ponnambalms, Sampanthans and others have today become lackeys of the LTTE, meekly following its orders, collecting funds and organizing demonstrations, refusing invitations to any discussions etc., instead of playing a constructive role.

To heal the wounds of war

The Tigers had grown into a vast immoral mafia organization which extorts funds from the diaspora and has become a liability to every one including the Indians, the Canadians and other countries hosting sizable Tamil populations. Thus, in effect, the military successes of the Rajapaksa government in eliminating the Tigers has been welcomed in many quarters.

David Cameron, in asking if Colombo will make Peace, says "If the nation is composed of all these communities, why is there so little concrete expression of that fact in the affairs of state? For a great many of the President's supporters, Sri Lanka is not a multicultural society, but a single Sinhalese nation with several small minority groups. Government documents are typically issued only in Sinhalese; there are few Tamil-speaking officials; there are repeated reports of racial profiling by the predominantly Sinhalese police force". Contrary to what is stated here, all government documents are issued in three languages. Government functions are also, painfully, three times long as i found when I attended an Independence day celebration. By contrast, all events of the Tamil diaspora are exclusively Tamil events.

David Cameron, a political scientist, knows very well how Japanese and German Canadians were all uprooted overnight and confined to camps rimmed with razor wire during the time Canada was at war. Leave aside allowing individuals of German descent into the civil or armed forces, Canada did not even allow their young sons and daughters to the University of Toronto Chemical laboratories as they were regarded as "security risks". After 9/11 USA introduced the Home security act with draconian powers of detaining people. In Canada too, even in the absence of a war situation, the CISIS holds people as "security risks", send them to countries like Syria, and lead people into Kafkaesque situations even today, where a Canadian is held in the Canadian Embassy in Sudan without trial.

The Sri Lankan government is treating the Tamil population in a far more considerate manner than was the case of Canada in its handling of the Japanese and German Canadians during its war. There are indeed only a small number of police or army officers who are Tamils. Any Tamil in such a position was assassinated or forced out of office by the LTTE. Redressing this situation will now be possible with the elimination of the LTTE. If Quebec and the "rest of Canada" had been at war, it is very unlikely that the "rest of Canada" would be offering extensive services in French even before the war comes to an end. In fact, without there having been such a war for at least a century, and after four decades of ethnic bridge building and Traudeauism, Francophones are still complaining that French is not much used in the civil administrations west of Federal Ottawa. David Cameron, a political "scientist", would well know that it takes a generation or more to change these types of situations. Hence the accusations he has hurled at the Rajapaksa government which has been in power for a just a few years, and still at war, are simply unexpected when coming from a professional.

Sri Lanka will most likely find its own solution

Professional military observers and "international think tanks" had claimed, for decades, that the Tigers can never be militarily defeat. This has now been proven dead wrong. Western analysts have also argued that "power devolution", or a mini "Indian model" based on racial or linguistic identities, is the solution to the problem in Sri Lanka. This, as well as the belief that the Tigers cannot be militarily defeated are both parts of the 2002 Zeitgeist that David Cameron and many other observers are familiar with. A perusal of the writings of Tamil dissidents like Sebastian Rasalingam, Thomas Johnpulle, Lenine Benadict, Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, Noel Nadesan and others shows that a completely different approach is sought by these more recent writers. They have rejected federalism, Indian models, devolution etc, for a multi-ethnic pluralist society that already exists in Colombo, Kandy, Galle and other southern cities. In fact, today Colombo has a Tamil speaking population exceeding Sinhala speakers. Thus, even under conditions of war, a multi-ethnic peaceful society has begun to flourish in many parts of the country. The LTTE has tried to provoke this society by attacking icons sacred to the Sinhalese as well as the Muslims, but there has been a firm, healthy refusal to retaliate.

David Cameron should think what would happen if most of the population of Canada were shrunk into the space between Ottawa, Kingston and the US border. Sri Lanka is not much bigger, and its population is about 21 million. The integrity of the polity between Kingston and Ottawa is established by the availability of fast roads and rail connections. The first acts of the LTTE separatists were to destroy the railroads and dismantle the highways. The new government should seek unity and stability in Sri Lanka by developing its roads, railways etc., instead of constitutionally curving out the pie. Constitutions are no guarantee of human rights - even Josef Stalin had a very democratic sounding constitution. The only guarantee of human rights is the development of good understanding, good communications, the establishment of trade and other inter-dependencies. That is the very opposite of divisive politics enshrined in the call for devolution, based on linguistic lines. Given the modern high-technology revolution where translation from one language to another is available via a mere click on your browser, the problem of the existence of divers languages would dissolve into oblivion with the next generation of computers. Once fast rail links are established, Jaffna and Trincomallee would be quasi-suburbs of Colombo, or as close as Boston is to New York or Washington.

I have no doubt that given peace, and given a few more years, the Tamils living in Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese would forge a successful multi-cultural, harmonious society if only the Diaspora Tamils, locked in their Vadukkoddei mindset, would keep off funding militants to engage in the politics of the Island that they are no longer a part of. A large amount of money collected in Canada was used to blow up human beings in Sri Lanka. The Tamils have suffered the most in this regard. The RCMP-the Royal Candian Mounted Police, was fully aware of it and had repeatably warned the Canadian government that Canada has become a staging post for Tiger Terror operations. Indeed people like David Cameron can help by educating the diaspora Tamils as well as many short-sighted Canadian politicians in this regard.

-Sri Lanka Guardian