The Way forward

By Sankajaya Nanayakkara

(June 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I used to call Balasingham Nadesan, the late political commissar of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mahendran mama. He was a soft spoken and a very gentle man. Mahendran mama used to come to our flat on Park Road often to talk politics with my father over a couple of drinks. I and my brother used to sit on his lap and listen to politics. Balasingham Nadesan was then a constable of the Sri Lanka Police and a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party. He was married to a Sinhalese woman from down south. That was the extent of Balasingham Nadesan’s integration with the Sri Lankan state and society. The violence and the humiliation he experienced in the 1983 anti-Tamil riots drove him north to join the burgeoning Tamil militancy and he eventually became a Tiger.

The Tamil national movement was a reaction to Sinhala supremacism. However, this does not mean that there weren’t separatist currents within Tamil politics. But those were voices in the wilderness. Overtime, such marginal ideas became mainstream due to Sinhala supremacist legislation and periodic mob violence unleashed upon Tamil people. The emergence of the LTTE as a part of the broader Tamil militancy in the mid 1970s should be understood in this context.

The Liberation Tigers suffered from a congenital deformity. Essentially, it was a right-wing fascist-type political formation. The LTTE was a great fan of the Chola Empire. Moreover, it was characteristic for fascist tendencies. The LTTE high command did not tolerate any political dissent nor did it allow any alternatives to it within and without the organization. Since its formation in 1976, the Liberation Tigers gradually evolved as an obstacle to any lasting negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. The bottom line was that the Liberation Tigers were not agreeable to anything less than a Tamil Eelam. The demise of the LTTE as a significant factor in the politics of the island should be made an opportunity to bring about a lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

At this historic juncture, the Tamil political society should collaborate with Colombo. Collaboration is not necessarily capitulation. The only hope for Tamil people living in Sri Lanka lies in the constructive engagement of the Tamil political leadership with the Sinhala political leadership. How would the formation of a Tamil government–in-exile, a post-war vision of Tamil separatists, improve the wellbeing of Tamils in Sri Lanka? However, now the onus is with Colombo to create a conducive environment for Tamil co-operation by ensuring their security and dignity as equal citizens of Sri Lanka.

In the post-war period, the government of Sri Lanka should win the hearts and minds of the alienated Tamil people through deeds, not empty rhetoric. They can start this by widening the access of the INGOs and NGOs to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). These long suffering people can use all the help that is available at the moment without hindrance.

The speedy resettlement of IDPs in their areas of traditional habitation should be a priority. The cultural interpretations on fences in Asian contexts by high government officials cannot mystify the imprisonment of a people. These internment camps are an assault on our national conscience. The security screenings should be expedited and the Tamil civilians resettled in their homes at the earliest.

Reconstruction and development in war ravaged areas in the north and the east should be undertaken in consultation with the political leadership of the people in these areas. Colombo should collaborate with them and not bypass them as it did in the development schemes in the Eastern Province. Moreover, the President should be very careful not to entertain Sinhala extremists with explosive schemes of Sinhala colonization in predominantly Tamil and Muslim areas with the objective of altering the demographic composition.

In the post-war period, the government should take the truth and reconciliation path. With the total annihilation of the LTTE high command, such a shift is more feasible from a security angle as well. The government should not get bogged down in McCarthy-style witch hunts that will degenerate Sri Lanka into a police state. The government of Sri Lanka should safeguard human rights, freedom of the press and political dissent in this post-war period. Now the war is over, there is absolutely no excuse to continue the siege on democracy. The government can start this journey of ethnic reconciliation and democracy by a symbolic gesture such as, dropping all charges against the Tamil journalist, J.S. Tissainayagam.

Most importantly, the Sinhala political leadership should come up with a just political solution to the Tamil national question. What is required is the acknowledgement of the legitimate existence of the Tamil identity in Sri Lanka, and politically and legally recognizing it in meaningful ways. We will commit the same mistakes again if we attempt to assimilate Tamils into the Sinhala Buddhist culture.

Co-opting minority political leadership into Sinhala political parties is not the right political strategy. Obama-type assimilation in Sri Lanka, as some columnists fancy, will take place when inter-ethnic relations are democratized. It is time that the Sinhala political class seriously listen to Tamil political leaders such as, V. Anandasangaree. Pluralism and diversity is not a plague, but a source of strength.

Sri Lanka is just coming out of a long bloody war. It is understood that the government is confronted with legitimate security concerns in managing the affairs in the immediate post-war Lankan society. As a responsible government, it will have to take measures to address those concerns. However, the authorities should balance such security measures with humanitarian, development and political measures to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people. The failure on the part of the government on this balancing act will give a new lease of life to the decapitated Tamil secessionist movement.

The writer can be contacted at wickrama4sl@yahoo.com

-Sri Lanka Guardian