The key to obtaining ethnic minority support

By Jehan Perera

(November 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka guardian) Without a doubt the end of the war has brought great relief to the general population who do not have to fear bomb attacks in public places and to read and listen to media reports of dozens of casualties on a daily basis. Even Tamil people on whose behalf the LTTE lay claim to be the sole representative, and on whose behalf they sought to fight, are relieved at the enhancement of their personal security. When I was in Jaffna a month ago many people told me that they felt a lot safer now that the period of killings, abductions and forcible conscription was ended, despite the daily difficulties that Tamils were vulnerable to at military checkpoints.

Even in Colombo, where a spate of extra judicial killings and abductions once took place, the feeling is one of greater security of life. There is also a popular feeling that the end of the LTTE has brought about peace, and what needs to be done is to repair the damage done by the war, which would include resettling the internally displaced persons as a first priority. The government is itself acting as if there is no ethnic conflict anymore, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s assertion that there will be no more minorities taken by many of his admirers as the height of statesmanship.

There is also a strong argument put forward by Sinhalese nationalist parties that control over the north and east taken back from the LTTE by dint of military sacrifice ought not to be yielded by the government ever again. This is seemingly deterring the major political parties from even raising the issue of an ongoing ethnic problem in the current pre-election period. With decisive elections around the corner, the issue that has surged to the political centre stage is that of the Executive Presidency, its merits and demerits. The opposition has begun focusing on its abolition as the best part of the solution to the country’s many ills.

There is also pragmatic thinking behind the decision to focus on the issue of the abolition or reform of the institution of the Executive Presidency. This is the fact that it can enable the two largest opposition parties, the UNP and JVP, to work together despite their fundamental differences on other key issues, such as the economy and attitude towards ethnic minorities. Much of the efforts of these two parties has been to try and identify a common presidential candidate who can rival the incumbent President in charisma and nationalism that will make a powerful appeal to the majority Sinhalese electorate.

Non issue

Unfortunately, the imminent general and presidential elections coupled with the comprehensive military defeat of the LTTE have effectively put the discussions about a political solution to the ethnic conflict on hold. The vexed issue of the devolution of power as a solution to the ethnic conflict that has existed for over half a century seems to have receded from the centre stage of politics as never before. The current political debate indicates a belief that the defeat of the LTTE, which had controlled large chunks of the north and east, has reduced the devolution of power to a non-issue.

On the other hand, the defeat of the LTTE and the end of the war has not ended the problems that are special to Tamils, and which Tamils feel they are powerless to address. This includes their distress at the way that the internally displaced people of the Vanni have been detained, and are now being released with barely any support for them to get resettled. It is unconscionable that people who have lost all their property, and been effectively incarcerated for over half a year should be released, as they are, with the government only providing for a Rs 25,000 resettlement allowance at the outset. This miniscule amount of money is not going to help them rebuild their shattered lives after the ravages of war.

Indeed, the Tamil sense of being disempowered, disregarded and unfairly treated goes much deeper than their anxiety at being specially targeted during government’s post-war security operations. The bottom line is that if there had been an effective Tamil-controlled administration in the north and east, which is what the devolution of power is meant to obtain, displaced Tamils would not be resettled in the way that is being done today. Therefore the effective devolution of power to the provinces, particularly to the north and east, remains an article of faith in the Tamil consciousness. This became apparent to me when a civic organization, of which I am a member conducted a public forum on the issue of non-devolutionary constitutional reforms.

The idea behind the forum was a reasonable and legitimate one, as I saw it. Any political solution if it is to be lasting will need to be composed of both the devolution of power to some degree, as well as some non-devolution based reforms, such as a more comprehensive set of legally protected human rights, equal status to Tamil language, provincial representation at the centre, economic development that benefits the regions and so on. The idea behind the public forum was to bring together a range of speakers from different political backgrounds to discuss at least one aspect of the political solution to the ethnic conflict at a time when such discussion appears to have died out.

Minority Concerns

At the forum on non-devolutionary constitutional reforms there were sharply contrasting views expressed by the Sinhalese speakers and by the Tamil and Muslim ones. The Sinhalese speakers took an essentially positive approach, on the basis that constitutional reform needed to go beyond resolving the ethnic conflict. Multicultural and pluralistic principles are inherently important in guaranteeing the rights of the citizen of the State, both as ethnic minorities and as individual citizens. The reforms suggested included the abolition or reform of the Executive Presidency, which has become perverted into an instrument of over-centralisation of power.

Other reforms proposed included the implementation of the 17th Amendment to the constitution which seeks the de-politicisation of public institutions, not least the Elections Commissions to prepare for the forthcoming general and presidential elections. If this key constitutional amendment had been functional, Sri Lanka might have had a police force that was more independent of the political authorities who seek to misuse it for their own purposes. This has ramifications for democracy in the country. The Election Commissioner himself has publicly stated that unless his instructions are followed by agencies such as the Police, he is helpless when conducting elections.

Despite their good intentions, the organizers of the public forum on non-devolutionary constitutional reform misread the present mind-set of the ethnic minorities. The Tamil and Muslim speakers, as well as members of the audience, expressed their strong displeasure that the issue of the devolution of powers was not being considered at the forum. They seemed have an apprehension that the discussion of non-devolutionary constitutional reforms signified a tacit abandonment of the concept of devolution of powers. This is in fact the reality at the present time, with the two largest political parties dodging the issue now that elections are round the corner. Indeed, the Tamil and Muslim participants at the discussion were so negative about non-devolutionary constitutional reforms that they did not make a single constructive suggestion with regard to them.

The outcome of the public forum on non-devolutionary constitutional reforms clearly indicates that the devolution of powers is crucial to the sense of political justice of the Tamil and Muslim ethnic minorities. Therefore it will have to be at the centre of efforts at conflict resolution and inter-ethnic reconciliation if ethnic minority support is to be forthcoming. Proposals for non-devolutionary constitutional reforms can at best be only a supplement to the devolution of powers, if the support and consensus of the ethnic minorities is to be obtained. With general and presidential elections on the horizon, political parties that seek the votes of the ethnic minorities will need to address their aspiration that the devolution of powers to the provinces will soon become a reality.

-Sri Lanka Guardian