The war of the protagonists: the losers and the winners

(December 10, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is the Tamils and their aspirations the common enemy that kept the diverse Sinhala political system going. They constantly bickered on the question of how much less the Tamils should be given. With the Tamil question out the Sinhala polity would be dead. With their chief antagonist the LTTE eliminated, Sinhala political factions have turned on each other symbolized in the presidential contest.

The war declared by the retired General Fonseka on President Rajapakse, who both until very recently were the best of mates united to defeat the Tamils now have turned against each other spewing venom taking the contest to the lowest form of decency and propriety characterised by treachery unbecoming of the holders of such high office. The results of the probe ordered by Rajapakse to allay the pressure from the Americans, into the allegations of human rights abuses and war crimes as wanted by him well before the elections will become more convenient to paint Fonseka as the main culprit while absolving himself and his brother Gotabaya the secretary for defence as accomplices. Much more will be done to tarnish and demonise Fonseka. Letting the cat out of the bag and preempting any future indictment, Fonseka has stated that any crime including those in relation to the media personnel that he was now being accused of could not have been committed without either the explicit and/ or the tacit approval of his then superiors, his commander in chief the president and or the secretary for defence.

Between Rajapakse and Fonseka the Tamil people have very little to choose from. Never before have the Tamils been subjected to such suffering and humiliation both psychological and physical as during the Rajapakse regime. Because of their ethnicity they have had to suffer increasing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes jostling with each other. Rajapakse’s “humanitarian operation” with the bullets and bombs so efficient as to discretely avoid civilians but hitting only the militants, is justified as being a part of the global war on terror and as being less severe than the horrendous massacres in other parts of the world. What is worse, the Tamils have had to endure these with the United Nations turning a blind eye. Both Rajapakse and Fonseka while claiming to share the credit for the victory in the war are also accomplices sharing the guilt for the crimes against the Tamil people intensified with greater impunity during the last three years. Rajapakse’s predecessors, JR Jayewardene, Premadasa and Chandrika Kumaratunge did not seek to destroy Tamil-speaking civilian settlements, their sources of livelihood and hospitals in the east and the north through aerial bombardments to the extent of Rajapakse did massacring nearly 35,000 Tamils under the pretext of a global war on terror an excuse invented by George W Bush and Tony Blair to invade Iraq . Rajapakse’s global war on terror on the Tamil people was accomplished with Indian, Chinese and Pakistani complicity.

The Tamils have no grievance about Rajapakse’s war against Tamil resistance or Tamil terrorism which was spawned by the Sri Lankan State terrorism over the years, being part of his electoral agenda maeant for his Sinhala elecorate in December but their grievance is the manner in which the war was prosecuted. It was largely a war against the Tamil people and not against Tamil terrorism the results of which bear ample testimony. The Rajapakse establishment have sown the seeds of bitter hatred and deep seated Tamil animosity against the Sinhalese people in the future. Both Rajapakse and Fonseka talk of restoring democracy through the abrogation of the executive presidential system a promise that Rajapakse made in November 2005 in his election manifesto.

Mahinda Rajapakse whose loyalties while being prime minister to the then President and leader of his party Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunge were in question in seeking to undermine her position, knowing his own incapacity of being loyal naturally cannot trust others, but depend on his brothers and near relatives for loyalty to him to run the Sri Lankan State. By and large his brothers, his other relatives, his sycophants and his exterminators have also been his biggest liabilities. He cannot be trusted because he does not trust others.

An accomplice in the matter of war crimes outside of this ruling clique was General Fonseka now turned the principal adversary having transformed into his main challenger. According to Rajapakse, and his coterie only he has the divine right to be President or for that matter the king which position he so self effacingly and graciously declines as being satisfied with being the protector of the people as depicted in posters, a crudely understated modesty of a megalomaniac.

It would be recalled that another retired General, Janaka Perera an aspirant to the position was assassinated not long ago with the blame attributed to the LTTE. Fonseka confirms in his interview with the Daily Mirror: “It is not only the LTTE, but there are thugs who are manipulating things for the government like those who came and misbehaved at the temple when I was there. All these people are assassins and drug addicts and may be even tasked to do some harm to me”. Fonseka is now being put through the ordeal of being distracted from his focus of campaigning.

Having crushed Tamil dissent which kept him going Rajapakse has exhausted his principal trick in the bag of the Mahinda Chintanaya making him politically bankrupt with nothing substantial to offer the Sri Lankan people to save them from the morass especially of the fast declining economy, politics, law and order, unprecedented corruption and nepotism, democracy and freedom of speech, human rights etc. It was rumoured that Rajapakse while riding on the wave of triumphalism wanted to pounce on the euphoric state of the Sinhala mind to use his victory to go for a third term as president by amending the constitution, a complete turnaround from his promise in November 2005 . Now again to neutralize Fonseka’s promise to abolish executive presidency he does another dizzy 180 degree turnaround. He even told an Indian newspaper that he was calling an early election to re-enfranchise the Tamil voters who had hitherto lost their franchise under the LTTE, a ridiculous lie. The fact is that the voter registers as records were destroyed by aerial bombings on the civilian targets of de facto State of Eelam. Further, nearly 300,000 Tamil voters in the Colombo district remain voluntarily disenfranchised after the 1983 pogrom where their residences were targeted for attack through the information provided in the voter registers, supplied by the State apparatus to those who were responsible for the attacks, and to avoid subsequent harassments by the government.

As for the retired General Fonseka , he comes in with the credentials of his attitude towards minority aspirations with his views candidly revealed some time ago at a media interview and his deep seated, though unsubstantiated, antipathy towards the Tamils while as a functioning General of an army claiming to be the “most disciplined” a mindset hard to change. The most, he now concedes, is that all are equal but the minorities are less equal. The Tamil people cannot trust him as much as they do not trust Rajapakse and they will not. The Tamils are foreign to Fonseka as he is to them. Given the injustices and the sufferings heaped on the IDPs both in the manner of their incarceration and the release at least in the immediate context, it would be vicariously unconscionable for them to vote for either of them. Dr Vickremabahu Karunaratne of the left could indeed absorb all such votes.

There is a new and intriguing dimension arising from the recent conference on “The role of the elected representatives of Sri Lanka’s Tamil and Muslim population in a process of national reconciliation, reconstruction and reform”, 20 to 22 November 2009, now known as the Zurich conference. It was easier to herd cats than to bring Tamil leaders together in the past, let alone for those of various hues, within a period of 3 days to meet in one place and reach consensus on such fundamental issues as new political strategies for the Sri Lankan Tamils. This is very baffling and leaves one to wonder whether there is a major power/s behind this move. It is quite evident that this Zurich consensus will back Rajapakse as is being gradually revealed. As Fonseka would prove a better ally of China and Pakistan, India as much as the US would want the known devil to at least counter this even at this very late stage with the hegemonic advance made into the Indian ocean by China as evidenced in the Hambantota port, the intended airport and the military aid to Sri Lanka to defeat the LTTE. It is strange that the Zurich consensus recognised that the Tamil-speaking peoples comprise three distinct peoples: Tamils, Muslims, and Tamils of Indian origin, an opportunistic attempt to drive a wedge between them.

Either way, Sri Lanka will eventually become a dynastic dictatorship a personal government controlled largely by the armed forces and supported by the Buddhist monks. There is always the excuse of keeping Tamil terrorism at bay. Behind the façade of the provincial councils in the North and the east the actual governance is over sighted, directed and controlled by army generals unlike in the Sinhalese areas. It would be easier for a foreign power that be to control Sri Lanka through a dictatorship than a democracy while jealously safe guarding their own democracy or their own system of government. While the greatest losers will be the Tamils the biggest casualty will be her declining democracy and its attendant values and principles. With the Tamils “kept in their place” there will be no political bickering amongst Sinhalese factions over the Tamil question making their politics tame and unexciting. They might as well favour a dictatorship and get on with their mundane lives with their daily needs met. This is the result of an evolutionary process triggered by Sinhala nationalism and Tamil blunders, opportunism and short sightedness over the past half century or more. The Sri Lankan peoples are too tired and hungry to be bothered about who has and what security and this is the best time for the entry of a dictatorship through their doorstep.

We are however waiting with bated breath for the other Sarath to be ceremoniously inducted to the electorate to confuse the less intelligent and or the more insane sections of the electorate which will make the election a lot more interesting. They must enjoy the fun while they can even in their adversity for they may not get another chance. Throw in another Rajapakse into the fray and it will make it a truly Sri Lankan presidential election.

( The writer is editor of the Eelam Nation)

-Sri Lanka Guardian