by Gamini Weerakoon
It was ironic that on Independence Day when military might is the showpiece of the celebrations, the man who was acknowledged as the person who led the troops to victory in the 30-year-old terrorist war was languishing in prison in Colombo, ‘unwept, unhonoured and unsung’ despite calls being made by leading religious dignitaries of all faiths and community leaders to release General Fonseka.
Political Unity
National unity cannot be pulled out instantly on Independence Day like a rabbit out of a magician’s hat. A lesson learnt from history is that it is a long process that has to be cultivated over the years. But in this country, governments in power expect aggrieved political parties and minorities to rally round the ruling party on Independence Day to demonstrate national unity to the outside world, however much they have been kicked around on other days of the year. Thus, political unity has been elusive.
Political unity has broken down in the majority community with the two main parties being strongly polarised moving apart rapidly. Polarisation between Tamils and the Sinhalese happened way back in 1958 and continued moving apart to the point of separation. With the end of the war on terrorism, almost two years ago, it was expected that national reconciliation would be attempted almost immediately. Talks between the Tamil National Alliance — in fits and starts — have been reported in recent times but it was only last week that it was reported that the two parties would engage on a ‘structured regular dialogue’ on constitutional changes.
There is of course the Presidential Lessons Learnt and National Reconciliation Commission. With due respect to members of the commission it must be pointed out that Presidential Commissions after kicking off with much bombast have fizzled out into oblivion producing no positive results.
Dynamite
Having watched political developments in recent years we get an eerie feeling that the Tamil problem remaining unresolved is a kind of political dynamite for the Rajapaksa government. Concessions granted to Tamils as called for by them could cold blow up the Sinhala vote bank in the South. A recent pronouncement by Rajapaksa that he would not concede now what he had refused Prabhakaran had the Hela Urumaya types cheering. The shelving of the All Party Conference Report which Prof. Tissa Vitarana and others sweated over for about two years is another example.
Keeping the Tamil problem going is more in line with the thinking of Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington whose contribution: The Clash Of Civilizations And The Remaking Of World Order is still making the news. He cited Venezuelan Writer Michael Dibdin in his novel, Dead Lagoon: “There can be no true friends without true enemies, unless we hate what we are not we cannot love what we are……. Those who deny them deny their family, their heritage, their culture, their birthright, their very selves. They will not be lightly forgiven.”
Huntington adds: “The unfortunate truth in these old truths cannot be ignored by statesmen and scholars. For people seeking identity and reinventing ethnicity; enemies are essential and potentially most dangerous enmities occur across the fault lines between the world’s major civilizations.”
Sinhala and Tamil dynamite
For some Sinhalese the fear and hatred of Tamils could be political dynamite that could be used to their advantage. To Tamils too enough hatred and fear generated against the Sinhalese can keep their agendas intact.
All Sri Lankan governments have been emphatically stressing that their fight was against the LTTE and not the Tamil Community. After the military clout of LTTE was eliminated, attention was focused on the so called diaspora. Verbal attacks on the Tamil diaspora are still so intense that government mass media propagandists have ‘Sinhalasised’ diaspora into ‘diasporava’!
But a very strange paradox has manifested itself. Kumaran Pathmanathan — KP as he is known — who was the acknowledged leader of the diaspora, the arms procurer of the LTTE, financier and in the last days of Prabhakaran, named as the International Head of the LTTE and the Leader of the LTTE after the death of Prabhakaran, is now said to be actively engaged and working with the government on rehabilitation of former LTTE cadres and displaced Tamils!
KP is an internationally wanted criminal and an Interpol warrant has been issued for his arrest. He is wanted by the Indian government for questioning on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. Before his capture in Kuala Lumpur, the hatred of KP by Rajapaksa propagandists was evident in editorials written about him. All that hatred appears to have evaporated. KP and Gotabaya Rajapaksa are reported to have buried the hatchet and the past seems forgotten.
Two other chief lieutenants of Prabhakaran — Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan alias Karuna, the Chief Commander of the LTTE in the Eastern Province and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan are leading politicians of the Rajapaksa government. Karuna is MP, Deputy Minister and Vice President of the SLFP while Pillayan is the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province!
These former terrorists are wanted for murder of both Sinhalese and Tamils — in one horrendous massacre more than 600 policemen who surrendered to the LTTE on the orders of then President Premadasa were shot dead. As former Senior SSP Tassie Seneviratne told the Lessons Learnt Commission, not even a departmental inquiry has been held in to the incident so far! Who can speak of boosting the morale of the police?
Government propagandists claim that KP, Karuna and Pillayan are being used to win over the Tamil diaspora. But could these renegades who have been called traitors and renegades perform that role?
The Fonseka-KP paradox
The greatest paradox is that the acclaimed hero for the military defeat of terrorism, the former decorated General Sarath Fonseka whom government leaders acknowledged as the ‘best army commander in contemporary times’ now languishes in prison in prisoners uniform — dirty shorts and banian while Karuna and Pillayan strut about in finely cut suits probably from London, hopping out of brand new cars. This is the greatest paradox of Sri Lankan terrorism.
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