The international community and us

Influential sections of the international community released two very important missives with respect to Sri Lanka last week. The first is the formal EU resolution listing the LTTE as a terrorist organization. The second is Joint Statement issued by the Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka, urging the Government and the LTTE to take immediate steps to reverse the deteriorating situation and put the country back on the road to peace.

LTTE theoretician as well as some political analysts in Colombo warned that an EU ban would push the country to war. Others have opined that the country is already at war. In any event, hardly had the ink dried on the EU resolution, the LTTE agreed to meet representatives of the Government in Oslo to discuss safety issues pertaining to the SLMM. This time around there was no foot-dragging regarding transport arrangements, movement of cadres and bickering pertaining to one-upmanship.

Still, there is little cause of euphoric celebration, we believe. There are many, many miles to go from the safety of SLMM personnel to safety of the citizen. The landmine explosion in Wilpattu killing seven local tourists, including award-winning author Nihal de Silva as well as the summary execution of 12 civilians in Welikanda not to mention a huge and continuing exodus of peoples from the war-ravaged areas, are indeed disturbing developments.

The EU resolution does inhibit LTTE fund-raising and propaganda activity. It can drive a cornered Prabhakaran to embrace desperate and enormously destructive strategies. While it can be argued that the absence of a ban never stopped Prabhakaran, it has to be accepted that if the full benefits of the ban are to be reaped the Government has to get its house in order. If the drying up of the flow of funds to Prabhakaran’s war chest is accompanied by a pilfering of the Treasury via shady arms deals, commissions and such, to put it crudely, the people would have gained nothing.

The Co-Chairs articulate the situation in this way: ‘Finding solutions requires political commitment, imagination and spirit of compromise and the responsibility for this lies solely with the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.’

The LTTE is a law unto itself and can (and does) as it pleases. The Government does not enjoy such blanket privileges. Even if the problem has been internationalized there is no escaping the fact that the ‘we’ in the equation have a part to play and this is a responsibility that the Government can (as governments have) but should not abdicate.

Although all-party conferences have not yielded much in the past, a move towards developing a broad consensus among parties that have embraced democracy should not be pooh-poohed. The President has claimed he wants a ‘Sri Lankan Model’ of devolution. Devolution is not a demand that exclusively belongs to Prabhakaran. It is a demand of an entire citizenry because all of us have been made vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by self-serving politicians who make full use of a system which facilitates the same.

The parties represented in parliament have to deal with questions such as devolution of what powers, devolution to whom, to what geographic entities, through which mechanism, under what conditions etc. The recent history of attempts at consensus-building does leave room for cynicism. After all, apart from the 17th Amendment, there hasn’t been a single piece of major legislation that did not seek to serve parochial interests. Both major parties have been guilty of this.

Mahinda Rajapakse has to be commended for bringing a significant number of parties under one umbrella and keeping them within the fold. On the other hand, the consensus picture will remain incomplete and flawed if the United National Party is left out or chooses to stay out. Regardless of the crisis within that party, the UNP remains the single largest party and even in times of disarray cannot be counted out.

Given the enormity of the challenge at hand, the President, his party, his allies and the UNP, must mature from the petty bickering and cheap attempts at subverting one another. Statesmanship is the order of the day and this is the quality that the nation expects from its leaders, whether in government or in opposition.

The last three elections have collectively strengthened Mahinda Rajapaksa’s hand. Whether the hand he extends to the UNP is a hand of friendship or one that seeks the corresponding hands of potential dissidents is left to be seen. The UNP for its part has expressed a lack of faith regarding the All Party Conference. Whether this is based on a correct assessment of fact or stems from a history of antipathy, we do not know. In any event there is no doubt whatsoever that the major parties have behaved shamelessly with respect to the recent Colombo mayoral race and if they do not raise themselves out of the political gutter or gutter politics if you will then the future does not look rosy.