RANIL GOES TO LONDON TOWN
By the time this article appears in print the Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe would have met the British Prime Minister Mr. Blair and probably Anton Balasingham, unless the latter had been instructed by Prabhakaran not to have any talks with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister. Why did Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe go to London, all of a sudden? Was it to discuss with the British authorities, after all they were the administrators who demarcated the island into nine provinces in as late as 1889, the legalities associated with granting an interim administration to the Northern and the Eastern provinces. Or has it got anything to do with the Navy blowing a pirate cargo ship of the LTTE. The Navy has to be commended for what they have done. However, instead the Navy was criticised by some members of the UNF government for sabotaging the so called peace process. Prabhakaran must be thanking these admirers of the "peace process" for accusing the Navy.
Since 1948 we have reached the lowest point in our dealings with the west. In fact one could say we are now back in the pre 1948 days when almost everything for us was decided by the British. The British took the important decisions before 1948, and now we are back in the same position as there is no "government" capable of governing the country. We have become the laughing stock of the western world as well as of the others. Except for Mr. Premadasa and Mr. Wijetunga who was the President for a short period all the other leaders came from elite families and from elite schools and had a good command of the English language. If the country had been ruled by leaders who had their education in Sinhala only and who had been to Madhya Maha Vidyalayas, by this time there would have been a debate on the pros and cons of educating our leaders in Sinhala language in the Madhya Maha Vidyalayas. I am not trying to say that those politicians who had their education in Sinhala in the Madhya Maha Vidyalayas are a better lot. In fact when one looks around and takes into consideration the record of some of the ministers who fall into that category, one is compelled to come to the conclusion that there is no difference in the capabilities of the members of the two categories. All that I am trying to point out is that having an education in English medium in elite schools is not a passport to hold important positions in the country.
The LTTE decided to keep away from the Tokyo loan talks. Though we say the LTTE decided, it could be that the western powers that control the internal affairs of the country wanted the LTTE not to attend the loan talks. The loan talks approved some money as a loan, the major share being for the Northern and the Eastern provinces and imposed certain conditions. The loan would be given only if the LTTE continues to take part in the "peace process" knowing very well that the LTTE has demanded an interim administration as a precondition for coming back to the negotiating table. The interim administration the LTTE demands is exclusively for themselves and outside the constitution of Sri Lanka.
It is not on record that the western powers had asked, ordered or requested the LTTE to change its position on the interim administration. Instead they asked the Sri Lankan "government" to take a more flexible attitude. The Norwegian Prime Minister himself came into the picture when he made his infamous statement on flexibility in Japan. This Asian economic giant but political dwarf is being used by the west as a "force" against India as well as China. Last week I attended the launching of a translation of Professor Hajime Nakamura's "Ways Of Thinking Of Eastern Peoples" into Sinhala by Professor P. B. Meegaskumbura of the Department of Sinhala at the University of Peradeniya. The ceremony was presided by the Japanese ambassador in Sri Lanka. Professor Nakamura compares and contrasts the ways of thinking of people of four Asian countries or regions, namely Bharat, Tibet, China and Japan. While listening to the speeches I was wondering whether the Asian leaders in politics, education, economics etc., at present have different ways of thinking (chinthanayas). Though Professor Nakamura does not use the word thinking in the same sense as the Chinthanaya used by us in the Jathika Chinthanaya school, only Professor Hao-Wei Ming from China could see the relevance of the book to the Jathika Chinthanaya and to the present state in the country. Incidently that confirmed that the Chinthanaya of the Chinese leaders in education and other fields is still different from that of the westerners unlike in the case of many Asian countries including Japan and Sri Lanka.
The Japanese and Sri Lankan leaders have no choice but to follow the westerners. Had Professor Nakamura used the word Chinthanaya in the sense we use he would have added an appendix on the Chinthanaya of the leaders of the four countries he had studied, in editions that were brought out after the so called second world war that saw Japan in ruins. Akashi, the special envoy from Japan is no different from Solheims and Westborgs, and all are doing what Armitages order them to do. If the USA is genuinely interested in peace Armitage and others could have "ordered" the LTTE to give up the demand for an interim administration solely for themselves. Instead they get down Ranil Wickremesinghe, Milinda Moragoda and G L Peiris to London to discuss the legalities of establishing an interim administration for the Northern and the Eastern provinces. The legalities that they are concerned are with respect to the interim administration outside the constitution. If it is within the constitution there is no need for the Attorney General to get legal advice from British lawyers. What is attempted, most probably, is to interpret something done outside the constitution as constitutional. The legal brains would work overtime to arrive at this interpretation and finally declare that they have a solution to satisfy all the communities in Sri Lanka.
Then there is the question of the pirate ship that was blown by the Navy. It is said that India helped, though we do not know in which way, the Sri Lankan Navy in this regard. The LTTE has been campaigning for recognition of the so called sea tigers and for a separate zone in the sea. The Sri Lankan Navy had been resisting this illegal terrorist demand for sometime, for which they should be admired. It is clear that India also does not like this separate zone demand and that they also had applied pressure on the Sri Lankan "government". However, as far as the LTTE and the USA are concerned this attitude of the Navy and India has led to a very unsatisfactory situation. The western powers support the LTTE for two reasons. Firstly to weaken Sinhalathva and secondly to use LTTE or shall I say Eelam - Japan axis first against India and then against China.
The interim administration would take care of this problem as well. When an interim administration is established in the Northern and the Eastern provinces, the so called territorial waters would also be defined in such a way that the zone outside those two provinces is given to the interim administration. This is another legality that the British would have discussed with Sri Lankan delegation led by Ranil Wickremesinghe. When the members of the delegation come back they would not have the final solution on the interim administration, but during their stay they would have been told the salient features of the interim administration that would be given exclusively for the LTTE, outside the constitution pretending to be within the constitution. They would have been advised on how to bypass the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka if the need arises.
The LTTE will get all that they want unless India could turn tables. The LTTE gets all these not because they are strong but simply because they are being supported by the USA. If not for the USA the LTTE is no force at all and we should not be misled by the proscription of the LTTE in the Bush country. The proscription is only a camouflage that has not prevented Akashis and Solheims who work for the USA in meeting Prabhakaran and his gang of murderers.
The USA is not interested in peace in Sri Lanka. Why should that country be interested in peace in a small country such as Sri Lanka when it is not interested in peace in the world. The USA is responsible for the violation of peace in the world in most cases since it became a super power after the "second world war". It thrives on war and not on peace. Having done with Afghanistan and Iraq it is getting ready to deal with Iran and North Korea. Why should the USA get involved in the so called peace process in Sri Lanka. It is not peace that the USA wants in Sri Lanka. It is Eelam that the USA is after. Of course, the USA state department would cry from top of the roof of the white house where Monica Lewinsky lived sometime ago, that USA is against a separate state. Bill Clinton also told his wife as well as the entire nation that he had no affair with Monica Lewinsky. However, we know how the westerners use their political, economic and cultural (in the form of knowledge that they and only they create) power when it comes to dealings with weak and poor countries.
We are heading for an Eelam not through war but by means of constitutional legalities. The LTTE has been adamant in what it wants and it is the "government" of Sri Lanka that has to capitulate to the demands of the LTTE approved by the USA state department. In fact I am inclined to think that in spite of all the betrayals of the armed forces by the higher ups the Sri Lankan armed forces can still defeat the LTTE. The Navy in the recent months with all the MoUs and the SLMMs coming in support of the LTTE has shown that the tiger is not a tiger at all. It is only a cat that is only capable of committing suicide and that has been inflated by the western media and the western politicians. The Sri Lankan "governments" have been pushed to a defeatist position by the so called international community and our so called leaders who are given to us by the British but not selected by us have capitulated unashamedly. The LTTE is never asked to change its intransigent positions and it is the "government" that has to be flexible. The flexibility has now reached the limit and one doesn't have to be a Physicist to know that a flexible elastic string stretched too much will break into pieces while an inelastic string has a better chance of survival.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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