A KIND OF "NONAGATHAYA"
One does not have to be a so-called Political Scientist to know that the President is under pressure to give up the three ministries that she took over couple of months ago. Though the situation has worsened in a way, as there are no protests at all against the LTTE maintaining camps in the "uncleared" areas as well as "cleared" areas, the Prime Minister is making a big issue out of it. So is Dr. G. L. Peiris who seems to have got the big business forum headed by his brother in law to demand that the President and the Prime Minister get together to work for "peace". Though they do not spell it out, what these big business people want is to see that the three ministries that have become the talk of the town should be given back to UNF ministers.
The Prime Minister is of the view that the "peace process" should come under the person who holds the portfolio of defense and wants the President to take over the "peace" in the country. He has said that the President should now implement the MoU signed between him and the terrorist Prabhakaran. Now this is an interesting turn of events as what the Prime Minister effectively says is that as far as he is concerned the so-called peace process has come to an end. In other words the "peace process" has ceased to be a "process". The "peace process" is neither about peace nor is a process and the Prime Minister has admitted the second part of it. Of course he will always claim that whether a process or not it is all about "peace".
Why should the President implement the MoU signed between a terrorist and a Prime Minister who did not have the authority to sign such document. The MoU is about a ceasefire and it had to be signed by the President, as she is the person who could declare 'war" or "peace". As she was not even shown a copy of the MoU before it was signed she does not have to take the risks associated with talking peace with Prabhakaran. In any event she does not have to implement the contents of an illegal document.
The Prime Minister knows very well that a Norwegian peace team has no more role to play. He also knows that the "peace process" died a few months ago. As we explained last week, the MoU failing to recognise the sea tigers as another Navy, has entered into an impasse. The taking over of the three ministries has only given the prime minster an opportunity to blame the President, for something she is not responsible. There is one important step that she could take. As president of the country she could declare the MoU null and void. As the president has not signed the document and the demands of the LTTE cannot be met there is no point in hanging onto an illegal document that has no future.
If there is going to be another round of talks, either with the President or the Prime Minister, the LTTE would demand recognition of the sea tigers as a navy, and also an interim administration for the northern and the eastern provinces with the LTTE in control. With pressure from India also increasing it is clear that neither of the demands could be given. The Prime Minister is incapable of handling the "peace process" anymore, and would like to quit if possible. However, Dr. G. L. Peiris wants the Prime Minister to continue with the "process" which even in its hay day was only a "peace procession". The minister, it appears, with his connections in the big business community is trying to apply pressure on the President to give up the three ministries, and thinks that then the Prime Minister would be able to proceed with the so-called peace process. It is not clear what Dr. Peiris expects to achieve with his latest attempts to "solve" the problems created by Tamil racism. He may be only an agent of the western powers and competing with his younger colleague Milinda Moragoda for recognition by the west. He may be having other ambitions and may be planning to show the public that Ranil Wickremesinghe is incapable of achieving "peace" in the country.
In any event, it is too much to be expected that the President would declare the MoU null and void. She herself is very much for "peace" and may even would like to negotiate again with Prabhakaran and give him the interim administration that he is asking for. She would never find fault with the Tamil racists as she believes that the Sinhala people, especially the Sinhala Buddhists have not given the Tamils their so-called rights. She has no sense of history and her education here and abroad does not allow her to see any good in the Sinhala Buddhists. Though she is officially the leader of the SLFP, she is continuing with the politics of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) founded by her late husband.
Her colleagues from the SLMP days, Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and Chandana Kathriarachchi have started a signature campaign against the impending SLFP - JVP alliance. Though the majority of the SLFP leaders, parliamentarians and the rank and file, look forward to twentieth of January, the date that has been fixed for the signing of the "pact" between the SLFP and the JVP, the signature campaign by two colleagues of the President could postpone it again. The President herself has said that she would like to consult the party members at grass root level before taking a decision. It is clear that Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga is not for an alliance of the SLFP and the JVP. If she supported such an alliance whole heartedly the "pact" between the two parties could have been signed a long time ago. The signing of the agreement has been postponed a number of times as Ms. Kumaratunga does not want the alliance.
Ms. Kumaratunga was pushed into discussions with the JVP as the SLFP had no other alternative to come to power again. The PA for all organisational purposes is a SLFP and only the MEP among the other parties has some mass base. The LSSP and the CP are spent forces that would die a natural death sooner than later. However, these two Marxist parties are still able to control the affairs of the PA not because of any special qualities of the ageing leaders but due to the close connections between the policies of Ms. Kumaratunga and the SLMP, and those of the LSSP and the CP, on the Tamil racist problem. If given half a chance Ms. Kumaratunga would drop the JVP like a hot potato.
However, she has to continue to have a dialogue with the JVP as the rank and file of the SLFP are strongly in favour of an alliance of the two parties. In addition to the LSSP and the CP, the west also does not want an alliance of the SLFP and the JVP. It is not strange that western capitalism and the Marxist parties in Sri Lanka have more or less the same policies with respect to the Tamil racist problem as both are on the same side of the divide when it comes to cultural colonialism. The Tamil racist problem is debated in a matrix of theories and concepts that have been formulated within western cultural colonialism and the Marxists who support western colonialism when it comes to the cultural component think in the same idiom as the western colonialists.
Ms. Kumaratunga will never drop the MoU signed between the Prime Minister and the terrorist murderer, though it is an illegal document as she is being dictated by the policies of the SLMP and not of the SLFP. She will try to prolong the signing of the agreement between the SLFP and the JVP as much as possible. However, she has less than two years as President of the country and we would have to consider the balance period as a kind of "nonagathaya" in the "fortunes" of the country. However in the meantime Prabhakaran carries on as usual.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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