TALKS WITH THE LTTE, TAMIL ELITE AND FEDERAL STATE
The LTTE is now a weak outfit and writing is on the wall for the terrorists. The terrorists, who were and have been maintained by India and the western countries by giving them sanctuary and training, are now on the run. The Sri Lankan armed forces have done a very good job in the past few months and when the last ship that carried arms to the terrorists was destroyed by the Navy the terrorists can now only hope that the "international community" would come to their rescue.
We do not believe that the LTTE bought all the arms from the money that they collected from the Tamil Diaspora and it is reasonable to assume that the "international community" had a hand in supplying arms to the most ruthless terrorist group in the world. However, now the LTTE has a logistic problem, and even here the "international community" could supply them a vessel or two and the Navy would have to take extra precautions to deal with such situation. In the meantime we hear the old grandmother stories of the NGO peace vendors and their mentors in the west on the invincibility of the LTTE and that how the fight in the Northern Province going to be much more difficult than that in the Eastern Province. This talk of invincibility of the LTTE is old hat and only the so called international believes in these stories propagated by themselves.
As the LTTE is the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world if the "international community" is so much interested in democracy they should have helped the Sri Lankan government to defeat the LTTE long time ago. However, it was not to be the case, and when the Sri Lankan armed forces are in a position to defeat the LTTE the "international community" gets upset and try to find out ways and means of salvaging the terrorists. The terrorists and before that the Tamil elite have been used by the British and others against the Sinhalathva, and the "international community" would now resort to all strong arm tactics to force the Sri Lankan government to come to the negotiating table as the aspiration of the westerners as far as Sri Lanka is concerned is the weakening if not annihilation of Sinhalathva. The negotiations for the last so many years have not produced anything except providing breathing space for the terrorists. The strong arm tactics of the west would include imposing economic sanctions, cutting loans etc., in effect punishing the people for electing a government that does not act in the interests of the "international community". The whole "developing" world should unite against these tactics of the west which amounts to punishing innocent people who have exercised their democratic right of electing a government of their choice. This proves again that what is meant by democracy as far as the west is concerned is making the world go round according to their wish and of nobody else. If the west is genuine in helping the so called developing world then they should not impose conditions for such help. If a person or a nation is in need of help then it is a sorry state of affairs if the helper were to say look I will help only if you are ready to dance according to my tune. If the people of a country have elected a democratic government or even tolerate a not so democratic government why should the west ask them to elect or establish somehow or other a government that is tolerated by the "international community", if they are genuinely interested in the welfare of the people of the country.
The west very often uses economic sanctions and other such weapons when they want to topple a government that they do not want. They could cook up a case of violation of human rights or exaggerate such cases in the case of governments that they do not want and turn a Nelsonian eye against such violations in the case of governments that they want to maintain. President Mahinda Rajapakse addressing the UN referred to this matter and he said human rights are too valuable and should not be manipulated to achieve political objectives. It is clear that the west is playing with human rights, and activities such as imposing economic sanctions should be considered as a crime against humanity.
LTTE is fighting for a separate state and there should not be any talks with the LTTE unless and until an effective decommissioning of arms and rejection of the policy of a separate state by the terrorists take place. However, it has to be clearly stated that the Sinhala people cannot agree to a Federal state as this demand has a history and other consequences. It is the Tamil elite led by Mr. SJV Chelvanayakam who clamoured for a Federal state as a stepping stone for a separate state. Even today the non LTTE Tamil Parties want a Federal state with merger of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces.
In solving the so called national problem or the ethnic problem it has become fashionable to state that power should be devolved. However when the question is asked as to why power should be devolved it is said only by devolving power the problems of the Tamils and the other minorities can be solved. However, these so called problems turn out to be mere administrative problems (grievances) even if one considers them as problems. Hence later grievances were replaced by aspirations and it is now said that the aspirations of the minorities could be solved only by devolving power. Now what are the aspirations of the minorities? If it is said that the minorities would like to control their affairs in their homeland then the discussion would not proceed from there as there are no so called homelands of the minorities. Are we to concede that the Northern and the Eastern provinces are the homeland of the Tamils? If that is the case what about the Muslims living in those areas? Then the present Eastern province was demarcated by the British as late as 1889 and these British demarcated provinces could not be considered as Tamil homeland. The homeland myth has been exposed and it is not necessary to go into detail on that subject. Further if the Sinhala population is less in the Eastern Province then it is the result of the massacre of Sinhalas by the British, and colonisation of those areas by the British with Tamils. It has to be mentioned that the Muslims in the Eastern Province were settled down by the Sinhala kings and those who would like to deny the present Eastern Province which was part of Ruhuna to the Sinhala people, want to continue with the imperialist British policy of colonisation and decolonisation after 1818 the date of the first Sinhala independence struggle against the British after the 1815 convention. A fare share of Eastern province has to be given to the Sinhalas who were deprived of their land by the British.
In any event the Tamils in Sri Lanka are not concentrated in the Northern Province and the Eastern Province as we have argued on so many occasions without any counter arguments. In fact more than fifty percent of the Tamils live outside those two provinces, and thus even if the Northern and Eastern Provinces are not considered Tamil homeland but merely areas where Tamils predominantly there is no case for the aspirations as the facts betray the demand for a Federal state with North and East merged. As we have said a so called ethnic problem cannot have a territorial solution unless the demographic patterns have an ethnic basis. Thus the "aspirations" of the Tamils cannot be fulfilled as there is no rational basis for the so called aspirations.
The case for a Federal state with devolved power cannot be justified unless the aspiration of the Tamils is a separate state in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces. However, Tamil elite would deny today that their aspiration is to have a separate state and thus there is no basis whatsoever for a Federal state with power devolved to the provinces. This does not mean that the Sinhalas would agree with the Tamil elite if they were to claim that their aspiration is a separate state. The LTTE wants a separate state and even if they want power devolved the Sinhala majority would not agree to even to negotiate with the LTTE on that basis, as the devolution of power is a first step towards a separate state.
The power devolved in a Federal set up cannot be taken back under any circumstances and with the history of the Federal concept in this country the majority of the Sinhalas would not agree to devolution of power in a Federal state, even if economic sanctions are imposed by the west under some pretext or other. The Sinhala people agree for devolution of power within a unitary state for development of the country. It is not something alien to the Sinhala people as there had been Epas and Mapas who exercised power in certain fields but did not reign, in the ancient eksesath rajya. The provinces and local authorities or the units of devolution cannot be sovereign units and they shall exercise power in certain fields specifically mentioned in the Constitution and they shall exercise these powers in the name of the country. It is clear that under such set up the Northern Province will exercise power over mostly Tamils though in the Eastern Province it would not be the case. It has to be pointed out that the eksesath rajya is a form of unitary state and I have no objection to call Sri Lanka an eksesath rajya where the sovereignty of the people and most of the power are exercised through the centre while the peripheral units exercise powers in certain fields or areas specified in the constitution, in the name of the country.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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