Sri Lanka army ended 25 years of Tamil separatist insurgency on May
19, 2009 when it defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
But the victory in what the government called the Humanitarian War (an
oxymoron as no war is humanitarian) came at a colossal cost. Three lakhs
of people became destitute in the war torn Northern Province.
Infrastructure and public services totally destroyed during the war are
yet to be fully restored. The trauma of war is very much there in
Northern Province putting strains on Sri Lankan society. And the
political process to bring back the Tamils to national mainstream is not
making much headway.
The book under review is a compilation of 11 research papers
on managing political, socio-economic and ethnic diversity challenges
faced by Sri Lanka after the war presented at a seminar organized by CSA
at Colombo on conflict resolution and peace building.] The political
part has some interesting papers, while socio-economic papers generally
present what Sri Lanka has been doing on this front. The book opens with
an introduction presenting a bird’s eye view of the contents by Brig K
Srinivasan and Ms Ancy Joseph. The quality of papers included range
from the excellent to the mediocre.
Professor Tissa Vitarana, Senior Minister of Sri Lanka presents an overview on nation building process. Vitarana headed the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) constituted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa
in his first tenure as President. It deliberated for three years over
the complex politico-ethnic problems and made 21 recommendations
accepted by 13 political parties. These recommendations were widely
acclaimed by civil society for evolving a lasting solution to the ethnic
confrontation in Sri Lanka. Though the President did act upon all the
APRC recommendations for implementation after the war APRC report
remains the only all embracing document on resolving the nation’s
socio-ethnic problem.
This makes Prof Vitarana’s paper the most important one in the book.
Prof Vitarana takes a pragmatic look at the road blocks to the ethnic
reconciliation process. The reality is the SLFP-Sinhala Buddhist lobby
is holding two-thirds majority in parliament, a federal solution is
unfeasible. However, the professor argues that even in unitary solution
it was possible to meet most of the aspirations of Tamil
minority. However, the Professor argues that the APRC’s recommendations
be the starting point for the PSC deliberations may well achieve this.
Ambassador G Parthasarthy’s ‘Emerging trends in Indian regional
policies and approach to relations with Sri Lanka’ provides a regional
relevance to the post-conflict analysis of Sri Lanka. While it gives a
compact survey of India’s worldview shaping its regional policy, the
author’s treatment of India’s relations with Sri Lanka could have
focused more on dilemmas faced by India due to the tardy response of Sri
Lanka to Indian concerns to relate the paper better to the theme of the
book.
The scholarly papers on ethnic diversity by N. Manoharan and Gnana
Moonesinghe provide a good understanding of the ethnic complexity faced
by Sri Lanka in particular. Readers would find it useful to read them as
they provide the backdrop for issues discussed in other papers.
N. Selvakumaran’s paper on ‘Linguistic Challenge’ presents valuable
insights into the evolution of language policy in Sri Lanka. However, l
have my reservations on the coinage ‘linguistic challenge’ as language
policy has been used as a political tool of ethnic politics. Though much
has been written on language issue in Sri Lanka I wonder whether any
empirical study has been carried out by policy makers to understand its
impact on society. One hopes Sri Lanka’s recently announced tri-lingual
policy would remove language as a factor in politics and make it a tool
for building ethnic understanding.
Rajiva Wijesinha
is familiar figure in his role as presidential advisor on
reconciliation. He had been writing and speaking on the Sri Lanka
perspective on reconciliation issues in many forums. Considering this,
his paper on political challenges falls short of expectation. If he
had included the three areas for action he had recommended in the draft
National Policy on Reconciliation
for action, it would have added to the value of the paper. The three
action areas are: recovery from the ravages of conflict and equitable
development; political participation and administrative accountability;
and ensuring justice and truth and understanding to ensure restitution
not retribution.The three-point concept of governance touched upon in
the summing up is too brief; it kindles curiosity without satisfying the
reader.
Wijesinha’s observation “government concentrates more on telling a
story that would translate into electoral successes and did not
concentrate on winning hearts and minds” sums up the Sri Lanka ruling
coalition’s attitudinal problem in dealing with post-conflict
management.
The Tamil perspective presented by Kandiah Visveswaran, political
science scholar, is short on analysis and long on description. While
presenting the Tamil viewpoint, he has allowed emotion to overtake
critical analysis. Roughly one third of the whole paper has focused on
how historically Sinhala’s have tried to deprive the rights of Tamil
nation. The rest of the paper is a long chronicle of ‘Sinhala
government’s calculated approach’ to subjugate Tamils in the
post-conflict period, without constructive suggestions from the Tamil
perspective.
The author in his attempt to vilify Sinhala-Buddhists has justified acts of violence and terrorism of the LTTE
saying that the presence of Tamil armed resistance was able to prevent
access to large part of the Tamil homeland and obscured structural and
cultural violence against Tamils. Actually LTTE was on the offensive to
carve out an independent Tamil Eelam and not fighting a defensive
battle. It eliminated more Tamil political leaders than Sri Lanka State.
LTTE’s assassinations and suicide bombings killing scores of innocent
civilians during the ceasefire period from 2002 to 2005 ensured the
disintegration of the peace process of 2002.
However, the author has chosen to wish away the negative impact of
LTTE’s provocative killings which gave a lease of life to
Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism after people voted for peace and looked
forward to the success of the peace process.
It is true Sri Lanka’s reconstruction effort has serious flaws and
its efforts at political reconciliation are tardy. But to conclude that
the ‘Sinhala polity is not ready to share power because power sharing
would seriously hamper the once hidden agenda, open at present – that is
to establish Sri Lanka as a pan-Sinhala state’ as the author has done
will be trivialising the huge sacrifices Tamils have made for nearly 60
years of their political struggle. The political struggle interrupted by
25 years of insurgency that has once again resumed after the war. The
only option for Tamils is to strengthen the political process to achieve
their aims as there is enough global sympathy for them after the war.
The Muslim
minority of Sri Lanka has been caught between the LTTE’s armed struggle
and the majority Sinhala response to Tamil militancy. So it is
interesting to note the national focus of Ambassador Javid Yusuf’s
piece, ‘A national perspective through Muslim eyes’ in contrast to the
Tamil perspective. He focuses on the need for translating the post war
achievements into meaningful and equitable benefit for ordinary man’s
day to day life. It will be useful for Tamil community to heed his
suggestion to introspect seriously on their role in post war Sri Lanka
to decide upon their strategies.
Yusuf’s plea for the leadership of TNA to augment its moral strength
by publicly declaring the LTTE’s armed struggle was a mistake is a
bitter prescription. Doe the TNA
leadership has the moral courage to do so, after years of living in the
reflected glory of the LTTE? He is critical of the Muslim leadership
for making no attempt to explain their strategies in contrast to those
adopted by Tamils as a result of which they were considered as
undermining the Tamil cause. He also takes to task the community’s
political leadership for ignoring the sufferings of Muslim community for
their personal benefit.
The book is very well edited by Lt Gen (retd.) VR Raghavan and its
production values are of a high order. Overall the book fulfills its aim
of providing an understanding the complexities of post-war rebuilding
of society in Sri Lanka. Research scholars, think tanks and policy
makers will find the book very useful.
No comments:
Post a Comment