Norwegian Peace Initiative
Main Stream Extremism
Peace Process faces Difficult Future
[TamilNet,
September 12, 2005 ]
Reflecting growing anxieties amongst Sri Lanka’s Tamils
in the wake of the Sinhala nationalist forces gathering behind Mr.
Mahinda Rajapakse, the Tamil Guardian newspaper warned this week that
the peace process “will face an ever more uncompromising Sinhala bloc.”
The island’s political developments, moreover, reflect the polarised
sentiments amongst the island’s communities, the English-language
paper’s editorial column argued.
The text of its editorial comment, titled “Mainstream Extremism”
follows:
The stark polarisation amongst Sri Lanka’s ethnic communities is
undoubtedly set to deepen further. The Sinhala right wing coalition that
emerged this week behind Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse’s Presidential
candidacy is not just a marriage of political convenience but an
assertive statement of their shared vision of a future Sri Lanka – one
in which the Sinhala-Buddhism is the prevailing order and the minorities
know their place. Mr. Rajapakse is going to sign an agreement with the
Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the third force in the Sinhala politics
and another with the small, but important monks’ party, the Jeyatha Hela
Urumaya. The text of the JVP deal makes grim reading for those concerned
with promoting a peaceful solution to Sri Lanka’s protracted ethnic
conflict. It is a comprehensive attack on the very foundations of the
Norwegian peace process. Every concept around which dialogue has been
proposed – joint aid mechanism, interim administration, etc – has been
rejected. The ceasefire is criticised. Even Oslo’s invaluable role in
stopping the bloodshed is denounced.
The most important aspect of these attitudes, as far as the Tamils are
concerned, is that they are mainstream values in the south. The JVP has
been described as ultra-nationalist, chauvinist and hardline. These
characterisations are all true. But what does it say about Sri Lanka’s
polity that one of the two main candidates for the most powerful office
in the country is basing his election platform almost wholly on these
principles? The twelve points spelled out in the JVP text are described
as ‘conditions’ which Mr. Rajapakse must accept for the party’s support.
But the Tamil perspective on this is quite different. It is a joint
statement of shared values, rather than imposed conditions.
Mr. Rajapakse’s archrival, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, is perceived by
many observers as the more liberal. But the Tamils have noted his ready
resort to nationalist positions more than once. Even this week, in a
feeble effort to vie for the nationalist vote, Mr. Wickremesinghe vowed
to usher in a ‘Prarakaramabahu’ era if he wins. His invocation of the
name of a Sinhala king credited in mythology with unifying the country -
by the sword – is unlikely to endear him to the non-Sinhalese.
The past few years of comparatively stable - at least in the south -
peace and international engagement have not invoked a spirit of
compromise in the Sinhala polity. On the contrary, mindsets have not
changed at all. The unkind and unwarranted criticism levelled at Norway
is a case in point. The Tamils are grateful for Norway’s diplomatic
intervention, not because of any latent bias, but because it was a
sincere effort to end the war. But what is important to the Sinhala
polity is not the lives saved or the peace that prevails because of
Norway’s intervention, but a misperceived affront to an even more
misguided notion of national sovereignty. ‘Impartiality’ in southern
lexicon – unfortunately for Norway - means hostility to the Tamil
struggle. We note, with some interest, that not once has Mr.
Wickremesinghe risen to defend the Norwegians’ indefatigable efforts
against the JVP’s bile.
 What is clear to Sri Lanka’s minority communities is that in the coming
years we will face
an ever more uncompromising Sinhala nationalist bloc
with a firm grasp on power. So will the international community. Those
still optimistic about a liberal peace in a united Sri Lanka need to
seriously reconsider the viability of their vision. Three decades of
violence have not dulled Sinhala nationalist aspirations, nor have four
years of peace and increasing enmeshment in the threads of
globalisation. On the other hand, these - and a half-century of
increasing Sinhala oppression - have concretised a Tamil national
consciousness. It is these polarised sentiments that are playing out in
the political developments today. |
