Can Chandrika deliver the goods?

Tamils - a Trans State Nation..

"To us all towns are one, all men our kin.
Life's good comes not from others' gift, nor ill
Man's pains and pains' relief are from within.
Thus have we seen in visions of the wise !."
- Tamil Poem in Purananuru, circa 500 B.C

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The first round of talks in Jaffna between the Sri Lankan team led by Kumarasiri Balapatabendi and the LTTE team has been gone through with warmth and cordiality. As we go to Press, a second round of talks has been planned. But it is evident that there is a long way to go before the government comes to grips with fundamental issues: issues that have gone on like a festering wound, bedeviling relations between the Sinhalese and the Tamils over the past three decades.

The Liberation Tigers as well as the Tamil people have always shown warmth towards any attempt at peace. Religious and other dignitaries, both local and foreign and media persons who visited Jaffna during the past few years were impressed not only with the LTTE's motivation when it comes to war, but also with their earnest search for peace. The kind of enthusiastic welcome that the people of Jaffna gave the Slri Lankan delegation was certainly a manifestation of their keen desire for. peace. But that should not be misinterpreted as a willingness to surrender their rights. Friendliness and cordiality are hurpan instincts. But political instinct is quite another proposition.

History is a good teacher, and what lessons the Tamil people learnt from past history have proved to be always unpleasant. No Prime Minister or President in Sri Lanka has ever been able to redress the grievances of the Tamil people; nor were they able to keep promises and undertakings. Either they did not have the political will, or they got submerged under forces of Sinhala hegemonism. The fact is, there is an underlying reservoir of Sinhala chauvinism that surfaces every time some settlement seemed possible. That could assume different faces opportunist politicians, the greed for power of the party in opposition, the Buddhist Maha Sangha, the armed forces, war profiteers .....

One time Prime Minister Sir John Kotalawala went back on his promise he made in Jaffna, to make constitutional provision to give equal rights to the Sinhalese and Tamil languages. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was forced to tear the pact he made with Tamil leader Chelvanayakam. Dudley Senanayake confessed his inability to implement the pact he made with Chelvanayakam. The only pact that J.R.Jayawardene made was with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and that too ended in shambles. History theref6re.telis the Tamils that while they keep the doors open for any negotiated settlement and peace, they should also be watchful of Trojan horses and those who bring gift!

The LTTE made an unprecedented gesture in welcoming the election of a new Sri Lankan Prime Minister. It could be that they recognised in Chandrika Kumaratunga a Sinhalese politician of a different mettle. But individual approaches, however honest or inspired they might seem, are not adequate enough to solve problems. Can she escape the political mine-fields that are a feature of southern politics?

Trouble is brewing between the Sri Lankan P.M. and the military, says an AFP report dated October 19 from Amal Jayasinghe in Colombo. Says the report:

"Tension mounted between Sri Lanka's Prime Minister and armed forces commanders after she charged that they might try to sabotage her efforts to end decades of ethnic bloodshed, senior officers said Wednesday (in her interview with BBC)

"Senior officers expressed disgust at Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga's remarks that the Sri Lankan military, currently battling Tamil Tiger rebels, was a "government unto itself" and that she would not tolerate such an attitude."

The Prime Minister is reported to have told the BBC that she would not allow the military to do "What they think is right", and that "the previous government did not have sufficient control over its armies".

The AFP report quotes "a defence analyst close to the government", as saying that the P.M. had spoken a "load of rubbish". The analyst is reported to have made a more startling comment, "If you don't find a solution (to the ethnic conflict) very soon, the (army) guns are going to turn 180 degrees. You can't be boxing your troops in camps and go on insulting them,"

What happens between an elected Prime Minister and the armed forces is only of marginal interest to the Tamil people. But an army that can neither hope to win this war, nor has the stomach for peace,'cannot be of much use to the Prime Minister, or her government, or the Sinhalese people. But at this juncture, one is bound to pose the question:-If peace with honour is her stated aim, can she deliver the goods?

Chandrika - LTTE Talks: 1994/95