The Core Issue
21 May 2002
Here is the core issue - how can there be a single
state with two contending armies and navies within it ? The
quintessential attribute of every state is the sole and exclusive
possession of armed military might within its borders. That is the
bedrock of a state; its constitutional form is secondary and could
be changed from time to time. The first and quintessential attribute
is not susceptible to such change. It is a fixed and immutable
condition - a veritable sine qua non.
On the island of Sri Lanka there are now two contending armies and
navies within its borders. The army of the Sri Lankan state holds
unchallenged sway within the seven Sinhala majority provinces and
within parts of the Tamil majority northeast province.
The army of the LTTE holds unchallenged sway within the two-thirds
or so of the northeast province which is under its control. The
navies of the two parties operate in the seas abutting the littorals
of these two land masses. This situation is the outcome of 18 years
of war between the LTTE on the one side and the Sri Lankan
government and for a brief period the Indian government on the
other. The Memorandum of Understanding on which the current
ceasefire is based recognises and defines the respective areas of
control of the two sides. That is the present position.
The immediate question that arises from this situation is whether
the Sri Lankan state in its original form encompassing the entire
land mass of the island of Sri Lanka is still in existence. The
answer must be in the negative for a substantial, recognisable and
defined area of the island is now under the control and occupation
of another power, namely, the LTTE. The present Sri Lankan state
exists and functions only within its area of control on the island -
it has shrunk in size and reach and jurisdiction. Within this
reduced area it is still unquestionably a state possessing the first
and quintessential condition of a state , namely, the exclusive and
unchallenged possession of military might within its new borders.
The LTTE which controls the balance of the island, namely,
two-thirds of the northeast province, has not set up a state therein
but it possesses the power and resources necessary for its
governance. The core issue is how this situation can be changed in
order to produce a single, all-island state. The matter of
constitutional form is one that must await the resolution of that
question. If a single all-island state cannot be formed and two new
states emerge then each of them will have its own constitutional
form decided on by the representatives of the population of each
state.
For a single all-island state to be restored it is imperative that
there should be on the island only one army and one navy. That is
possible only if one or other of the existing armies and navies is
disbanded or absorbed within the other or if the two are amalgamated
into one. The present context is unpropitious for any one of these
three possibilities for the LTTE has won many battles between the
two sides during the past five years. History provides no precedent
of a victorious army either disbanding leaving its adversary in
power or of absorption into its defeated foe or of amalgamation with
its far more numerous defeated opponent. So the prospect of reducing
two to one is beyond the bounds of rational comprehension.
Consequently the two will co-exist side by side as they have done
for many years now both at war and at peace with each other. The de
facto reality of the two state island will continue indefinitely and
mutate gradually into de jure reality.
The existence of two entirely independent states on the island does
not, and should not, militate against their evolving cooperative
relationships with each other expressed eventually in common
institutions similar to those of the European Union. That is the
example that points the way to a peaceful and civilized future
enshrining the primacy of human rights over state rights. It needs
new thinking, fearless innovation and experimentation and a
willingness to change releasing oneself from the "dead hand of the
past". Everywhere this challenge has been opposed by impotent
extremists who hark back to the past and equally universally the
forces of pragmatism have prevailed . In the long run it will be no
different in the island of Sri Lanka.
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