On May 14, 1976 the Tamil United Liberation Front passed a resolution in Vadukoddai (Batakotte). That document, describable as Tamil nationalism at its chauvinistic best, was voted on, in effect, on July 21, 1977. The TULF won 18 seats. Last Saturday, the political successor to the TULF, the Tamil National Alliance secured the Northern Provincial Council with a resounding majority. The election was preceded by the launch of a manifesto that was a virtual one-to-one of the Vadukoddai Resolution which, among other things, spurred Tamil youth to take up arms and precipitated an armed conflict that cost the nation and all communities, especially Tamils.
In hindsight both resolution-moment and
election result in the seventies provided opportunities for all communities to
revisit the ideas of nation and citizenship.
Exaggeration of grievance and tall-order aspirations generated less hope
than fear, but had statesmanship prevailed monumental losses incurred over the
next 30 plus years could have been shelved.
There were other such opportunities,
especially when the tsunami hit the island in December 2004. By that time, however, guns and bullets were
the languages in vogue even in their largely reluctant mutations courtesy the
2003 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).
The TNA’s victory last week comes in a
post-conflict Sri Lanka. The guns have all gone silent. The nation has recovered in ways that most
countries plagued by terrorism and war have not. Indeed, the TNA owes a big
‘thank you’ to the Government for clearing the way for elections. A quick
visual of a 2013 September with the LTTE militarily intact would not exactly
make anyone in the TNA, including C.V. Wigneswaran, salivate. In all likelihood, the ex-judge would have
been enjoying his retirement in Colombo.
What is important is that Tamil people in the
Northern Province have had the opportunity to elect representatives. Wigneswaran is an elected representative and
not a self-named one, never mind his embarrassing rhetoric. For this reason (and not those alluded to
during the negotiations following the CFA), we are better positioned to
democratically resolve grievances taking leaves out of the South African and
Northern Ireland peace processes.
In both cases there was a peace agreement followed by the
establishment of democratic institutions, elected representatives assuming
office, establishment of rule of law and then the elected representatives
taking the peace process forward.
In our case, a comprehensive defeat of armed
terrorists removed the necessity for a peace agreement (typically agreement to
cease hostilities leading to gradual disarmament in line with progress in
negotiations). In our case, the democratic
institutions have been established and representatives elected. While there is a lot to be desired with
respect to ‘rule of law’, we are not talking about an anarchic situation. In short, we are at the tail end of a Sri
Lankan equivalent to the South African and Northern Ireland peace processes.
In 2003, a group calling itself the National Anti-War Front,
took out a newspaper ad with the pretty headline, ‘Clenched fists cannot
receive’. The outcome-preferences of the
group, made of the usual pro-LTTE voices in the NGO community, made them target
the Government, naturally, but the line does have logical worth.
The ‘unclenching’, for this group, was about conceding
power. The key term was ‘power-sharing’.
Power-sharing is not coterminous with devolution of course, but that was
and is glossed over. What is important
is the need to unclench not just fists, but hearts and minds. There has been a lot of ‘giving’ by way of
de-mining, resettlement, rehabilitation and reintegration in society of
combatants and reconstruction, but all these are clearly necessary but not
sufficient conditions for reconciliation.
The Tamil community has lost so much that an unclenched fist does not
yield anything of substance, but unclenched minds and hearts (on all sides) can
result in a rich harvest for all.
The Government can and must continue to ‘give’ the
tangibles, including the many time shelved ‘River to the North’. The TNA could concede too, acknowledging in
the very least complicity in the LTTE project.
Even if the TNA continues to desist (which would do nothing to allay
suspicions about its true agenda), armed with representational confidence, that
party can and must come to the table sans frills, myths and aspirations,
starting at the best starting point, ‘Grievances’. Unclenching fist to promise ‘unity’ (a vague
term that no one can script into legislation) in return for ‘devolution’ will
not fool anyone. Offering the telos of
preferred political ‘resolution’ has to be recognized as a non-starter which
will be likewise identified as intractability, which is the first and last word
in subverting reconciliation.
If process has yielded nothing, it is perhaps due to
‘solution’ being offered as ‘starting point’.
Honest intent begins with word and some deeds, words that help heal and
deeds that make tangible differences.
The Government, for its part, must stop playing dilly-dally, put aside
its own anxieties and suspicions and treat representations seriously and as
equal to those of any community that feels aggrieved over wrongs done or
perceived to have been done.
‘Brass tacks’ begin with articulating grievances. The TNA can claim that all this is ‘old hat’,
but the TNA, in the interest of lasting peace, can humor us all, by laying it
all out, with fact and date so that the true dimensions of communal anxiety can
be obtained. That calls for an
unclenching of heart and mind.
Keep fist closed and only hurt results. We just don’t need more hurt.
[Malinda Seneviratne is the Editor-in-Chief of 'The Nation' and can be reached at msenevira@gmail.com]
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