On the TNA’s post-election statement

R. Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance, has offered the party’s reading of the recently concluded elections for the Eastern Provincial Council.  As the party with the backing of the majority of Tamils, the TNA’s analysis warrants comment. 

The TNA claims that the elections were neither free nor fair, lists numerous illegal and corrupt practices and blames the repeal of the 17^th Amendment of the Constitution for this state of affairs.  There were indeed several incidents which scarred the entire process.  On the other hand, even the TNA would admit that immediate action was taken by the Elections Commissioner on each and every occasion.  There were independent election monitors on the ground and even a cursory glance at reports from such entities from earlier elections would show that the incidence of wrongdoing was comparatively low.  

The overall margin, a mere 6217 votes, gave the ruling party 2 extra seats, which goes to show that even a minor tweaking of the law can have a huge bearing on outcome; all the more reason for further tweaking the system to eliminate error and loophole.  To be fair, the repeal of the 17^th did not take us back to anything like the 1999 Wayamba elections, but democracies are never perfect and for this reason can always be made better.  

It is heartening that the TNA has decided to speak of systemic flaws and chosen to list all the violations, especially since the TNA’s constituent parties and their representatives, especially R. Sampanthan, were not only silent about the body blows to the democratic process delivered by the LTTE but actually benefited from these same violations to enter Parliament!  This about-change then can also be read as a positive outcome of taking the LTTE out of the political equation.  For that, the TNA, Sampanthan, as well as the Tamils who voted for the TNA and the TNA can thank the President and the security forces.

Sampanthan has blasted the Government for trying to intimidate and/or purchase those elected on the TNA ticket.  Which country has Sampanthan being living in?  Was he not intimidated and/or purchased by the LTTE?  Weren’t those who didn’t toe the line murdered in cold blood?  That said, he is spot in objecting to such despicable moves, even though he demonstrates an unfortunate degree of memory loss.  It’s wrong of course, but his case would be stronger if it was preceded by a confession. 

The TNA takes pains to claim that the result showed that the majority was against the Government.  Sampanthan forgets that the SLMC is a constituent member of the ruling coalition.  A regional preference for a communalist party does not indicate general antipathy to the ruling party at the political center.  Sampanthan’s ‘logic’ can be turned against the TNA, SLMC, UNP and JVP as well.  It can be said that the majority of the people rejected all four parties.  Today, for convenient, Sampanthan concocts an artificial solidarity among all parties excluding the UPFA.  He does not mention the fact that all four contested SEPARATELY.  If there was solidarity and commonality in political platform the four could have contested TOGETHER.  The ‘mandate’ was not to ‘function against the UPFA’, as Sampanthan likes to read it.  The mandate given the TNA was different from that given to the SLMC, JVP and UNP.  It is sophomoric to aggregate these and posit a re-reading of mandate that alleviates one’s political angst of the particular political moment. 

Another strange element of the TNA statement is its tired lament about the SLMC’s decision to back the UPFA to set up the Eastern Provincial Council.  Sampanthan is upset that the SLMC chose to play second fiddle to the UPFA in the East even after the TNA offered the SLMC the Chief Minister post.  Well, it seems that the SLMC or at least its leadership had done a cost-benefit analysis before making a decision.  Sampanthan, of all people, should not be surprised, for he has played that kind of politics for years.  

What is really disconcerting is the cheap attempt to tag the TNA to the SLMC using the language-string.  The commonality seeker ‘Tamil Speaking People’ is straight out of the LTTE book and the larger archive of Eelamism.  At best, it was a convenience.  The way it got played out over time is a history lesson the Muslims are not likely to forget anytime soon.  They were slaughtered by the LTTE who were not bothered about language commonality when the blood-letting was planned and executed. And Sampanthan should know that ‘language’ was not an issue when Duraiappah was murdered, or when his own leader A. Amirthalingam was shot dead.  He probably has a list of all Tamil-speaking Tamils assassinated by the LTTE and he should know better than anyone else how long it is. It constitutes the ‘final word’ of this kind of cheap, racist politics. 

Anyway, when Sampanthan describes the SLMC as ‘opportunistic’ and ‘unprincipled’, he conjures images of pots and kettles and their relative blackness!

Sampanthan has also kept silent on the fact that the result laid to rest all claims of ‘Tamil Homeland’.   The vast majority rejected the concept (and this, following Sampanthan-TNA logic).  Those numbers seem to have escaped his mind.  Not surprising.

Overall, it’s time for the TNA to do a re-think and amend this post-election analysis.  It would be good for the TNA and good for the Tamil people too.  For us all, one might add.

['The Nation' DAILY editorial, September 24, 2012]

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Reconciliation cannot be a single-hand clap

Two statements from two high profile US officials caught my eye this week.  The first was by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, commenting on the brutal massacre of 16 Afghans by a US soldier.  Describing it as ‘awful’ and ‘terrible’, expressing ‘shock and sadness’, Clinton claimed, ‘this is not who we are!’

Astounding!  It can’t be that Clinton has been blind to what US Foreign Policy has been and is.  She knows that this particular crime against humanity is just one of thousands. She knows that if there was ‘randomness’ here and if it was about an errant soldier, for each such random act by each erring private, there are a thousand policy-driven, deliberate and horrendous crimes against humanity. War crimes, all. 

Staff Sgt Robet Bales, the man who perpetrated the butchery, is a highly decorated American soldier. ISAF Deputy Commander, Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw said, ‘I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized ISAF military activity’.  Bales is said to have ‘left Base without authorization’.  There’s a palpable downplaying and refuge-seeking in the doctrine of ‘errant soldiering’. 

The fact is that when US Drones ‘left base’ it was POLICY.  When they targetted ‘perceived terrorists’ and claimed that it was legitimate even when the said target was in the midst of a high-density civilian population, it was POLICY.  It was POLICY, also, when a million Iraqi children were MADE TO DIE courtesy sanctions on that country.  Torture in Guantanamo Bay is POLICY.  Two quotes will explain it all. 

Madeline Albright, one time US Secretary of State, commenting on US-led sanctions causing the death of so many children, said, ‘it was worth it’.  US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, commenting on the Afghan incident said, ‘War is hell, these things happen’.  

The truth is, for the USA, random acts of butchery and policy-driven crimes against humanity are both ‘part of the story’.  Obama famously said, after all, ‘we do what we have to do, let’s not talk about it’.  It is a criminal policy regime where perception is treated as fact and any amount of collateral is acceptable. 

The second quote comes from the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert O Blake.  He says, ‘unless Sri Lanka's government reconciles with minority Tamils and addresses allegations of war crimes it risks renewed conflict’.

This comes in the context of a US sponsored resolution in the UN Human Rights Council clearly seeking to open the door for direct interference in Sri Lanka by the USA, in complete violation of the spirit and regulations of that assembly.  It also coincided with a ‘new’ video released by Channel 4 on Sri Lanka. 

The Channel 4 ‘new’ footage is actually a re-hash of its earlier ‘production’ and mostly made up of material that has been in the public domain for several years, including in the Defence Ministry website.  Comment would be a waste of words at this point.   

Reconciliation, though, is our business.  Suggestions are welcome of course, but a fist in the pie usually takes away all and leaves just the crumbs.  Secondly, reconciliation is not a single-hand clap.  Even if one were to be out-of-mind democratic about it, then there are at least two parties here.  The LTTE committed horrendous crimes against humanity and its still-alive-proxies (TNA, GTF, BTF and people like Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu who is dining with the cassocked terrorist Fr (sic) Emmannuel in Geneva and getting character certificates to boot) know what the LTTE did.  All communities suffered at the hands of the LTTE.  If Eelam Tamils need ‘closure’ then other do too.  If you want accountability, it cannot be part accountability.  If you want to investigate, you cannot investigate just one part of the story. 

The evidence about ‘policy-led’ excesses by the Government forces makes a pretty thin portfolio.  Nothing like Obama and Clinton watching (live) the murder of an unarmed Osama bin Laden along with the point-blank shooting of a child in Pakistan where ‘chain of command’ is established beyond a shadow of doubt. 

Reconciliation is our business, let me reiterate.  The LLRC gives the road map and action has been taken immediately, via the AG’s Department and the Courts of Inquiry appointed by the Army and Navy.  How about something from the TNA, now?  They could submit a dossier of LTTE atrocities and a sober apology on account of complicity, perhaps.  

The ‘this side’ hand has shown far more willingness to clap, but the TNA hand is hidden.  You don’t get reconciliation that way, Mr. Blake.  All atrocities need to be investigated fully and the perpetrators brought to book.  Suresh Premachandra, for example, was in charge of a military arm of a militant group that recruited 2500 children and caused 700 of them to be murdered in cold blood by the LTTE, from whom R. Sampanthan took his orders (willingly and happily). 

There may very well be a renewal of conflict.  Everyone will suffer, the Tamils in the North and East the most.  It won’t even pinch the pro-Eelam sections of Tamils in other countries.  It will hurt only Sri Lankans.  And that, Bob, would not be because of anything this government does or does not do, because this government for all its faults has done a lot more than its predecessors to get this country back on track.  The TNA is not helping.  You are not, either.  It won’t cost you sleep, we know.  We know that sleep-loss is not possible for those who think nothing of perpetrating crimes against humanity, those war-is-war people. 

Reconciliation is our business.  It involves honesty.  By all parties.  The country is waiting on the TNA to get out of its LTTE shell.  Sampanthan and Sumanthiran are putting together a show. It is called, ironically, ‘no show’.  You don’t get reconciliation that way.  

[First published in The Nation, March 18, 2012]

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