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Publish the reports
Sunday, 10 December 2006 - 5:34 AM SL Time
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It is now incumbent on the government to publish the majority and minority reports as well as the comments of former senior and respected public servants like Mr. Dharmasiri Pieris and Mr. K.H.J. Wijayadasa on the reports of the Experts Committee to the All Party Conference which must now come up with proposals towards a political solution of what has variously been described as the `ethnic problem`` and the `National Question.`` The Hindu, the respected Indian newspaper carried a report based on the majority report suggesting that what appears to be a quasi-federal solution based on the premise that devolution to the Northern and Eastern Provinces subject to ethic enclaves for the Sinhalese and Muslims in the East is on offer. Given that the membership of the APC as well as the Experts Committee total nearly 40, and that as many copies of the various reports have been distributed, it is not surprising that there have been leaks. Most journalists know that leaks are often selective leading to what a Latin maxim accurately encapsulates: suppresso veri, suggestio falsi ? when there is suppression of relevant details, a false impression will be created.
That is why it is necessary that the various points of view of those who have worked towards offering a solution is quickly published to enable an informed national debate that is essential and must precede a formal offer from the South (or as much of the South among whom a consensus is possible) to the North and East. It has been clear from his various public statements that President Mahinda Rajapakse, who while shying away from the F word, appears willing to look at the substance of a federal solution. But exigencies of politics will prevent the use of that word. To those who think that this is the way we must go, despite the strongly-held conviction of a substantial section of the Southern polity that it will be the first step towards separation, this will be acceptable. India and the wider world outside our shores belong to that constituency. Whether Velupillai Prabhakaran and the LTTE will go along with such a solution is unlikely. If they do, it will be on the premise of the well known Chelvanayakam dictum: Something now, more later.
As far as Prabhakaran is concerned, separation is the objective and the territory he claims includes two thirds of the coastline and a third of the land mass of this country. This, of course, is an impossible demand. There is also the risk that in the unlikely event that he gets what he wants, he will seek to push borders and may well regard the central parts of the country where there is a concentration of ethnic Tamils of recent Indian descent as a part of the Tamil ``homeland.`` Mr. Wijayadasa has in a personal viewpoint included in his comments the statement that short of a miracle, terrorism and separatism will continue to plague this country for many more years to come. Realists will agree with this contention and it is necessary for not just the government but all the people of Sri Lanka to understand that whatever the offer, there will be no quick fix to a problem that has festered for several decades eventually deteriorating into a virtual civil war. The price that has been paid in blood and treasure is immeasurable.
It is now becoming clear that a solution with Prabhakaran is improbable if not impossible. It will be necessary for the government to make an offer to the Tamil people and not to the LTTE which they will regard as fair. The majority community must remember that while the Sinhalese (as well as other communities) have paid a heavy price as a result of Tiger terror, the people who have suffered most are undoubtedly those condemned to live their lives within the theatre of war. Their suffering has been immense and must be quickly alleviated. Ordinary people paying the price of war will not be overly concerned with the unit of devolution or its extent. It is the politicians and those who will run their lives, and no doubt grow fat on their taxes like their counterparts elsewhere in the country, who will quibble over and debate these matters.
Elections have been won and lost on words like ``federal`` and ``unitary.`` Despite all the lip service that has been paid, many grievances of Tamils remain to this day. We well know that any Sinhalese stopped at a checkpoint or whose home is checked in a cordon and search operation will not suffer the same travail as a Tamil subject to the same experience. The reason for that is self-evident ? that all (or most) terrorists are Tamil. But the country must be ever alive to the reality that all Tamils are not terrorists. As Bishop Duleep de Chickera has correctly said in a statement expressing concern over new anti-terror Emergency regulations, ``to resort to the same weapons and methods we condemn is to lose control, feed the cycle of confrontation and jeopardize the peace process.`` It will be countered that a dirty war of the kind that Prabhakaran fights cannot be won by fighting with your hands tied behind your back. One side cannot be true to the Queensberry rules while anything goes for your opponent. President Rajapakse`s revelation last week that the LTTE killed TNA MP Nadarajah Raviraj, if correct, will endorse that position.
But in matters like this, the Sri Lankan State must live by the premise that it is better to let a hundred guilty people go free than hang one innocent man. The difficult task is to face up to the terror, strike at its heart and strive towards the impossible of minimizing collateral damage. In the meantime, it is essential to distil the wisdom of both the majority and minority viewpoints offering a basis for a negotiated political settlement and present it to the Tamil people. But to do that, the people must know what the experts have said and the long haul of achieving a consensus on the various viewpoints must begin. Meanwhile the Tamils and the international community must be convinced of the bona fides of the State and those unfortunates in the theatre of war must exert what pressure they can on the Vanni warlord that they will not forever be willing pawns in his hands.
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