CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

IS THE COUNTRY DEEP IN A MUDDLE?

By Shyamon Jayasinghe

It is thirty-eight days of Mahinda Rajapakse (MR) and eighty-one killings have taken place! Jaffna is in utter turmoil and all Sinhalese students studying there have returned home. Mannar has been paralysed. The World Bank has slashed a twenty-one billion loan given for the port services and urban resettlement. The government has taken a one hundred and fifty million loan from banks to pay for a huge fuel subsidy. Mahinda is to return after an unsuccessful meeting with the government of India and a cancellation of the appointment with Tamilnadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha. How does this scenario look to you?

Several questions arise for which the answer is not clear. Has President Mahinda Rajapakse started with low international and Indian credibility, and low credibility with the Tamil civilians in Jaffna for having signed agreements with the JVP/JHU parties that will preclude any attempts at genuine peace negotiations? The Tigers did want a government with low credibility and they opted to bring in MR/JVP/JHU combine. Send Norway home, no federal structure, no PTOMS, separate North and East, don’t deal only with the LTTE, were some of the highlights of the promises to which he signed under the dotted line. Talking of peace negotiations after all that is a joke because there is nothing left for negotiation after such restrictions. Such conditions only lead to one thing: WAR!

Every discerning analyst saw that MR hasn’t got the make up of a war warrior. He is a peaceful, humble, and simple man. MR had signed the agreements as a desperate measure to get to power and with no convictions behind that at all. Having been in government for years and Prime Minister in that government MR knew out of sheer experience that the LTTE had to be handled differently-more with the head than with the gut.

The UPFA attacked Ranil Wickremasinghe (RW) and ousted the latter from power charging that RW had been lenient to the LTTE. They promised to send Norway home. That didn’t happen. They promised to revise the MOU. That did not happen. All that happened under the UPFA/CBK government was a continuation of the same policy and that, too, incompetently. The LTTE, with its more strategic thinking utilised an incompetent government to make further advancement. IN RW’s time, there were minor violations but under the UPFA, the violations took a turn for the worse. Under MR, it is now hidden war.

It is significant that the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) has issued a statement to the effect that the SL army is handling Jaffna tactlessly and thereby alienating civilians. It is well known that the UTHR is no friend of the LTTE. The Colombo raids in Mount Lavinia and Wellawatte etc are necessary but have the raids been done with the tact and smartness that is required by people using their heads and not any other part of the anatomy? Alternatively, are extremists pushing the cops to provoke a polarisation of Tamils and a war situation?

Sri Lanka has no alternative but to heed the demands of global powers since the GOSL-LTTE conflict has become totally internationalised. Diplomatic adroitness has necessarily to play a major part in managing this huge problem. The basis of forthcoming global support would be a genuine sincerity to sort out matters through negotiations. The problem is the baggage that Mahinda has brought with him. He has to either go with them or go without them. A Hobson’s choice!

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