It is one year since Velupillai Prabakaran, founder leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, died with his aides in the final stage of the Eelam War. What is happening in Sri Lanka? Read my leader page article in today's The Hindu (click the heading for accessing the article).
URL: http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/18/stories/2010051855271200.htm
5 comments:
The topic of "Sri Lanka need to restore trust" is something the government have to take seriously. The SL Government has been in a mood of enthusiasm aftermath of the victory over LTTE.
Continuous celebration of the war victory was not an easy task for the government as there were series of events that marred the celebrations . There were many obstacles that fell ahead of their joyful journey. It disturbed their political agendas which prompt them to make drastic alterations in their plans ahead of the elections.
The prime focal point was the economic factor which had fair opportunity to resolve it swiftly so that the people could have reaped the benefit which they thoroughly deserved. Even as at now there is no sign to take measure to reduce the cost of living. This reminds us the fact when late President Premadasa mentioned in the 90's "If the war can be stopped, he could grant Rs.5000/- increment to all the public servants". In today's context Rs.2500/- during the 90's would be equivalent to not less than Rs.10,000/-. But the saddest fact is that to grant even a bear minimum of increment appears to be remote.
The next factor is General Fonseka's issue which was totally in the hands of the government which they could have easily sorted it out by compromising for an acceptable solution for both parties. Now see the turn of events that led to form a a new political party which is in place and the general has become a Member of the Parliament which has positioned him securely in the political arena. The general whilst having the popularity as the war hero and now a political leader. These events have certainly put the government not in a healthy situation resulting creation of an opposition stalwart
which the present opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe failed miserably.
All these outcome occurred within the short span of time for a government who won the 30 year old war handsomely cannot be happy at all. Due to the above points the government might run out of steam which would trigger downfall in popularity that will bare them to restore the lost trust.
The "TRUST" which we are talking about has come a long and rough journey. Successive government's inability to find a political solution had been a historical blunder. The point here is how genuine the political elements which working are within the government to build that trust. As at now Tamil people are politically in a bad wicket. Hence they don't have the necessary bargain power to pursue their demands which the government and Sinhalese allies aware of.
Since the political climate is very well in the favour of the government for the time being , the government is not in a hurry to workout a reasonable solution which could somewhat acceptable for Tamils. Unless the international communities in the likes of India put meaningful political pressure on the government within a short span of time, the TRUST which we are talking about would be a distant dream.
Politically last years
1.
Ref Kunchu said...
Thank you for your interesting insights.
The Sri Lankan govt was always talking only of the military solution. Whichever govt came to power they all wanted to stifle the Tamils and reduce them to second class citizens.
Mahinda Rajapakse regime is no different. He had cleverly garnered the support of the India and the other countries and defeated the LTTE and now he is not taking any step in the direction of political settlement of the issue.
Why should he do it? After all he is the winner and winner takes it all.
In this India had lost immensely.
India had supported the United Sri Lanka only because a divided Sri Lanka will always be a security threat to India.
suppose Eelam had come into being the Tamils of Eelam will unhesitatingly support India. But the Sinhalese will be sworn enemies of India.
This was one of the logic for India not supporting EElam.
Now, see what has happened.
We have lost our natural support base that is Tamils.
Also the influence of the China and Pakistan two sworn enemies of India are increasing in Sri Lanka.
What did India gain from supporting a United Sri Lanka.
Now Gota is telling that there will be a week long celebration of the war victory against LTTE.
He talks only about the fighters killed by the SLA.
what about the innocent civilians killed.
And again is this the way to behave as a victor.
Suppose you had defeated another country and you wanted to celebrate Vijay Diwas then it is understandable.
You have won an internal war and those who fought against you were Sri Lankan citizens and those who died at your hands are again SL citizens.
who is the enemy. Only a fellow SL citizen.
Is this the right way to conduct oneself.
Is this the way to dish out a political solution.
For this kind of country and regime we have expended our Jawans life during the IPKF saga.
This is the country and regime we are bolstering even now.
The comments expressed by you you with regards to Mahinda regime is quite true. Over the years especially after Sri Lanka got independence from UK in 1948, the modus operandi of the successive governments here were of "ball passing" as far as ethnic issue is concern.
From the first prime minister D.S.Senanayake to S.W.R.D.Bandaranaka, Dudly Senayake, Srimao Bandaranayaka, J.R.Jayawardene, Premadasa, Chandrika and now Mahinda Rajapakse all were playing ball passing game in style as far as the ethnic problem is concern.
President Mahinda got the rarest opportunity in the history of Sri Lanka to become the modern hero in the likes of the ancient king of Duttugemunu. President Mahinda was very luck to be there to take that credit as LTTE like organization have one day to meet their Waterloo, as the way they were spearheading the war. Little they knew of their end as they failed to realize that after killing Rajive Ganddhi their end was numbered but it took so long to see their end. They did blunders after blunders without giving due consideration of the suffering of their own people.
The blunders and mess of the LTTE created instant heroes in Sri Lanka politics recently. So the outcome is celebration of the so called victory for ever without giving deep thought of the fact that war was fought against their own people and not a condolence was observed for the innocent civilians who were brutally killed in the battle or died of hunger or without medical care.
So as rightly said the winner takes it all like the jackpot lottery. So again people of Sri Lanka will have to tolerate the present regime till they fail in their game of politics which has been the political trend in the past.
Indians sentiments among the Tamils have been lost long ago. For example during the early days tamils use to support India during all the cricket matches. Even in Jaffna people use to be glued to their radio set for the commentaries and later the television sets. They all supporting overwhelmingly for India. Presently all tamils support the Sri Lanka cricket team. What a change in attitudes that has crept into the minds of these people. However still there are people who support India in every endeavours.
People from the south didn't have that much of good thoughts about the Indians from those days. That even went down drastically to lowest ebb during the 80's & 90's because of the Indian involvement of providing training for LTTE and other movements. Presently Sri Lanka has developed close ties with Chinese and the Pakistanis. The relationship with the Indians is a mere formality. In the recent past Srilanka and India were united on one issue that was "Eliminating of LTTE". Since now LTTE is no more the relationship also becomes weaker and the Chinese influence here is greater as the Chinese are mostly Buddhists. The Hambatota Harbour being build by Chinese where their staff are in big numbers.
All in all India has lost its footing in Sri Lanka as Tamils also politically weaken in Sri Lanka and there is no justification for the Indians to play a game here again. We will have to wait and see for the outcomes as Mahinda's government is going ahead with all their development projects and people are eagerly waiting to see any concession granted for their livelyhood.
dear hariharan,
i have always read your articles with much interest in transcurrents as well as the hindu.while your views about tamils in srilanka were archetypal but only really warmed my heart was the views which you gave after the may 19 2009 tragedy that though srilankan government can be assurred that ltte is no longer there but it needs to win the heart and minds of tamils and their grievances were genuine.though i am no supporter of tamil extremism like ltte i feel that tamils in srilanka have been wronged even though i am a tamil objectively speaking i feel that justice should be provided to tamils irrespective of whether there is ltte or not.only way to provide justice is by merging north and east and sinhalese society should exhibit magnanimity by seeing that tamil culture is preserved.if that is gonna happen then there would not be any support for tamil extremism.is that a realistic aspect only time will tell.as far as erosion of indian influence is concerned over srilankan i doubt tamils after what happened to them will ever support india they perceive india to be hand in glove with sinhalese government and they have ceased to trust indians.china will try to gain a say in srilankan polity already it is building hambantota port which incidentally is hometown of mahinda rajapakshe and its policy of pearl of strings includes srilanka hence india should be very cautious rajapakshe is a very smart alek he will try to play india against china unfortunately india has been shortsighted in supporting srilankan government it would have got a strategic depth if eelam had been established.there is no point in crying over the spoilt milk
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