.

The Provincial Council Elections — April 1999

By Independence Day in l999, Sri Lanka was at the cross-roads, not knowing which turn to make. Are we to become a second Philippines or are we to remain a participatory democracy?

In the eyes of our people our politicians are the scum of the earth. Today such thinking is widely prevalent in every stratum of society ranging from the poor to the rich, from the ill-educated to the well educated from the youth to the elderly from the ethnic majority, to the ethnic minorities. Having reached such levels of maturity, our people ruin it all by being subservient to politicians in power, irrespective of their politics.

Thus correcting our politicians, who serve themselves rather than serve our nation, has become a problem of immense proportions. However on the premise that the wish of our people that Sri Lanka should be a participatory democracy and not a second Philippine, our democratic framework must be strengthened and corrective measures must be applied as early as practicable.

Firstly, an Independent Election Commission consisting of the Commissioner of Elections and his two Deputies, with in-built safeguards including the power to declare an election null and void against a background of widespread malpractices, (e.g. the recent election in Wayamba) or alternatively to include the power to call for a re-poll in the areas of localized malpractices (e. g. at the Referendum of 1982)

Secondly, an Independent Police Commission must be set up to appoint, promote, dismiss and transfer Police personnel. Besides the Inspecter General of Police, like the Commissioner of Elections and the Auditor-General, must be appointed by Parliament and will be answerable to Parliament as opposed to the Government of the day.

It is indeed heartening that the SLFP and the UNP, the two major parties which have ruled and mis-ruled our nation since Independence, are both in favour of an Independent Police Commission to enhance the Rule of Law and an Independent Election Commission to ensure free and fair elections.

However, the immediate problem was to hold free and fair Provincial Council Elections scheduled for April 1999 in the Sabaragamawa, Uva, the Central, North-Central and Western Provinces. The first step in that direction was taken by the Government when President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga returned to the Island from a visit to Jamaica on February 15th 1999. She displayed wisdom in summoning an All-Party Election Monitoring Committee and displayed her characteristic folly in sending an insulting letter to the Leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

It is indeed a pity that Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga behaves in that reprehensible manner. All Bandaranaikes have class but she refuses to exhibit hers except in the choice of her clothing and her jewellery. On the other hand not all Bandaranaikes are well educated. She is, having studied at one of the best Universities in the world, The Sorbonne. In the political arena she even hides her education. Indeed she is the anti-thesis of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India and Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan both of whom were also born into the aristocracy, studied at Oxford and Harvard, took to politics and championed the cause of the down trodden.

The All-Party Election Monitoring Committee met in an atmosphere of cordiality at the Presidential Secretariat on February 25th 1999. The general impression created that day was that the President wanted to make amends for the dobacle at Wayamba. Even the UNP grudgingly admitted it. However everybody wanted tangible proof not empty rhetoric, at which President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and all previous executive Presidents of Sri Lanka were good at.

Her corrective measures were both swift and effective. Consequently the Police, from the Inspector General downwards, moved into action. "Kasippu" Lal an ardent supporter of Chief Minister S. B. Nawinna of Wayamba was duly arrested and produced before the Magistrate in Kurunegala for having outraged the modesty Mrs. M. A. Chandrawathie from Akuressa and thereafter making her parade in public in the nude. Bail was disallowed by the Magistrate and therefore "Kasippu" Lal was incarcerated pending trial. In rapid succession followed the arrest of Mayor Chandra De Silva (SLFP -Kotte) for assault. He too was remanded for two weeks. Within a day or two a warrant was issued for the arrest of Jinadasa Nandasena MP (SLFP Gampaha District) who had attacked and set on fire the JVP office in Kelaniya. He surrendered to Court. It was a pity that the President did not sack two Cabinet Ministers .......................... (names deleted on legal advice.) whose gross misconduction in Wayamba warranted such dismissal.

Therefore the All Party Election Monitoring Committee, under the Chairmanship of the President and with the active participation of the Leader of the Opposition, attempted to achieve by consensus all that was practicable. Instructions were duly issued by the President to the Inspector-General of Police, that the Police Ordinance be rigidly enforced in its applicability to the conduct of a free and fair election. She also directed the Inspector-General of Police to ensure that public nuisances like posters being pasted on walls, motorcades with loud speakers, be stopped, through firm action. Both were accomplished with a great degree of success by the Police, who for once enforced the Police Ordinance.

Thus by March 25th 1999, two months after that day of infamy in Wayamba and one month after the first meeting of the All-Party Election Monitoring Committee, Sri Lanka was no longer at the cross roads, whether or not be a second Phillipines. The nation was clearly on the road to consolidating our heritage since Independence, of being a participatory democracy

The election results trickled in commencing 0200 hours on Wednesday 7th April. Much was expected in the Colombo District by the UNP where their campaign was led by Mayor Karu Jayasuriya, their rising star. His popularity was amply reflected in that he won 250,129 preference votes in the Colombo district, by far the highest recorded by any candidate in the Provincial Council Elections of 1999. (In 1993 Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga won 323,123 preference votes to establish a record.)

However the performance of the UNP as a whole was not so impressive in the Colombo district where the voting was:

UNP - 362,636 (45.07%)
PA -    313,576 (38.98%)

There were several striking features in the voting pattern in the Western Province, by far the most educated Province in the Sinhala-speaking areas. For example, the voter turnout was poor as reflected in the following data pertaining to the Provincial Council Elections in 1993 and 1999.

            Colombo district     Gampaha district     Kalutara district

1993 82.1%                 83.8%                     81.8%

1999 64.5%                      68.2%                     70.8%

In my judgement that was a certain indicator of voter apathy (not the rain in the city of Colombo) because they are disgusted with both the SLFP and the UNP. This was evident again in the number of spoilt votes where the corresponding figures at the national level were:

1993 4.1%
1999 8.4%

I deliberately spoilt my vote. So did so many top professionals associated with this book. By accident of birth we were from every stratum of society, from the poorest of the poor to the wealthy. Our common factor is that we were educated at the best of universities in Sri Lanka and thereafter at the best of universities in the world. Indeed we are perturbed that we do not have a party worthy of our franchise and hence this book written by me at their request.

Admittedly the PA defeated the UNP in all five Provinces. However the contest was precariously close in Uva and in the Western Province where the voting was:

            Uva     Western Province

PA       207,163 888,454
UNP    202,777 879,399

Perhaps a more realistic verdict would have been had the PA won one of these two Provinces and the UNP the other. However fate decreed otherwise or alternatively the lucky streak of the President still continues.

In 1997 the assassination of Nalanda Ellewela allegedly by a Member of Parliament from the UNP during nomination week, resulted in a landslide victory for the PA. In 1994 she certainly would have won the Presidency but the assassination of Gamini Dissanayake, the Leader of the Opposition, resulted in her almost breaking the world record. In 1994 she was elected Prime Minister largely because of freak circumstances. In 1993 President R. Premadasa (UNP) and Lalith Athulathmudali (DUNF) were assassinated within a few days of each other and the Leader of the Opposition Sirima Bandaranaike (SLFP) was in poor health. Thus Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who was a struggling politician at the beginning of 1993, suddenly became the prima donna. In fact she became Prime Minister in her maiden attempt to enter Parliament in August 1994!

As stated in the very first page of this book, the Provincial Councils have achieved next to nothing since they became operational in 1988. Their only worthwhile purpose hitherto was to function as a useful barometer of political opinion. That the Provincial Council Elections of April 1999 has achieved and the following statistics speak for themselves.

It is a stubborn fact of life that anywhere in the world, fools and lightweights gossip on politics whereas the intelligentsia analyses politics. Those who gossip in Sri Lanka were in their elements when they proclaimed that the JVP had emerged as a third force. Factually that is anything but the truth.

The JVP has contested elections throughout the nation only twice, the Presidential Election of 1982 and the Provincial Council Elections in 1999. In 1982 they obtained 4.2% of the vote and in 1999 so far they have obtained 5.3% of the vote. Their power base is the Hambantota district, where Rohana Wijeweera was born and raised. At the Presidential Election of 1982 the JVP won 14.2% of the vote there. At the General Election of 1994 the corresponding figure was 11.8% resulting in the JVP having a Member of Parliament for that district. The corresponding figure for 1999 will be known about a week after the first edition of this book is released. Therefore the second edition will include, under the Postscript, a commentary and analysis of the Provincial Council Election for the Southern Province scheduled for June 1999.

Admittedly the JVP did receive 248,779 votes on April 6th 1999. Of them 141,985 were in the Western Province. On the premise that a voter is entitled to three preference votes, the JVP should have received well over 400,000 preference votes in the Western Province. In practice they received a little over 100,000. In fact the JVP has admitted that they will nominate their representatives rather than abide by ludicrous number of preference votes won by their eight successful candidates.

This phenomena is a clear indication that the 141,985 who voted for the JVP were not all in support of those brigands who wreaked havoc in 1988 and 89 and earlier in 1971. It included the protest vote of those who are disgusted with both the SLFP and the UNP. They did not even bother to know to whom to give their preference votes!

The breakdown of the performance of the JVP is as follows:

Province                     Votes         Seats
Western                 141,985             8
Sabaragamuwa        32,737             2
North Central          22,695             2
Uva                          22,398             2
Central                     28,984             1
Total                        248,799     15

Quite clearly the JVP have their cells in all these Provinces from where they unleashed their violence in 1988 and 89. However what percentage of their votes came from their cells and what percentage came from those who are disgusted with both the PA and the UNP, will remain a mystery.

To my mind, the exact parallel is the voting pattern in Australia. Those who are fed up with the Labour Party and the Liberal Party, who have shared power for generations, vote for the Communist Party which averaged around 1% of the vote. Under the laws of Australia every citizen must vote or be subject to a fine of $500. Some in their anger deliberately spoilt their vote (as some did recently in Sri Lanka) while others vote for the Communist Party. The equivalent of that in Sri Lanka is voting for the JVP!

It is common knowledge that President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga is more popular than the People’s Alliance. It is also true that since 1994 she has brought about more reforms in Government than Ranil Wickremasinghe has in the UNP. The exact parallel is what happened in 1982. President J. R. Jayewardene was more popular than the UNP. Besides the UNP in Government had brought about more reforms since 1977 than the SLFP had within their own party. Therefore he opted for an early Presidential Election. I anticipate history to repeat itself in 1999.

A Presidential Election between Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremasinghe be it in 1999 or in 2000 would indeed be an interesting exercise. It will be the subject of my next book. "The Politics of Sri Lanka" (Volume IV) sub-titled ‘The Presidential Election’.

Such a Presidential Election will be anything but easy for Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga because in 1994 at the closely contested General Election of 1994 the PA polled 50.8% and at the closely contested Provincial Council Elections of April 1999 that figure had declined to 45.2%. That is an indictment on how she had led the PA in Government.

On the other hand the UNP which polled 40.7% at the General Election of 1994 has increased their tally to only 42.5%, despite the unpopularity of the Government. That is an indictment on how Ranil Wickremasinghe has led the UNP in Opposition. To say the least winning the next Presidential Election will be an uphill task for him.

Thus both the President and the Leader of the Opposition will have to woo those who did not vote in April 1999 and those who deliberately spoilt their vote. The former will account for approximately 10% of all votes and the latter about 3%. Indeed those two entities reflect discredit on both the President and the Leader of the Opposition for the quality of leadership they have given the nation since 1994.

To complicate their problems still further the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has already announced that they will in future not campaign under the umbrella of the PA. Conceivably the SLMC could win a seat at the next General Election either in the Colombo district or in the Kalutara district, due to the preponderance of Muslims in the Beruwela area. For certain they will win a seat or two in the Puttalam district which has the highest concentration of Muslims outside the North-Eastern Province. By the same token the National Workers Union (Formerly the Ceylon workers Congress) has made public statements to the effect, that in future they will be associated neither with the PA nor the UNP.

Moreover much will depend on how the North-Eastern Province will vote. By all accounts the exercise of the franchise is now feasible in the Jaffna, Mannar and Vavuniya districts in the North but not in the Killinochi and Mullaitivu districts, the current theatres of action in our civil war. As in 1994 in the East there will be no difficulty in the exercise of the franchise in the Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts. To say the least much will depend on how the North-Eastern Province will vote. They may well hold the balance of power, against the background of a very close contest in the seven Sinhala speaking Provinces. It will indeed be interesting to watch how the charismatic and wayward Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga will handle herself and also how Ranil Wickremasinghe, with a different set of personal limitations, will handle himself.

Breathing fire at the UNP, like being habitually late, is second nature to the President. Suffice it to state that berating the UNP is no way to woo the floating vote let alone those who in disgust did not vote or deliberately spoilt their vote. By the same token inability to clearly spell out remedial action to the current ills in our society, is one of the several liabilities of the Leader of the Opposition.

To me both are their own enemies. They should correct themselves before they attempt to correct the nation.

The Provincial Council Elections of April 1999 were held against the background of that day of infamy in Wayamba. The nation can now heave a sigh of relief that the ugly episode has been laid to rest, barring punishing those who were responsible for the mayhem. The remedial action taken by the President was more than effective. Admittedly there were some election malpractices particularly in the districts of Anuradhapura, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. I personally investigated into these complaints. No Cabinet Minister from any of those districts can be held directly responsible for the illegal collection of polling cards, chasing away the UNP polling agents and the unsuccessful attempts to stuff ballot boxes. Such nefarious activities were attempted by minor leaders of the PA at the grassroots level, not by any at higher levels. I do hope that the wrath of the President will descend on such pitiable creatures.

In the first chapter of this book ‘Wayamba — That Day of Infamy’ it was my painful duty to pass severe strictures on the Sri Lanka Police. For emotional reasons it was difficult for me to do so. Therefore I sought the guidance of three retired Inspectors-General of Police, all distinguished products of the University of Ceylon, who I have known personally ever since they serve under my father. I was pleasantly surprised that they did not disagree with my assessment of the pathetic performance of the Police in Wayamba.

Therefore I will be less than honest unless I emphasise that the Police functioned magnificently at the Provincial Council Elections of April 1999. Indeed this book will not be complete unless I congratulate Inspector-General Lakdasa Kodituwakku, the Gazetted officers, the Inspectorate and the Constabulary of the Sri Lanka Police Service for their superb performance. I do hope they will continue to serve the nation in this outstanding manner at the forthcoming election in the Southern Province and thereafter at the Presidential Election and the General Election.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake and the Department of Elections. In my judgement that is the finest Department in our Public Service. Indeed it was my privilege to state so in ‘J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka’ the inside story of the General Election of 1977, ‘The Politics of Sri Lanka’ (Volume I), an in — depth account of the General Election of 1994. It is indeed my privilege to repeat those of encomiums in this book.

(End of Serial)

On technological conquest of natural limitations
Better than to live a hundred years...

by Bhikkhu Bodhi
One day not too long ago I picked up on my shortwave radio an interview with an American futurist whose name I didn’t catch. A futurist, as the word implies, is one whose job it is to predict the future. By collating a vast amount of information about developments presently taking place in various fields, he discovers the most prominent trends at work beneath the surface of events, and by projecting from these trends he constructs a picture of the future over increasingly longer time frames - over the coming decade, century and millennium. Naturally, as temporal distance from the present increases, the picture he paints becomes proportionally more liable to error; but though an element of conjecture is unavoidable in all long-range forecasts, what the futurist holds is that his projections are based squarely on the trajectory we are travelling along today.

The questions the interviewer posed drew out from the futurist an astonishing picture of things to come. In his cheery view, the "real perennial springs of human suffering are about to yield to the insistent pressure of our ingenuity and determination to create a better world. The next century will usher in an era of unprecedented progress, prosperity, and justice, with radical changes taking place even on the most primordial frontiers of biology.

Couples who want children will no longer be dependent on natural processes vulnerable to chance and tragedy: they will be able to specify the precise features they would like their children to have and they’ll get exactly what they want.

Medical science will find cures for cancer. AIDS. and other dreaded illnesses, while virtually every viral organ will be replaceable by a synthetic counterpart. Biologists will discover how to halt the process of aging, enabling us to preserve our youthfulness and vitality well into our Twilight years. By the end of the next century our life span itself will be extended to 140 years. And before the next millennium draws to a close, science will have found the key to immortality: "That’s a hundred percent certain," he assured us.

While I listened to this intelligent, articulate man ramble on with such optimistic verve, I felt’ a sense of uneasiness gnawing away in my gut. "What’s wrong with this picture?" I kept on asking myself. "What’s missing? What’s so troubling?" Here he was, depicting a world in which humanity would triumph over every ancient nemesis, perhaps even over death itself; and yet I felt that I just couldn’t buy it, that I would prefer this wretched, fragile, vulnerable existence nature has conferred on us by birth Why?

For one thing, it seemed to me that his glowing picture of the future depended on some pretty big assumptions - assumptions which could only work by conveniently turning a blind eye to other present trends which are very far from comforting. He was presupposing that advances in technology will bring only benefits without entailing new problems just as formidable as those that taunt us today; that by sheer cleverness we will be able to rectify old blunders without having to curb the greed that caused those blunders in the first place; that people will spontaneously place the common good above the promptings of naked avarice; that the spread of material affluence will suffice to eliminate the suspicion, hatred, and cruelty that have bred so much misery throughout history.

But, as I continued to reflect, I realized that this was not all that was troubling me about the futurist’s picture; I felt there was something still deeper scratching at the hack of my mind. At its root, I came to see, my disquietude revolved around the issue of orientation. The picture he presented showed a future in which human beings are completely immersed in temporal concerns, absorbed in the battle against natural limitations, oriented entirely to the conditioned world. What was conspicuously absent from his picture was what might be called "the dimension of transcendence." There was no hint that human existence is not a self-enclosed circle, that it unfolds in a wider spiritual context from which it gains its meaning, that the guest for true fulfilment requires reference to a domain beyond everything finite and temporal.

By deleting all mention of a "dimension of transcendence" the futurist could portray a humanity pledged to the idea that the ultimate good is to be realized by gaining mastery over the external world rather than mastery over ourselves. Given that life involves suffering and that suffering arises from the clash between our desires and the nature of the world, we can deal with suffering either by changing the world so that it conforms to our desires or by changing ourselves so that our desires harmonize with the world.

The picture drawn by the futurist showed a future in which the first alternative prevailed; but the Buddha, and all humanity’s other great spiritual teachers as well, unanimously recommend the second route. For them our task is not so much to manipulate the outer conditions responsible for our discontent as it is to overcome the subjective roots of discontent, to vanquish our own selfishness, craving, and ignorance.

In preferring the more ancient approach I don’t mean to suggest that we must passively submit to all the frailties to which human life is prone. Stoic resignation is certainly not the answer. We must strive to eliminate debilitating diseases, to promote economic and social justice, to fashion a world in which the basic amenities of health and happiness are as widely distributed as possible. But when the driving engine of civilization becomes sheer innovation in techniques we risk venturing into dangerous areas. To struggle with Promethean audacity to trend nature to our will so that all the objective causes of our suffering will he obliterated seems an exercise in hubris - in arrogance and presumption - and, as we know from Greek tragedy, hubris inevitably provokes the wrath of the gods.

Even if our reckless tinkering with the natural order does not unleash a cosmic cataclysm. We still risk a gradual descent into the trivilization and mechanization of human life. For by making technological ingenuity the criterion of progress we lose sight of the moral depth and elevation of character which have always been the classical hallmarks of human greatness. We flatten out the vertical dimensions of our being, reducing ourselves to a purely horizontal plane in which all that matters is technical expertise and organizational efficiency. Thereby we veer closer to the situation described by T. S. Eliot. "The world ends not with a hang but a whimper."

While I reflected on the futurist’s predictions, there came to mind a series of verses from the Dhammapada which offer a strikingly different picture of the challenge facing us in our lives. The verses occur in the ‘Chapter of the Thousands," vv. 110-15 The first four stanzas tell us that it is not how long we live that really counts, but how we live, the qualities we embody in our innermost being: "Better than to live a hundred years immoral and unconcentrated is it to live a single day virtuous and meditative. Better than to live a hundred years immoral and unconcentrated is it to live a single day wise and meditative. Better than to live a hundred years lazy and dissipated is it to live a single day with energy firmly aroused. Better than to live a hundred years without seeing the rise and fall of things is it to live a single day seeing the rise and fall of things."

In these verses the Buddha tells us that our primary task, the task to which all others should he subordinate, is to master ourselves. The challenge he throws at us is not to remove all the thorns strewn over the earth, but to put on sandals, to vanquish the desires responsible for our suffering in the very place where they arise: in our own minds.

As long as our lives are ruled by desire, there will never be an end to discontent for the elimination of one obstacle will only give rise to a new one in a self-replicating cycle.

What is essential is not to prolong life by readjusting biological processes so that they fulfil our wildest dreams, but to ennoble life by sober mental training within the humble limits of our natural condition. And this is achieved, as the Buddha repeatedly stresses, by the triple discipline of moral restraint, meditation, and deep insight into the impermanence of all conditioned things.

The last two verses in this series introduce the end towards which this training points, which is also the goal towards which our lives should be steered: "Better than to live a hundred years without seeing the Deathless is it to live a single day seeing the Deathless. Better than to live a hundred years without seeing the Supreme Truth is it to live a single day seeing the Supreme Truth."

If human progress is not to be reduced to a mere pageant of technological stunts aimed at pushing back our natural limits, we require some polestar towards which to steer our lives, something which enables us to transcend the boundaries of both life and death. For Buddhism that is Nibbana, the Deathless, the Supreme Truth, the state beyond all limiting conditions. Without this transcendent element we might explore the distant galaxies and play cards with the genetic code, but our lives will remain vain and hollow.

Fullness of meaning can come only from the source of meaning, from that which is transcendent and unconditioned. To strive for this goal is to find a depth of value and a peak of excellence that can never be equalled by brazen technological audacity. To realize this goal is to reach the end of suffering: to find deathlessness here and now, even in the midst of this imperfect world still subject, as always, to old age, illness and death.

—Buddhist Publication Society Newsletter 

The Israeli Scene
Barak strives for consensual coalition

by Dr. Stanley Kalpage
Ehud Barak’s crushing defeat of Binyamin Netanyahu stunned even the Israelis. Many of them were convinced that the election of prime minister would go to a second round on 1 June. More than 80 percent of the 4.28 million eligible voters had cast their ballots to give Barak a decisive 56 to 42 percent victory on Monday 17 May.

Barak’s resounding success was a personal repudiation for Netanyahu (49), whose confrontational style embittered alies and adversaries alike and drove into opposition even those who once formed the upper ranks of his cabinet.

The election results suggested that key parts of Netanyahu’s core constituency of 1996 had deserted him, especially hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Russia and other former Soviet republics who arrived during the 1990s.

Without waiting for the final tallies, Netanyahu did what few previous losers in Israeli politics had done; he quit immediately and with dignity. Even his relentless foes, who has spent the past three years demonizing him, grudgingly admitted that they had witnessed have something unprecedented - a gracious resignation and unstinted congratulations for Ehud Barak who defeated him.

The new Israeli prime minister

Barak assumes the leadership of Israel with roughly one year’s experience in government. He was Yitzhak Rabin’s interior minister and Shimon Peres’s foreign minister, and didn’t leave much of a mark in either post - with the possible exception of his enthusiastic support for Pere’s Grapes of Wrath bombing in Lebanon, which turned out to be of dubious worth.

Unquestionably, Barak has unified the Labour Party, taking the reins of a traumatised party led for over 20 years by two men - one of whom (Rabin) was assassinated, and the other (Peres) who subsequently lost the prime ministership.

Barak has a master’s degree in systems analysis from Stanford University. Prof. Ehud Sprinzak, a noted Hebrew University political scientist, who interviewed Barak during the election campaign, says of the successful Labour leader: "Barak is brilliant, sophisticated, a long-range strategic thinker... He has some very interesting ideas about Israel’s role in a future Middle East. Besides this, I think he’s an honest person."

But Sprinzak also has his misgivings: "Barak gives you the feeling that he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else in the world. He’s not particularly good at human relations. He’s alienated a lot of people in his party."

Like his mentor Yitzhak Rabin, Barak (57) is known for his analytical mind. Unlike Rabin, he’s also known for his voracious reading habits and wide-ranging knowledge. He can dazzle cabinet members or journalists in a briefing.

As Israel’s prime minister, Barak would have to make decisions to push forward towards peace with the Palestinians and Syrians. He has to do this without alienating the Right. He would also have to satisfy the secular demand for civil freedom without further embittering the Orthodox Jewish groups.

A deeply divided Knesset

Despite Barak’s landslide election victory in the race for prime minister, the separate Knesset poll has resulted in a deeply divided parliament. In the 120-member Knesset, parties aligned with Barak have 51 seats while Likud and its allies have 53, with the remaining seats belonging to centrist parties that could vote either way.

The biggest loser was Netanyahu’s Likud party - once the largest in Israel - whose seats were reduced from 32 to 19. The Labour Party also lost some of its earlier 29 seats. But the bigger group led by Barak - the One Israel group - with 26 seats, forms the largest single bloc in the Knesset.

Herut party leader Binyamin Begin announced he was quitting politics as a result of the poor performance of his party, which won only three seats. In the 1996 elections, Begin had campaigned eagerly for Netanyahu and was appointed science minister. However, after the signing of the Hebron Accord in 1997, Begin quit the Netanyahu government due to his firm opposition to the implementation of the Oslo Accords. Last December, he took part in the effort to advance the elections and then left the Likud to establish the Herut faction.

Both the secular and ultra-orthodox parties increased their representation in the Knesset. The most assertively secular parties moved from 10 to 15 and the ultra-orthodox parties from 14 to 22 - an unprecedented representation.

The biggest Knesset winner was Israel’s religious party, Shas, whose ultra-orthodox voters are mostly first and second generation North African immigrants, Shas increased its representation from 10 to 17 seats.

Searth for a broad-based coalition

The Israeli Constitution gives Barak 45 days within which to form his government. Netanyahu will remain as caretaker prime minister during this period.

With one Israel having only 26 seats in the 120-member Knesset, Barak will be forced to form a coalition. He intends to go in for the broadest coalition possible from the 15 parties elected to the Knesset. While keeping the defence minister’s job for himself, he is thinking of retaining Likud Party acting leader Ariel Sharon as his foreign minister.

Bringing in Likud means that Barak will not have to deal with the ultra-religious Shas party, which secured the third largest number (17) of seats. Following Netanyahu’s post-election resignation as leader of the Likud party could well pave the way for Likud to be Labour’s main partner in the coalition.

Barak had decided to exclude Shas from the coalition as long as it was headed by Aryeh Deri, a charismatic politician who was sentenced recently to four years in prison for accepting bribes. Deri, apparently hoping to avoid Shas’s disqualification from the coalition negotiations, announced his intention to resign from the Knesset and to quit politics after a meteoric career.

Israelis celebrate

Soon after his spectacular election win, Barak prayed at Jerusalem’s Western Wall - Judaism’s holiest site - and placed a wreath at slain Yitzhak Rabin’s grave. Said Barak; "A circle has been closed here at Yitzhak Rabin’s grave. A possibility has been opened to fulfil the legacy of Yitzhak Rabin, and I am committed to that path."

Jubilant crowds descended on Tel Aviv’s Rabin square to celebrate Ehud Barak’s victory, seen as likely to revive Yitzhak Rabin’s peacemaking efforts. After Binyamin Netanyahu conceded defeat and congratulated Barak, the crowd waved flags, raised signs reading "Rabin’s way has won," shouted, danced and sang.

Among Arabs: a sigh of relief and guarded hopes

Arabs expressed cautious optimism that Ehud Barak’s election as Israel’s prime minister would spur a resumption of peace talks with Syria in the near term. Arabs also expect a cessation of hostilities in southern Lebanon as Barak had promised an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon within a year.

Talks with Syria hinge on two key issues. Israel wants Syria to enter into full-fledged diplomatic relations and also to stop helping Lebanon’s Hezbollah forces who regularly attack Israeli soldiers controlling the southern parts of Lebanon. Syria, on the other hand, wants Israel to give back the Golan Heights, which were captured in the 1967 war and overlook Israel’s Galilee region.

Palestinian leaders expect full and immediate implementation of the Wye River accord, which calls for an Israeli pulback from 13 percent of the West Bank in exchange for security guarantees. Barak had pledged to live up to Israel’s promises in this regard, commitments that were suspended by Netanyahu in December 1998.

The Palestinians would also like the Labour-led government to halt expansion of Jewish settlements and cancel contracts for new ones. Building plans in the Ras al-Amud and Har Homa neighbourhoods have triggered Palestinian protests in the past and will pose a difficult test for Barak. Palestinians said it could cast a pall over his peace efforts if he lets the construction in Ras al-Amud and Har Homa proceed.

On Jerusalem, Barak is not so forthcoming. He has said that he would retain Israeli control over all of Jerusalem, while the Palestinians expect that East Jerusalem would be handed over to them. He would also keep large blocs of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and ensure that a Palestinian entity would be demilitarised.

US more optimistic

The Clinton administration, a leading player in the Middle East peace process, welcomed Ehud Barak’s election victory, hoping the former general will help restart the stalled peace talks and end a fractious three-year period in US-Israeli relations during the premiership of Binyamin Netanyahu.

"It’s no secret that things were not exactly warm with Netanyahu," said a senior US administration official. "The reality is that you’re going to have a government we will find a lot easier to work with. I don’t think everything will be a struggle. I think commitments will be lived up to."

Once Barak forms a coalition government, the Clinton administration plans to push for full implementation of the Wye River accords calling for Israel to withdraw from 13 percent of the West Bank, and also to try to restart talks between Israel and Syria. Moreover, President Clinton wants to complete talks between Israel and the Palestinians within the next year. That was a pledge Clinton made to Yasser Arafat before the Israeli election in an effort to dissuade the Palestinian leader from unilaterally declaring independence on 4 May, the target date established by the Oslo accords in 1993 for completion of a final status agreement.

Sinhala Commission presents its views on a new constitution
Apex political decision - making body should accord with Buddhist social philosophy

by a Special Correspondent
 The Sinhala Commission which rejected the government’s proposals for a new Constitution, along with those of the UNP Opposition, presents to the Mahasangha and the nation on June 3 to views on certain matters which should be taken into consideration in the drafting of a now Constitution. The presentation takes place at 3.00 p.m. June 3rd at the Dharma Gaveshi Buddhist temple, No. 412, Banddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7.

The Commission says: We are naturally guided by our own recommendation No. 15, Chapter 6 of our Report (Page 321) which stateded: Our aim must be to design a political structure in consonance with Buddhist social philosophy, on which was based the governance of our country for 2000 years, before the invasion of the colonialists.

‘It must be noted that under the system the rights of all sections of the community, especially ethnic and religious minoritions had been recognised. The central aim being the promotion of mutual respect and co-operation.’

The Sinhala Commission proposals go on to say: ‘This calls for two basic steps (a) the restructuring of our political institutions in accordance with the Buddhist way of life. (b) the adoption of an economic system which will serve such a way of life, while ensuring a more equitable distribution of the country’s wealth so as to provide the basic needs to every member of our society’.

The proposals further make the point that a new constitution should not be a mere desk job, but a realistic piece of work taking into consideration our identity, culture and ethos to ensure law and order, good governance, harmony among our several communities, economic development and prosperity.

It must be emphatically pointed out that all constitutions enacted after independence have been western oriented because the framers slavishly followed western models. They did not take into account our own historical experiences, our culture and the aspirations of our ordinary people. Hence these Constitutions have been a failure.

In the UK the people fought their kings for 350 years before they finally arrived at what their Constitution should be, even if unwritten. In the US as in Britain it is based on an Anglo-Saxon Christian ethic. In Japan despite the massive exposure to Americanisation, westernisation and modernisation, the framers of their constitution never lost sight of their roots.

Hence while our Constitutions failed, those Constitutions were a success. The secret of their success was that it was realised that government is everything to the people and their aspirations should be met. Our 1972 constitution was drafted by western-educated politicians and experts exclusively oriented towards western political models and culture.

The 1978 Constitution is a concoction of several alien concepts and far removed from the needs of the people. One of the biggest defects of the Proportional representational system is that a people which had very close links with their MPs, do not know who he is now.

What the framers of these Constitutions have lost sight of is the fact that the Buddha Dhamma is the very fountainhead of democracy. The West drew their inspiration from Plato, but he came 169 years after the Buddha. The Buddha before him framed a system of ethics and law based on democratic principles in the Vinaya, the rules of ethics for bhikkus.

This is indeed a model for laymen too, though no layman is expected to live like a monk. Why go to the west when we have the ethical model of Dharma Asoka of India considered, even by western historians, as the greatest monarch that ever lived. This is because in that time and age he combined law with ethics.

Before we go to the west we should look at India’s system of governance which virtually covers every aspect of the country’s political, social and economic life. 170 years before Plato, India had a humane system of governance which was more democratic than those found in the west. The western system counts heads; the Buddhist system works by consensus, through explanation and understanding.

No decisions are made in a hurry. Under the Vinaya bhikku elders in matters of discipline review their decisions three times (like the three readings of a Bill in Parliament) and a vote is taken only when there is no consensus.

Punishment was never revengeful, but reformatory.

The Buddha recommended an economic system based strictly on needs and never on greed or acquisitiveness. Wastefulness was strictly discouraged. All these ethics are a model for constitution - makers. We should go back to our roots or else constitutions will never work as we have clearly seen.

This does not mean that we should go back to 2500 years ago, but constitution - making should not be at the cost of our value system. Certainly, we should adopt foreign concepts, adapted to our needs.

Among the proposals of the Sinhala Commission are the following guidelines and comments: The Executive Presidency should be abolished. According to the pledge given by the President this could easily have been done, under Article 82 of the Constitution, especially because the UNP Opposition was willing to support such an amendment.

The present Constitution gives the President absolute despotic power.

The present President holds all these powers and is not answerable to anyone. What we have is a ‘One man’ or ‘One woman’ government under the facade of democracy.

Modern life is far too complicated for one person to make all the decisions. Nothing gets done unless it has been first approved by the President.

There must be a Central Executive. Many suggest a return to the Westminster form of government with a cabinet headed by a Prime Minister. But this need not necessarily be so. Our experience of the British style government has not been totally happy.

Both the SLFP and the UNP have no national plan and they both follow the open economic policies prescribed by the World Bank and the IMF. So there is no reason why they cannot unite on national issues.

Despite all her powers the President is frustrated because she cannot have her way. She is talking of a ‘constitutional revolution’, a contradiction in terms. What she means is an unconstitutional or immoral seizure of power.

The Commission is of the view that the Executive Committee system as it operated under the Denoughmore Constitution, with suitable modifications should be considered. The party system has caused great injustice to the Sinhala people and introduced violence in politics. Confrontational politics is inimical to our traditions and our Buddhist culture.

The proposals make an significant quote from Jane Russel’s book ‘Communal Politics in Sri Lanka 1931 - 1947’. She says: It is noteworthy that the Ceylon Tamils who had been the most vociferous critics of the Donoughmore Constitution when first proposed were by 1934 its most adamant adherents. The Executive Committee system had proved to be an unsuitable vehicle for the growth of Sinhala and Tamil communalism’.

The document gives a detailed description of how the Executive Committee system works and all concerned Sri Lankans should understand it. It also says that S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was seriously thinking of going back to the Committee system.

There would be no need to abolish the party system, says the commission. Members of all parties will be assigned equally as far as possible to the different committees. The great advantage is that all parties represented in parliament would have a say in the formulation and execution of government policy, and there will be no confrontation or acrimony.

The Commission recommends several Special Commissions. They are Commissions for Defence and Security; Finance, Foreign Affairs, Public Services, Cultural Policies, a Police Commission, an Elections Commission and a Commission comprising three judges of the Supreme Court, to which any citizen can make representations on the misuse and abuse of power by politicians and public servants. A National Planning Commission should be set up to draw up a comprehensive National Plan. These will be independent Commissions and their members can be removed only by Parliament.

The Commission is of the view that the Judiciary needs changes. Litigants have to make two appeals, to the Appeal court and the Supreme court, with the exception of commercial litigants. This is discriminatory and causes much of the laws delays.

Abolish the Appeal Court and all appeals should be made to the Supreme Court, says the Sinhala Commission.

International treaties and agreements should be approved by parliament and should not otherwise have automatic application.

The Commission recommends a Code of Conduct for politicians and government servants, which should be incorporated into the Constitution. Its violation should be made an offence punishable with imprisonment. Unless this is done it is impossible to put an end to the blatant abuse of power, it says.

The Commission refers to an ‘unprincipled pact’ from which some disturbing questions arise. Until Reuters broke the news the Sri Lankan public did not know of ‘a Union of Regions’. Combined with this is the fact that certain important appointments were made by this government soon after it came to office. For instance the appointment of Wasantharaja as Chairman of the Rupavahini Corporation, who subsequently proved himself to be a propagandist for the LTTE.

It raises the question whether there was a pact to implement the Devolution package in return for a ‘block’ of Tamil votes at the presidential election. The Devolution package itself has been formulated abroad, says the Sinhala Commission. Did the LTTE also have a part in it?

Why than, in spite of Ms. Srima Dissanayake’s demand, was a Presidential Commission not appointed to inquire into the assassination of Gamini Dissanayake?

This is not a draft constitution, but only certain proposals to end confrontational politics and enable the minorities to participate actively in the process of governance, concludes the Sinhala Commission.

The tragedy of Vanni civilians and total militarisation

The following is the UTHR(J) Information Bulletin, released on May 19.
Continued from last week

SCHOOLS

Anbu, the LTTE leader in charge of schools has ordered that all school children from year 9 (13 years) and above must as the first step undergo 3 weeks of physical training for 1 hour a day during school hours. This training is conducted by LTTE cadre or by young teachers who have been given a month’s training by the LTTE.

This will be followed by the second step which comprises 2 weeks of weapons training. First they would be given three types of guns - M 16, AK 47 & G 3 - along-with grenades, would be taught how to dismantle and reassemble them, and how many bullets each gun could fire and their killing range. Next they would be trained how to take up positions, and move under cover from one position to another.

The same training procedure has to be followed by the teachers parallely, but after school hours. The lady teachers have been ordered to stitch T-shirts and slacks for purposes of training.

Having heard rumours about compulsory training, most parents kept their children away from school when schools reopened in April. But children centinued to be sent to tutories which are doing roaring business. The LTTE then approached tutory staff and told them that should school absenteeism continue at this rate, the tutories would be closed. The tutory staff then told the students that they should not come there unless they are attending school. This put the parents and their children in a quandary. But the LTTE’s next move made it impossible to avoid training by staying away from school.

COMPULSORY TRAINING FOR THE PEOPLE’S MILITIA

Having begun with schools the LTTE drew up a scheme for a universal people’s militia. The LTTE summoned a meeting of village headmen (GSs), a part of the government administration, who were to be the linchpins of the People’s Militia. Each GS normally has about 150-300 families under him. The GSs were told that they would be responsible for compliance with the regulations, were given forms for each family, and were asked to return with the completed forms. Each head of the family has to fill in details about members, their age, sources and amount of income, cases of serious illness and so on. The people from is upwards were to be placed in 3 categories: 1st - 15 to 35 years, 2nd - 35 to 45 years & 3rd - 45 years and above.

The 1st and 2nd categories will be compulsorily trained in the village camps being organised. Those in the 3rd must go for training unless they can establish that they are seriously ill. Even if they are granted exemption, they must be present in the grounds while the others are training.

The people will be allowed to collect their relief rations sent by the Government only upon the GS certifying that the person underwent training. Thus those 15 and above who stay away from school will get caught to the Militia. There is again a discrepancy between those training in schools and those meant to be trained in the Militia. The former would also include 13-14 year olds. Local observers suggest that this group would be used as reserves. Orders have already been issued and Militia training is expected to commence during the course of May.

THE CO-OPERATIVES

The co-ops are the bodies distributing government rations. As an allied move, the LTTE called up meetings of co-op administrators in different areas. They were told that the co-ops would from now function directly under LTTE overview. Rations, they added, should be given only to those coming with certification from the GS. At one meeting a coop administrator complained that because the LTTE divert part of the rations coming in for their own use, the co-ops run out of food to give those coming later in the line who are entitled. The LTTE spokesman responded that it is the fault of the co-ops. He added, "If you tell us the number you serve, we will leave that amount and take the rest".

In the Mullaitivu area, co-op administrators protested that if they carried out the orders given by the LTTE, they would get into trouble with their superiors outside the Vanni. The LTTE spokesman replied, "If you will not work as we want, you can handover everything to us and go".

THE LEADER

According to the new rules no one is allowed to leave the LTTE even after the completion of the mandatory 7 years. When this was introduced some months ago, those attaining the age of 35 were permitted to get married, after which they would remain in the organisation but perform non-combat duties. Those who had left the organisation but were in the Vanni were ordered to report back and deserters too were rounded up. The number so brought back is said to be about 2000. There is said to be no shortage of weapons. A section of those reinducted have been addressed by the Leader, Mr. V. Prabhakaran.

About the first week of May the Leader addressed a secret conference of all area leaders of the Propaganda Wing. He was hard on them for their low effectiveness. This he said had resulted in an appallingly low level of recruitment. To shame them, he delivered an emotional eulogy on the achievements of the Military Wing, with references to Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, the SL Army’s aborted northward advance on A9 and the achievements of suicide cadre. He gave them a time frame in which to take steps to boost recruitment.

The Leader further ordered them to conduct daily pocket meetings in every village. The lack of variety in propaganda material too came up for discussion. While the LTTE controlled Jaffna, in addition to the Eelanatham daily, the Viduthalaippuligal (Liberation Tigers) came out monthly. At present the Eelanatham continues to be published daily, but the second is irregular. The Leader asked them to regularise Viduthalaippuligal, and to put out additional leaflets.

Some of the measures mentioned above are being implemented and for the others orders have been given. Delays and modifications may be occasioned by constraints and public resentment. These are high handed and even fascist measures to impose on a helpless, starving, sickly, frightened and an almost hysterical population, brought to this point by their liberators by methodically blocking all saner alternatives. Whatever the personal merits of the Leader, his charisma and endurance, his manner of struggle, as we have always said, is a mockery of liberation, and renders the Tamils objects of contempt. A heavier responsibility rests with those sections of the Tamil elite who flattered his vanity, without whose services this tragedy could not have been prolonged for so long.

Take one example: The Leader has moved far towards using the food sent by the Sri Lankan Government for the displaced as wages for military service in warring against the same government, on the grounds that it is a genocidal government. He knows that human rights concern from around the world, and rightly so, would never allow the government, whatever its inclinations, to completely stop the food supply and starve the people. It is moreover a concern he never allowed his own people.

Most Tamils have doubts about his cause, those directly affected are often angry such as the victims of the Jaffna Exodus, and one day the survivors of the Vanni ordeal too will be angry. Yet the Tamils’ historical experience of the Sri Lankan state and the regular humiliations they face, constantly reinforce a gut feeling of sympathy for his cause. It is of course most often the self-indulgent feeling of those at a safe distance from his organisation.

To understand this and move some way towards eradicating such gut feeling, we also need to confront and come to terms with attitudes and practices of the State and of the Southern elite, that contribute to it.

CIVILIANS AND THE SECURITY REGIME

Earlier we referred to Tamils coming out of the Vanni who are confined to refugee camps in subhuman conditions. There are now about 14,000 such refugees in Vavuniya. This measure has no legal sanction. It is hard to make a list of such unlawful measures. Being unlawful, they are often individual and arbitrary innovations increasingly going out of control. To take a common sort of example, an old man had come out of the Vanni and was in Vavuniya trying to get a pass to travel to Trincomalee and join his daughter. Instead of going to a refugee camp where the procedure to come out is arduous, he submitted his application and boarded himself at the Hindu Youth Council for Rs. 30 a day. 52 days later a Tamil police officer passing by saw him and inquired. The old man who had practically exhausted his money was living on bread and plain tea, asked the police officer to buy some for him.

After further inquiries, the officer checked and found that the old man’s application had not even been faxed to the Trincomalee police to check on his daughter, and took steps to dispatch him there. In such matters Tamil civilians have no rights and the Police are not bound by any obligation to perform their self-imposed duty expeditiously. In the meantime, after 52 days, the old man had begun to starve.

In another instance a displaced elderly man on a wheel chair with an ailment wanted to go from Vavuniya to Colombo to consult a specialist. The Police wanted a letter from the DMO, Vavuniya, stating that consultation for the ailment was unobtainable in Vavuniya. It was in clear breach of a man’s right to travel within his own country and to consult a doctor of his choice. Moreover this case and that above reeate to persons who are clearly neither terrorists nor suicide bombers.

Getting permission to travel out of the North has been made a tedious process. In Mannar town which serves a large area, it means hanging about for several whole days at the pass office to see the police officer, even paying a bribe through an agent, and much paper work. Those who plan systems do not even know if they work, and make the public suffer instead. For example, for a person coming from the LTTE area to travel abroad or to Colombo, someone in the cleared (Army controlled) area has to stand guarantee. Someone in Mannar town for example has to surrender the local Army identity card and is given a temporary pass to remain in Mannar - not valid for travelling out of town. The person going abroad upon completing arrangements in Colombo has to send the guarantor by fax, copies of the visa and ticket. These are then produced to the Police who in turn ask the Colombo Airport by fax if the traveller has left. A lady who stood guarantee for an old lady going to India submitted the fax and went and hung around at the pass office to get back her Army identity card (which again has no legal recognition). At length she learnt that the Colombo Airport never responds to such queries from the local police.

The illegality of the whole range of practices, including compulsory registration in Colombo - in practice for Tamils only - and the need to carry the registration form around are underpinned by one singular fact: When an Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General were asked about registration and the need to carry the form in Colombo, the responded that these were not necessary. But it goes on. There is a particularly interesting absurdity. Sections of the security forces run rackets to smuggle persons from the-North int, Colombo in their vehicles for about Rs. 20,000 per head. There have been cases of smugled persons being apprehended by the Police in Colombo and then let off, because there are no legal grounds for prosecution. The most the Police can do is to detain the person on grounds of suspicion under the PTA and have the detention order extended from time to tame by me magistrates, knowing well that there is no use. The bulk of the Tamil detainees belong to this category. Being made to work in this chronic regime has a strong corrupting influence on security officials.

The system drives the policeman to ask not what law this person is in breach of, but rather how much he can pay? These practices have spawned host of shady lawyers and agents, claiming to be able to bribe police officials and even magistrates. It brings about the degradation of the whole system of law, and of the State itself.

With the Government bereft of any political strategy to integrate the Tamils into the national fabric, these security regulations become more and more oppressive and arbitrary with every bomb that goes off in Colombo. They may be bearable for a few months. But continued indefinitely with no end in sight they become in effect a system of apartheid under the name of security, but without a legal framework.

COUNTERING AN IMPENDING TRAGEDY

A very perilous situation now confronts us in the Vanni that could carry the tide of events in several unexpected directions. Like every fascist movement the LTTE will run the course of destroying itself. It is also characteristic of them that in their final inferno they try to take large numbers of their own people down with them.

Thanks to the Government’s procrastination, the UNP’s opportunism and the volatility of the Southern political scene, a political solution to the ethnic problem once more looks distant. This created desperately in the ordinary Tamil mind, that if the LTTE is finished, they would be cheated once again. In many unseen ways the failure to have a political solution in place generates the dynamism to prolong the conflict. Had the Government’s ‘Peace Package’ been a fact of life today, we would have faced a far less daunting situation in the Vanni. There would have been hope for the people, and hence more resistance to the LTTE’s impositions. Indeed there is resistance even today.

It is imperative that we face up to, in advance, the limitations of the Sri Lankan Forces. When operations were started in Jaffna during 1995, without any provocation from below the Air Force bombed a refugee concentration in Navaly killing 12O civilians in July and again in Nagar Kovil killing about 40 civilians in September. In the Vanni today, the LTTE, unlike in Jaffna in 1995, is doing everything possible to blur the distinction between combatants and non combatants. A couple of aerial attacks like the ones above in Jaffna, and total mobilisation is bound to be seen as legitimate, with the people feeling that they were with their backs to the wall.

The experience in 1995 (as recorded in our Special Report No. 6, The Jaffna Exodus) could give us ideas for the protection of civilians. There is a compelling case for enabling International NGOs to go into the LTTE controlled areas and organise safety zones for the civilians. If the Government Forces are enjoined to conduct themselves with restraint, it may well turn out that large numbers of LTTE cadre, many of whom are fighting for the lack of an alternative, would surrender when the opportunity arises.

Most of the displaced persons in the Vanni would have come out into the Government controlled area by now, if not for Government restrictions. Those who come out have been confined to camps in sub human conditions, while there is land in Vavuniya for them to live independently in temporary abodes. This is part of the mindset of a state machinery that has lent complicity to displacing Tamils and Muslims in Trincomalee urban limits, settling Sinhalese in their place and regularising the new occupation [see for example Special Report No. 8]. The present plight of Tamil refugees also has much to do with state ideology rather than with legitimate security concerns.

Urgency demands that the immediate concern should be directed towards the civilians in the conflict zone. International agencies should be enabled to go into the area with such quantities of food and medicine as are deemed adequate. This will not save the LTTE which is in the process of destroying itself. But it would do much to protect the people and keep them away from the LTTE

The political solution too can no longer be delayed. From the time of the B-C pact of 1957 it has been our experience that delay and defensive pleading eroded credibility and caused governments to renege on their commitments. The country itself has continued to remain an intellectual and economic backwater, dominated by paranoid and increasingly security conscious ruling interests, thus unable to realise its potential. Indeed a mental framework dependent on interests which cannot countenance the truth, leads inevitably to intellectual degradation. The 1980s and particularly the Southern insurgency, amply revealed that the Tamil militancy was to a considerable extent a pretext for the repressive laws and military machine these ruling interests called into existence. The country needs a new vision, not a repackaging of discredited notions. What the President has been saying in public, goes a considerable way in that direction.

THE TRAGEDY

A demand for federal status for, broadly speaking, the North-East, with far-reaching provisions for autonomy, would be irresistible in the modern world. There should be a concerted attempt by all concerned to bring this about. This alone would help the Tamils to find their feet and for the State to dismantle this system of creeping apartheid that is increasingly enveloping the lives of Tamils. Eventually there should be a demilltarised North East, with no more than a token presence of the national army.

As for the Tamil diaspora, it is these issues, and especially the protection of civilians in imminent danger, towards which they should direct their considerable lobbying powers. The Tigers and the destructive power they wielded were indeed for the most part the creation of an ideologically driven state that was pushing the Tamil people to live at the end of their nerves. It was for them a regime of violence with impunity - both mob violence and state violence. Lands they had farmed for several decades, and their own homes, often enough ceased to belong to them, having been snatched away overnight by gazette notifications hatched in secret.

But propping up the Tigers in their present form would only further the decimation of the Tamil community. And it can be done only at the expense of children of families in the Vanni, who are groping for survival amidst starvation, fear and disease. A struggle that ultimately leaves Tamil children and teenage girls holding empty plates, queuing outside Sri Lankan Army camps at mealtimes, is no liberation struggle.

The nature of the Tigers and where they would carry the Tamil people have been well understood for many years. But thanks to the opportunism of many, this has been obfuscated and the suffering of the Tamil people prolonged. The following was written by Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, the 10th anniversary of whose murder falls this year, in the context of the Indian Army’s advance into Jaffna in October 1987:

"ии They continued to lure the army, just to run away, letting the people face the result. It was cruelest of all when they told the people that another 500 to 1000 must die for them to have a viable international publicity campaign. This was not an isolated instance or statement of a group without contact with the leadership. It was pronounced at many places and in many forms. When the people were starving, wandering around like dogs for rice, the Tigers issued leaflets asking the people to boycoff Indian distributed food.

When the children were dying with diseases, they threatened those who cared for them, ordering them not to issue Indian drugs. Did they offer alternatives, so that we could eat Tiger food and give our children Tiger drugs?..." (The Broken Palmyra p 359).

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