Tamil Guardian Editorial - Sri Lanka President Rajapakse's enthusiasm for war is infectious
TamilBrisbane
for war is infectious
http://www.tamilbrisbane.com/content/view/358/1/
There can be no doubt that 2007 will be one of full-scale war in Sri
Lanka. Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka was emphatic last week;
his forces would clear the east within a month and then concentrate to
destroy the LTTE in the north, he vowed. President Mahi-nda Rajapakse
shares his confidence. The government is rolling out the political
dimensions of the Sinhala hegemonic project - especially the de-merger
of the Northeast Province - with a new urgency.
The administration's confidence is infectious, with even the
splintering main opposition UNP also now loudly proclaiming the need to
defeat terrorism - while also clinging to the notion that there must be
a political solution. The ultranationalists of the JVP and JHU no
longer stand out as the entire southern polity bays for a total
military victory. Even the so-called Sinhala left is hurrying to the
bandwagon. And even the international community, while still insisting
that there can be no military solution to the ethnic question, has both
backed off to give Sri Lanka the space to attempt one and is also
providing the required support for it. This confidence in a military
solution comes primarily from the past few months of battlefield
retreats by the LTTE. We see nothing served by arguing the contrary; we
will merely point out that this is not the first time the LTTE has been
emphatically written off by the Sri Lankan state and the international
community.
However, whatever the reality of LTTE strength, this moment ought to
be an eye-opener for the Tamils. As confidence in the military solution
has grown, so has enthusiasm waned - both in the south and in
international capitals - for power-sharing with the Tamils. For years
now we have been told that the LTTE was the Tamils' problem, that the
Tigers' hard line was precluding a lasting solution.
But amid a conviction the LTTE can be destroyed, all insistence on a
political solution has evaporated. The present situation highlights the
Tamils' core dilemma: who can force a lasting solution out of the
Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan state? Who can guarantee our political
rights or even our physical security? The international community
(which so officiously appointed itself 'Co-Chairs' of the peace process
years ago) has gone silent, rousing itself only when attacks blamed on
the LTTE occur. There is (an unsurprising) collaborative silence as
scores of Tamils perish in the state's violence. None of the passionate
defenders of human rights that emerged during the peace are to be heard
now - though some self-serving charlatans who profited from liberal
laments (mixed with a little LTTE-bashing) during President Chandrika
Kumaratunga's 'war for peace' continue with business as usual. In
short, the Tamils find themselves, as ever, facing the Sinhala lion on
their own. Except for India. Ironically history repeats itself as Delhi
is again compelled by local pressures and familiar misgivings to
confront a rampant Sinhala nationalism at Sri Lanka's helm.
But President Rajapakse is confident enough of his military project to
openly disregard Delhi's demands. His vision of Sri Lanka is framed not
by a one of devolution, but of radical demographic change. That is why
the de-merger of the NorthEast Province (NEP) has been rushed through.
The JVP filed the Supreme Court case, paving the way for President
Rajapakse to realise the division of the Tamil homeland in practice. In
short, President Rajapakse intends to clear the Tamils from the east.
His military campaign began last April with a broad-front onslaught to
drive the Tamils out of Trincomalee. He has continued this murderous
campaign since, herding our people down the eastern coast, destroying
village after village as he went. He has done so with the approval of
the international community and to the enthusiastic applause of the
Sinhalese. It remains to be seen what, if anything, India can do to
dissuade President Rajapakse from his war, especially when he is
convinced he is fulfilling the tenets of the Sinhala revolution his
SLFP party inaugurated in 1956.
In the meantime the Tamils have to confront a new reality. Unwilling to
accommodate our political aspirations, Sri Lanka and the international
community have taken the Tamil struggle back to the battlefield. We are
once again on familiar ground. The Tamils are again confronted with the
same choice they faced in 1995 after President Kumaratunga hoisted the
lion flag over occupied Jaffna and turned to the Vanni: unite or
perish. Now, as then, our community, both in the homeland and amongst
the Diaspora, must come together. Once again we have to alleviate, as
best we can, the suffering in Vaharai and the rest of the Northeast.
Once again we have to stand firm against Sinhala efforts to destroy us.
Editorial Tamil Guardian - 10 January 2007