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Party politics or national interest?

The renewed flurry of diplomatic activity inter-cutting between Kilinochchi and Colombo as if in some surrealistic film can have its own dangers if it again bolsters illusions among the people at large that a negotiated political settlement to the National Question is at hand.

The peace process itself has been at a standstill since the LTTE decided not to attend the donors' conference in Tokyo although in their own ways Minister G. L. Peiris and the LTTE's political wing chief S. P. Thamilselvan have been seeking to soothe the sense of national anxiety. It is certainly reassuring that there has been no return to violence but the mixed signals emanating from the LTTE over issues ranging from the Manirasakulam camp to the hoisting of the Eelam flag have hardly helped matters.

As Japan's peripatetic special envoy Yasushi Akashi has observed the LTTE tends to side with the international community at times and tends to take it on at other times when it suits its purposes.

Even if all this can be dismissed as the pangs of a military outfit in the process of transforming itself into a political organisation it will be widely hoped both here and among the global community that the proposals for an Interim Administration which the LTTE is said now to be putting into shape will be of a realistic and practical nature which can form the basis for negotiations between the two sides. While Mr. Akashi has hoped that the Government's response to the LTTE proposals would be 'positive' it is also important that the LTTE should be appreciative of what the Government can grant and what it can not agree to in a sensitive political situation.

The bone of contention is that while the international community is committed to provide aid for rehabilitation and the humanitarian needs of the northern and eastern provinces the LTTE would like these projects to come under their direct control.

Hence their insistence on an Interim Administration, a demand made from the Jayewerdene regime too after the signing of the Indo-Lanka agreement. From the LTTE's perspective this will in some measure vindicate that their struggle for a separate state has not been in vain but from the point of view of the Government and the international community such hegemony on the part of the LTTE can hardly encourage any hopes of pluralism and multi-party democracy in any future political order in the North and East, whether federal or otherwise.

Mr. Akashi has said that he had proposed to the LTTE the establishment of a North and East Rehabilitation Fund (NERF) but again the question can arise of who controls this kitty and the relationship between the Government and the LTTE in any such exercise. This is why we have observed that the LTTE's proposals should be of such a nature that the Government can reciprocate them without creating volatile political conditions in the South which is already showing signs of a stirring resistance.

Meanwhile the fresh confrontation between the President and the Prime Minister can not also help matters. The exchange of missives between the President's House and Temple Trees or between the President's House and the Ministry of Defence can only encourage a sense of national confusion. There are also attempts by the PA to form a broad anti-UNF alliance (after the collapse of its talks with the JVP). While all this is in the nature of politics the question is where the dividing line should be drawn between party political manouverings and the broad national interest.

The lack of a southern consensus on the contours of a possible solution to the National Question can only benefit the LTTE which has always portrayed this as demonstrating the unwillingness of 'Sinhala Governments' as they are called to grant the just demands of the Tamil people.

Even if we put aside for the moment the whole vexed question of whether the LTTE is the sole representative of the Tamil people or not the inability of the UNP and the SLFP as the two major southern political parties and their respective allies to place the national interest over and beyond partisan politics has not only been destructive of the social fabric but has also embittered the atmosphere of political debate and discourse.

So however much the Norwegians and the japanese might exert themselves in the cause of restoring peace, our own sense of national importance can well be the cause of our ultimate undoing.

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