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| Sunday, 5 October 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Guns have been silent : Peace still beyond horizon Continuing "War or Peace in Sri Lanka" by T.D.S.A. Dissanayake Epilogue As I begin to write the last ten pages of this Volume, the date is August 22nd 2003 which is exactly eighteen months after the Ceasefire Agreement was signed. It is indeed an opportune occasion to assess the contribution to the cause of Peace since February 22nd 2002, both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. At the outset it must be emphasized that both the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE want Peace. During the period under review there was no evidence whatsoever to show that either side wants war. On the one hand, both the Sinhalese and Muslim populations are tired of war and welcome the Peace ushered in by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. On the other hand, the Tamil population is also tired of war. Thus, as of now, war is an unlikely proposition although it is a possibility that can never ever be written off lightly taking into account the track record of the LTTE. In essence, the present scenario is one of no war and no peace, where the Ceasefire is effective but Peace is still beyond the horizon. In that sense the scenario is similar to that in Northern Ireland where the guns have been silent for four years, Nobel Prizes for Peace have been awarded, both protagonists are even promoting tourism in areas they hold, however Peace is still beyond the horizon. On the other hand it is a matter of opinion whether Sri Lanka has done as well as she should have since February 22nd 2002. The rehabilitation of the internally displaced people amounting to 865,000 citizens, is as follows: (1) Of the 738,000 Tamils only 325,000 have been at rehabilitated. (2) Of the 92,000 Muslims, 40,000 have been re-located in the District of Puttalam 12,000 have been rehabilitated in the District of Mannar and 10,000 in the District of Mallaitvu. (3) Of the 35,000 Sinhalese 20,000 have been rehabilitated in the North Central Province. (Source: Ministry of Rehabilitation). Firstly, the delay so far has been due to lethargy and for that the Government of Sri Lanka has to be blamed. All internally displaced persons must be rehabilitated or re-located by December 31st 2003. Secondly, the most important project in the North-Eastern Province is to modernize highway A-9 from Jaffna to Thandikulam, 140 kilometres. To expedite the modernisation of this highway seven well known contractors were given the task of each completing 20 kilometres in the six months January 1st to 30th June 2003. As of today no contractor has been successful but it is likely that the project will be duly completed by December 31st 2003. For this delay the LTTE has to be condemned for their numerous illegal levies such as "Development Tax", "Turn over tax" and "Customs duty" which they have arbitrarily imposed. These illegal levies are counter productive and merely increase the misery of the Tamil people, whom the LTTE claims to safeguard. These delays have necessarily delayed the commissioning of other urgent rehabilitation projects such as establishing a rail link between Thandikulam and Jaffna and extending it to Kankasanturai (the original link was established by the British nearly 100 years ago), to construct a brand new town of Chavakachcheri because not a single building not even out house toilets have been spared by artillery fire, and to construct a new General Hospital for Killinochchi to replace the empty shell of a hospital completely devastated by the scourge of war. These projects can easily be financed under the rehabilitation aid so generously donated by Japan. However, Japan will never ever commission such projects subject to illegal levies such as "Development tax", "Turn over tax" and "Customs duty" imposed arbitrarily by the LTTE. Once again the LTTE must mend their wayward ways which are counter productive, to say the least. Likewise there are so many viable rehabilitation projects pertaining to the infrastructure in the Districts of Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee in the Eastern Province and in the Districts of Jaffna, Killinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya in the Northern Province, which need urgent attention and for which there are adequate funds in the planning figure duly established at the Pledging Conference in Tokyo. None of them will ever see the light of day, if the LTTE persists with their illegal levies "Development tax", "Turn over tax" and "Customs duty". Thus the recurring decimal is the wayward ways of the LTTE. Another victim of the political crisis caused by the unilateral suspension of the Peace talks, is the Local Government election in the North-Eastern Province which was scheduled for May 24th 2003. That was postponed indefinitely when the Peace talks were postponed indefinitely. As such two sets of elections are due in the North-Eastern Province in the next six months, namely the Local Government elections to be held as early as practicable and the Provincial Council elections scheduled to be held early in 2004. Both these elections will reveal, in one way or another the influence of the LTTE or the absence to the influence of LTTE. Other than the considerations listed in the last three pages, the key factor that will influence the Peace talks, once they are resumed, is the future of the North-Eastern Province. The North-Eastern Province was temporarily set up under the Thirteenth Amendment which was promulgated in 1987 and is subject to a Referendum in the Eastern Province. The Referendum will decide whether or not the people of the Eastern Province wish to merge with the Northern Province. It was hoped that this Referendum will be held in 1988 when President Jayewardene was in his last year in office. Due to security considerations, in practical terms the earliest the Referendum could have been held was in 1994. Somehow President D.B. Wijetunge, who succeeded the assassinated President R. Premadasa in 1993, got cold feet in 1994 and postponed the Referendum. In reality in 1994 the General Election and the Presidential Election of that year were held very peacefully in the Eastern Province. Well entrenched in power in her first term in office President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga did not hold the Referendum due to Security problems. The Referendum could have been held in 2000, when the President won the General Election of 2000, or in 2001 when the President lost the General Election of 2001. In both these General Elections the Eastern Province was both stable and quiet and the polling was heavy. However a Referendum was an unlikely proposition in 2002 because the Ceasefire Agreement was signed in February and so many obstacles had to be mounted before the Peace talks commenced in September and stabilized by December. To my mind the perfect interim solution is to hold that Referendum as early as practicable, after the Provincial Elections of 2004. During the past ten years I had to travel extensively in all nine Provinces, to write "The Politics of Sri Lanka" (Volumes I to IV). In my judgement, in the past ten years no Province has changed so much as the Eastern Province. That has been due to four factors: (a) The political thinking of The late M.H.M. Ashraff, who was a visionary. (b) The influx of foreign exchange remittances from the Middle East. (c) The emancipation of the Muslim community in the Eastern Province, which is modernizing itself so rapidly after a slow start in the decade of the nineteen fifties, sixties and seventies. (d) The Muslim community becoming the largest of the three communities in the Eastern Province due to the mass exodus of the Tamil community because of the Civil War. M.H.M. Ashraff made his first indelible mark on the national political scene at the Presidential Election of 1988 where the results were as follows: Prime Minister R. Premadasa (UNP) - 50.1% FormerPrimeMinister Sirima Bandaranaike (SLFP) - 44.9% At the General Election of 1989, held just two months after the Presidential Election of 1988, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) poled 3.6%. The SLMC was with the SLFP throughout 1988 and just before the Presidential Election of 1988 crossed over to the UNP which offered better terms. Thus the SLMC held the balance of power between the giants, the UNP and the SLFP. To be Continued |
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