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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 |
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Please forward your comments to the Editor,
Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 11 2429239 / 2331181 Fax : 94 11 2429230 JVP 'No': Its meaning The JVP has said 'No' to the P-TOMS and left the UPFA. They have given reasons for their decision. They argue that the establishment of P-TOMS would elevate a terrorist organization, the LTTE, to the status of the Government of Sri Lanka, would be tantamount to handing over the legally vested powers of the Government to the LTTE and that it would endanger the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. However, they have failed to substantiate their claims. It is hard to imagine how a temporary or time-bound administrative mechanism along a mere 2 km. coastal strip in a part of the country could harm the sovereignty and territorial integrity when the Government and its officials are also represented in it and when it is financed and operated through the normal legal means. The JVP's aversion to working with a terrorist organization is both hilarious and naive. It is hilarious considering its own past history when they declared and carried out a war on the family members of the armed forces and members and sympathisers of rival political parties. Even the dead were not spared as a ban was enforced on coffins being carried on shoulders. So much so, for their respect for national culture which they claim to defend. The best way to deal with terrorism is to eliminate the causes that led to it, engage its adherents in democratic dialogue and open avenues for them to join the mainstream of politics. Actually it's a path that the JVP itself has traversed. No political party worthy of its name could ignore the reality and base its policies on fantasy. The existence of separate administrative structures under the control of the LTTE is a fact. It's the ground reality. The necessity to engage the LTTE in tsunami relief springs from this reality. It is impossible to ignore them. To ignore or bypass them is to relegate the tsunami victims in the LTTE controlled areas to their fate. P-TOMS does not mean recognising the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil people. In fact, P-TOMS does not preclude the inclusion of representatives of other Tamil political forces if the government so desires. There is no provision demanding that its representatives should be from the Sinhala community alone. Whether the LTTE is the sole representative of the Tamil people is a matter to be decided by the Tamil people and not by the UPFA or the UNP or the JVP. Nor is it a matter for the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists who are now shedding crocodile tears for the hapless Tamils. Treating the LTTE as 'untouchables' as the JVP demands would mean giving up the path of negotiated settlement of the National Question. It would mean driving them to war with all its horrendous consequences. International experience provides conclusive evidence that war is not the means of settling civil conflicts. However unpalatable the belligerents have to sit round the negotiating table if they are to serve the interests of the people they claim to uphold. P-TOMS does not signify devolution of power. At best it is decentralisation of administrative authority, which the JVP too claims to stand for. The JVP seems to be far off from the principles of socialism, which it proclaims adherence to as well as from the objective reality of the modern world. Socialism stands for rights of nations to self-determination. They stand for broad democracy, which means above all economic and political devolution of power. By clinging on to a concept of eternal unitary nature of the state they are also repeating the mistake of the old Left which introduced the unitary character to the Republican Constitution in 1972 erasing even the basic fundamental safeguards provided to the minorities in the colonial Constitution. Constitutions today tend to be more hybrid in character. Even the United Kingdom, which had been a unitary state for so long, has now accepted federal characteristics in order to reinforce the Union. The JVP is also forgetting the fact that the unitary constitution was only of recent origin, being introduced by the British colonialists to facilitate their iron rule. The consequences of saying 'NO' to P-TOMS or a similar relief mechanism means also the alienation of Sri Lanka from the international community, which the country can ill-afford. The JVP must rethink whether it was advisable to abandon a broad development program to which it had committed itself under the UPFA for a minor issue on illusory grounds. It shows political immaturity or juvenile delinquency as our political correspondent has shown in the opposite page of this issue. |
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