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| Sunday, 8 January 2006 |
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Features |  |
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A word of
caution
by Prof. C. Suriyakumaran The Presidential visit to India, narrowly skirted a disaster by a very late avoidance of an earlier publicized, and apparently ill advised visit to Tamil Nadu. It should have been very, very clear to anybody with a background that a position of mutual understanding on the shared concerns between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka should have been well and truly studied, even exchanged, before including such a visit. The Delhi agenda was nothing new, re-announcing and re-confirming all the known positions in Indo-Sri Lanka relations in the various economic, political and other fields. The Indian formula for solutions of the Sri Lankan problem, of full Devolution in a Federal Indian style conception, were all known. The gap confirming this and the new Sri Lankan concept, still not quite clearly defined, of solution, within a Unitary Country, was never cleared up in Delhi amidst the Protocols, and verbal expressions of friendships. But that could not have been in Tamil Nadu, and at least an advance exchange of concepts consistent with Devolution and Regional self-expression alongside the conservation of integrity as a country should have been exchanged. Seeking to go into Tamil Nadu as if these were non-existent issues was wrong advice at its worst by whoever advised the President. True, the Presidential political definitions themselves need much refining. For instance five leading citizens, based on what they called an outstanding article by this writer, wrote to the papers just prior to the elections asking both Presidential candidates at that time, to answer the three key questions as what they understand by the terms Unitary Government, Participatory Government and Devolutionary Government (including later Federal or Con-Federal Government). Being the party of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and D. A. Rajapakse, the Presidential teams in office or in the present or former Peace Secretariat one does not know where - could have studied at least some of the ideas of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in this otherwise healthy idea of touching base with the leaders of Tamil Nadu in India. I shall stop here and hope I shall not be misunderstood - on the contrary I hope there will be someone up there to understand. (Although not normally inclined to refer to persons, it would seem that Godage's recent thought about Jayanath Rajapaksa and drawing in someone like him would not have been a bad idea). I shall refrain from mentioning names of one or two others, now dead, who of late have been blown out of proportion. It is not too late for the President still to set in motion a serious think tank process that will we all hope provide that bridge of understanding which, personally, one is sure will lead to successful negotiations with the LTTE, a bridge that will stand the test of exchanges and of time, and settle this once and for all for all of us. |
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