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| Sunday, 25 January 2004 |
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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 LTTE boycott The failure of the LTTE to attend the Second Follow Up Meeting of the Tokyo Donors' Conference held in Colombo on Friday is an indication that the lack of political sophistication among the nation's leaders is not something that solely characterises the leaders in the South. That the leaders in the South are yet unable to see the urgent need to transcend inter-party rivalry for power to collaborate for peace is something that these columns need not point out again. Given the continuing trend of political developments, this sad affliction is something obvious to most Sri Lankans. A sophisticated political understanding of the needs and imperatives of the Sri Lankan crisis would impress on everyone, our political leaders especially, that there is also an overriding common need for a comprehensive political settlement of the ethnic conflict. Our leaders lack this sophistication that would impress on them the need, while proceeding with their manoeuvres and alliances for the purposes of power rivalry, to also urgently seek a systematic and sustained collaboration among all major parties and political forces for that common national objective. The LTTE has so far displayed considerable sophistication in its war for Tamil Eelamist secession, but has yet to display a similar competence in its civil political actions for Tamil self-determination and political community. Its failure to attend Friday's meeting in Colombo is an indication of that inadequacy. Even if the LTTE had been wrongly shut out of a key stage of the peace process in Washington and, consequently the organisation refused to return to the talks process without adequate recognition, it is because the Liberation Tiger leadership is aware that a fully fledged peace for its own people can only come through a political settlement that it subsequently indicated its readiness to resume talks. True, the political upheavals in Colombo have delayed the resumption of talks, but while politicians in the South are mired in short sighted rivalries, there is no need for the leadership in Killinochchi to engage in similarly capricious posturing. The meeting in Colombo would have been a useful opportunity to win recognition and to ensure that the Tamil people's leadership's voice is heard and its priorities and interests placed on the agenda. Participation in the donors' meeting would have helped ensure that, while the political talks are in suspense, at least the process of delivering resources for rehabilitation and reconstruction would be speeded up and implemented with the increased participation of the LTTE in the decision-making process. In fact the participation of the LTTE in this process and the pressure it would thus bring to bear on Colombo in the emphasis of its needs and priorities will likely act as a compulsion for the leadership in the South to begin to function beyond the confines of competitive party politics. World Social Forum What began in the Brazilian city of Porto Allegro as a "people's alternative" to the World Economic Forum that brings together the business and political leaders of the world's powerful states has, today, achieved a life of its own as the gathering of movements for social justice, human development, and ecological and cultural flowering throughout the world. In sharp contrast to the World Economic Forum, which is an exclusive, close-door huddle of the global political and economic elite, the WSF is a giant 'open house' famous now for its tens of thousands of participants, sheer diversity of viewpoints and gamut of issues under discussion and, increasingly, the festive celebration of human solidarity. The latest World Social Forum that ended in Mumbai last week was typical of this global event where some 70,000 activists from 180 countries gathered. Unfortunately, while much of South Asia's mass media did report this important event at which notable world personalities and popular leaders participated, the Sri Lankan media barely referred to it. It is important that those several organisations and individuals who participated from this country communicate better so that Sri Lankans in general are aware of WSF Mumbai's significance to our lives. |
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