Experience and experiment in politics-a false dichotomy
by Rajan Philips
Fourth of February, Mahinda Rajapakse brought forth a new argument to justify his flat out rejection of the real APRC proposals and the dubious adoption of its ad-hoc recommendation to implement the Provincial Councils system under the Thirteenth Amendment. “We cannot offer solutions that are experiments”, he said, but only a solution “which can be implemented and about which we have experience.” The President’s speech writer is entitled to some self-satisfaction, but not much, for that person should know that experience and experiment are not mutually exclusive. One without the other will not be of much use. As the old Chinese saying goes-experience is like the comb one gets after going bald.
In 1931, the British colonial rulers began the biggest of all political experiments in modern Sri Lanka-the introduction of universal voting rights. Every one of the established leaders at that time, Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher, opposed the white man’s experiment based on their native or caste experience. Should we have spurned that experiment then, as President Rajapakse is spurning all experiments in devolution now?
The post-independence experience of voting rights has not been without blemishes. The Tamil plantation workers were deprived of their franchise by a UNP government soon after independence. Just two years ago, the Tamil people of the North and East were barred by the LTTE from voting in the last presidential election to ensure Ranil Wickremasinghe’s defeat and Rajapakse’s victory. In between, the whole country was put through the farcical experience of a referendum in place of the real experience of a parliamentary election. That was also J.R. Jayewardena’s too clever by half experiment which set up the catastrophe of 1983.
Six years ago, Sri Lanka tried a different experiment in signing the ceasefire agreement to end the ‘beggarly fighting’ (to paraphrase Yeats) that began after the catastrophe, and has since involved four presidential regimes and the LTTE. True to form, President Rajapakse, the fifth in line, has now abrogated the ceasefire experiment and opted for-what is to both the military and the LTTE-the proven experience of war. True to form too, the LTTE has restarted its suicide attacks in the South.
Those who are taking moral exceptions to the LTTE’s suicide-tactics have learnt nothing about the LTTE and forgotten everything. They have forgotten that there were no suicide killings for nearly two years after the ceasefire agreement was signed. There is more than one way to skin the political tiger, and the ceasefire experiment presented the least costly of all options, not just financially but in terms of human lives. Instead, President Rajapakse went ahead and abrogated the agreement because the LTTE has been violating it daily. Talk about bringing down the leaky roof in the midst of a rainstorm!
[Sen. Barack Obama, at a recent campaign rally]
In the farrago of American presidential primaries, Barack Obama, last week’s underdog and upstart, is the new frontrunner in the contest for the Democratic Party nomination, representing a bold new experiment and movement for change. Hillary Clinton, the hitherto favoured former first lady representing experience and record, not to mention gender, is being pummeled in state after state. Interestingly, they are both competing to put an end to America’s eight year experience under President Bush. They both want to end the war in Iraq, with Obama going further and promising to end not just the war but the mindset that led America into Iraq.
The ceasefire agreement in Sri Lanka was its first opportunity to change the mindset of war in twenty years. The assault on this mindset had begun in 1994 in the first and the better term of the Kumaratunga presidency although its material outcome came later in the constitutional proposals of 2000. Ranil Wickremasinghe and his UNP literally burnt them, while the LTTE contributed to their collapse with its own antics. Without a ceasefire the constitutional proposals could not go far enough towards acceptance and implementation. The mindset of war could not be changed.
The 2002 ceseafire agreement put an end to the fighting but left the political question open. It is a lie to suggest that the agreement lacked political legitimacy because RW had won a comprehensive parliamentary election in late 2001 after campaigning on the issue of peace and before signing the agreement in February 2002. I say comprehensive because RW’s coalition came first in over 90% the electorates but the actual number of seats won was reduced by the PR system. CBK had achieved a similar victory at the presidential election of 1994. Put another way, CBK’s constitutional initiative and RW’s ceasefire agreement had abundance of political legitimacy.
Those who cite the recent polling results in support of the war effort conveniently forget that not long ago public opinion was favouring the other side, the right side, and overwhelmingly so. What was tragic was that the political leadership failed to build on this strong political capital and achieve both peace and political solution, often for the most puerile of reasons. It is necessary to single out Chandrika Kumaratunga, Ranil Wickremasinghe and Lakshman Kadirgamar for this debacle, if only because much power was given to them, and much was expected of them. The lack of strong and united political leadership gave rise to corruption in government and to the laissez faire politics of the NGOs. Despite the sincere commitment of the many individuals involved in NGO enterprises, the NGOS ultimately contributed to public misgivings about the peace process. The people yearned for peace but smelled several rats in the peace process.
The biggest stink of course came from the LTTE. Its intentions in signing the ceasefire agreement were questionable at best and dishonourable at worst. But the ceasefire agreement for the first time gave the State of Sri Lanka a political instrument with international oversight to deal with the LTTE. The abrogation of the agreement has let the LTTE politically and internationally off the hook, and is symptomatic of the government’s entrenchment in the mindset of war rather than liberation from it.
In political terms, the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement is akin to the constitutional stipulation of Sri Lanka as a unitary state that began with the 1972 Constitution. This rigidly limiting provision has made the resolution of the Tamil question virtually impossible. In contrast, finding a solution under the Soulbury Constitution (1947-1972) was considerably easier because, even though the Soulbury Constitution was technically unitary, it did not declare itself to be unitary. Analogously, even though the ceasefire agreement was technically in tatters, keeping it on paper would have signaled the government’s willingness to find a political solution even while returning LTTE’s fire with fire. Abrogating it has sent the opposite signal, confirming the government’s intent to pursue a military solution at all costs.
Given this intent, the commitment to implementing the Thirteenth Amendment, anymore than what has been tried so far, lacks credibility. Much has been said about the inadequacy of the Thirteenth Amendment, but the real question is whether there is the will and the willingness to implement it in full and in the spirit of the Indo-Lanka Agreement. The genius of the American Constitution, as Hillary Clinton pointed out in one of her recent stump speeches, has been its flexibility to expand as much as the Americans were ready to expand their hearts to be more inclusive. With expansive hearts, Sri Lanka could have managed with the Soulbury Constitution. Without a change of heart, no constitution will be good enough in the future.
Thiru.m said,
February 16, 2008 @ 9:13 pm
What a fine factual analysis without any ambiguity !.
Will the Sinhalese Leaders, majority of the Sinhalese diaspora, Sinhalese intelligentsia, MahaSanga & others from the majority community , minority community leaders who has been part of the successive GOSL, Indian masters and masters from the IC and their diplomats pay heed to this analysis ?
( I left out the Tamil majority including the diaspora because we have been the subject of these experiments since 1931 or even before that from Ponnamaplam brothers and still suffering )
The APRC is conveniently pushed to the back burner and the Sinhalese regime is now going to experiment with Constitutional Council to borrow more time and continue with the war on Tamils without any meaningful political solution with people like Mervin Silva in it,with the endorsement of India and the IC,
I vividly remember, how in the 1950s and early 1960s, my former comrades like Colvin R de Silva, N M Perera, Bernad Zouzsa, Anil Moonasinghe, David Kumar, Karalasingham, Viviene & Leslie Gunawardne , Edmund Samarkody, Peter Kenuman from LSSP and CP comes to Jaffna in the 1960s and talk about parity of status and why it is important pay attention to economic development first etc and how to be progressive. Their beautiful highly intellectual speeches will be translated in Tamil by teachers like Bhanudevan & V.Ponnampalam.
One of Colvin or NM’s perenial analogy was that Federal Party every election time go to the Tamils promising to solve the Tamils issue, go to parliament have a good time and come back to you all with the same issue and ask them to elect them again. They will emphasise to us Tamils that FP was taking you all on a Merry-go round that was part of the funfair those days, every time the GE. and drop you all at the end of the parliament term.
Sadly comrade Colvin got rid of the Soulbury provision protecting the minority rights when he was part of the ruling party in 1972.
Another comrade has done the Tamils with APRC.
Which comrade they are going to do the Tamils for good with the constitutional council ? and the experiment will continue until Tamils are marginalised world wide.
In the mean time the displacement of the Tamils will continue and the lives of the Tamils and particulalrly the Tamil youths will be continue to be cheap for GOSL.India and the IC.
Will there be change of heart of those who elect the GOSL and support them and those who hold power in New Delhi, Washington DC, Brussles & elsewhere ?
I very much doubt it.
Chales Ryan said,
February 16, 2008 @ 11:38 pm
Well written Rajan, We need the SriLankan masses to think instead of following ethnocentric politicians and “leaders”.No one can win this war. This is not a cricket game. Even if the army takes over Wanni, there will always be still violence between both communities.More militants will emerge from the desperate Tamil vicctims whose families are destroyed by bombings and abductions.More Sinhalese youth especially from the families of dead soldiers will grow up to be hostile towards Tamils . This will go on and on till the country is dragged down to the levels of Somalia and Sudan.Our children’s pictures will be on Time Magazine’s cover page as poster boys for “prevention of hunger”. Crime will take over the country if it is not so already.I hope the people realize the folly of their leaders on both sides.
Karupiah said,
February 17, 2008 @ 1:33 am
For the good of the people I prey for the following.
1. Tigers leadership is liquidated in the next year
2. VP is killed or captured and sent to India
3. The military govt is replaced with a humanist govt
4. Devolution is embraced
Dr KC said,
February 17, 2008 @ 6:11 am
For the attention of those people who have been thoroughly brainwashed with the anti-Indian rhetoric:
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=59&id=5419
Raj said,
February 17, 2008 @ 9:29 am
The analyses from every angles and every corners of the past and present situation by this author is very realistic with full of facts. The comments made by earlier bt Thiru.M with an opening remarks “What a fine factual analysis without any ambiguity !.” are commendable. As long as the Sinhalese majority make the claim “ Appe Rata and Appe Aanduwa”, and to exclude / ignore the rest of the minority communities from power sharing, SL will always be a “Failed State“.
No doubt, the political leaders have been cheating and brain washing the poor ordinary people like Appuhamy, Podi Mahathiya, and Sudu Nona for a long time. But, now I am seeing a one or two words/comments from this so called poor ordinary people saying “ Appe Rataae Thang Dewiange Pittae” – Oh God, save our county! and “Unita Pissu and Appida Pissu” – Those political leaders are Mad & they lead us to be Mad! Hope the justice will be judged when the God is going to determine the destiny of SL.
Chales Ryan said,
February 17, 2008 @ 3:42 pm
Mr. Karupiah, Do you have a magic wand that can produce a humaist goverment and a satisfactory devolution.? In other countries only a revolution could produce these results.
Daniel said,
February 17, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
unlike kosova (same languge to serbia), the tamils and sinhalse have a very diffrent langauge and religion.. both are majorities in diffrent parts of the island..but both are diffrent cultures in the island
ilaya seran senguttuvan said,
February 18, 2008 @ 9:21 am
Will we have takers in all the major communities for a formuale
for a new Sri Lankan nation somewhat along the following
lines :-
1. Immediate, transparent and enforceable Ceasefire between the warring factions (Let’s do away with this nonsense of “LTTE will ask for a Ceasefire only when they are weak” Remember Sarath Fonseka gave a deadline to finish matters by 31/12/08 and the Defence Ministry now says end 2009. This is the nonsense we have heard from the Army for decades now)
2. Parliament to allocate 25% of its allocations for the immediate
development of the North-East.The Donor community to initially pledge 2 billion US$ (of the 4.5 billion regularly talked of) for
accelerated development of the region. A distinguished team of GoSL administrators including the Auditor General, Donor Community, a North-East team including LTTE and TNA representatives to oversee the utilisation of allocations. This development to include
establishment of Garment factories and other industrial ventures in the Region/s to encourage Tamil entreprenauership.
3. Parties in the North East to agree to work within an undivided
Sri Lanka and give up Separation.
4. After 5 years of visible peace and development, an Island-wide General Election to be held after which the Cabinet to be formed to consist of minimum 25% Tamil-speaking MPs
from the North-East. The Constitution to include entrenched Clauses guaranteeing protection to minorities.
5. The armed forces to go back to barracks. Police to be given wider powers/arms to serve Island-wise. Men of religion to be banned from party politics.
6. Sufficient funds to be annually allocated to Education and upgrade schools islandwide where parents are given the choice of the medium of education to their children. All schools to be in a position to provide a sound education to children in all 3 languages.
7. General hospitals in the Districts to be upgraded with annual large allocations so that patients can be saved from the Private Hospital Mafia – now fattened thru political patronage at the expense of upgrading Govt non-fee levying Hospitals. The idea is to bring back the satisfactory services of the Colombo and other General Hospitals prior to the 1970s where families did not go into ruination via medical bills. Even the ICU of the Cardiology Section at Kynsey Road saw the elite in the country – and indeed others – taken care of by the State with minimal expenses. Cost of medicine, if necessary, to be borne by the patient to a reasonable extent to be worked out.
8. The Income Tax Dept to be cleaned up where they create files for everyone subject to Income Tax payment. It is common knowledge most politicians and their henchmen who looted the country own mansions, real estate both here and overseas, fleet of expensive vehciles etc and still do not pay Income Tax. This is done largely done in connivance with IT officials. Where found guilty , the stolen loot to be recovered and those concerned given deterrent punishment under the glare of publicity.
I am sure other readers will want to make their own contributions to bring in a new United and peaceful Sri Lanka.
Nexus said,
February 19, 2008 @ 12:12 am
#8.
All good ideas, but delete the words LTTE from each of your proposals, Sri Lanka and the world no longer deal with terrorists thanks.
If LTTE want to hand over th leadership to face trial in SLK, India and the hague and change its name and renounce violence the reformed organisation may be apart of the proposal otherwise no thanks buddy.
Dr KC said,
February 19, 2008 @ 2:23 am
ilaya seran senguttuvan:
The last ceasefire collapsed due to:
1. Presence of 99.99% Sinhala army on the streets of the NE
2. Absence of armed neutral peace keeping force
3.Unhindred access to weapons by the LTTE
Unless these issues are dealt with no ceasefire will prevail in the NE.
Athos said,
February 20, 2008 @ 1:50 am
Adey Ranjan Thambi,
/*
he post-independence experience of voting rights has not been without blemishes. The Tamil plantation workers were deprived of their franchise by a UNP government soon after independence.
*/
You missed the Vellahala campaign to remove voting rights from Dalits. I attach following excerpt FYI.
/*
The next major effort to thwart Dalit rights took place in 1931, when the then British government of Sri Lanka set up the Donoughmore Commission to look into the changes to be introduced in the country’s constitution. The commission recommended the introduction of universal adult franchise in Sri Lanka. As a result, the Dalits gained voting rights. Unable to tolerate this development, caste Tamils, headed by prominent leaders like S. Natesan, launched an agitation. They were ready to give up their own voting rights to prevent Dalits from getting theirs. To demonstrate their social power, they went one step further and imposed several new restrictions on Dalits. According to the new draconian strictures: “Untouchable women should not cover their torso and (must) remain half-naked. They should not wear jewels, not use an umbrella, nor use the caste thread in marriages. Their children should not bear the names used by dominant castes. They should not cremate, but bury the dead bodies. They should not use footwear; should not get water from public wells; should not sit in buses; nor send their children to schools”. These restrictions were even harsher than the restrictions imposed in the 1930s on Dalits of Tiruchi, Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu by the dominant Kallar, Maravar and Thevar communities.
*/
http://theacademic.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5914
ilaya seran senguttuvan said,
February 20, 2008 @ 4:59 am
Dr KC (10) Re your comments (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) LTTE claims it is their arms that are keeping the Tamil civilians alive. The way out maybe for both LTTE cadres and the armed forces to be confined to barracks while GoSL with mutually acceptable overseas entities examine a permanent ceasefire.
Re. Nexus (9) I note you favour the LTTE being brought out for an International Crime Tribunal. Sounds OK. LTTE will say the Lankan forces, political leadership also should face trials against attrocities to Tamil civilians. This is being heard even in official quarters like UN/UNHRC already.
Dr KC said,
February 21, 2008 @ 7:56 am
ISS
I am not suggesting surrendering of the LTTE’s weapons before a permanent solution is reached. What about ‘putting away the weapons in the armoury under the purview of an international arms monitoring body’.
1, 2 & 3 ought to be implemented simultaneously and there should be an international agreement on this.
The LTTE has to be progressive; bombs and bullets alone are not going to solve our problem.
I knew at least 3 yrs ago the last CFA was going to collapse and I urge the LTTE to reinforce it with the following proposal:
http://federalidea.com/focus/archives/category/federalidea/by-dr-kc-chandradeva/
asa said,
February 22, 2008 @ 1:28 am
It is unfathomable that learned writers herein trying their best appease what Neville Chamberlain tried with Hitler to protect the British interest.
It is utterly shameful that the effect of continuous attrition of the people and land, and flora and fauna in the Tamil homeland by the Sinhala security forces are kept at bay and theoretical discussion is ongoing at a tangent. Tamil people are deprived of everything, and having reached that stage, what do they have to loose any more other than continue to suffer for another sixty years of intra-neocolonial rule with horrendous subjugation of the people!
Defensive nationalism of the Tamil people is the direct result of Sinhala leadership’s escalating level of repression of the Tamil people. In view of total non-compliance by the successive governments of Ceylon/Sri Lanka of the covenants with respect to Tamils, their independence from the colonial rule is effectively nullified. The Tamil community is effectively in the same situation as in mid-forties prior to independence. We know pretty well now as to why GGP and others could not have comprehended in the atmosphere of 1948 of what was about to be unfolding. Even SJV did not ask for independence of the in 1949 and it took another thirty years for him to promulgate that idea with Vaddukkodai Resolution (VR).
We could not be and should not be in the same frame of mind now as the future generations will condemn our conduct. Conditions and the frame of mind were not that conducive for evolution of VR in 1949, but it is fully ripe now for implementation of that 30-year idea.
It is imperative that an issue which is nearly two millennia-old be resolved for the good of both solitudes on absolute equal footings that will withstand any crippling effect on it. There must be an opportunity for a just society.
None Specific said,
February 24, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
“There must be an opportunity for a just society.” the question should be ?Is there an opportunity for a just society??, not a Just Sri Lankan Society but a “Just Society” , and may be a genuine inquiry into that question may shed light to those who see the urgency in such an inquiry together. May be then the theoretical discussion might cease and the realization of what it means to have an expansive heart and its relation to cessation of issues (which might be what is generally termed as solution) may come into existence.
To those who might feel otherwise, the question is does one need to inquire into “Just Society? for issues to cease or is there another way to effect the cessation issues without the Just society and expansive heart.
Then there are those who have set their rules of engagement in handling conflicts (Conflicts of view point ? between what one wants reality to be and what reality is ? that manifest in actions that will fall into category of Violence) And who is to blame anyone of them if one is to also base their blame on the basis of some rules of engagement. The only possibility of bringing those conflicting rules of engagement to cessation is to impose a third rule of engagement and see that it is implemented (This doe not effect cessation of issue but becomes a dominant rule of engagement, which is what ?48 constitution, ?72constitution and ?78 constitution is all about, where there was no opportunity for just society or expansive heart but a pretense that just society will prevail on the pretense that expansive heart will prevail among the then and future leaders)
The issue, if just society is to prevail, is what would define the ?Society? (Tamils and Singhalese separate or as one) and does the constituents of th(ose)at societ(ies)y have the urgency to inquire as to what is Just and find it to effect the cessation of issues. ( Highly Theoretical, is it? If it is so, then the only the third dominant form of rule of engagement to replace the two will be the way out of this quagmire, to morph the issue into something else ? which has been the history of issue over the years, May be the realization of this may bring about the urgency of inquiry )
Is the Just Society in any way reflect what the Buddhist Tamil Society of Manimehalai, Silapdiharam era termed as the Benevolent Monarchy, the sustainability of which was completely dependent on the society and not on the Monarchy nor the constitution of that rule. May be that is why the Ancient Tamil Saying ?Yathum Ooray Yavarum Kerlir? – All nation are one, All are my kin ? has meaning and by the way aren?t Tamils related to the Singhalese on their mother?s side?