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The belief that a military solution alone might suffice to end the three decades long Tamil rebellion has regained the center stage as it has at various times in the past. The views propagated by the Sinhalese nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party that a military solution is the desirable one, appears to have been taken on by the government.
The Rajapaksa government has also adopted another position upheld by the JVP and JHU, which is the commitment to the unitary state. Over the past six decades of Sri Lankan independence, the issue of the unitary state has dogged ethnic relations in the country. The Tamil perception of the unitary state is that it permits centralized rule, which is also Sinhalese majority rule. On the other hand, the Sinhalese perception of the unitary state is that it guarantees the legal unity of the country, whatever may be the ground reality.
Both, in his 2005 election manifesto and in his latest statements to the public, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has repeated his determination to find a political solution within the framework of the unitary state alone. He has also linked his commitment of the unitary state to the JVP and JHU's commitment to a military solution that would eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's threat to the unity of the country. The LTTE's response has been to use violence, both in the form of conventional warfare and terror strikes, which have led to a polarized situation in the country.
The present period is one in which the forces of extreme Sinhalese nationalism have taken center stage. Hardly a day passes without sections of the media, including the state-controlled media, assailing those who continue to advocate a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict to both, the government and the LTTE. Former President Kumaratunga has been quoted in the Sunday Leader newspaper as saying that, "the JVP and JHU are marginal forces with less than 5 percent of the total vote. It is this 5 percent is making decisions today on behalf of about 90 percent. This is not even democratic."
In this context, the recent disclosure of a possible JVP-LTTE link would come as a considerable surprise. The Daily Mirror recently reported a court case in which a former army general has alleged that the JVP-LTTE collaboration during the period of the bloody JVP insurrection against the government in 1988-89 led to tens of thousands of deaths. The newspaper reported that Major General Wasantha Perera had compiled a report outlining the close terrorist connection between the JVP and LTTE during the 1988-89 periods. The general had also given evidence in court that the JVP had obtained arms from the LTTE and because of his efforts, he was able to cut off the procurement of arms by the JVP.
However, it is not only the JVP, which stands accused of such collaborations. Shortly after the presidential election of 2005 allegations began to surface that, the LTTE had been provided with some inducement to block Tamil voters in the north and east from casting their votes, which would almost certainly have gone to the opposition candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe. Former government minister Sripathy Sooriyarachchi who crossed over to the opposition and recently died in a motor accident publicly accused top government members of having bribed the LTTE to intimidate the Tamil voters away from the polls.
Another President who fought the LTTE with determination was President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Nevertheless, he too was accused of having collaborated with the LTTE in the period 1989-90 to ensure the departure of the Indian Peace Keeping Forces. Premadasa was accused of having supplied the LTTE with weapons to fight against the IPKF and hasten their departure. This alleged government collaboration took place during a period when there was much suspicion that the Indian army would never leave Sri Lanka.
It might seem contradictory that those who advocate war against the LTTE and publicly opposed them should have also secretly collaborated with them. In all such instances of alleged collaborations, there has been a common self-interest. Each party who collaborated with the LTTE did so temporarily, either to strengthen themselves or to weaken their opponents. While each of the collaborating parties may have achieved their short-term goals, the result was the strengthening of the LTTE's capacity to wage war against them, and the growth of its mistrust in such partners in crime.
The problem with the secret collaborations based on self-interest alone was that it was not tied to a greater common purpose that could keep the parties together in the long term. This greater common purpose would be for the parties to work together to achieve a peaceful solution that could meet their own interests and the best interests of the people.
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(Dr. Jehan Perera is executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an independent advocacy organization. He studied economics at Harvard College and holds a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. ©Copyright Jehan Perera.)
