‘Extra-constitutional interim solution to counter Sinhala militarization must be probed’
[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 February 2013, 17:33 GMT]
Arguing that while the strategy for Tamils world over should be the
restoration of Eezham Tamil sovereignty over their tradition homeland,
RM Karthick writes that the Tamil diaspora organizations must arrive at a
consensus for an immediate tactic to alleviate the mutilation of the
Eezham Tamil nation in the Tamil homeland by the occupying Sinhala
military via an interim solution of an intervention of international
powers in the island to facilitate the dismantling of the Sinhala
military apparatus. Contending that such an interim solution should not
give any legitimacy whatsoever to the Sri Lankan constitution, the
writer further argues that any interim solution can be successful only
on an extra-constitutional basis that has pre-constitutional recognition
of the Eezham Tamil nation’s territoriality and historical sovereignty.
Written in the light of the upcoming Geneva resolutions on Sri Lanka,
Mr. Karthick refers to the different ‘lines’ trying to influence opinion
in the diaspora and cautioning about the pitfalls in the same.
Urging
the Tamil lobbyists to use the “soft power” of persuasive realist
diplomacy in the current global circumstances to convince international
powers of the necessity of this action, he warns them to be aware that
“the Powers, in the name of immediate alleviation of suffering of the
Eezham Tamil nation in the island, do not lead them into a blind alley
where they only end up strengthening the unitary state, through this
regime or through a regime change.”
“Only if the intervening
powers ensure that the genocidal Sinhala military’s stranglehold over
the Tamil homeland is broken, the 6th amendment declared null and void,
there is a pre-constitutional recognition of the Eezham Tamil nation’s
sovereignty and territoriality and an agreement to engage with the
Tamils on an extra-constitutional solution, and Tamils in the diaspora
and refugees from Tamil Nadu get free and safe access to their
traditional homes, can the interim solution work effectively,” he
contends.
While noting the important role “Tamil diplomacy” can
play, he concludes “As long as those engaging to win the ‘hearts and
minds’ of the powers do not forget the national will of Eezham Tamils in
settling for nothing short of a Eezham Tamil sovereign political
mechanism, so much the better.”
Full text of the article by Mr. RM Karthick, Research Scholar in political theory at the University of Essex, follows:
Negotiating Tamil Sovereignty with the Powers – What the Diaspora diplomats can doVarious
Tamil diaspora organizations have already started gearing up towards
the forthcoming UN session in Geneva. While some believe that the
resolution this year might take Sri Lanka to task over human rights,
others argue that it will only be an encore of last year’s resolution,
one that gives more legitimacy to the fundamentally flawed LLRC and
providing Sri Lanka more time to strengthen its military occupation and
colonization of the Tamil homeland.
Some have said that America
wanted to bring a “stronger” resolution, but that it was watered down
owing to India’s compulsions. It seems rather ironic though, that
America, which was able to convince India to toe its line in the
US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement – definitely an issue of much greater
strategic importance to India than Sri Lanka – was unable to bring India
to its line over the issue of a political solution in the island.
It
should be clear that the ‘strategic partners ‘, US and India, are at
the moment more or less on the same line as far as the national question
of the Eezham Tamils is concerned, the former promoting ‘positive
elements’ in the LLRC and the latter, the 13th Amendment. The view that
neither can provide any meaningful solution to the Eezham Tamil nation
has been consistently expressed by Tamil writers, analysts and
activists.
There are other lines too. Some like International
Alert use ‘soft power’ to encourage Tamils to collaborate with the Sri
Lankan government and to work within the unitary state model. A rapidly
emerging ‘South Africa line’ is promoting concepts taken from other
contexts, like the sharply criticized ‘restorative justice’ model, and
the Harare Commonwealth Declaration, which might have some relevance as
concerns “individual's inalienable right to participate by means of free
and democratic political processes in framing the society in which he
or she lives” provided this is placed in the context of the genocidal
oppression that Eezham Tamils face as a nation in their occupied
homeland. But sadly, context is what these actors mostly ignore.
The International Crisis Group’s line is considered among a few sections in the diaspora. In
an interview
to TamilNet on October 2012, Alan Keenan said “I hope there will be, an
independent investigation into the incidents leading up to the end of
the war, and preferably also post-war, the question of genocide should
be included among those issues.”
As regards a question on the
right of the Tamil people to have a sovereign state of their own, Dr.
Keenan responded that in the current context, the demand for separation
is not a wise one and if a larger percentage of the Sinhala population
was more sympathetic to this demand, it could be pursued.
The
ICG report “Tamil politics and the quest for a political solution”
released on November 2012 promoted similar ideas. The report suggested
“To be successful, the Tamil struggle for rights and justice cannot
depend primarily on international support. Tamil politicians and civil
society will have to engage more directly in political debates beyond
devolution and the north and east and build alliances with southern
civil society organisations and parties interested in promoting
democratic reforms.”
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to term this
idea as ‘idealist’ despite it coming from an organization that is
supposed to analyze politics on the basis of historical fact rather than
hypothesis. A torturous 65 year history - since the unitary state in
the island created by the colonial powers was handed over to the
Sinhalese - shows that the Sinhala nation has stood by regimes that
progressively intensified persecution and genocide of the Tamil nation.
While
a minuscule minority of Sinhala progressives have supported the Eezham
Tamil nation’s political rights, only those who have denied it and
trampled on it have been the prime movers among the Sinhala nation.
Utopians
can entertain fantasies about some time in the future when a majority
of the Sinhalese shall recognize the misdeeds of the past. But
considering the accelerated rate at which Sinhala militarization and
colonization, assaults on Eezham Tamil identity and territory, in short,
the protracted genocide of the Eezham Tamil nation is continuing, the
Tamils are likely to end up as dispersed tribes and artefacts in a
Sinhala museum by the time this realization among the Sinhalese occurs.
In a realist analysis, Eezham Tamils neither have time nor the
demography on their side.
These, in general, are lines that the
diaspora encounter in 2013, three and a half years after the
internationally abetted genocidal massacre at Mu’l’livaaykkaal.
What is to be done?Years
back, ‘Taraki’ Sivaram, senior editor of TamilNet assassinated by Sri
Lanka, had drawn a line between the control over monopoly of violence by
the Sinhalese in unitary Sri Lanka to the constitutionally sanctioned
political violence against the Eezham Tamils via the 6th Amendment that
made any person or organization demanding self-determination as beyond
the frameworks of basic political and civil rights.
While this
Sinhala monopoly over violence was halted for a brief period when the
LTTE was functional as a de-facto state, after an internationally
co-ordinated counterinsurgency campaign against the Tigers, aided by
world powers for their vested interests, it was restored in a severe and
virulent form post-May 2009.
Without any effective social or
political power among the Eezham Tamils in the homeland to check it, the
Sinhala military apparatus has deeply entrenched itself in the Tamil
homeland, engaging in land grabs, Sinhalization, colonization, besides
systematic abuses targeting women and the youth in specific. Besides a
planned erasure of the territorial contiguity of the Tamil homeland,
these acts are designed to permanently mutilate the Tamil nation. All of
these have been documented by non-Tamil sources as well and the
Establishments are well aware of them.
While the strategy for the
Tamils world over should be the restoration of Tamil sovereignty, the
different Tamil diaspora organizations negotiating with powers must
arrive at a consensus to pursue an immediate tactic to alleviate the
mutilation of the Eezham Tamil nation in the Tamil homeland by the
occupying Sinhala military.
This can happen through an interim
solution of an intervention of international powers in the island to
facilitate the dismantling of the Sinhala military apparatus, thereby
placing a check over the Sinhala monopoly over violence which is
currently playing out as unchecked genocide.
A TamilNet editorial piece ‘Declare for referendum in any unity meeting’ published on July 2012 charted out
a blueprint alluding to such an interim solution.
“The
US and India should jointly facilitate conditions to conduct a UN
presided referendum. The other powers may be left out, as they never
cared for entering into any political interaction with Eezham Tamils.
The
SL military has to be completely removed or strictly put under barracks
during the interim period. Paramilitary groups have to be completely
disarmed.
A situation has to be created for the free travel and
interaction of the diaspora with the Tamils in the island. Palaali and
Trincomalee airports have to be opened for this purpose.
A UN
presided committee of stakeholders and a police recruited by it should
take charge of administration, civil security and the process of
referendum.”
This was also echoed in the suggestions put forth by
new generation activists commenting to TamilNet in response to Tamil
civil society submissions at the recently held ‘Exploring peaceful
options’ meeting, convened by the GTF and facilitated by Berghof
foundation. They said “The demands have to concentrate more on matters
practically facilitating ground realities such as an interim
international takeover of the situation, complete removal of occupying
Sinhala ethnic military and other SL security forces as the SL military
now functions in police uniform, ban on colonisation and guarantee to
the territorial integrity of Eezham Tamils, and free access to the
diaspora to reach out to its people in the island.”
In the
current conditions, this tactic of an interim solution of intervention
by international powers can be considered a necessity if the strategy of
restoring the sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation is to be pursued
systematically.
Only if the intervening powers ensure that the
genocidal Sinhala military’s stranglehold over the Tamil homeland is
broken, the 6th amendment declared null and void, there is a
pre-constitutional recognition of the Eezham Tamil nation’s sovereignty
and territoriality and an agreement to engage with the Tamils on an
extra-constitutional solution, and Tamils in the diaspora and refugees
from Tamil Nadu get free and safe access to their traditional homes, can
the interim solution work effectively.
A submission by the
Tamil civil society at the Berghof foundation meeting mentioned above
states clearly why a “pre-constitutional recognition of Tamil Nationhood
and self-determination” was imperative and why the 13th amendment or a
federal constitution would not work.
Likewise, the tragic
history of PTOMS experienced by the Eezham Tamil nation, which the
Establishments are well aware of, should also inform why any solution
that gives legitimacy to the Sri Lankan constitution can only be
fundamentally flawed.
But will Sri Lanka let this happen? Will Sri Lanka’s friends let this happen?Sinhala diplomat Dayan Jayatilleka, a staunch defender of Sinhala state’s genocidal war on the Eezham Tamil nation, in a
recent article
cited Sun Tzu’s famous injunction “know yourself, know your enemy”,
‘enemy’ of course being the Tamil diaspora and Tamil Nadu. This article,
written in an uncharacteristic forthright manner, provides insights to
Tamil diplomats also to “know your enemy”.
About the attitude of
Sri Lanka’s Sinhala rulers Dr. Jayatilleka writes “When they look in
the mirror they do not see themselves or us as we are, they see Israel.
This dangerous delusion confuses this small island which is vulnerable
to a naval cordon sanitaire and whose significant military assets can be
neutralized in a single strike by its giant neighbour, with the most
powerful military entity in the Middle East. It confuses a state which
has a powerful ethnic lobby in the world’s sole superpower with Sri
Lanka which has and can have nothing of the sort.”
He further
adds “Sri Lanka has not a single of Israel’s advantages. It cannot be
any kind of model or inspiration for our conduct towards our Tamil
citizens in the former conflict areas, the region or the world.
Colombo’s
current delusions of being an Israeli type garrison state, seem to
regard China as being to Sri Lanka what the US is to Israel as security
patron and diplomatic guarantor, though their respective strategic
capacities and global reach are vastly different.”
As a second
crucial flaw made by the Sinhala rulers, he writes “the Sri Lankan
leaders do not understand the limits of their state’s own hard power, in
relation to both the soft power of other communities (Tamils, Muslims,
Christians) and the hard power of other states (India, the USA). In
short they do not understand the balance of power outside their shores.
They do not grasp the larger reality in its tangible and intangible
dimensions.”
Indeed, Sri Lanka is no Israel. Its military elite
like Jagath Jayasuriya may speak about “enhanced C4I capability”, but
its base is made of lumpen rural peasant youth who have a xenophobic
mindset and paranoia of anything that they see as alien, western or more
progressive than what has been instilled to them through the Sinhala
Mahavamsa mindset.
While Pirapaharan’s LTTE built a fledgling
air force from available talent in the Eezham Tamil nation, the Sinhala
military had to rely on external aid even for elementary radars. Sri
Lanka’s native model of COIN was genocide pure and simple. Thanks to
international guidance, the Sinhala state’s intent to commit genocide
was given a lethally effective COIN. Observers among the powers are well
aware of the consequences of this, even if they choose to remain silent
about it now.
Given this state of the Sri Lankan military, the
Sinhala diplomat is right to be apprehensive that a single strike by a
super power can take out the entire Sri Lankan military might, for all
the bravado it puts up in military conferences.
Sri Lanka is not
a market hub either. In simple economics, the combined capital of the
Eezham Tamil diaspora and Tamil Nadu can buy out the Sri Lankan economy
many times over. Sri Lankan economy thrives on militarization, a war
economy even in supposed peace time. Here is where Dr. Jayatilleka fails
to throw light on China’s interest. This model can adapt perfectly well
to the Chinese ‘Capitalism with Asian Values’, but the US and India
operating on a different premises are likely find themselves left in the
lurch sooner or later. Besides, if the genocide of the territory and
nation of the Eezham Tamils is complete, “Sinhala dvipa” (island of the
Sinhalese) would implode making it unviable for anyone.
The only
thing that worked in the favour of the Sinhalese till now is the
strategically vital geo-political location of the island. Even here, the
US and India have a greater chance of effecting a change in the island
than does China.
The diplomats in the Tamil diaspora here need
to use to their full extent the soft power they have. Any geo-political
calculation for the island does not take place without taking the Tamil
diaspora and Tamil Nadu, one of the economically dominant states in
India, into account. Tamils, as a whole, are a politically and
economically vibrant community, with far global reach, entrepreneurial
spirit and a pluralist society. Will the powers be willing to alienate
such a people for the sake of short term geo-political interests
favouring a genocidal primitivist Sinhala nationalism or will it be
possible to arrive at a win-win situation?
If the negotiating
Tamil diaspora organizations, with their knowledge and resources, can
play its cards well, such a situation can be achieved. But it should be
wary that the Powers, in the name of immediate alleviation of suffering
of the Eezham Tamil nation in the island, do not lead them into a blind
alley where they only end up strengthening the unitary state, through
this regime or through a regime change.
The need of the hour is
neither a blind faith that the Establishments will automatically deliver
justice nor a belief that our moral high ground will automatically take
us to victory. What are needed are meticulous planning, non-dogmatic
thinking, efficient organization and co-ordination, an acute sense of
tactics and strategy, and optimum utilization of available resources.
Using
the opportunity created by global circumstances, the Sinhalese wreaked
genocidal havoc on the Eezham Tamil nation in May 2009. In the current
circumstances, if the diaspora organizations engaging in negotiations
and diplomacy can persuade the powers to agree to the immediate tactic
of the interim solution, while not losing sight of the larger strategy
of securing Tamil sovereignty, the losses can be reversed and the
“Thamizharin thaagam” (Tamils’ thirst) can be satisfied.
It
should however be added as a sort of a postscript here that, while very
important, battles in the grey terrain of diplomacy are not substitutes
to grassroots mobilizations based on firm, uncompromising principles. It
is a front, and a tricky front. As long as those engaging to win the
‘hearts and minds’ of the powers do not forget the national will of
Eezham Tamils in settling for nothing short of a Eezham Tamil sovereign
political mechanism, so much the better.
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Negotiating Tamil sovereignty
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