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Bread & Circuses By Cicero

So the budget has been delivered and there is a sense of euphoria in the air at what the Government's chief negotiator Minister G. L. Peiris describes as a major breakthrough in the peace talks. And again there are mutterings about the possibility of co-habitation, that much traduced term since December last year.

Certainly there has been a great advance at the second round of talks in Thailand which was attended by the LTTE's political chieftain Thamilselvam as well as its Eastern Commander Karuna. Looking at them in their well-cut suits it was difficult to imagine that these were men who had taken up arms against the Sri Lankan State represented by those three suave men, Ministers Peiris, Milinda Moragoda and Rauf Hakeem.

These after all were the 'boys', as the LTTE was dubbed during its romantic heyday and they started in sarongs. Their progression to lounge suits itself merits something more than a mere footnote in the annals of Sri Lanka's contemporary political history.

The decision to drop the idea of a Joint Task Force was a good tactical move although predictably the SLFP and former Foreign Minister Lakshmnan Kadirgamar in particular have begun to crow that it is pressure applied by them which had forced the Government's hand.

Instead a committee has been substituted for the work of rehabilitation and reconstruction but again what is tragic is that so much hair-splitting and casuistry should be expended on the legalities of setting up such a mechanism while what is necessary is to get on with the job. Conversely, the LTTE also should be cautious about making an issue of the massive jail sentence imposed on its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran because it cannot debar the LTTE from taking part in the peace talks if both sides (as they have so far demonstrated) are serious about resolving the issue at hand. District Judge Sarath Ambeypitiya was acting in accordance with the law but there are other moral obligations which bind a citizenry if it is serious about maintaining the social fabric.

The decision to come to grips with political factors also is a major advance. These are the 'core issues' which the President had been urging the Government to take up as a priority. In a sense these were already taken up at the second round when the situation in the East was discussed and agreement reached that the LTTE should keep in touch with not merely Minister Hakeem but also the Special Task Force. Also encouraging was Dr. Anton Balasingham's own definition of the core issues or political factors. In an interview to the Sunday Leader Blasingham has said, 'When we say a permanent solution is necessary and that there should be a structural transformation, it involves a new constitution, a new policy and an entirely new system of government to accommodate the aspirations of the Tamil people.

Therefore whether it should be within a united Sri Lanka or a unitary structure should not be an issue at this stage.'

But the point is whether these statements will assure the Sinhala hardliners. Of course it will be argued that nothing can please Sinhala majoritarianism (if it does not wish to be described as chauvinism) but it is necessary that the Government should prepare the ground among the people at large for a solution which would be widely acceptable. To the credit of the PA at least it could be said that they did this through its 'Sama Thavalama' as a prelude to introducing its proposed constitution. In fact the United Front Government is partially reaping the benefits of that campaign although paradoxically the PA has today turned hostile towards the peace process.

The Government however, appears to believe that the LTTE's willingness for peace and the overarching support of the international community will by themselves prepare the ground for the people accepting a solution. It would be advisable if the Government itself mounts its own campaign to convince the people about the need not merely for a solution but the radical transformation of the state structure and polity which such a solution will necessarily entail.

But clouding the bright skies is the uncertain political situation which remains as a dark could. While there are sections of the Government (including past anatogonists such as Ministers Rajitha Senaratne and Mahinda Wijesekera) which still seem to believe that cohabitation is possible there are other sections and sections of the media close to the Government which believe the direct opposite. For her part President Kumaratunga had said last week at a closed door meeting of MPs and party organisers on home turf in the Gampaha district that she was ready to co-habit with the Government on two conditions, namely that the Government should stop harassing her partymen and women and that she should be consulted on the peace process.

On the first issue a section of SLFP MPs had already met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe some weeks ago and received a patient hearing. While wrong-doers should not go unpunished some kind of at least temporary moratorium might be in order in the case of the Government's political opponents if a climate conducive to a settlement is to be reached. The President's second demand is trickier. The Government has turned down her request that a representative of hers should form part of the delegation but she is now being briefed on the progress of the talks and this should continue. She is also in touch with both Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as well as UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrema. However her own position about the peace talks remains ambiguous.

She might genuinely believe that the Government is giving in too much to the LTTE and also that the LTTE never really gave her a chance. But she must also surely realise that a solution this time round is possible and that this should entail radical changes in the state structure and political institutions. After all President Kumaratunga is credited as the Sri Lankan leader who was ready to make the hitherto most far-reaching constitutional arrangements to satisfy the aspirations of the Tamil people. If this did not satisfy the LTTE and if even more radical changes are necessary she surely commands the statesmanship to recognise the realities and place herself above politics as the President rather than the leader of the SLFP in a situation where some of her PA partners such as the LSSP and the CP have a more realistic grasp of the problem?

The problem, however, goes beyond this and is most dramatically illustrated by the tussle between the President and the Government over the retirement of senior Army officers. While it was somewhat gratuitous of the LTTE's Karuna to say that this would debilitate the Sri Lanka Army's fighting capacity the issue goes to the core of the problem.

It was after all, not for nothing that Lenin titled his major work as 'State and Revolution', a book which is holy text to Marxists after Karl Marx's and Engel's works.

It was Mao Sedong (formerly Mao Ise-tung), the charismatic leader who led China's peasant revolt, who said that all power flows from the barrel of a gun. So it is axiomatic that he (or she) who commands the armed forces commands the country. Most of Sri Lanka's ancient kings were warriors in their own right.

A mere reading of any of Colin de Silva's books such as 'The Winds of Sinhala' or 'The Fires of Sinhala' (the first about King Dutugemunu) should demonstrate this fact. This is why in our own times so many countries have gone under the rule of powerful Generals and why in Sri Lanka itself the Police, Army and Navy (the Air Force being the only honourable exception) should have planned a coup de' tat against Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike's Government.

While President Kumaratunga is the Commander-in-chief of the armed forces the UNP's Tilak Marapona is Minister of Defence and Minister John Amaratunga is in charge of the Police in the newly-created Interior Ministry.

If this does not make for divided loyalties it at least crates a degree of confusion about the delegation of power and authority. It is a situation which calls for delicate handling, tact and the greatest degree of diplomacy possible but on the contrary hitherto unheard of media exposure is being given to the problems within the armed forces which can only have a demoralising effect on the rank and file only recently adjusting themselves to an uneasy peace. Defence reporting which in earlier times was confined to what was called the 'Police Round' in newspaper jargon has today become a much sought after role and at least one television station, the Government-managed ITN, has introduced a new Sinhala programme on Defence.

So as Mao Tse-tung would have said there is great confusion under the skies.

The central problem remains the delicate relationship between the President and what she continues to call her Cabinet, whether we use the word cohabitation or any other esoteric term of modern political lexicology. So whether it is the peace process or the very control of the State (which is now divided for the first time between the leaders of the two main political parties in the country) the question remains co-habitation, much as this word has been abused. Which inevitably brings Sri Lanka back to Square One.

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