'De-radicalisation of Tamil rebellion'

by Professor A.M. Navaratna Bandara, Department of Political Science, University of Peradeniya

"Politics is state activity in things great and universal.

Politics is thus the special province of the statesman" - Bluntschli

For the JVP and the JHU the proposed P-TOMS is a sell out of a (Sinhala) nation and motherland. For them this mechanism will be a stepping stone to the division of a country. The underlying assumption is that Sri Lanka is not strong enough to make such a deal with a rebel movement which has been fighting to establish an independent state by carving out its territory.

Is Sri Lanka a weak state? For the JVP and JHU, having stayed in the current world system for more than 50 years Sri Lanka has not achieved a stable place within the world community. It is vulnerable to enemy attacks, if a slight mistake is made it could be broken into pieces.

Funny thing is that it is only the JVP and the JHU which have taken the task of protecting this 'fragile' State so seriously and preparing to sacrifice the lives of their supporters (not the leaders; if some bad thing happens they will go into hiding like on previous occasions).

No doubt, the JVP and JHU are the descendants of a people who saw a 'betrayal of Sinhalese' in the Rata Saba proposal of the 1950s or in the D-C pact of 1965 or in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987. For them P-TOMS is yet another attempt that endangers the territorial integrity of motherland.

The JVP and the JHU have already mobilized their 'garrisoned' supporters on the streets in Colombo to read the slogans prepared at their party offices. They have arranged the threats of self immolation by using 'their' political monks who are ready to violate the first Sikkapada of Panchaseela and jump over security barricades and run over dirt on the streets ignoring the fact that they are bringing disrepute to the sacred yellow robes, the symbol of a religion that preaches non-violence.

The JVP is now out of the government. It has failed the first political test arranged by the people of this country. The people who voted for them (not their foot soldiers who are marching on the streets) expected JVP to prove that they are no more a bunch of terrorists but a mature political organisation once in government.

The JVP was given an opportunity to prove that as a political party it is capable of finding policy solutions to any type of public problems faced by the State. However, looking at the way they behaved with the P-TOMS proposal one can say that the JVP can run a government if the policy spheres of that government is limited only to rehabilitation of old tanks, selling and buying paddy, dealing with the fisherfolk and organising exhibitions of handicrafts and paintings.

For the most challenging policy problem - bringing the LTTE into the mainstream of politics through a constructive engagement - its prescription was to organize street protests against the efforts being taken by the Head of State.

Now the JVP has proved that it is not capable of running a modern government. The modern state government has to engage in problem solving through knowledgeable governance.

Once in power we expect political leaders not to make street protests but to use their wisdom to find solutions not only to simple policy problems but also to enter more complex policy areas such as dealing with anti state actors, war, global political and economic forces. The problems faced by today's government are not limited to purely "local" problems.

They are linked with the problems associated with globally identified issues as well. Such issues emanating from primordial social attachments such as ethnicity, race and religion which may upset the so called modern way of State craft - nation State building are the more problematic.

The JVP during this 14 month period created a headache for the Ministers who were responsible for reforming the public sector institutions. These institutions have become heavy burdens for the people in trying to fulfil the demands coming from private industries and businesses.

Now it has created a big noise on a proposal to use an opportunity to test the LTTE's sincerity. The LTTE has insisted that they are ready to work with the Government to engage in joint problem solving through P-TOMS, aiming at the management of post-tsunami reconstruction in the North-East.

Despite all the odds the President has decided to use this opportunity to bring the LTTE into mainstream politics and forge a deal with the global market forces through the aid packages offered by the donors for the management of reconstruction of the post-tsunami areas.

The SLFP has agreed to stand behind the President though some leaders in her party are playing the game of hide and seek. Nevertheless the President is ready to take the challenge of working with the LTTE and try to bring them to the administrative decision making process even though the LTTE has not fully abandoned its terror tactics.

She knows that if established, P-TOMS will be a big challenge for her government. She has to protect the Sinhala and Muslim interests in the Eastern Province which is already brewing with religious sentiments. Most difficult problem is to engage in confidence building exercises with a rebel organisation which is still carrying arms and is constantly suspicious about the motives of the Colombo Government.

The UNP, as usual as the main opposition party, is playing the hide and seek game, sending signals in support of P-TOMS but trying to capitalise on the infighting within the Government for their political gains. The media moghuls supporting the UNP have launched a very crafty disinformation campaign or "Guerrilla Marketing" to confuse the mindsets of the people who are caught in between their real world and the fantasy worlds created by the power hungry politicians.

One thing is clear; Sri Lanka's Neros are playing their violins even when the country is in ruins. They just want to live with the glorious past and the hope of conquering their political enemies. None of them is trying to understand that the present crisis invites them to look beyond these petty political interests.

Although the problem that the political parties are handling at the moment is related to their current political fortunes, the challenge faced by them is really not one of theirs. It is beyond politics. It is a challenge faced by the State. The challenge is to find quick and effective ways to "de-radicalise the Tamil rebellion".

The sooner the State completes this task the sooner it will be joining the world community to reap the benefits of the present day world civilisation. The Sri Lankan State will be stronger than ever before if it can successfully absorb the Tamil rebellion.

De-radicalisation of radical movements is natural to any radical or revolutionary movement. This is a hypothesis available in political science to be tested with the lifetime of radical movements. It argues that if these movements cannot achieve their radical objectives in the short run their very existence becomes problematic in the long run.

Thus they make an effort to receive acceptance from the broader sections of the population and enter into governmental institutions once they have been rejected as 'reactionary'. As such going with the 'dynamics of politics' and passing through the "time and space" the radical movements come to a stage in which they find that unless they join the existing political institutions they will be going out of business soon.

When a radical movement has come to this stage the most prominent beneficiary is the State which finds this as the most effective way to deal with such an anti-State movement. The war, violence and use of coercive power are not effective mechanisms if such movements are supported by the communities that are discriminated against by the structures in society and government.

No State, at least in the long run, can survive if the rulers in government use the State's coercive powers to conquer the people or communities or territories. Conquerors like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon or Asoka failed to establish stable and sustained empires or states in the long run. All of their empires/states fell apart later.

This is true for the states in the modern era too. The present day state which has to manage the web of relations emanating from both democracy and technocracy cannot depend on coercive measures which are no longer monopolies of the State.

Thus this is an important turning point for the Sri Lankan State. So far it has successfully de-radicalised two generations of leftists, namely, the old left (the LSSP and the CP) which played the role of radicalism in politics since the 1930s to the 1960s and the new left (the JVP) which played the role of radicalism since the 1970s to the 1990s. Now the challenge is how to de-radicalise the Tamil rebellion represented by the LTTE.

The CFA signed by the UNF regime has opened the space to move for de-radicalisation of the Tamil rebellion. However, the efforts taken during 2002-2003 to establish sub-committees, particularly, Sihran to bring the LTTE to the non-violent politics, were non-starters.

Now we have P-TOMS. It is yet another step attached to the ceasefire process initiated in 2002 in that direction. But this time it is a god given opportunity - it is the mother earth no one else has brought this challenge to us. Of course, the donors have vested interests.

They may promote the agenda of global capitalism using this natural disaster ('post-conflict reconstruction industry' or 'disaster capitalism', the new terminologies introduced elsewhere by two commentators). If we have an enlightened political and administrative leadership committed to the larger national interests the country can reap the benefits of foreign aid as happened in Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.

For the opponents of the P-TOMS this will give a decisive advantage to a terrorist group which is looking forward to achieve legitimacy for their project to establish an independent statehood by carving out part of the territory of Sri Lanka.

For the proponents of the P-TOMS this will be a step to bring the rebel LTTE to the normal political process and to restart negotiations. Both of these arguments are not essentially contradictory but represent the two ends of a continuum. Of a policy to be adopted by a peace making government in Sri Lanka these are the obvious calculations available from both ends of the continuum. Only a skilful handling of the process can reach the good side of the continuum.

The LTTE knows very well that they cannot establish an independent State in North-East Sri Lanka unless some unpredictable thing happens in the regional and global political system. The current world order does not provide any encouragement to divide a state which has established very cordial relationships with other States, particularly with its neighbours.

Although the LTTE benefited from the Cold War politics in the 1980s to become a 'transnational enterprise', the LTTE knows that their transnational positioning alone will not bring them an independent nationhood. Earlier in the 1980s they thought that India would help them to achieve it. Now they have realised the State beyond India even won't help them to achieve it.

Now the entire world is asking them to make a deal with the State and join the mainstream. Consequently the LTTE is now trying to make a deal with the Sri Lankan State. They know that if the State is not ready to deliver it they will exist as an armed group to maintain a shadow state in the North East with the tacit approval of other States.

But they know that it is not a strong project to continue in the current world system which is now moving with rapid process of globalisation.

As such this is a challenge for the political leadership. It has to grab this opportunity to make a deal with the rebels and work hard to make redundant the idea of independent Tamil statehood in this Island thereby assisting the Sri Lanka State to de-radicalise the Tamil rebellion. As such if P-TOMS succeeds it will not be just an another step to make a deal with the rebel movement but also a step towards "the de-radicalisation of Tamil rebellion".

The President has now decided to put P-TOMS proposal to Parliament. We can see how the parties will take part in this debate. Whether they have the courage to enter into a constructive relationship with the LTTE and try the LTTE's sincerity for a political settlement to the civil situation which is currently enjoying a temporary holiday will be exposed during the coming period. Are they ready to look beyond their coloured glasses?

Are they ready to play the role of statesmen or stateswomen? If not following is the most fitting term for the people living in this unfortunate island - 'The wretched of earth' (Apologies to Frantz Fanon).