Politics of Eastern mergers

UK: The LTTE, an internationally proscribed terrorist organisation has called the Sri Lankan democracy 'illiberal'? and its judiciary as being 'politicised'. The accusations come from those who deprive Tamils of basic human rights including the right of free speech, right of dissent, right to vote, etc. and most importantly right to life.

The latest vitriol originates from the Tamil nationalist constituency smarting at the Supreme Court verdict that the North and East merger is unlawful.

It has been stated in the Indian press that the verdict only empowers radicals on both sides of the ethnic divide.

On the contrary, a majority of Sri Lankans approve verdict, especially a majority of the citizens of the Eastern province, comprising Muslims and Sinhalese who have no desire to live within a Jaffna Tamil dominated merged North-Eastern province.

Political leaders of the Eastern Tamils, who are culturally separate from the Jaffna Tamils have expressed their rejection of the Jaffna Tamil dominated outfit of Prabakaran and are aiding the Armed Forces counter LTTE aggression.

The Muslims who have faced the brunt of ethnic cleansing from Jaffna and more recently in Muttur have absolutely no desire to subject themselves to further tyranny at the Tamil nationalist forces' hands, who have consistently tried to trap the Muslims in the politics of 'Tamil speaking peoples' and simultaneously subscribe to the concept of mono ethnic 'Tamil homelands'?

The Muslims unequivocally reject being lumped together as 'Tamil speaking peoples' as they consider themselves a separate ethnic identity distinct from the Tamils and recognise the politics of duplicity of the forces of Tamil nationalism.

The concept of a merged North-Eastern province has its support only among the forces of Tamil nationalism, who aspire territorial claims on the Sri Lankan republic. Politics of appeasing Tamil nationalistic forces also contribute to support the North-East merger concept.

While the Sinhala society has a wide spectrum of political representation from the ultra right wing to the ultra leftists, in Tamil society there is no such spectrum. Tamil politics is dominated by various shades of right wing nationalists, with the left being silenced or assassinated.

The only disagreement among the many Tamil nationalist formations seems to derive from either jockeying for position or the realisation that the politics of the LTTE is decimating Tamil culture and society.

In light of this political reality, it is hypocritical for the right wing nationalist Tamil political formations to attempt to discredit majority Sinhala opinion as being 'radical' or 'extremists'_. It's a case of the kettle calling the pot black. This is a consistent strategy adopted by the forces of Tamil nationalism to further their territorial designs on the Sri Lankan republic.

TamilNet publicises some personalities in the United States stating that the Tamils have a right to 'homeland' in Sri Lanka. TamilNet does not publicise if these American personalities also advocate Black and Hispanic 'homelands' in the United States as a solution to the problems faced by those communities.

For most of the latter quarter of the last century, Western liberal democracies toyed with the idea of 'unity in diversity' with regard to their various ethnic minorities and encouraged minority identities. Today, 'diversity' is no longer in fashion.

The Muslim minority in Britain and the West are under siege, with debates raging about the acceptability of Muslim women covering their faces and the concept of 'diversity' has been replaced by the concept of 'integration'.

'Integration' is the new rising key word in the Western political vocabulary, and a word that Sri Lankan politicians should start getting used to in dealing with minority issues in Sri Lanka.

In the early days of the Tamil struggle, human rights was used as a political tool to support the claim for territorial claims, and with Western human rights organisations highlighting only human rights abuses of states, (because states could be held accountable,) the Tamil nationalists were easily able to muster international support in India as well as the Western democracies pointing exclusively to the human rights abuses of the Sri Lankan State.

This was corrected in the mid 1980's with groups such as Amnesty International highlighting human rights atrocities, irrespective of the identity of the perpetrator and it became obvious that the forces of Tamil nationalism were the gravest human rights violators in Sri Lanka. This resulted in 'human rights' losing its effectiveness in the arsenal of Tamil nationalism to advance their territorial claims.

The concept of 'self determination'_ was also in vogue to buttress the claim for 'homelands'. This was first used by Adolf Hitler, when he annexed the Sudetan regions of Czechoslovakia on the grounds of 'self Determination', stating that the 'human rights' of the Sudetan German minority in Czechoslovakia were being violated.

In Sri Lanka with a 20 million population the forces of Tamil nationalism only represent less than 633,000 votes. (at the last general election) and that's after massive electoral fraud as the report of the European Union monitors indicate.

Once this electoral fraud was addressed, the LTTE prevented the Tamils from voting at the Presidential election fearing that their true numbers will knock the bottom out of their territorial and other claims. The LTTE and the forces of Tamil nationalism fears democracy, because democracy will expose their fraud to themselves and the world.

The historical homelands claims advanced by the Tamil nationalists is a non-starter as 'Tamil' ethnic or linguistic identity have no historical territorial claims on Sri Lanka. Eastern Sri Lanka was under the suzerainty of the Kandyan Kingdom.

The Jaffna peninsula alone has over a thousand Sinhala place names which survives to this day in a Tamil garb (Sangathana (Sangathanai, Kudathana-Kudathanai, Weligama-Weligamam), raising questions as to the validity of the concept of 'Historical Tamil Homelands' in the Jaffna Peninsula itself.

In the 21st century the international community is not going to support devolution based upon spurious historical claims. In spite of this, Tamil nationalists in Sri Lanka and within the Diaspora, cling onto this ideal of a North-Eastern territorial claim, as for them the East is the key in their perceived glorious homeland.

Tamil nationalism is a potent and a fascist force that sincerely believes in their perceived 'Jaffna Tamil superiority' and by default 'Sinhalese/Eastern Tamil/Muslim/Indian Tamil inferiority.

The TNA, proxies of the proscribed terrorist organisation the LTTE, are at present protesting in Parliament. It would be more appropriate for them to protest in Kilinochchi, as it is the LTTE, which has facilitated the present predicament.

Not only has Prabakaran's terror outfit rejected the Indo-Sri Lankan accord by waging war on the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and then gone on to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi, Prabakaran and his Jaffna Tamil dominated outfit has failed to address the aspirations of the eastern Tamils and accommodate groups such as the TVMP, popularly known as the Karuna faction.

The Indo-Sri Lanka peace accord stipulated the disarmament of the militant groups as a condition of the accord, and the refusal of the LTTE to abide by the agreement and later waging war on the Indian Peace Keeping Force in effect was the unravelling of the North-East merger. In this regard the LTTE's refusal to abide by the provisions of the Indo-Sri Lanka peace accord should be viewed as the main reason for the present anguish of the forces of Tamil nationalism with regard to the North-East merger.

The position of the Rajapaksa administration is astute in this regard by maintaining that the North East issue should only be resolved by a popular vote of the citizens of the Eastern province. This is a position that will have the support of the international community and is unassailable by the forces of Tamil nationalism. It will also have the support of an overwhelming majority of the Sri Lankans.

In the entire Eastern province, the Tamils are in a majority only in one district, Batticaloa. A district based devolution system, which devolves power up to the Indian model, would empower the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims in the Eastern province and would provide the most equitable solution and will be acceptable to India and the International community.

The forces of Tamil nationalism of course will be unhappy, but they will have to come to terms or face the inevitable.