Points to ponder
Well known political scientist, Dayan
Jayetilleke’s recent observations on the Lankan conflict, were, as
usual, immensely thought provoking.
The LTTE may be gearing for a military campaign in the North, but
such efforts are bound to founder on account of the vast experience
garnered on the battlefield by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and
Army Commander Sarath Fonseka - two seasoned campaigners.
The morale is certainly high among our Armed Forces and this
significant factor could be traced to the unyielding and farsighted
leadership provided by the just mentioned military leaders.
This position of Jayatilleke squares fully with the facts. Who would
have ever imagined that the Eastern Province would have been cleared of
the LTTE menace, even a couple of years ago? Therefore, the nature of
the challenges the LTTE is likely to encounter in the North could be
easily prefigured.
However, Jayetilleke is no war monger, although he could have swayed
to that position to win the favour of extremists.
Today sober opinion on our conflict takes the position that we need
to adopt a two-pronged approach to resolve the conflict; that is, there
needs to be a military strategy as well as a political one.
The military strategy of defeating the Tigers in the battlefield is
being conducted quite effectively but pursuing only this approach would
not bring a complete end to the conflict. There needs to be also a
political solution which would address legitimate Tamil grievances and
once this is done the conflict could be contained a great deal.
This position squares with the opinion held by most balanced minds on
the National Question. In fact it is perfectly at one with the policy
position taken by the Lankan State.
It is in accordance with this position that the State has launched
the APC and APRC processes.
However, as Jayetilleke says, the State would need to isolate and
alienate the Tigers by negotiating a solution with Tamil moderate
opinion which constitutes the principal strand of opinion on the
conflict.
This is a sensible position to adopt because the LTTE has proved
through its conduct that it shuns the political path to a solution.
Its faith is in the use of brute force and the State cannot stand
idly by as it unleashes violence. Since it is irredeemably militaristic,
the Tigers need to be neutralized militarily.
As for negotiations, it is true that where past governments have gone
wrong is in the way they have negotiated.
Negotiate we must but we cannot do so in a naive fashion. When
negotiating, a process of give and take needs to be activated.
In past negotiations, the State only gave and never extracted
anything substantial from the LTTE.
As a result, the LTTE grew militarily and virtually fooled past
administrations. Hence the ‘failure of negotiations.’
We hope these points would be a guide to future policy on resolving
the conflict. Let us think long and deep on them. |
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