Unity in Diversity

Meghnad DESAI

Was Abraham Lincoln a war criminal? He took the US or at least its northern states to a war with the south, which resulted in the largest loss of lives in that nation’s history. The south was ruined and did not recover economically for at least 50 years.

The Black slaves were freed, but their condition remained miserable for another 100 years. Lincoln fought in the name of the Union, not for the abolition of slavery, which did not happen till halfway through the War, while the Southern Confederacy fought in the name of States’ Rights. Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, remained a hero in the south as did General Robert E Lee. Lincoln remains a hero not just for the Americans but the world over. I write this because within India’s neighbourhood we have had a civil war, which has just ended. The man who led the nation to a victory has just been re-elected President. Yet he is widely reviled internationally and even within Sri Lanka. Except that a majority of his people re-elected him, Mahinda Rajapaksa has few friends in high places. There are allegations of fraud and from all signs we have, the Tamil minorities and other non-Sinhala groups voted for his rival Sarath Fonseka. The issue of the relief and rehabilitation of the Tamil refugees remains urgent.

The origins of the civil war are in the high-handed behaviour of the Sinhala majority who subverted the Constitution Sri Lanka had at Independence and abridged the rights of the Tamil minority, downgraded their language and discriminated against them in jobs. For 25 years after 1956, when the first ‘Sinhala Only’ legislation was enacted, the Tamils tried to negotiate, but the majority always won.

The Tamils split into democratic and militant factions and in 1983 the LTTE began the armed struggle. Many Presidents tried to seek reconciliation, but within the Sinhala majority there was also a split between those who would seek peace and those who wanted war. I was in Sri Lanka when, during the election in 1999, Chandrika Kumaratunga was hit by a bomb during campaign and lost sight in her eye. When the polling ended, there was a deathly silence in the streets of Colombo. Sri Lankans may enjoy the oldest democracy in South Asia, but they lack the joie de vivre that Indians bring to elections.

This is because the majority was as divided as the nation itself was between the majority and the minority. This is also why the war dragged on. By some device or other, Rajapaksa, whom many underestimated, took the decision that he would end the war regardless of the loss of life involved. The carnage was incredible but in the end, Prabhakaran was defeated and killed. The LTTE’s gamble had failed.

It may sound callous to say this, but Rajapaksa would be regarded as the saviour of his nation. Modern nations, especially post-colonial ones, value the integrity of their territory and do not entertain violent sub-nationalism. India has had its share in Khalistan and in the many struggles in the north-east and continues to have problems in Kashmir. Yet, Indian citizens have allowed their government to ride roughshod over human rights as long as national integrity has been preserved. What is more, the largest minority has been by and large shielded from the sort of suffering that Sri Lankan Tamils experienced.

The best way forward is shown by South Africa, where the end of apartheid was achieved without a war. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was vital to let bitter enemies confront each other and work through their anger and grief. It could not have been easy. I met Albie Sachs, now a judge in the Supreme Court of South Africa, who told me how he met the man responsible for his loss of limb, but they did talk it through. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was instrumental in making the Truth and Reconciliation Commission possible. Now someone of his stature has to come forward from within Sri Lanka and begin the process of binding the wounds. A nation is whole not just when its territory is single but only when its people feel they all belong to it equally.

Eminent economist Lord Meghnad Desai is a professor emeritus of the London School of Economics