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By Professor S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
The Rev. Canon Lakshman Peiris, Vicar of Holy Trinity Church Wellawatte, recently chose G.
K. Chesterton's Hymn No. 562 from The English Hymnal as the closing hymn:
O God of earth and
altar
Bow down and hear our cry
Our earthly rulers
falter
Our people drift and die
Take not thy thunder from us
But take away our pride
on in the outside world filtered through my mind. The President was clearly in a difficult
situation. She was being harassed from every front. Would she sign the Joint Mechanism
agreement or not? Would Tamils once again say, as many already are, that all this fuss was
just for the aid conference in Kandy?
Today, 24.6.2005, the Joint Mechanism was indeed signed. As if in answer to the sung prayer
and the special prayers of the Rev. Canon Peiris asking for guidance for the President, she did
not falter. Hear! Hear! The Tamils of this country now have a signal that the President is our
President as well as the President of the Sinhalese.
As recent events show, the state is hostage to ultra-nationalist forces and we Tamils are
supposed to be supportive of and loyal to the state even when it denies us our basic rights.
Ever since the Ban daranaike-Chelvanayag- am pact, ultra-nationalists and extremist sections
of the Buddha Sangha have aborted any settlement that would give Tamils their due dignity in
the system and make it possible for them to contribute to nation building. And we are expected
to play within the system.
This is why the President's insistence on signing is salutary. For the first time, extremist monks
have been told where to get off. The JVP has been reminded that it ought not to deny to the
LTTE the same liberal hand that allowed the JVP to be restored to civilization from its
murderous ways. There is no other leader in Sri Lanka at present who is capable of this kind of
leadership.
We Sri Lankans have an excessive pride in our culture and believe that everyone else is out to
deny us our claim to high culture and take away from us all that we have. This attitude quickly
deteriorates into racism against foreigners who come to help us, against India our big
neighbour and against Tamils who want to be allowed simply to be Tamils.
It is no surprise then that when Sri Lankans see themselves in grand terms with a "2500 year
old culture" outsiders often see us as emperors without clothes.
Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's departing Country Head recently said in one of his good-bye
speeches that there is "Poverty of Infrastructure" in the North-East and the Estates.
How it that this ancient civilised nation cannot see what is so obvious to everybody from
outside?
How many know that the entire Mullaitivu district has only two medical doctors sent by the
ministry? How many know that a school survey by Save the Children showed Kilinochchi
Schools getting something like half the mark that Gampaha Schools got for resource
allocation? I dread to think what Mullaitivu schools are like. How many of these patriots know
that the Ministry of Education has integrated all teachers into one cadre so that a vacancy in
Mullaitivu can be and often is filled in the South? And then to get a teacher appointed to
Mullaitivu, one needs the almost impossible Treasury approval for creating a vacancy in a
place without teachers!
Are those people in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu expected to wave the Sri Lankan flag?
There is respectability for officials who deny Tamils their due. Tamils who dare to speak about
it are branded as separatists, however deep their commitment might be to pluralism and
equality.
Given these circumstances, through signing the JM, the President has made a noble gesture
of reconciliation towards her Tamil subjects. Given the poverty of infrastructure in the North-
East, relief cannot be distributed in the North-East without the JM.
The President has rejected absurd arguments such as the JM recognising the LTTE, whether
the government formally recognizes it or not, the LTTE exists. Indeed, the alternative to
negotiations is war. Dealing directly with the LTTE is the first step to a settlement. In this
instance, it is also an important step towards reconciliation with the Tamil people, especially
those Tamils who suffered from the tsunami.
This now allows the government to expect accountability from the LTTE. Foreign governments
that insisted on the JM must now deliver. Other simple gestures must now be made like
implementing administration in Tamil in Tamil areas or retrying the Bindunuwewa monsters
under other charges (as called for by Human Rights Watch).
These are provided for in existing legislation and they need no cooperation or permission from
anyone. These would go a long way towards making Tamils feel Sri Lankan.Even now
extremists will continue to work against the JM. She must be particularly watchful of those within
her party who used the back of her unused picture-posters to put up notices round
Bindunuwewa saying "Feed the flesh of Tiger cubs to our dogs."
It is good to remember that the President's greatest moment and triumph were when she was
the first Sinhalese leader to give public voice to the grievances of the Tamils and southern
victims of the Army, resulting in a handsome show of confidence through a land-slide win. To
this day, even many of her worst Tamil detractors admit despite all their complaints, she is the
only Sinhalese leader who is capable of taking the risks necessary to solve the problem if she
decides to do so.
It is equally important to remember that her not so good moments were when she was pushed
into a war and began to rely on the military and other hot-heads, leading to her watering down
atrocities such as the bombing of school children in Nagar Kovil by the air-force for fear of
offending extremists. Pushing the President into a corner only makes it difficult for her to do a
deal with us; and then there would be no one with the gumption left to do a deal with us.
The President's best bequest to the nation
As we know from history, any new victor at the next presidential elections, however well-
intentioned, will be hostage to extremist forces with his re-election in mind and will never settle
our problems.
The President can go on legally till the end of 2006. She will be under no such pressure. It is a
golden opportunity to settle the problem once and for all definitively.
Through such a bequest to the nation, Arthur C. Clarke's prediction of the President winning
the Nobel Prize will be fulfilled.
And all Sri Lankans will rejoice.
