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The Eloquence Towards A Lasting Peace Pleasing, With Questions About Its Realities.
As Sri Lankan President Chandrilka Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has reiterated
during her visit to India which is current, there are many flexibilities
involved towards Governmental consensus in being hopeful that a lasting
peace and harmony between all ethncities could be achieved.Eloquent and
well delivered but what about the realities involved? Indeed these flexibilities
could have positive as well as negative intonations and involves the mainstream
Liberation Tigers Of Tamil Eelam who have not thus far delivered a real
contribution towards a lasting peace by clinging to their terrorist image
while continuing to violate the peace agreement and ceasefire although
the denials are voluminous! With their political representation the TNA
and their idealogues Balasingham andThamilselvam their innuendos and smoke
screens compounded!
There are recent developments , as expressed in the President's addresses
to the media which seem to sound promising as well as eliciting what appears
to be moves in the right direction by all concerned but does this constitute
a real resolution of the problems towards achieving an overall peace conducive
to the well being of all of Sri Lanka where LTTE attrocities of people
being murdered wantonly and their strong armed tactics continue unabated
.While there is skepticism from many quarters that unless the mainstreamTamil
Tigers are contained and eventually relieved of their aggression and mendacious
attitude through whatever means available there could be no realistic
peace within Sri Lanka for a very long time respite the eloquence towards
expectations!
Perhaps it is wishful thinking to believe the LTTE are ever capable of
committment to a negotiated settlement where the word negotiation seems
relative to Their Terms being prioritised over the Needs of the Nation
and their reference to a Federal Solution a mere camouflaged duplicate
of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA ) they so dearly campaign
for and a No! No! as far as all of Sri Lanka is concerened! It would simply
be a sell out of her Sovereignity and Territorial Integrity and a violation
of the Constitution and unless the peace settlement entails the negation
of LTTE idealogies towards secession which they hint at darkly most times
as an alternative despite the exclusion of the clause "A return to
hostilities " aided of course by many deterrents! All of the dialogue
towards peace even at Presidential level on any platform would be rendered
worthless and non accomplishable by virtue of its ineptitude towards converting
a group of unrelenting terrorists which the dilemma rests very firmly
on and one which merits action towards the real resolution.
It has nevertheless been a blessing that the initial Peace Agreement and
Ceasefire between the Government and the Terrorists have lasted into the
third year and the Presidential assertions for the need to stabilise its
continuity imperative although there have been many blemishes of a questionable
and contentious nature contributed to by ongoing LTTE attrocities with
rank disregard towards its integrity which suggests many insecurities
surrounding the aspirations of the process itself on the part of the Government
which has been rendered somewhat one sided and needs immediate addressing!
In the simplest of terms if the LTTE are permitted to continue their attrocities (which they deny at every turn) wherein lies the integrity of the Peace Process and for how long can the posturing (sometimes in the manner of the Emperor who wore no clothes!) continue ? until disaster eventually overtakes the Nation where the delusion that all is well and headed in the right direction could easily be shattered !
In quoting the President who has said “Recent developments give us a little bit more hope ...that they may be persuaded for talks. But I can't say more than this" does not sound as convincing as it should, considering the recent spate of LTTE killings within the country, their build up of weaponry, finances and personnel and the bifurcated involvement of Norway whose presence is fast becoming more contentious than acceptable by many discerning analysts and whose efforts towards Peace suggest a partisan leaning towards the LTTE. Hence the aspirations for 'hope' somewhat pathetically insignificant and could be a mere figure of speech relative to an expectation by the hopeless! unless the craft and guile of the LTTE are effectively erased and the Tamil Community as a whole negotiated with sans the terrorists hopefully with renewed leadership of a non megalomaniacal nature!! and perhaps even the full participation of India as an intermediary which would augur well for the Region.
There are many issues nevertheless in conflict with this aspiration towards hope for the future of Sri Lanka which the main contributary effort signifying a negative attitude as mentioned earlier seems to come from the mainstream LTTE whose leader Velupillai Pirapaharan (Prabhakaran) and his operatives seem to be the least interested in a viable solution which would incorporate the needs of all of Sri Lanka, other than carving a piece of real estate for himself and his Tamil Tigers where his authoritarian rule might continue in the North and Northeast of Sri Lanka and poses the main obstacle towards a lasting peace A fact which needs to be grasped by all peace loving citizens of Sri Lanka and its Administration where lip service and conceptual designs about how the ultimate peace could be accomplished sounds more of a pipe dream than anything else.
The continued tolerance of any terrorist entity within Sri Lanka without a positive attempt to dissuade their objectives or convert them into law abiding citizens ( a mountain of a task perhaps in the case of the LTTE) though role models such as Mr Douglas Devananda and Col Karuna (not necessarily in identical perspective) do exist and attitudes which promote LTTE tolerance seem to be the main anomalies which often confront Sri Lanka's aspirations towards a lasting peace while posting huge obstacles!
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