Two weeks after I had interviewed Prof. Tissa Vitharana on, among other things, the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, I spoke with the Leader of the JVP Somawansa Amarasinghe for his take on constitutional reform.

During the course of our interview, Mr. Amarasinghe came out strongly in favour of the rights of all minorities, the need to meaningfully look into the well-being of Tamils interned in IDP camps and the importance of a secular State. Recalling the violent history of the JVP, he suggested that it was government that pushed the JVP to violence, yet saw little parallel between this violence and that of militant Tamil nationalism. Acknowledging that inequality, the marginalisation of Tamil youth and the denial of some of their rights led to the rise of violent conflict, Mr. Amarasinghe said the JVP accepted the historic repression of Tamil youth, but that this was justification for the violence to establish Eelam.

On the other hand, he said that he was very concerned that history could repeat itself if legitimate grievances of the Tamil were not addressed after the end of the war, and came out strongly against the continuing and constitutionally enshrined language discrimination in Sri Lanka.

When I asked him about internal self-determination, he said that the JVP was strongly opposed to it. He was also strident in his opposition to the 13th Amendment, stating that it was an ill-drafted piece of legislation imposed by force after India’s invasion of Sri Lanka. He went on to clearly note that power sharing within a unitary state was impossible.

Acknowledging that most of the voters were with the President, Mr. Amarasinghe nevertheless said that many had been misled about the activities of the JVP and that anyone outside of government was today branded as a supporter of the LTTE.

I asked how this was different to the rhetoric of the JVP. For his answer and for the JVP’s vision for the future of Sri Lanka, please watch the interview in full.

• Interview with Prof. Tissa Vitharana on the 13th Amendment, Constitutional Reform, IT and English language
• An exclusive interview with Eastern Province Chief Minister Pillayan after the TMVP’s arms decommissioning
• The Indo-Lanka Accord - Some reflections 20 years hence
• Prabakaran’s Role in Tamil National Struggle: Interview with Shanthi Sachithanandan
• Interview with Kumaravadivel Guruparan, a Sri Lankan Youth Activist

I began my conversation with Prof. Tissa Vitharana, Minister of Science and Technology and Chair of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) by asking him about the state of play in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Sri Lanka, and what exactly the declaration of 2009 as the Year of IT and English meant. We talked about work force development, business service outsourcing, the sustainability of nenasala’s (cybercafes) established by ICTA and efforts by his Ministry to promote IT across the island.

Over half of the programme was devoted to Sri Lanka’s constitutional dynamics, and in particular, options for constitutional reform that included the full enactment of the 13th Amendment. I asked Prof. Vitharana what he felt about the success of the APRC process as it was nearing its end, and also talked in depth about the constitutional architecture the APRC would propose (referred to as 13th Amendment plus).

For the Minister’s answer as to whether he had lost most of his hair on account of the APRC process and whether the 13th Amendment alone is enough to address the underlying causes of violence in Sri Lanka, please watch the video in full.

[Note: For a complementary video, and interesting counterpoints to the Minister's views on the 13th Amendment, please see this exclusive video interview with the Leader of the JVP, Somawansa Amarasinghe.]

• Exclusive video interview with Somawansa Amarasinghe, the Leader of JVP, in English
• The Indo-Lanka Accord - Some reflections 20 years hence
• What Can We Expect from the APRC?
• APRC: The Year of the Rat has begun
• An exclusive interview with Eastern Province Chief Minister Pillayan after the TMVP’s arms decommissioning

In other countries
people robbed
of freedoms,
rescued,

are treated
by doctors, then
sent home
to be greeted

usually by feisty
and jubilant
crowds. They are
welcomed as heroes.

Here, 100 Tamils
share one latrine,
women don´t eat
so they will not

defecate until night
covers them
squatting in bush by
the perimeter fence

conquering fear
of snakes. Here boys
and girls are picked
up by goon squads

who roam camps
demanding bribes
for teenagers they
choose to leave alone

for now.

Part of the Writers Under Siege collection on Groundviews. For more information, click here.

• Equal Treatment
• Dancing In Sympathy (Mullaitivu)
• Belonging
• Forgetting, Mullaitivu
• For Mr K with love

The traditional Lankan curry contained up to 13 spices and herbs. Most plants were not native – cardamom came from South India, cloves from Indonesia and chilli all the way from the Americas. Cinnamon was Sri Lanka’s unique contribution to this delightful mix. The origins didn’t really matter: the islanders knew just how to mix the native and the foreign to achieve legendary results.

As Sri Lanka embarks on national integration after three decades of highly divisive war, it is worth recalling these aspects of its heritage. For the war not only devastated our economy and blighted the prospects of a generation; it also nurtured high levels of insecurity, insularity and mutual suspicion. In recent years, democratic dissent has become ‘unpatriotic’. Everything foreign is suspect – especially if from the west.

Suddenly, the spice island is in danger of turning into a ‘bland’ nation with xenophobia the only condiment in use.

Connected but not engaged?
Paradoxically, Sri Lanka today is more closely linked to the rest of the world than ever before. Geography is still a strong part of our destiny: more than a fair share of shipping pass through our ports. Some vessels bring what we cannot produce on our own; others carry away our tea, rubber and other exports.

Sri Lanka also markets hospitality, dexterity and genius. In the wake of peace, the travel industry hopes to attract half a million tourists a year. One out of every 20 Lankans works overseas, remitting billions of dollars that keep the economy going. Partly fuelled by this Diaspora, thousands of voice calls and terabytes of data flow in and out of the island every day.

All this suggests that Lankans have found their feet in the incessantly chattering, moving and trading global family. But looks can be deceptive: many are still very uneasy in engaging the world.

Such apprehensions provide a fertile ground for conspiracy theorists, which the island has aplenty. They constantly warn of elaborate international plots to ‘undermine and destabilise’ poor little Sri Lanka. The usual suspects include the CIA, MI5, (Indian spy agency) RAW, multinational corporations and UN agencies involved in human rights or humanitarian work. The Vatican, IMF and the World Bank get honourable mentions. In true X-Files style, we are asked to Trust No One.

Such paranoia could be dismissed if not for their mass appeal. An alarming number of Lankans readily believe in these imaginary scenarios. Not just wars but elections are waged on these assertions. High levels of literacy and schooling make little difference. Most of our media outlets peddle and amplify them with no critical examination.

This is not how Lankans engaged the world in the past. For much of our 25 centuries of recorded history, we had open frontiers that welcomed traders, scholars, pilgrims, artistes, missionaries and others. This was the ‘ehi-passika‘ (come and see) formula in Buddhism, which made the rulers open minded and accommodating. Such transactions had their pros and cons, but on the whole, the island nation was richer for the free flow of genes, ideas and technologies. It was only in the last five centuries that the balance was lost due to European colonialism. That isn’t statistically very significant.

As with spices, ancient Lankans knew how to mix the home-grown with external elements. Indeed, the island’s fauna, flora and people would be radically different today if such influences and cross-fertilisation were somehow blocked out. Excepting the aboriginal Veddahs, now numbering a few hundred, all other races are immigrants who came from somewhere else. All religious faiths were also ‘imported’. Sri Lanka today is the product of endless assimilating and remixing over many centuries.

Those who advocate cultural hegemony should re-read their own history. For two thousand years, the spice island practised this advice eventually articulated by Mahatma Gandhi: “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”

As we leave the war’s legacy behind, we need revive our intellectual curiosity and spirit of tolerance that once distinguished this land. We have to resume rigorous public debate on policies, choices, alternatives and trade-offs on the road to peace and prosperity. An inevitable part of this pluralism is dissent – which was brutally silenced during the last stages of the war.

Any justifications for suppressing dissent ended on the battlefields of Mullaitivu, northern Sri Lanka, in mid May 2009. We yearn to start breathing again. Will our state once again make itself open to scrutiny, critique and question by voters and tax payers? Can our media, civil society and intelligentsia now take up Martin Luther King, Jr.’s definition of dissent — “the right to protest for right” – and resume their suspended (and sorely missed) cacophony?

Throughout history, the spice island nurtured plurality without losing its identity or integrity. It withstood numerous invasions, colonialism and tsunamis. Sri Lanka is more resilient than many of its citizens think — and more vibrant and diverse than it appears at first glance. That’s the legacy of good geography and open frontiers.

Let genes, ideas and spices flow freely again! We have nothing to lose - except our temporary blandness.

Science writer Nalaka Gunawardene is still hopeful of mastering the art of Lankan cooking when he grows up. In the meantime, he keeps blogging at http://movingimages.wordpress.com/

A longer version of this essay appears in Himal Southasian magazine, July 2009 issue. 935 words

• Tiran Alles and the Media War
• Artistes of hypocrisy in Sri Lanka
• Discovered: A sunken island, an Indian Ocean Atlantis?
• Peace professionals and War professionals
• Falling from grace: On Sripathi’s demise and using terror against terror

[Editors note: This is a detailed response to over 30 comments left on Sri Lanka: Is the war really over? and read over 2,500 times to date.]

Though several comments made on my article were not directly related to the topic, I wish to respond to some of the issues that have been raised.

The lop-sided comments about the JVP do neither take into account the context nor the causes for their insurrections. Political violence in Sri Lanka cannot be properly understood without recognizing its complex relationship with the socio-political establishment. When social groups vied for access to state power or when they demanded their just rights, the state used repressive and violent force against them. The political violence of the state was accompanied by a continuous march towards authoritarianism, in which people’s hopes, aspirations, human rights and civil liberties were increasingly curtailed.

My argument was based on the fact that the ruling elite has cleverly manipulated the existing social divisions such as nationality, language, religion, caste to establish and maintain their political power.

The grant of universal franchise and lowering of the voting age allowed young people to take part in active electoral politics but no opportunities to take part in the social, economic and political life of the country. This led to unrest and armed insurrections

Free education was introduced in 1945. The medium of instruction was changed to local languages that led to an expansion of higher educational opportunities but not the freedom to question the existing social, political and ideological status quo and its value systems.

All governments, regardless of their political hue, failed to see or ignored the underlying socio-political, economic and psychological causes of youth unrest.

I have openly admitted that the JVP in 1971 should not have reacted to the government’s repressive measures the way it did. However, it was the domestic socio-economic crisis and the cold-war situation in the sixties and seventies that led to that situation. To simply put the whole blame on the JVP indicates one’s lack of understanding of what really happened during that period.

The pre-conditions for the insurrection in 1989 were creations of the then government. The repressive environment against the working people (when the government introduced neo-liberal economics to Sri Lanka) and the proscription of the JVP under the pretext that it was behind the 1983 Black July riots were the major two factors that led to this situation.

With regard to the size of the cake and the trickle down effects, let me say this. Making the cake bigger is necessary. However, that does not automatically make it possible for everyone to get a piece. Unless the working people ask for a piece and make demands for it, only a handful will share the whole cake.

Some western nations which have learnt this lesson have created social security networks and support systems to look after those who are in need. Countries like Sri Lanka cannot afford to make this happen because the ruling elites do not wish to share the cake.

‘Governments have a duty to safeguard their peoples and countries’ was another comment. I agree but with one condition. Governments have to equitably and fairly safeguard all its citizens and its provinces (or regions). Sri Lanka is in this current position precisely because successive regimes did not look after all its citizens and provinces fairly and equitably. That is why there is an urgent need to implement power sharing as a solution to the problem. I would like to add that I have never opposed attempts to delivering a political solution to the national problem.

Some including Dayan Jayatilleka seems to have caught the wrong end of the stick.

They did not “get it” that I began my article began with the statement that the conventional war between the GoSL and the LTTE has ended. There is no mention of a war continuing in the island. My point was, the political causes that led to the national problem and the war still remain. I have openly advocated power sharing as the political solution to this problem while consistently stating that a separate state was not going to address it.

As a matter of fact, in the 80’s, it was Dayan Jayatilleka and Tamil militant groups (including his EPRLF) that demanded the establishment of a separate state of Tamil Eelam to address the issues of the Tamil people. Dayan was a frequent visitor at JVP public meetings demanding that the JVP accept Eelam as the only solution to the national problem.

The JVP and I responded to this position by pointing out that Eelam was a non-solution to the problems of the Tamil people. Trying to divorce the question of power sharing from the militant struggle that was led by many groups (before the LTTE physically eliminated most of them) is to me more than hypocritical.

There is a great opportunity for all the Sri Lankans to make a fresh start towards a better future by making room for all its citizens to live as equals and be treated as equals in all respects. President Rajapakse has got the best chance to lead the island towards such a destiny.

All those who demanded a military solution to the separatist demand, have a duty and responsibility to call on the ruling elite to proactively provide leadership towards such a destiny by creating equitable opportunities for all citizens in Sri Lanka irrespective of their socio, economic, cultural and ethnic background. This is no time to be complacent as some comments indicate.

May be some of the issues I raise and the positions presented are based on ‘old politics, old slogans’ and the like. I would like to ask those who make such comments whether their politics and slogans are older or not.

The public meetings I attended in Canada were open to all. Despite the boycott by both the extremes, many moderates attended these meetings. The comment is entirely false and based on hearsay and nothing else.

Furthermore, it is just historically specious to state that that the war is over because one side lost and the other side won. One major example comes to my mind. The Allied Forces when they declared victory in 1918 thought it was a war to end all wars. Yet, thirty years later they had to fight another war.

A more recent example is the Israeli state. It has won every war with its Arab neighbours and the Palestinians, yet there is no peace. The reason is that they failed to take account of the underlying causes for the respective conflicts and attempted to deal with such issues only militarily. This brings me to the next point. How is the peace going to be sustained? Is it by dealing with the issues that gave rise to the conflict in the first place; or is it, sadly, going to be business as usual and the cycle repeats?

If the government is committed to the welfare of the people in the South, the North and the East then why is it:

• Continually narrowing the parameters of civil society by actively stifling dissent;
• Refusing to allow the media and the independent observers to report on what is happening to the 300,000 displaced people in the North;
• Not taking measures in a practical way to devolve power, apart from words and pronouncements to that effect;
• Unnecessarily delaying the implementation of the 17^th amendment to the Constitution
• Not showing empathy for legitimate grievances of non-Sinhala communities;
• Avoiding the implementation of political reforms that are amenable to the island’s multicultural heritage;
• Expanding the security forces in a large scale;
• Not dealing with the causes that aggravate the economic crisis such as wastage, bribery, corruption and debt etc.

If these happen, I ‘will get over it’ ‘accept the reality’ and see the ‘current President is not like previous leaders’ of Sri Lanka.

Till then I reserve the right to my critical facilities, and skepticism.

Thanks to all those who commented on the article.

• Between Eelam and War: Where’s the solution?
• What undue humanitarian concerns? - Responding to Michael Roberts
• ISSUES FOR TAMIL NATIONALISM: REVISITING PUBLIUS
• Let’s stop corruption in Sri Lanka!
• Lionel Bopage: Reflections on the Current Situation in Sri Lanka

Rohini Hensman's exclusive article to Groundviews on the plight of the IDPs and Malinda Seneviratne's pointed counter based on his experience in the camps, as well as the responses to both articles provide the framework of reference for this compelling eyewitness account of conditions in Menik Farm.

This is an unedited account, posted here without verification. Corroboration and competing perspectives are invited from Government, I/NGOs that have had limited access to IDPs, the few journalists who have been to these camps and others who may know of other first hand accounts of camp conditions such as this one in Sinhala.

Based on the belief that the free flow of information in the public domain, especially after war's end, is a cornerstone of democracy, Groundviews will continue to publish content that stimulates policy and action to ensure the safety, security and above all, human dignity of fellow citizens languishing in these camps.]

###

An Eyewitness Account

Condition from camp to camp varies. Zone three is comparatively better of the camps. In Zone 03 the shelters that in front are better but as you walk further and further in, the conditions are not the same.

Even in Zone 03 the water is scarce and the day we went the people had received rice and sugar but no vegetables nor any complementary items to cook the rice with. Brigadier Weerakone who was in charge of the camp was requesting NGO s to provide vegetables as the inmates were not receiving this. Another issue of concern was that there were families in Zone 3 who were separated (for example we met a mother and 2 daughters in Zone 3 and they said the father and the other daughter are in Zone 2). This separation is a serious issue and so far authorities have taken any productive step to reconnect the families.

Zone 2 was quite congested and they were making arrangements to move some of the IDPs to the newly created Zone 5. Here in Zone 2 the NGOs were providing food for community cooking.
There were serious allegations of corruption here as one of the GS (a Tamil) was in the habit of taking what comes to the IDPs for other purposes. Some of the leaders among the IDPs who raised the issue were threatened that they would be the first to be separated and taken to Zone five. Corruption seems rampant in these camps sadly by Tamil officials who are the GSs.

Water queue were seen everywhere. We saw a child scooping water from a filthy muddy drain and take it to their tent. Small buckets, hundreds would be kept in a line near a water source waiting for the water to arrive. There was dirty water running on both sides of the road where drains have been freshly cut.

Flies are rampant and hygiene is a life-threatening issue. The flies are so infinite we saw merchants sitting inside make shift nets and selling things.

Toilets were inadequate. In one camp we saw some of the tents having been removed and this area was being used as open defecating areas. On both sides of the road you could see human waste. We stopped the vehicle to take photographs but the stench was too overpowering for us to stay long. This was in close proximity to where people were staying but in a vacant area .

Zone 4 was the area where the final batch of IDPs who came out are being housed. This is a high security area and inmates are those who were in the vanni in the last stages of the battle. Most of them are heavily traumatized. We saw a child almost bathed in sand. Water again was a major problem here. Living conditions in all camps need to be definitely improved.

Unquestionably there is no freedom of movement at all to these IDPs. They are being kept like prisoners. Many of them have well to do children and relatives in other parts of the country with whom they can stay. We saw an official who works in Colombo had come to see his mother. He drives a luxury vehicle and looks as if he is from the upper strata of the Sri Lankan Tamil society. His mother looks like an impoverished beggar living in the IDP camp malnourished.

There is no registering of people in a transparent manner. Hence even if people disappear there is no way to trace them. The separation of family members (I stress here) is a very grave concern.

Access is not given to NGOs to talk to the IDPs. You go in, give the food and get out. You are not even supposed to take your mobiles in or give the IDPs the use of it. There is an epidemic of chickenpox and hepatitis and other diseases in the camps.

Three of our colleagues who walked with open shoes working in the camps had various foot diseases. One had to have both his toe nails removed. The other had holes in his sole and is being treated. The third has a rash and infection which makes him walk with a limp. If this is the case with volunteers working in Manik farm you should be able to imagine the plight of the IDPs who don’t even have a pair of bathroom slippers to wear. I saw a child wearing a footwear made out of hardboard and elastic and another one covering his feet with plastic bags.

The other issue is the Militarisation of the camps. Camp management need to be handed over to the civil administration. When cutting of trees, moving tents or relocating tents the soldiers are standing with their guns and making the IDPs do the hard labour. This should be done voluntarily by the IDPs rather than making it look like bonded labour.

Other needs are clothes. IDPs are in desperate need for change cloths. People kept asking us especially girls for clothes. There has been distribution of clothes but hardly adequate. Children, pregnant mothers, lactating mothers, infants and the elderly need special care.

Daily people die some time more than 5 -10 a day, mostly children and elderly. This is due to disease, malnourishment etc. The malnourishment did not happen necessarily in the camps. Even in the Vanni they had been near starvation and the journey has made them weaker. To bring a body to Vavuniya they are charged around Rs. 10,000. A few weeks back a pregnant lady committed suicide in one of the toilets.

The LTTE detainees are housed in different locations. There are separate camps for boys and girls. There are around 9000 boys and 2000 girls. Access to this camp can be obtained with defence ministry’s approval only. They are looked after quite well except when they protest or get aggressive. The girls need a change of clothes, normal amenities such as soap, toothpaste, sanitary ware etc.

The problem is that they need regular supplies and the whole day they idle. There are also many wounded girls in the camp some of them are disabled already. They need special medical attention. This is true of the boys too.

Also the hard core LTTE detainees and those who had gone for even two days training, those who had run from the LTTE, come back to their homes and got married etc. They are all in one camp. Those married have been separated from their spouses. There were 37 pregnant girls among the detainees. They had left the LTTE and got married but due to the rule that any one who underwent training needs to surrender they are all now kept as LTTE detainees.

The cry of both the boys and the girls were to see their parents, husbands and wives etc. Even for a few minutes they pleaded. The cry to connect socially to their kith and kin was heard every where. This was pathetic. The boy’s camp had an epidemic of chickenpox and typhoid. They asked for medicines stressing that they had trained doctors among themselves.

There 35,000 children in the camps and out of which around 1,800 are orphans. Below are some of the pressing issues which were shared at a recent meeting on these IDPS:

1. Freedom of movement and host family options- -i.e. many families have relatives, children they can go and stay with. Yet they are forcibly kept in the camp.
2. Systematic and transparent registration- names of IDPs are not registered presently.
3. Transparent screening and feedback to family
4. Family Reunification: Family are separated (father and one child in one camp and mother and other children in another zone).
5. Civilian nature of administration- presently the camp is administered by military personnel.
6. Right to information
7. Ability for aid agencies/NGO s to talk to the displaced

These are some of the advocacy issues that should be looked at in the next several weeks and these should be revisited in order to ascertain what progress have been made on these issues.

• Sri Lanka’s IDP camp Manik Farm is what it is (but what is that?)
• Forgotten IDPs from the North
• We are nobody’s children…
• Doesn’t she have the right to live with her daughter?
• A recent trip to Vavuniya: For the future looks dark and gloomy

• Launch of Groundviews Facebook Fan Page
• Groundviews on Twitter and Facebook
• New email subscription service and Facebook integration
• Groundviews on Twitter
• Groundviews YouTube video channel

Minorities
may enjoy
clean living
in freshly cleared
forest patches,
welfare villages
with amenities
such as latrines
and tents,
gated communities.

June 28, 2009

Part of the Writers Under Siege collection on Groundviews. For more information, click here.

• Equal Treatment
• Forgetting, Mullaitivu
• Liberation
• Dancing In Sympathy (Mullaitivu)
• For Mr K with love

Where do we start? With renovation, I suggest. The only available starting point is modest and realistic reform, namely the implementation of the 13^th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, because it represents the broadest available consensus between the Sri Lankan state and a section on non-Tiger Tamils as well as the Sri Lankan and Indian states. It represents the triangular intersection of the anti-Tiger elements of the “Tamil armed resistance” (as Kethesh Loganathan used to call it), and the Colombo and New Delhi governments.

The day after our Thirty Years War ended this year, a top level Indian delegation paid a call on the President and the joint press statement that ensued ( May 21^st) not only contained a commitment by the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the 13th amendment but to explore possibilities of a further movement through dialogue.

The why of it is that 70 million Tamils will not go away from the demographic makeup of India; a significant percentage of them will always be concerned about the fate of their ethnic kin in Sri Lanka, constituting a political factor that no government at the centre will ignore. Furthermore, no government at the Centre will risk a significant degree of alienation of Tamil Nadu, on the basis that the latter does not care about the fate of Sri Lanka’s Tamils. We Sri Lankan Sinhalese could very well argue that it is none of their or anybody else’s business but our own, but that is just not the way the world works. As Mervyn de Silva wrote “in the age of identity, ethnicity walks on water”. Look at the intervention or counter-intervention of Russia on behalf of the South Ossetians in the face of a Georgian military offensive. (The Indian conduct of 1987 was a perfect precursor of this). The 13^th amendment is the concrete expression of the Indian concern balanced off with Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. Several scholarly texts, from different viewpoints, shed light on this nexus and its evolution. I refer to those by KM de Silva, Shelton Kodikara, John Gooneratne and Urmila Phadnis.

Sovereignty not only has to be asserted, it has to be defended and defensible. Sri Lanka cannot defend its sovereignty against all comers from all points of the compass, North and South, West and East. It can defend its sovereignty only by power balancing in a multi-polar world. Starkly put, if we lose India, we even lose the Non-aligned Movement, and (as we saw in 1987) we are left naked.

Any attempt at erasure of the 13^th amendment will only open the door to greater not lesser concessions because we shall be dealing with a globalized world and the Obama factor as well. Between 1987 and today falls the breakup of the USSR and Yugoslavia, the dawn of the new century and the information age, the emergence of Obama etc. In short, it is better not to re-open the issue of the 13^th amendment because we could find that the point of equilibrium stops above and beyond it.

There are minority grievances and there are minority aspirations. The latter are neither imaginary nor unwarranted. That which Virginia Woolf asserted on behalf of women writers is true of human beings in general: A Room with a View. It is part of the human condition that every individual requires an irreducible minimum of space in which to assert one’s distinctive identity and grow, without domination or interference from others. Every civic group needs political and cultural space. That is the bedrock argument for some measure of self rule or autonomy. It is rather different in the United States or France, where the Constitution does not privilege the culture or religion of any community, and there cannot be said to be – nor are there claims to being – a dominant ethnic, or ethno-religious community. The US is a melting pot, a classic case of cultural fusion and change, while the French Republic is sternly secular, with neither veils nor crosses allowed in schools.

Some states and societies are a hybrid, such as India, which has a secular Constitution, a pluralist society (the Prime Minister is a Sikh, the most powerful politician is of Italian origin, the most powerful political family is mixed race) but also provides sufficient space for its constituent communities in the form of a quasi federal system and linguistic states.

Tamil grievances remain from 1951, (if not from DS Senanayakae’s Pan Sinhala Cabinet) when Senator Nadesan voiced his dissent over the National Flag. We are far from a situation in which society is integrated, discrimination is aggressively tackled and the state is neutral between communities. In such a context, where one individual is not the equal of the other and one community has more privileges than the other, it is the case the world over, that collectivities with their distinctive identities and inhabiting recognizable geographic areas over long periods, tend to seek some political space and measure of self rule/self governance.

I cannot think of any state in the world, and I work among 193, that does not hold that Sri Lanka’s Tamils deserve and require equal rights in practice, as well as some autonomous political space, be it devolution of power to autonomous regions or provinces ( as in Britain or China) or something more. I repeat, the 13^th amendment is the most modest and economical of these arrangements as far as the majority goes.

The 13^th amendment may not solve grievances, but certainly addresses them. Does the Parliamentary or Presidential system solve the grievances of the Sinhalese or the majority of ordinary people or the poor? Obviously not, but this does not lead to the conclusion that these institutions and practices should be dumped in the trash-can because they simply devolve power to politicians and Ministers. They must be retained because, as Churchill said of democracy, they are the worst, save all others.

Political accommodation and reconciliation are not possible on the basis of majoritarian unilateralism. It requires a consensus, a common denominator between the communities. It would be difficult for the Sinhalese to find any of their fellow Tamil (and Muslim?) citizens who could be accommodated short of the implementation of the 13^th amendment at the very least. If someone could name a single Tamil political party or leading personality who is willing to settle for anything short of the 13^th amendment, I would be pleasantly surprised. What he or she will discover is that even purely domestic political accommodation between the communities/ethnic collectivities is impossible other than on the basis of the 13^th amendment at the minimum.

There is a major distinction between Sri Lankans being at the centre of sorting out Sri Lankan problems, and Sri Lankan problems being capable of sorting out exclusively by Sri Lankans. That is the kind of isolationist position I have never held. My unit of analysis has always been the world system taken as single whole, a complex unevenly structured totality, and this is all the more relevant now that we are faced with the threat of a global protracted struggle with Tamil secessionism. If the battlefield is global, our analysis cannot be purely local. Sri Lanka’s sovereignty must be defended mainly by our efforts, but cannot be defended solely or exclusively by them, and must be defended by a broad united front or concentric circles of alliances. Full if graduated implementation of the 13^th Amendment, i.e. the fullest possible devolution of powers within our Constitution, is an essential part of the minimum political programme on which such a global united front can be built and sustained.

Narrow nationalism is an inadequate basis for the defense of the national interest, which is why the greatest of nationalists or more correctly, patriots, were also the greatest of internationalists. An example would be Fidel Castro who never tires of quoting Cuba’s 19^th century national hero, Jose Marti as saying “Homeland is humanity”. And Ho Chi Minh, (the Vietnamese nation’s beloved “Uncle Ho”) who reminded us that “Nothing is More Precious than Independence and Freedom” but also recalled (as a founder of the French Communist Party and the Communist International) the correctness of Frederick Engels’ dictum that “Freedom is the recognition of necessity”. I commend the full implementation of the 13^th amendment at least as a tough-minded Engelsian recognition of necessity as both prerequisite and corollary of freedom.

Prof Senaka Bandaranaike discerns a pattern in ancient Sri Lankan history of being ahead of the rest of the subcontinent on occasions, but never being able to achieve a decisive breakthrough and sustain it. This happened at least three times, he once said in a lecture I attended. We now have another chance. It is as if we have obtained a second Independence, when we were ahead of the game in the rest of Asia but we then blew it. Let’s not blow it yet again.

These are the strictly personal views of the writer.

• Exclusive video interview with Somawansa Amarasinghe, the Leader of JVP, in English
• TAMIL NADU, THE INDIAN MODEL AND DEVOLUTION
• A military pathway to nation building
• Aftermath of the Victory: whither Sri Lanka?
• Tamil politics tomorrow: Options, challenges and pitfalls

Rohini Hensman is absolutely right when she asserts (in an article published in www.groundviews.org titled ‘Why are the Vanni civilians still being held hostage?’) ‘If there are elements in the government and armed forces working to destroy the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, it is incumbent on all of us who love our country to resist’.  I would not limit the resisting to ‘elements’ in the government or the armed forces though.  We know that the LTTE was not ‘government’ and not ‘armed forces’, for example. And we know that a lot of NGO personalities and even free media advocates were vociferously trying to destroy Sri Lanka, even though people like Nimalka Fernando of failed-state fame and Eelam-speak now unabashedly utter the word ‘motherland’.  They were resisted and that resistance played an important role in defeating the LTTE. They will be resisted today and tomorrow as well.

I don’t know about how ‘socialist’ Sri Lanka is, but it is certainly more of a republic than it used to be. Is it democratic?  Well, we are living under the violent shadow of the 1978 constitution and therefore ‘no’ is certainly a legitimate answer.

Rohini takes legitimate umbrage at certain statements made by high-ranking officials and politicians.  Whether such statements reflect official policy is of course not clear, especially since other officials and other politicians have made statements that contradict these.  If ‘official policy’ is best reflected by what the President says then I believe there is no reason to get worked up. Being alert, though, is important and for this I do applaud Rohini.

But as I said getting carried away is not useful.  For example, she calls the regimes of J.R. Jayewardena and Ranasinghe Premadasa ‘Sinhala nationalist’, never mind the fact that they were jointly responsible for the massacre of some 60,000 plus ‘Sinhala nationalists’, helped considerably by another ‘Sinhala nationalist’, Rohana Wijeweera.  Then she conjures up images of tyre pyres, mutilated bodies on the roadside, on waterways and so on.

She reduces the war to a product of alleged discrimination against and persecution of minorities, the PTA and Emergency Regulations.  No word of extremist Tamil nationalism, no word of terrorism here, strangely.

The ‘going overboard’ is nicely laced with the by not utterly boring ‘horror stories’ of the IDP camps. Rohini is so ‘overboard’ that her rant warrants full quotation:

Around 280,000 of the civilians who have suffered so much already have been kept prisoners behind barbed wire in camps where conditions are in many cases abysmal. It is clear that the government is unable to provide for them adequately, yet those with relations outside who would willingly look after them are being denied the right to join their families. If others want to check up on their homes in the Vanni or start rebuilding them, no one on earth has the right to stop them. This denial of the fundamental right to freedom of movement is especially cruel for families which have been split up, and are thereby denied the possibility of reuniting, or even finding out what has happened to their loved ones. It is lethal for those who are physically vulnerable; senior citizens were supposed to be released after a court found that many had died of starvation and more were dying daily, but the sick and injured, pregnant women, and mothers with babies are also vulnerable. With the monsoon, it is likely that gastrointestinal diseases will kill thousands. Why, then, are these unfortunate people being penalised like this?

I spent most of last weeks in these camps.  The conditions therein are certainly not luxurious but they are a far cry from ‘abysmal’.  If providing facilities that ensure 3 full meals a day, more than enough drinking water and water for bathing, medical services, toilets, schools, banking and postal services, and the influx of all manner of relief items courtesy the general public, business undertakings, INGOs, NGOs and UN agencies amounts to something that can be described as ‘abysmal’, then Rohini should check the dictionary meaning of the word.  They even have electricity and television, things that thousands living in formerly threatened villages did not have, do not have and are unlikely to have in the near future.

This is not the United States of America. This is Sri Lanka.  A third world country.  Given all this, the performance of the Government, I found quite contrary to what I expected considering the comparison of these facilities to Hitler’s concentration camps, startling.

It would indeed be cruel if split families are not allowed to reunite.  Reunification is a process that the Government is pursuing with utmost energy.  It is indeed lethal for those who are physically vulnerable, i.e. the elderly, the children, the sickly and pregnant mothers.  Lethal, yes, if there was no sympathy to their situation and if adequate measures are not in place.  The truth is, they are being looked after to the best of ability.  As for what the monsoon may or may not do, those in charge of these facilities are taking all precautions possible, including the shifting of camps to better locations, constructing better housing facilities and making sure that all amenities mentioned above are also available.

Rohini believes that one day would suffice to screen people.  Well, I suppose she has the brains to detect an LTTE cadre at the snap of a finger. Or the knowledge. I don’t know.  All I know is that it took two years to identify those responsible for the assassination attempt on the Defence Secretary and that two of the suspects were found in one of the camps.  It is better, given history, for the Government to be cautious.

The Government has already decided to allow those over 60 years of age to leave these camps, to go live with someone who undertakes to care for them or to enter a home for the elderly set up by the Social Services Department.  I think the Government could do better and give such people the right to leave, to live with friends or family, to take up residence in a home for the elderly or end up on the street if that is what they wish.  Perhaps the Government will.

Rohini asks ‘Why can’t camp inhabitants go out to look for missing relatives, or receive visits from friends and relations, or their homes if they want to?’  Well, just imagine close to 300,000 people leaving their camps and walking all over Cheddikum looking for friends and relatives!  Imagine the chaos.  Imagine the fallout of such an exercise.  Imagine what it would do to the logistics of feeding these people, attending to their medical and other needs?  Easy to say.  And as for receiving visits from friends and relations, this is happening Rohini. Everyday.  In all camps, except of course in those facilities where LTTE surrendees are being held.

The Government cannot treat children as suspects either. I don’t believe the Government is. On the other hand, this does not mean the Government can open the gates and ask all children to leave. It would be easier for the officials because it would halve the IDP population. Things don’t work that way. Children stay with parents.  Even under the harshest conditions and in this case, these are not abysmal conditions and they are not the harshest conditions imaginable.

There are security concerns and these naturally shape the diga palala of democracy, Rohini ought to understand.  Just because the LTTE leadership is no more, this does not mean that a brainwashed LTTE operative will not blow up a bus if given half a chance.

Rohini believes ‘democracy’ is about allowing people to go wherever they like, check out their homes, live on the streets if they so wish and so on.  Just imagine what would happen if the Government allowed such a thing.  The Government would be blamed for Ramalingam Rasiah losing his leg in a landmine explosion. The Government would be castigated for violating human rights because little 2 year old Meena Kumari died of hunger.  Our bleeding-heart I/NGO personalities would have a ball with the story.  They would roll out reams of commentary lamenting the state of affairs.  Nimalka Fernando would drop ‘motherland’ like a hot potato and take up the failed-state cry.  Others would re-activate the R2P agenda.  And Rohini Hensman would take up new cudgels for the restoration of ‘democracy’.

So let us keep perspective.  Let us not go overboard, if not for any reason, because it compromises our ability to resist real threats to democracy, whatever the sources may be, government, military or anti-Sri Lankan elements masquerading as political commentators, free media advocates or humanitarian workers.

The onus is certainly on the Government to make sure that the resettlement process is brought to a speedy conclusion, that those who are resettled have all the facilities they need, and that they are able to elect the representatives of their choice.  I believe the Government is doing most of what is possible.  We should agitate for the Government to do its best. We don’t help our cause by being dramatic, being disingenuous, by being uneducated about what is happening or by letting our imaginations run riot. We are hardly the democracy that we deserve, but we will remain where we are if we are not honest and if we prefer the dramatic to sobriety.

• Sri Lanka’s IDP camp Manik Farm is what it is (but what is that?)
• Forgotten IDPs from the North
• We are nobody’s children…
• An eye-witness account of IDP camp conditions in Sri Lanka
• GRIEVANCES OF AN IDP