The Hindu : Nothing federal about this

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 04, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Nothing federal about this

NOW THE WORLD knows what the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam really wants. The 20-month ceasefire in Sri Lanka has generated a lot of hype, and some hope, that the LTTE was willing to settle for some kind of federal solution within a united Sri Lanka. The proposals for an "Interim Self-Governing Authority for the North-East of the Island of Sri Lanka" passed on to the Sri Lankan Government through Norway's Ambassador make one thing plain. Federalism, the essence of which is the division of legislative, executive and judicial power between the Centre and the States or Provinces, is the last thing the Tigers have on their mind. The proposals, through which the LTTE seeks "plenary" control of the region in all aspects of governance, are a blueprint for a separate state. The document envisages no role for the Sri Lankan Government except in the appointment of its representatives to the so-called Authority, which will be controlled by the LTTE. Everything else in the document proposes governance separate and different from that existing in the rest of Sri Lanka. While disguising a demand for the recognition of a separate navy in clever words, the document makes no reference to the LTTE's plans for its own military. It is self-evident that no federal state has two standing armed forces.

These proposals cannot be acceptable to a sovereign state that is seeking to resolve a long-standing conflict without breaking up its boundaries. But in a sense, the LTTE is only seeking to legitimise what it already has, or to be more precise, what the Sri Lankan Government has granted it de facto since the February 2001 ceasefire. The Ranil Wickremesinghe Government's cautious response to the document — that "it differs in fundamental respects" from its own proposals but that "the Government is convinced that the way forward lies through discussion of the issues arising from both sets of proposals" — expresses Sri Lanka's dilemma. While war is not an option it would like to contemplate, peace means talking to a self-aggrandising armed group that will yield no quarter. The Government sees no alternative to engaging the LTTE at the table and keeping faith in the fiction that it can chip away at its `maximalist' position through prolonged negotiations. The LTTE proposal for a five-year term for the interim government is ostensibly to give the Government and the Tigers reasonable time to arrive at a "final settlement". The Government must go into negotiations in the knowledge that were it to accept the LTTE's interim proposals, a final settlement cannot be less than what it would have already granted — a de facto separate state under the Tigers' politico-military hegemony.

Through the years, LTTE strategy has been to maximise the divisions in the Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan political establishment. The proposals for an interim self-governing authority are clearly meant to deepen the rift between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who represent the two opposed camps. The proposal for a five-year term pending a final settlement has been made in the confidence that a final settlement, based on these interim proposals, will never come given this sharp polarisation. In fact, the LTTE would like nothing better than to see Sri Lankan governance based on a fragile cohabitation collapse over the interim proposals, so that it can walk out of talks with a "We told you so!". It is up to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and President Kumaratunga to see that this does not happen. Now that the LTTE has put down its demands in black and white, there must be clarity, coherence and firmness in the Sri Lankan political response.

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