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TNA’s manifesto speaks to diaspora Tamils, not Sri Lanka’s Tamils
A look at the manifesto of the Tamil National Alliance for the upcoming Northern Provincial Council election, released this week, shows that the positions adopted by the alliance have hardly changed, in spite of the other variables having altered significantly. The demands of the TNA reflect an unwillingness to adapt to their ‘new circumstances’ following the defeat of the LTTE, and a lack of realism that does not bode well for the process of reconciliation. Parts of the document are frankly disingenuous.
How realistic is the demand for a re-merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces, when the Supreme Court declared the short-lived and disastrous arrangement that came into being after the Indo Lanka Accord of 1987, to be unconstitutional? The call for a federal structure is repeated in spite of the fact that the discussion on a political solution to the national question has moved along a fair bit since the end of the war. This demand falls outside the ambit of the boundaries drawn by the 13th Amendment, which is about devolution of power with the province as the unit of devolution, within a unitary state. It is not about a federal system or ‘shared sovereignty’ that the TNA speaks of.
President Rajapaksa has repeatedly stated that his government would seek a solution to the national question based on the 13th amendment. The UNP’s draft constitution presented earlier this year also spoke in terms of devolution of power with the province as the unit, within a unitary state. So it would appear that both the UNP and the SLFP – the two national parties that can potentially form a government – have sketched the outlines of a possible political solution in similar terms. Although it may be premature to call this a ‘southern consensus,’ it should indicate to the TNA the limits of what’s possible and what’s not. If there is any one thing that has become clear through the intermittent negotiations that have taken place to date, it would seem to be that the unitary state is non-negotiable. One would think the decisive military defeat of the separatist LTTE would have established that point.
Bi-partisan consensus in India
The call for a federal system also takes the Tamil project outside the scope of the arrangement that regional power India has pledged to support and, in a sense, to underwrite. The Congress-led UPA government has repeatedly articulated its position in favour of the 13th Amendment. And the Opposition BJP has supported the UPA stand, indicating a ‘bi-partisan consensus’ on Sri Lanka. This would give a sense of how much support the TNA can hope to get from the Indian central government in its anticipated campaign, regardless of which party comes to power in the 2014 Indian general election.
In Sri Lanka there were moderates in the South, in the political establishment as well as in civil society, who threw their weight behind moves to hold the Northern election and the principle of power sharing with Tamils under the 13th amendment. They did so in the face of vehement opposition from extremist elements within government. Cabinet ministers like Tissa Vitarana, D.E.W Gunasekera and Vasudeva Nanayakkara went out on a limb holding press conferences and addressing public meetings to rally support for the 13A. This support from Southern moderates is likely to evaporate with the TNA’s articulation of what sounds very much like a thinly disguised separatist agenda.
With little chance of support from the governments of either Sri Lanka or India, where would the TNA hope to market its project? The answer appears towards the end of the manifesto where it says “genuine reconciliation through permanent peace is only achievable under international auspices.” In other words, it would seem the TNA has set its sights on foreign intervention, presumably from some quarter other than India. With that declaration it has set itself on a collision course with the majority community, considerably undermining the chances of reaching political accord.
Northern fishermen betrayed
The manifesto says “The North-East of the Island has been traumatised by three decades of armed conflict.” But nowhere does it acknowledge the LTTE’s role in inflicting that trauma. The most categorical public denunciation of the LTTE to emerge from a high ranking international official came recently when the UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay in Colombo described the LTTE as a ‘murderous organisation.’ She went further, warning that “Those in the diaspora who continue to revere the memory of the LTTE must recognise that there should be no place for the glorification of such a ruthless organisation.” Yet the TNA even at this late stage, fails to unequivocally dissociate itself from the LTTE.
Perhaps the part that takes the cake is that which refers to the plight of Northern fishermen. Subsumed under a section on ‘Postwar Land Issues’ the manifesto has just one line about the fishermen that says “restrictions imposed on fishing has denied thousands of Tamil fishermen their livelihood.” This is simply not true. It is common knowledge that the biggest problem faced by the Northern fishermen today is that of poaching by Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan territorial waters. But then, this manifesto is not about Tamil farmers or fishermen in Northern Sri Lanka. It’s clear now that for the TNA, Chennai is more important than Point Pedro or Mannar or Mullaitivu.
The TNA manifesto does not speak to the 700,000 Tamils expected to cast their votes in Northern Sri Lanka on 21 Sept. It’s intended for the computer screens of 1.5 million diaspora Tamils who cast their votes in the West.
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