The integrity of the peace process is down to zero, but then who cares these days about integrity? When someone said "enjoy the peace while it is there'' he didn't mean this. One does not have to go to Keerimalai in the Jaffna peninsula and take a dip, to feel all warm and fuzzy about this peace process.

The foreigners are feeling all warm and fuzzy that they, with a little help from the Indians called Prabhakran's bluff. Not so, if one looks objectively at the press conference footage. It is a typical case of white corespondents entertaining a misplaced sense of importance about themselves. But, anyway, let's talk about Pongu Thamil. It roughly transliterates as "Tamil rising'' or so it is said. The Jaffna Pongu Thamil last week was a well orchestrated effort in which songs were sung about the "conquering Eelam army, which will drive away the Sri Lankan forces and free the peninsula from alien domination…''

Apparently the banks in Kilinochchi do not deal in any cheques, and there is no such thing as Eelam currency. Cheques are not recognized, and only Sri Lankan currency can be dealt with. Such are the impossibilities of separation, noted an Indian correspondent. There have been jeremiads written about the people who want peace in the Wanni. But now such people are falling under the spell of an eerie peace. They are for the most part being whipped in to a Pongu Thamil frenzy, and frog marched into an orgasmic Thamil arousal. "This is what happens when totalitarians take to democracy,'' noted one correspondent about this week's Jaffna Pongu Thamil celebrations. The long and the short of it is that these are not spontaneous affairs. They are as spontaneous as the pageants put on by the Red Army during the cultural revolution. But, yet, Pongu Thamil can be put down to venting of pent-up frustrations. The Tigers need to play to their constituency.

What's glaring about this peace process is the hurry in which everybody is ready to sacrifice any sense of integrity for the task of accommodating an increasingly vocal tub-thumping partner in peace. We are at the threshold of peace, the transparently slick peace cabal tells us. By these, we mean the peace kaakkas, those who make a fast buck selling peace. These comprise doctors without doctorates, glib talkers, common smoothies and the "he always goes to Jaffna'' types. The politicians, they are a different kettle of fish. Anyway, the peace kaakkas tell us that we are at the threshold of peace, so hold on, and peace will be at hand. Then comes another pronouncement from the North. There are several more demands to be met before peace actually gets underway. The peace goalposts have been suddenly moved back; the peace threshold has taken a walk. A week later, the peace kaakkas still tell us, "we are now at the threshold of peace.''

Perhaps the worst and most cloying case of a sacrifice of integrity was seen last week, when the chief tom tom beater of the National Peace Council, citizen J. Perera, called on India to take it easy on the Tigers, because, else, the chance is that peace will get skewed in Sri Lanka! This about characterizes the integrity of the peace kaakkas. Is there even a modicum of integrity in wanting another country to put the brakes on applying it's own criminal laws, just because of an ostensible peace that might dawn in this country? At best, if there were genuine interests of peace at heart, India could be asked to mind it's own business, and nothing more. But, does that mean that Sri Lanka should be able to get away with murder? It is gross that there isn't even an appearance of probity and that's sought to be maintained in this vulgar lust for peace.

It is a common courtesy, for godssakes, that we do not interfere in India's prerogative to apprehend it's own criminal convicts - those convicted for murder no less - in the best way India can? It is also a matter of sovereignty. It is India's right, the country's inalienable moral right to go after those convicted of murder within it's own borders. The hard fact is that this has nothing to do with peace in Sri Lanka, whether we like it or not. Even if it skews the peace, well bad luck then. Was Nixon let off on Watergate because it skewed détente during the dangerous Cold War?

One good thing all this is doing however, is that it's exposing the shallowness and the easy corruptibility of the peace cabal. Mr NPC, why not go a step further and say that the Ku Klux Klan should be completely exonerated of all lynchings of black men, in the interests of the white-American patronage of the global economy? It's time to see what a trusted corespondent of a Western newsmagazine has to say about the peace process in Sri Lanka. "Sri Lanka's rebel leader talks of ending the conflict for the cameras - while continuing to stock arms behind the scenes'', says Alex Perry, writing for TIME magazine from Killinochchi. He writes: TIME has learned that since the ceasefire between the government and the Tigers was announced on December 24th, the Tigers have been rearming, regrouping and recruiting more fighters, which has been their practice during the each of the previous truces since 1987.

The Tigers have a well-oiled gun running network, which uses a fleet of 16 ships and is centered mainly in Cambodia and in Thailand. In late February, in Thailand's Ranong province, police seized a cache of explosives, using TNT and C4 they believe was destined for Sri Lanka. "Acquisitions are still continuing,'' says one diplomat referring to intelligence reports. Adds Rohan Guneratne of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and political violence at the St. Andrews school in Scotland: "Looking at their procurement picture, by monitoring their shipping and banking networks and their buying offices, we are seeing no change in their clandestine activities.'' From Cambodia in particular, says Guneratne, the Tigers have bought and shipped "a large quantity'' of artillery shells and weapons in the past three months. "It clearly demonstrates that in terms of their long term mission of building capability there has been no change.'' The Sri Lanka Prime Minister concurs.

And now a sneak preview of the next article of the NPC's chief tom tom beater: " Foreign correspondents should not write about the LTTE's stockpiling of arms. They should realize that it is not in the interests of peace in Sri Lanka; this sort of writing surely is bad for peace - they must be aware of that.''

Ranil Wickremesinghe is so cryptic, and he is supposed to be so calculating and unshakeable that perhaps he is too clever to call this off now. Perhaps. Perhaps he knows exactly where we are headed, despite the National Peace Council's eagerness to grant Sri Lanka on a platter to any takers, for a mess of pottage. Perhaps he is too deep in this peace thing now to call if off; but at least call the bluff then? Perhaps he is a wizard, not a bozo?

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