| Editorial | ||||
 |
||||
The
JM's new twist The Commander-in-Chief will be told that her troops are being made sitting ducks in Colombo, and that they are being taken out in an order that depends directly on the proportion of their intelligence. Why, in fact, while she was getting ready to fly out, one of her army's top intelligence officers was a goner. It must have made her feel nostalgic, within three days, for the red carpets and the roseate manners of suave Indian diplomats. Seemed that for once, she got the Indian thing under her belt. She has the go-ahead from the Northern neighbour for the Joint Mechanism (JM), which means that she has a reasonable chance of exercising leverage with the hotheads in her own governing arrangement. It's only the Indians who could have softened the resolve of the JVP frontline, which has of recent times gone into an almost Bollywodd like swoon for all things Indian. But she has to consider now instead, after the Muthaliff murder, that the JVP may have been the chaps who had got the argument right all along on the LTTE. It's a difficult matter for an individual of her level of self-esteem to concede. That's probably why even her hosanna crying organs of state have had to give a G. L. Peiris-like kink to their spin on the news. It's a spin that packs so much sting that its net effect is of leaving both the deliverer and the recipient devalued. The exact story of the state media was that the Muthalif killing is the work of a clandestine limb of a "chauvinistic organization''. Unbeknownst or known to the planters of this story, it has the effect of casting the whole governing UPFA in a much worse light than it casts the LTTE itself. It's an own goal packaged and delivered at the door. Again, the government is effectively glossing over what appears to be obvious Tiger handiwork, when the international community is not prepared to grant any such concessions to the LTTE. The donors promptly called off a meeting in the Wanni after Muthaliff was murdered. Suddenly it seems the tables have turned. The international community, the generally pussyfooting defenders of Liberation Tigers have come out flailing against them, while the Sri Lankan government or at least its proxies turn out by default to be the Tiger spokesmen almost, saying someone else may have killed Muthaliff. Nobody can fail to see the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Kumaratunga has wedded herself to the JM, but almost before the nuptials are through, she is seeing the horrors of the whole idea. That seems to be why others want to come up with some escape clause for her, notably one NGO wallah who says that if she signs the JM, it should be appended to another document -- a human rights covenant which forbids murder and street-theatre abductions. This should be "scientifically monitored,'' he says, with a monitoring body that has teeth. At least the NGOs seemed to have woken upto the gravity of the human rights situation before the President has done, but we have to suppress chuckles here. "Scientifically monitoring” human rights is supposed to bring the Tigers to heel? The President can attempt to incorporate a rights document to the JM, knowing that it will be a cosmetic move only. Perhaps the Tigers do not want this Joint Mechanism in the first place. It wipes out their rationale of a ‘just grievance.’ Maybe there is some sense therefore that the President is determined to thrust it in their face. But even by that logic, she will have to squeeze through the eye of the needle to get to that particular heaven in which (a) the JVP accepts the JM, and (b) the LTTE not only accepts it but also behaves itself in the bargain. Needless to say, that's one tough needle for a very needled President. Radar
only? But rather than piecemeal reactions, shouldn't India be doing the great good-neighbourly thing and offer us the whole masala in terms of a defence agreement with immediate effect? What's the catch? India seems to want suzerainty over our skies, our harbours, but what's it offering in return? A radar? This country badly needs something more radical than that -- such as a comprehensive defence agreement, or something at least near to that before the LTTE starts ramming us from the skies. |
||||
ADVERTISING
OFFICE
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT No.
47, W.A.D. Ramanayake Mawatha, Colombo 2, Sri Lanka.
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
