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P-TOMS:
Hash and backlash The P-TOMS was a recipe for disaster in every sense; from beginning to end. Hatched in secrecy and incubated in darkness, the secret document was not shown to the President's usual set of eminent private lawyers (who eventually argued against it), nor even to cabinet ministers competent in legal matters. It was not screened by the Attorney General and it was not put up to the Supreme Court for early testing of the constitutional validity of its provisions. Instead, the entire exercise seemed to bend backwards to accommodate the LTTE in the hope that this, and this alone, would propel the rebels towards the negotiating table, that peace would dawn, Nobel prizes could be won, and even UN Secretary Generalshi clinched. The end result may, however, be a far cry from such lofty gains. In fact, the LTTE must be wondering whether this was sheer incompetence on the part of none other than President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who played her P-TOMS card so close to her chest or yet another Sinhala conspiracy to deprive them of their dues. It is probably still too early to determine the knock-on effect of the Supreme Court verdict, but military analysts are more than ever, unhappy with the goings-on in the Eastern Front where the LTTE is playing war games and literally playing with fire.A resumption of hostilities is increasingly becoming a reality - not that the LTTE has been faithfully abiding by the Ceasefire Agreement of February 2002. Some argue that the LTTE is only engaged in keeping its cadres sufficiently motivated for war but if this is the case, its clashes with the Karuna faction and the elimination of Intelligence officers of the Sri Lanka Army have kept them 'active' for some time. It was a year ago this month that they tried to assassinate the EPDP leader. The LTTE leadership in Kilinochchi will need to assess the big picture. They have spent a lot of time and energy canvassing world opinion - arguing their case that they are not a bunch of common or garden terrorists, but rather are a group of dedicated freedom-fighters. The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, which was largely responsible for their upkeep over the years since 1983, has also exerted some influence on the LTTE to mend its ways after the crackdown on terrorist groups in the west following 9/11. Now, the bombings of 7/7 as it is being called in Britain will see the British Establishment take a fresh look at terrorism and its devastating effects on innocent people. Russian President Vladimir Putin told the West a thing or two – almost taking the words out of our mouths - about double-standards on terrorism. Those who want a negotiated settlement in Sri Lanka, whose state ministers fly into this country with nary a word to the Foreign Office here and make their own arrangements to visit the Eastern Province to inspect tsunami relief work - as if to slap Sri Lankan sovereignty in the face; those western heads of international agencies who love to pay homage to rebel leaders and have the photographs for their albums and possibly their memoirs, are now eating their own words. But
the key issue before this country is: quo vadis the peace process
with the LTTE and what is the relief that is available to the people
of the LTTE-held areas who were hit by the worst natural disaster
ever to strike this country? The renewal of the ban against the LTTE in the US comes up again in September, and the organisation has a choice of remaining on the list of banned terrorist groups or moving towards mainstream democratic politics. They might, however, use the hash the Government has made of the P-TOMS to ask how they can even trust Colombo to give them even a federal structure if this is the fate of a simple mechanism meant to alleviate the suffering of the hapless tsunami affected. |
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