It may sound callous to say this, but Rajapakse would be regarded as the saviour of his nation
By Meghnad Desai
Was Abraham Lincoln a war criminal? He took the US or at least its northern states to a war with the south, which resulted in the largest loss of lives in that nation’s history. The south was ruined and did not recover economically for at least 50 years.
The Black slaves were freed, but their condition remained miserable for another 100 years. Lincoln fought in the name of the Union, not for the abolition of slavery, which did not happen till halfway through the War, while the Southern Confederacy fought in the name of States’ Rights. Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, remained a hero in the south as did General Robert E Lee. Lincoln remains a hero not just for the Americans but the world over.
I write this because within India’s neighbourhood we have had a civil war, which has just ended. The man who led the nation to a victory has just been re-elected President. Yet he is widely reviled internationally and even within Sri Lanka. Except that a majority of his people re-elected him, Mahinda Rajapakse has few friends in high places. There are allegations of fraud and from all signs we have, the Tamil minorities and other non-Sinhala groups voted for his rival Sarath Fonseka. The issue of the relief and rehabilitation of the Tamil refugees remains urgent.
The origins of the civil war are in the high-handed behaviour of the Sinhala majority who subverted the Constitution Sri Lanka had at Independence and abridged the rights of the Tamil minority, downgraded their language and discriminated against them in jobs. For 25 years after 1956, when the first ‘Sinhala Only’ legislation was enacted, the Tamils tried to negotiate, but the majority always won. The Tamils split into democratic and militant factions and in 1983 the LTTE began the armed struggle.
Many Presidents tried to seek reconciliation, but within the Sinhala majority there was also a split between those who would seek peace and those who wanted war. I was in Sri Lanka when, during the election in 1999, Chandrika Kumaratunga was hit by a bomb during campaign and lost sight in her eye. When the polling ended, there was a deathly silence in the streets of Colombo. Sri Lankans may enjoy the oldest democracy in South Asia, but they lack the joie de vivre that Indians bring to elections.
This is because the majority was as divided as the nation itself was between the majority and the minority. This is also why the war dragged on. By some device or other, Rajapakse, whom many underestimated, took the decision that he would end the war regardless of the loss of life involved. The carnage was incredible but in the end, Prabhakaran was defeated and killed. The LTTE’s gamble had failed.
It may sound callous to say this, but Rajapakse would be regarded as the saviour of his nation. Modern nations, especially post-colonial ones, value the integrity of their territory and do not entertain violent sub-nationalisms. India has had its share in Khalistan and in the many struggles in the north-east and continues to have problems in Kashmir. Yet, Indian citizens have allowed their government to ride roughshod over human rights as long as national integrity has been preserved. What is more, the largest minority has been by and large shielded from the sort of suffering that Sri Lankan Tamils experienced.
The best way forward is shown by South Africa, where the end of apartheid was achieved without a war. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was vital to let bitter enemies confront each other and work through their anger and grief. It could not have been easy. I met Albie Sachs, now a judge in the Supreme Court of South Africa, who told me how he met the man responsible for his loss of limb, but they did talk it through. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was instrumental in making the Truth and Reconciliation Commission possible. Now someone of his stature has to come forward from within Sri Lanka and begin the process of binding the wounds. A nation is whole not just when its territory is single but only when its people feel they all belong to it equally.
(Eminent economist Lord Meghnad Desai is a professor emeritus of the London School of Economics)
6 Comments
Dear Lord Desai:
I am surprised by your pronouncements. It reminds me of British officials like James Mill who never once set foot in India but wrote the definitive history of India. Perhaps you are carrying on that fine tradition to which you have been duly recognized by the Queen.
Perhaps you will be invited by Rajapakse and garlanded for yur statement. Otherwise your statement about current politics in Sri Lanka sounds hollow as the Queen's ..
You are wrong Mr. Desai,
1. Rules of war during Abraham Lincoln's time are different from what we have now. Did he target civilians to achieve his goal? If so there will be grounds to consider him a war criminal.
2. No Presidents of Sri Lanka genuinely tried to seek reconciliation. They played politics with the lives of minorities.
3. The success of South Africa was due to international pressure including sanctions and it’s military failure in Angola.
4. The reconciliation was possible in South Africa because the oppressed was successful and gained power. It was an economical need for them to reconcile with their oppressor. In Sri Lanka the oppressor was successful.
5. It is for the international community including India to bring economic pressure for an amicable solution in Sri Lanka.
In the early 1950s when I was in primary school the National Anthem of Sri Lanka was regularly and strictly sung with veneration in our mother tongue - Tamil. "Namo Namo Thaaye....Num Sri Lanka..." Even as kids, we developed a sense of belonging to a free nation which is venerated along with our own deities in our own language. I recall now, that the young minds did understand and practice in later years the value of the mother land.
Then came the strategies for short-cut to political popularity like "making Sinhala the official language" in 24 hours and things began to disintergrate. Even chanting the the National Anthem in Tamil was deemed to be a violation and continues to be so. The fire of hatred ignited by the then leaders in this manner continue to blaze todate in one form or the other. The 30 year long war was the creation of this unwarranted hatred between Tamils and Sinhalese.
Now that MR has got himself entrenched in a position to get rid of this and embrace all races as Sri Lankans as he often promises. We sincerely hope he would he would rather start it now rather than later/
Meghnad Desai's analysis has many flaws. Some are :
1. Quoting the American Civil War and elucidating the plight of African Slaves is in appropriate. The history of Tamils in SL and the Africans are different. The period was different ( prior to two world wars ).
2. Again quoting Kashmir issue and the Indian Psyche and comparing that to the SL issue is totally wrong because from 1948 the Sinhalese majority has hijacked the democracy to consolidate Sinhalese nationalism and thus the ownership of the whole island. Why Desai does not draw parallels to Jinaha led advocacy and agitation and the success of partition prior to Independnece. Why India supported the seperation of East Pakistan from West Pakistan and the formation of Bangladeah ?
3. South Africa too is different from the SL. There it was the indegionous blacks Vs the Colonial masters. But in SL the Tamil speaking people of NE are as indeginious as the Sinhalese. Albie Sachs,Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the likes are from the black majority. Unfortunately in SL even people like Vickrbahu Karunaratne, Professor Vitharane, DEW Gunasekaera do not have any backing from the Sinhalese for their views on the national issues like Tamil grievances and the right to have their tradional homelands within united SL.
Deasi talks great about India and Indian democracy but Indians policies towards neighbouring countries are all flawed to a larger extent. After Indra Ghandhi ,India is unable to produce a good leader who is strong and has international stature to bring peace within South Asia and among its different ethinic groups and religious groups.
India has to come clean first before pretending to lead South Asia and the Asian region.
Andhra and Mahrastra are simmering too and but it too has escaped Desai's eyes. North Indian nationalism or supremacy is inherent in the Indian Political system and the same with SL where Sinhalese nationalism or supremacy try to control the others.
Democracy in India and Srilanka are fakes or flawed.
PS : I sincerely hope the TW post this.
Dear Villa,
You ask "Did Lincoln target civilians to achieve his goal?" Please read up on the American civil war. The great hero General Sherman marched through Georgia and burnt it to the ground. Destroying everything that could support life and civilians starved and died in their thousands. It is true Rajapakse faught a ferocious war, but it was a ferocios war against a ferocious and uncompromising adversary. Afterall wasnt it Prabakaran who kept provoking him with Mavil Aru, Kebitigollewe and numerous assasinations during the ceasefire? So Rajapakse had three choices, turn the other cheek and apease the enemey, concede a third of the country to a 12% minority or fight the LTTE to a finish regardless of the cost in lives and money.
He chose the latter as did Prabakaran and won. Now those who lost the bet are complaining.
On Prabakaran's part it was a high stakes gamble against overwhelming odds. I am surprised that so many Tamils believed he would win.
He demanded that the Sinhalese accepted a land settlement which gave them only a quarter of what he was demanding for the Tamils. Are you surprised that the Sinhalese faught back with everything they had?
Prbakaran ensured that the civilian casualties were high by preventing them from fleeing the combat zone. None of the demonstrators around the world who were so concerned about the civilians thought it worth pressurising the LTTE to let them go. The pressure was only on the Sri Lankan govt who had already committed to a fight to the finish no mater what the cost. (as had the LTTE) So there was only one possible outcome.
In a jataka story the bodisatva was presiding over a dispute over the ownership of an infant. One was the mother, the other was a witch. He asked them to settle the dispute via a tug-of-war with the baby as the rope. The true mother released the baby as soon as it started crying in pain and the Budda awarded the baby to her. I see the Tamil civilians in the same situation. The Rajapakse govt pulling at one end and the LTTE and demonstrators at the other end. Except in this case no one let go as neither was concerned enough about their plight as to compromise their goal. The result unfortunately was inevitable..
Lord Desai,
To use your own expression it is "callous" to call Mahinda Rajapakse - the saviour of the nation. After all, you have been here before. The last time you were singing the praises of your friend CBK. No harm there. Your analogy of Khalistan hardly fits into the Lankan example where, Learned Sir, there have been in existence side by side Two Nations from times ancient. One seeks the restoration of the Status Quo because the other has ejected it from what should have been a single nation six decades ago. You err again recommending the good Bishop Desmond Tutu for a similar solution here. I certainly am with you because I believe the Bishop means well. But the majority here - represented by the quintessential Sinhala Buddhist hero Rajapakse - would hear nothing of it. Bishop Desmond has been pretty forthright in criticising Sri Lanka for her many lapses - and that,
you should know by now, does not go well in this regime that claims all good and justice flows from it and that it has a monopoly on truth. Anyone, saying anything against it is a "traitor" "anti-Sri Lankan" and "in the pay of the
LTTE" That list is long - Solheim and the Nords, the Brits (your lot, eh?), the Frenchies, the Canadians, the Aussies, Ranil W, Mangala S, Sarath Fonseka, Somawansa Amarasinghe and very likely soon The Mahanayake of Asgiriya as well. Ahmadinejad, Gaddafi, the Myanmar military goons are clean. For the moment
Delhiwalahs too (wonder for how long?)
ISS