THE key to victory or defeat is the human terrain. It is not capturing territory or defeating terrorism. Military, law enforcement and intelligence services cannot end conflicts. They can create the right conditions for political, community, and business leaders and other visionaries to become effective. Even while military operations are going on in the island nation, it is essential to take certain steps to politically, socially and economically consolidate the victory. In addition to politically empowering Tamils, government should socially consolidate and economically develop the northeast.
The Context:
The LTTE as a super-sized hero has been smashed by the Sri Lankan security forces. How did it come about? it came from a protracted, sustained campaign that leveraged hard military power. In doing so, the Sri Lankan forces now seem to be enjoying a pyhric victory. There is no cause for celebration as the tough tasks persist now. In trying to defeat the LTTE in a military conflict. the government has expended enormous resources, diplomatic capital, social capital and international leverage. Prabhakaran, a cruel and a cunning leader who understands international politics has taken 100,000 Tamils hostage. Will the government get into a "gordian knot" of being trapped into a humanitarian crisis? Although the LTTE has been cornered, Prabhakaran has mercilessly taken a hapless Tamil population into a "war-zone hostage".
What should the Sri Lankan govt and armed forces do now? This phase of the war is perhaps the most challenging in surgically extracting the trapped Tamil population? Although Prabhakaran has engineered the humanitarian crisis, it now becomes the responsibility of the Sri Lankan government to rescue its citizens. Government should do so by working closely with the international community and the NGOs. If government disregards the international community, fails to educate them and work with them, the winner will be the LTTE.
Three Approaches:
A strategic, long term and a countrywide approach is needed for Sri Lanka to consolidate its military and security gains. These gains have been achieved by the colossal loss of lives and treasure. While the military, law enforcement and intelligence leaders have done their task, it is now incumbent upon the political strategists and the economic gurus to come forward with their plans. I propose a few pointers for consideration.
The first task is Relief. Relief should be comprehensive non-partisan effort that should reach out to the conflict and fear weary Tamil population with strong safeguards of human rights in place preventing an international crisis. The Tamil population are citizens of Sri Lanka and identifying them with the LTTE is going to be catastrophic and the huge colossal cost of equating them as terrorists ends the government's objectives to be a honest partner in the post-conflict reconciliation;
Relief would be better handled by a wide partnership of civil society voluntary organizations and international civil society in cooperative endeavour. Immediate alleviation of the wounds of war should be the top priority The second task would be Rehabilitation. This is absolutely essential, if the government wants to restore Tamil people's confidence in the State. The State should act as neutral and impassionate guardian of all ethnic groups, stretching out its arms of redemption and rescue to embrace all the people of the island. It should enable, facilitate participation of Srilankan, Tamil and international civil society organizations tasked with the rehabilitation process. The task of rehabilitation is vital and it should be featured by proaction and initiative by the government with a view to provide "self-help" to the people in helping them to restart their lives and facilitate self-sustenance.
The third task is the need for a medium-long term strategy for Democracy,Devolution and Development (3D) Without the 3D, it is impossible to consolidate the gains of conflict resolution, which was primarily a reactive or negative endeavour of merely eliminating the causes of conflict, the imperative is to create, nurture and sustain good democratic practices as they are effective instruments of good governnance. Good Governance transforms the illeffects of conflict into healthy, restorative gains that could empower the people of Sri Lanka irrespective of whether they are Sri Lankan or Tamil. Because the best antidote against further radical ethnic militancy is good governance and democracy that empowers "all" the people of Sri Lanka . Devolution should be the focus of the government, because worldover the notion of the consitutional practice of unitary structure of government is no longer feasible, it is only practicable in UK , since the UK is perhaps the oldest constitutional government in the world.
As post-colonial states where borders, ethnic groups relations are still in evolution, the practical steps to build a viable strong democracy with Good Governance can come only from a cooperative framework of governance. Cooperative Federalism is the constitutional and governance solution for Sri Lanka. It would account for strengthening the political capacity of all groups including the Muslims in the East, Tamils and the Sri Lankans on the organizing principle of due popular representation in the National legislature and devolving constitutional, administrative, financial powers in a phased manner to the people.
Regional autonomy with federal control alongside a government-civil society partnership is perhaps the best actionable plan for the current state of Sri Lanka. It is very crucial that the radical and polarised perspectives of the two communities are muted and the liberal and moderate voices be strengthened.
Development follows as a parallel process to Relief and Rehabilitation. There is an urgent need to develop Sri Lanka in its national and regional dimensions that would call for new strong committment from the international community and of course India in credbile measures of Agriculture, social sectors of education, health, social-economic indices of development. Self-help groups and civil society initiatives should be actively encouraged in a compact partnership between the state, people and the various agencies of the voluntary sector.
Conclusion:
Defeating terrorism is one, what is even more far crucial is to recover the lost space and ameliorate the consequences of the evils of the conflict is far more complex, challenging and most urgent measures to accomplish. Quite often there are better and more effective economic solutions to protracted and enduring political conflicts. Government should build a superhighway linking Jaffna to Colombo and with international assistance develop a master plan to develop northeast in par with the rest of the country. To counter the latent sympathy, government should reach out to the Tamil community in the northeast. The biggest victims of LTTE violence and intimidation, Tamils have suffered from sustained LTTE propaganda, extortion and way of life for two decades. Without such a move, battles will be won but peace will not return. Unless government takes a visionary approach of integrating the northeast to the rest of Sri Lanka by building political, social and economic bridges, Sri Lanka's northeast will become another Palestine or Kashmir! President Rajapaksa has a major challenge to ensure that the victory achieved by the service commanders led by the Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is politically secured, socially reinforced and economically consolidated. This is the need of the hour. In addition to instituting good governance nationwide, President Rajapaksa should develop a long term strategic and national vision where the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghurs will think and act Sri Lankan. (Courtesy : Daily Mirror)
