11-18-2005, 07:37 PM
<b>குறிப்பு:</b> இந்தக் கட்டுரையின் தமிழ்வடிவம் செய்திகள்: தமிழீழம் பகுதியில் இணைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது
<b>நன்றி:</b> யாகூ செய்திகள்
Friday November 18, 03:51 PM
<b>Rajapakse will need to moderate if he seeks peace
By M.R. Narayan Swamy </b>
A deeply divided Sri Lanka has chosen a known Sinhalese hardliner as its new president - but by the narrowest margin in the country's history. This itself is the first clear pointer that Mahinda Rajapakse, the current prime minister, will urgently need to shed some of his ethno-religious rhetoric and moderate himself if he wants lasting peace in his country.
The just over 50 percent of the votes Rajapakse got to grab the presidency against great odds is primarily due to the tactical mind of Velupillai Prabhakaran. The LTTE chief decided it would be easier to deal with a brazenly Sinhalese foe than someone like Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is more acceptable to the Tamils and a Western world intent on restarting the stalled peace process.
In contrast to Wickremesinghe, who as prime minister signed a path breaking, even if flawed, peace pact in 2002, Rajapakse feels the peace process has ended up cementing the LTTE. He is also ranged against Norway, the mediator. His fervent backers are JVP, a Sinhalese-Marxist party, and JHU, a party of Buddhist monks. Both JVP and JHU articulate the views of the Sinhalese majority in a country where Tamils, the minority, have traditionally complained of discrimination.
All this puts him in the firing line of LTTE, which declared its opposition to Tamils taking part in Thursday's presidential election saying both Rajapakse and Wickremesinghe were two sides of the Sinhalese coin. The LTTE stand effectively killed the prospects of a Wickremesinghe victory because it ensured that Tamils in the country's north and east who may have supported him never dared to vote.
Amid a virtual boycott by most Tamils, Rajapakse sneaked past Wickremesinghe by a wafer thin margin.
Prabhakaran would have ensured this with only one thing in mind: a Rajapakse victory is bound to strengthen the hands of Sinhalese hardliners and in the process give oxygen to the struggle for an independent Tamil Eelam state.
Prabhakaran, who will give his annual address Nov 27 as part of 'Heroes' Week', is unlikely to make peace with a Sinhalese-Buddhist hardliner. It is an ideology and mindset he has fought for over three decades. To push Rajapakse into an embarrassing corner, the LTTE chief will demand major concessions - if Colombo wants to restart peace talks stalled since April 2003. Wicremesinghe may have conceded Prabhakran's demands. Rajapakse will not - or cannot, at least easily - because of the JVP-JHU crutch. In the process, the LTTE will tell the world that it is Rajapakse, or the Sinhalese state, that is intransigent, not the Tigers.
If Rajapakse, like some of his predecessors earlier, decides to backtrack, he will be dubbed a 'betrayer' by Sinhalese hardliners, now his friends. At the same time, the new president will find that with his slender majority, it will not be easy to run the country - or even win any fresh parliamentary election.
'I am not a candidate for war, but it has to be an honourable peace,' Rajapakse said as the election results came in. That is easier said that done. If he wants to arrest the current dangerous levels of violence and bring lasting peace, the president will have to stop acting like a Sinhalese-Buddhist hardliner. If he does not, Sri Lanka will be in for troubled times.
At a time when Prabhakaran is fuming over the European Union curbs on his group following foreign minister Lakshamn Kadirgamar's assassination, intransigence on the part of Colombo will only mean more violence and more killings - even if there is no outright war. It is going to be tough for Rajapakse.
(The author is a Sri Lanka watcher and the author of two books on the Tamil Tigers.)
<b>நன்றி:</b> யாகூ செய்திகள்
Friday November 18, 03:51 PM
<b>Rajapakse will need to moderate if he seeks peace
By M.R. Narayan Swamy </b>
A deeply divided Sri Lanka has chosen a known Sinhalese hardliner as its new president - but by the narrowest margin in the country's history. This itself is the first clear pointer that Mahinda Rajapakse, the current prime minister, will urgently need to shed some of his ethno-religious rhetoric and moderate himself if he wants lasting peace in his country.
The just over 50 percent of the votes Rajapakse got to grab the presidency against great odds is primarily due to the tactical mind of Velupillai Prabhakaran. The LTTE chief decided it would be easier to deal with a brazenly Sinhalese foe than someone like Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is more acceptable to the Tamils and a Western world intent on restarting the stalled peace process.
In contrast to Wickremesinghe, who as prime minister signed a path breaking, even if flawed, peace pact in 2002, Rajapakse feels the peace process has ended up cementing the LTTE. He is also ranged against Norway, the mediator. His fervent backers are JVP, a Sinhalese-Marxist party, and JHU, a party of Buddhist monks. Both JVP and JHU articulate the views of the Sinhalese majority in a country where Tamils, the minority, have traditionally complained of discrimination.
All this puts him in the firing line of LTTE, which declared its opposition to Tamils taking part in Thursday's presidential election saying both Rajapakse and Wickremesinghe were two sides of the Sinhalese coin. The LTTE stand effectively killed the prospects of a Wickremesinghe victory because it ensured that Tamils in the country's north and east who may have supported him never dared to vote.
Amid a virtual boycott by most Tamils, Rajapakse sneaked past Wickremesinghe by a wafer thin margin.
Prabhakaran would have ensured this with only one thing in mind: a Rajapakse victory is bound to strengthen the hands of Sinhalese hardliners and in the process give oxygen to the struggle for an independent Tamil Eelam state.
Prabhakaran, who will give his annual address Nov 27 as part of 'Heroes' Week', is unlikely to make peace with a Sinhalese-Buddhist hardliner. It is an ideology and mindset he has fought for over three decades. To push Rajapakse into an embarrassing corner, the LTTE chief will demand major concessions - if Colombo wants to restart peace talks stalled since April 2003. Wicremesinghe may have conceded Prabhakran's demands. Rajapakse will not - or cannot, at least easily - because of the JVP-JHU crutch. In the process, the LTTE will tell the world that it is Rajapakse, or the Sinhalese state, that is intransigent, not the Tigers.
If Rajapakse, like some of his predecessors earlier, decides to backtrack, he will be dubbed a 'betrayer' by Sinhalese hardliners, now his friends. At the same time, the new president will find that with his slender majority, it will not be easy to run the country - or even win any fresh parliamentary election.
'I am not a candidate for war, but it has to be an honourable peace,' Rajapakse said as the election results came in. That is easier said that done. If he wants to arrest the current dangerous levels of violence and bring lasting peace, the president will have to stop acting like a Sinhalese-Buddhist hardliner. If he does not, Sri Lanka will be in for troubled times.
At a time when Prabhakaran is fuming over the European Union curbs on his group following foreign minister Lakshamn Kadirgamar's assassination, intransigence on the part of Colombo will only mean more violence and more killings - even if there is no outright war. It is going to be tough for Rajapakse.
(The author is a Sri Lanka watcher and the author of two books on the Tamil Tigers.)