Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam of the TULF, who may be considered one of the main authors of the government’s package of proposals for devolution of power, was assassinated at a time when action was being taken to bring before Parliament the constitutional amendment incorporating those proposals prior to a snap presidential election. It was due to pressure on the part of the national parties and also the left parties in the PA that the government was compelled to bring forward in a hurry this package of proposals which had been set aside for some time.
It is quite clear that the LTTE is responsible for this inhuman assassination. The main message that the LTTE wants to convey through this assassination maybe the Tamil political parties should refrain from being involved in this package of proposals which comes as a trump card at the presidential election; that those political parties should refrain from any political activity in the North East and that the LTTE would not permit solution being implemented without its own participation. The LTTE might also have intended to effect some change in the political composition of the TULF through this assassination. Neelan was the main figure who represented the pro-PA faction in the TULF. He had a closer relationship with the President than anybody else in the TULF.
Putting forward a package of proposals incorporating the government’s own solutions to the the ethnic problem might be an utterly futile exercise. The package cannot be considered as one that was prepared with the honest intention of bringing about an early solution to the ethnic problem. At a time when a military solution is no longer acceptable internationally, the government seems to have been compelled to bring forward the package to justify and seek international help for the war and also get the support from the Tamil political parties without whose support it cannot survive.
The government seems to have wanted to have the package as a document rather than to implement it. That must be why it has followed a policy of rejecting the support of the LTTE which is its main adversary in the war and of the UNP which is the main opposition in the country.
In a situation in which the Sinhala majority of the country is grouped around two main parties, no party in government can solve such a ramified and complicated problem as this without the support of the main opposition leader of the opposition, party. It is for this reason it has not been possible to put into practice any solution so far evolved for the purpose.
It is impossible that the government was unaware that, if it wanted to implement its political solution, the support of the UNP was through indispensable. But from relationship of trust with the beginning the President did not appear to it to make any genuine attempts to win that support. It is true that discussions were conducted with the UNP at party level through PA leaders of the second rank. But the genuine agreement of the UNP was expected, a policy should have been followed of bringing about an understanding – and that between the leaders of the two parties – before such discussions. The agreement of the opposition should have been secured through the leader of that party himself. The President, for the sake of appearances, held talks with the UNP through second rank leaders of the PA but made no effort whatever to establish trust and agreement with the leader of that party.
She did not even make use of the help given by Liam Fox’s intention for this purpose. Instead of building the atmosphere necessary for establishing a relationship of trust with the leader of the opposition, she through a policy of attacking him continually pushed him to a position of not supporting an agreement.
It appeared that the President thought from the very beginning that, rather than receiving the co-operation of the UNP through establishing a relationship of trust with the leader of the UNP, it was more fruitful to have some secret agreement with a selected group of UNP MPs at whatever price for the purpose of getting the support of the 17 additional MPs required for the purpose of ensuring a two thirds majority when necessary. This attempt at seizing a group of MPs from his party in a conspiratorial manner instead of establishing a consensus through him pushed Ranil Wickremesinghe to a more hostile position and made him obstruct steps taken by the government.
Although the aim of a political solution was to settle the ethnic crisis which has developed into a war, the government’s attempt at a solution reckoned without the LTTE which is the other main party to the war. Thereby the government turned the LTTE into a force which acts with all its might against that political solution.
The manner in which the government treated the Sinhala nationalist forces too was extremely infantile. The Buddhist clergy is the motive force of the Sinhala nationalist constituency. Although there may be limitations in the way that the Buddhist clergy see the ethnic problem – a Sinhala Buddhist perspective instead of from the perspective of a Sri Lankan nation which consists of the Sinhala and other communities, it would be dangerous to push the Buddhist clergy to a position where they oppose with their full strength a programme that seeks a solution to the Tamil grievances.
Although it is unlikely that the Buddhist clergy would follow policy supportive government’s programme of devolution of power, they might have been prevented from taking a position of total opposition if the government sought to explain matters to them patiently and respectfully. By following a policy of merciless criticism of the Buddhist clergy the government turned the Buddhist clergy into a force that fought against it angrily with its full power.
It must be stated that in this process the Tamil political parties which are represented in Parliament, too, are following an extremely opportunistic and self-seeking role. The number of seats that the Tamil political parties represent in the Parliament is 22. In a context in which the difference between the number of seats that the PA and the UNP have is very small, these 22 MPs are a decisive factor in the parliamentary power of the PA.