I’m not aware of any such instances and I would be surprised if there has been any such voluntary relinquishment, although I’m no expert in political history. I sense that you wish to make some connection with your question and what we’ve been discussing so far?

I would appreciate if you assess (or list) historical instances when governments concentrated military and legislative authority among a few individuals and exempted them from public criticism during war (e.g., exploiting the power granted by the PTA), but *voluntarily* relinquished all such powers after victory. Neither a new post-war government redistributing power nor a government relinquishing power under international/internal duress would count as examples.

Please cite your sources in your response.

Quite frankly I think both sides just about have had enough of this senseless tug a war. When I look at both soldiers and civilians faces I see that they just want to see the end of the violence and LIVE! LTTE was the stubborn nuisance that prevented this and breathing its last few breaths. Only way we can nail its coffin is to restore dignity and equality for the fellow Tamils.

I agree with you that too many are silent on the issue and I may have inadvertently been in commission through omission. That was wrong and I hope to not make that mistake in future.

I agree with you on your criticism of the present administration. However, I think we can’t address too many problems at the same time. Quite honestly, I don’t see how reasonable, non-violent people can deal with a violent group which has no ethical constraints whatsoever (as has been amply demonstrated) and refuses to negotiate. It requires people of a dubious ethical standing, like MR, who are willing to bend ethics and talk to them on equal terms. Moderate people can negotiate with other reasonable people, but we can’t negotiate with bullets.

Coupled with the internal and international forces arrayed against the govt., I think he cunningly played all cards available to generate the cohesiveness necessary to address this issue. It’s a miracle he succeeded. Unfortunately, it may have once again sparked off an excess of Sinhalese nationalism.

But, here’s the bright side, if that nationalism remains confined to words, and not to bullets, unlike in the Tamil case, moderate people on both sides can discuss and create the climate necessary to marginalize these hard liners, gradually, as we have done in the past. Take a look at post 1983 Sri Lanka. Tell me, is there any serious discrimination at all other than that brought upon Tamils by the LTTE? I’ve asked this question many times but am yet to see a convincing answer. Things aren’t perfect, but we are a vastly matured country from the one we were back then.

The serious Sinhalese hard-liners have already been marginalized to some degree. Even they are willing to live and let live. If anything, the LTTE experience has hopefully taught them a sound lesson: don’t try to bulldoze minorities into submission.

Not so with the Tamil hard-liners, but that’s what is in the process of being rectified, with the imminent demise of the LTTE.

Once these violent forces have been destroyed, it will be up to moderate people to voice their opinions and gradually start building the society we want to see. I like taking the example of black people in the US. From far worse conditions (segregation) they rose to having a black man for a president within a mere 50 odd years, with nowhere near the violence we’ve seen.

We are starting way ahead, and we’ve already seen signs of a Tamil prime-minister in Lakshman Kadirgamar (perhaps that also was a major consideration for the LTTE to assassinate him, a Tamil prime-minister would have rubbished their claims of discrimination).

I’m hopeful that we can overcome these less serious obstacles with economic prosperity and awareness campaigns.

War is dirty business that no one wants to venture into unless absolutely necessary by all means. When you do, you have to dig into the trenches and see it through. As a government you have an obligation to provide the best of best conditions to the soldiers that are risking more than life and limb in the hopes of achieving the ultimate goal. And if that means suppressing demoralising baseless dissent so be it! Free media is lovely during a rosy peace times. If you don’t win the war you will lose more than free media in the long run. You could even lose the freedom to exist! Now how do you worry about free media when that happens?

All the government was asking was to not demoralise the troops or endanger their safety in anyway by irresponsible reporting. Which I think is fair enough! Saint Obama (the rain maker) wouldn’t allow the release of some photos because he thinks it will endanger US troops actively engaged in various fronts. Does that make Obama administration guilty of fear psychosis? I think not!

I fully understand you now, thanks for the clarification. However, though every human being *should* realise that civilian massacre in unacceptable, too many are willing to be silent on the matter. Our country is right now sitting by idly while a catastrophe is unfolding in the North in the belief that the end (defeat of the LTTE) justifies the means.

I agree that we are in a complicated situation. To merely stop the war means allowing the LTTE to regroup/ re-arm/ escape etc and therefore prolong this cycle which has been going on for 30 years. To continue it as it is means huge Tamil civilian casualties and further wide ethnic estrangement.

Real peace in this country can only be won, in my opinion, by winning over hearts and minds. This means appealing to every citizen regardless of ethnicity or race, to think together as Sri Lankans and bringing extremism and ultra-nationalism to the middle ground. This means convincing the minorities that changes *will happen* and making simple gestures, whether via action or official statements, to this fact. This means telling every Sri Lankan that this country belongs *equally* to all it’s citizens and that no one race or religion shall prevail over the other. This means taking a hard stance against racist politics and politicians.

I do not see this government, however, looking at this situation this way. While a part of me admires Mahinda’s steadfastness in a difficult situation, the continuous comments coming out from people in his administration are largely worrisome. For example, Sarath Fonseka states that this country “belongs to the Sinhalese” and Gotabhaya says that any dissent against the government is “treason”. These are people who hold the presidents closest confidence. What worries me is that this war is being conducted on these principles, rather than on a true commitment to peace and equality for all.

In the South there is a propaganda campaign which compares Mahinda to King Dutugemunu and likens this war to his war against King Elara. What kind of sentiment does this stir in the common man, whether Sinhalese or Tamil? Does this not implant in the grass root level a feeling that we are different, that one has to win over the other? Is this not the same type of propaganda that contributed to this whole mess in the first place?

I worry that we are on the brink of making the same exact mistakes all over again, while instead we should be looking at today’s situation as the ideal opportunity to finally begin building this country the right way.

The LTTE became a large force to be reckoned with after 1983 where thousands of disillusioned Tamil youth flocked to join them. While it was only a few who partook in this 1983 massacre, the larger majority stood by silently though they were dead against it. We need to make sure that the same mistake isn’t repeated in 2009.

My concern was to interrogate the writer’s plan after stopping the war. Any human being in the 21st century *should* have enough sense to realize that massacring people is certainly unacceptable and it’s quite silly to have to belabour the point. I think that few people are that tremendously stupid and ethically impaired to not realize this, at least I hope not on this forum anyway. Either way, my apologies for not explicitly mentioning the fact.

The point I was trying to get through to Dhammika was, it’s all too easy to make bold moral statements standing on the sidelines. Yes, let’s stop the violence. Let’s give good ‘ol Prabha a pat on the back and tell him to let bygones be bygones. Let’s all forget this silly racist nonsense. put it behind us and get back to living together like human beings should – in a plural society where everything is hunky dory.

Unfortunately, it’s much harder to achieve those goals in practice. So Dhammika belaboured the obvious point, stop the violence, what he failed to mention was, what is to be done to save these people and end this violence permanently?

This is what I wished him to confront. I realize that my tone was strident and that Dhammika meant no harm, but I have little patience for people who keep criticizing whatever steps are taken to solve the problem, without mentioning how those problems can be solved realistically. It’s irritating when people think the rest of us are callous, racist, stupid or ethically impaired to be given elementary lectures on why it’s wrong to kill people. Again, no question about minimizing civilian deaths, but just as you see no peace built on the graves of thousands of civilians (which I agree with), I see no peace in mere calls to stop the war.

In your first post you responded to Dhammika’s plea to “stop the violence” with a whole bunch of reasons against stopping the violence. At no point did you agree that the violence should be stopped or display concern for the civilian deaths. It is to the meaning of this post that I based my comments to you on.

Since then you have clarified your stance so I will leave it at that.

You need to stop painting a picture of all Sri Lankans suffering equally at the moment. This is obviously not true. It is only hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians who are being bombed, shot at, and housed in IDP camps. Yes all races should be equal in Sri Lanka, but let us also keep our eyes open when it is obviously one race suffering more than the others at the moment.

You are right, I am too busy being concerned about the current situation – if we do not deal with the current situation now the end outcome will include the deaths and permanent scarring (both physically and emotionally) of too many innocents. I cannot fathom people keeping quiet and pondering about end outcomes and end scenarios while right now people are being killed.

I agree with you that this war cannot be stopped. But I also think that a true peace cannot be won on the graves of thousands of civilians.

Thank you for clarifying the point I was trying to make. Sadly, it seems to be evading jmn despite repeated explanation.

Dhammika >>

In case you haven’t noticed, we are already subjugated. We have no freedom to go in a bus, because one minute you may be bound to Pettah, and the next, arriving in style at the pearly gates. We are afraid to go watch a fireworks display, because the next brain-washed zombie might decide to join and set off some fireworks of her own. So I’m not accustomed to this freedom which you speak of? There is little point in talking about higher liberties when our basic liberties are in peril. I was in the middle of writing this response when I noticed that Observer has already mentioned this.

It’s your own racial outlook which prevents you from seeing that this is not merely a racial catastrophe. It’s a humanitarian catastrophe which is taking its toll on all Sri Lankans, be it average people, soldiers, LTTE suicide-cadres, little children with AK-47s and on the existence and future of a country with 21 million people.

You and I are not very far in our outlook with regard to the value of human life. The difference is in how this can be resolved. Let me explain a realization that dawned on me and continuously reinforces itself the more I interact with certain kinds of people.

Irrational entities cannot be negotiated with or appeased through any reasonable means.

The govt. has tried for over 30 years to atone for the events that led up to 1983. Tamil has been made a national language, govt. officers are required to learn Tamil to advance beyond a certain station, govt. forms and communications include Tamil, many identity campaigns have been launched and it gives me joy to see the results of these campaigns as young people identify themselves as Sri Lankans, instead of by race. On the part of the people, the Sinhalese have been shamed for the actions of 1983 and they have endured indicriminate bombing and mayhem silently. The average Tamil person has endured suspicious looks, extra checks and the destitute people in the Vanni, Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese have endured deprivations beyond measure.

Yet the racism of a few is too great to see this. So much has been endured, so much has been corrected. Are things perfect? No, but things have improved so much, that the only visible discrimination is due directly or indirectly to the LTTE (i.e. Extra suspicion at checkpoints).

Yet, the Eelamists continue to beat their separatist drums. Pro-LTTE elements flood capitals demanding Eelam. Read my discussion with Vasantha Raja. I asked him to list the current grievances that could not be addressed through reasonable means. The moment his reasoning was challenged, his only response was to simply decree in effect that: Eelam is the only way, no further discussion.

Look at what happened with negotiations with the LTTE. Ranil W. virtually walked backwards with his trousers down. Ready to give everything except an official “Eelam”. Still no dice.

So who are you planning to negotiate with? Who are you planning to pander to?

MR might not have an oxford-educated english accent, the sophisticates might not be impressed by his country bumpkin ways, or his lack of “class” and he has been accused of thuggish tactics, but perhaps that itself helped him realize that rubbing shoulders with the elites trying hard to be “Politically Correct” was not the way to solve this problem. The solution must be given to ordinary, reasonable people, not to extremists.

And another realization I’d like to share with the crowd clamouring for political solutions. While I share your disgust for Sinhalese ultra-nationalists, do not let that disgust and guilt for past events blind you to the truth. These Tamil ultra-nationalists are just as despicable and they have been riding on this collective guilt to further their own racist ideals. Tell me, why are they not demanding equality but a separate state instead? Why do all their solutions revolve around cementing racist divisions? Why do they keep ignoring the improvements that have taken place to the lives of ordinary people, despite the scourge of the LTTE? If their demand was for equality, we’d all be marching with them any day of the week, but that’s not what the fight is for is it? Open your eyes.

The people have always been pawns. None of these racist “political solutions” are really designed to help them, but to help the ruling classes. Explain to me, what happens to the Tamil people, the majority of whom still live in the south? How do these proposed racist divisions help them reach the supposedly lacking equality? Will thet ever really get equality through anything other than educational campaigns which uplift people’s conciousness? If someone can elucidate, I’m listening. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to devolution of power along *non-racist* lines, if it really does solve the problems with our centralized govt. But any political solution that enforced ethnic divisions? Right, we can see to whom that gives a bigger share of the pie to.

Don’t let the racists win. Equality? Of course, no questions. Pandering to racism under the misguided notion of solving problems? Count me out.

As much as many in the public, army and other establishments engaged in the war against the LTTE wanted Lasantha to go away and stop his B grade tabloid journalism, no one actually wanted to kill him. It was a worthless thing really. In fact anyone with half a brain knew it would do more harm than good for the government and its efforts. Then you’d stop to think who’d exploit such an opportunity. Please ponder a bit.. My multiple choice answer list has:

A. UNP
B. LTTE
C. A collaboration of the above

Damika, you are highly alarmed right now about a military state in Sri Lanka, but understand whatever it may seem like – that is what the people want. They’re suffering economically like at no other time yet they are happy at least our biggest curse is being dealt with proper leadership and tough action (the sort of action that was lacking before). At least most people believe that and hence the overwhelming support for the current administration. So all I can say is SUCK on DEMOCRACY!

It is in human nature for people to put up with adverse conditions to see a greater good. It’s an inherent resilience built into human kind that has seen us achieve amazing things. Hang in there for a bit, your liberal utopia is on its way. When the war is somewhat dealt with and people see no need for a staunch leadership and the current one doesn’t adapt then they will chose something else.