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“Mother Nature’s Wrath and Wimal Weeravansa’s Wisdom”

In the midst of the cry for help from the Tsunami disaster hit displaced and the call for international aid to feed, rehabilitate and resettle them, one hears a lone voice, strange enough though at this time, asking the government to recommence the peace talks with the LTTE immediately.

Hard to believe, it is none other than the person who, for quite some time, was engaged in a vituperative campaign against the Norwegian facilitated peace process, Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, the propaganda secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a coalition partner in the UPFA government.

At a time when President Kumaratunga, putting in the back burner her pretensions of commitment and sincerity to the peace process, of course for international consumption, is prioritising the disaster management to rehabilitate the displaced, Mr.Weeravansa wants the government to jump-start the peace process that obviously is a totally political exercise aimed at resolving the decades-old national conflict and achieve lasting peace in this island.

President Kumaratunga,s clarion call today is to prioritise rehabilitation and re-settlement of the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their homes, belongings, kith and kin and their livelihood for that matter. Having set an ambitious target date, 15 January, one wonders whether the President would have time enough at her disposal, to pay attention to Mr.Weeravansa’s ‘priority’ agenda. But this urgency of the JVP leader in the background of the anti-climax and ‘inconvenience’ Mr.Weeravansa experienced during his ‘Prime Minister-chaperoning’ visit to the north, is confusing and needs careful analysis.

“JVP believes that the Liberation Tigers are forced into a situation of showing more and more flexibility in their rigid stances because of the impact of Tsunami on the organisation’s infrastructure. We expect the Tigers who withdrew from the peace talks with the government in April 2003, to utilise this opportunity to return to the negotiating table. We also believe the Tigers would exercise flexibility in their earlier stand of recommencing talks only on the basis of the ISGA proposals. Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation, considered to be an arm of the Tigers, has accepted that the NorthEast coast was severely affected; so to say, the Tigers have met with an unprecedented loss of manpower and equipment. They have been pushed into an inextricable situation and are aware of the impact on their fighting machine, especially the Sea Tiger outfit. Tsunami’s impact has definitely brought the fighting capacity of the Tigers to an all-time low. Setbacks are aplenty in their efforts to recruit new cadres”. This is the ‘studied’ thinking of the JVP leader, reflected in an interview with an English weekly over the weekend.

“Had the LTTE shown flexibility, talks could have been recommenced early. LTTE and its proxy, the TNA would definitely oppose any rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the areas administered by them, before institutionalising the ISGA. They should not be allowed to keep aloof from the peace process, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, under this or that pretext. We trust that the international community will not permit LTTE’s intransigence in matters of rehabilitation and development in the NorthEast. No doubt, LTTE will endeavour hard to procrastinate. But, it is essential that talks recommence even in the midst of disaster relief operations. Talks must be aimed at finding a final solution to the North East problem. Tsunami and its aftermath have made the ISGA proposal totally irrelevant”. All this, one would describe as ‘from the horse’s mouth’.

The reasons for Mr.Weeravansa’s urgency to kick-start the peace talks, are discernible for any student of politics. Hitherto, the JVP leader vociferously opposed any move to recommence the stalled negotiations. Tsunami devastation, he thinks, has made the conditionality that necessitated ISGA to be the basis for talks, irrelevant in the new scenario.

Weeravansa, for all intent and purposes, is a person who never cared to look at the proposals or the conditionality rightly attached to it. If the post-tsunami period sees him talking of irrelevancy, one has to necessarily conclude that he, at least within his conscience, saw relevancy of ISGA and the conditionality during the pre-tsunami period. It appears that this leader has been subject to some confusion, political at that, consequent to the tidal surge, for he doesn’t stop with the idea of restarting talks, but goes to the extent of warning that LTTE should not be allowed to procrastinate under any pretext. The emphasis seems to reinforce the position that the Tigers should be drawn into the talks at any cost.

It is our prayer in earnest that this island of ours should not face another disaster of this magnitude. Ironically, if such a fury is let loose by Mother Nature again, we shudder to think, that Mr.Weeravansa would not hesitate to say then, that finding a lasting solution to the NorthEast problem is irrelevant.

11 January 2005

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