President Wickremesinghe shaking hands with TNA leader R. Sampanthan during a recently held meeting  

One of the unending discussions on the Sri Lankan ethnic problem was held on December 21 between President Ranil Wickremesinghe and a section of the Parliament Members representing the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
As reported in Tamil newspapers, the enthusiasm of the Tamil MPs about the discussion was such that only one MP, Kulasingham Thileepan of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) from the Northern Province, had participated in the meeting; despite there being several MPs even representing the government in the province.  However, Leader of the Tamil National Alliance, Rajavarothiam Sampanthan from the East, had marked his presence.

Representing the government, ministers, Parliamentarians and secretaries to several ministries apart from the President had participated. In spite of their mere presence, it is clear now from the statements made by the Tamil politicians before and after the discussion that none of the Tamil MPs, who had turned up, had an iota of confidence that the meeting would make any change in the status quo with regard to the ethnic issue.

Some prominent politicians in the north-such a s former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran, who is also the leader of the Tamil People’s National Front (TPNF)- had declined to participate in the meeting citing lack of trust in the President and the government in finding solutions at least to the immediate issues faced by the Tamil people.

The former Supreme Court judge had told media representatives that though he has known Wickremesinghe from his childhood, as a non-racist politician compared to other Sinhalese leaders, the latter was attempting to prevent Indian intervention in the Sri Lanka’s ethnic issue by way of abrogation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution; which was introduced in 1987 as a result of the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord.

He had stated, according to the Thinakkural newspaper, that he now kept himself away from such meetings as he felt that it is futile to work with the President regarding this issue. He had also included this point in the letter sent to the Secretary to the Northern Province Development Unit of the Presidential Secretariat, as his reply to the invitation for the meeting. He had further told in the letter that in the light of the President having failed to keep his commitments with regard to implementing the 13th Amendment he felt that it is pointless in participating in further discussions.

Sampanthan had conveyed this trust issue during the very discussion to the President in a blunt manner, according to the Tamil media. “You are attempting to hoodwink us while continuing to show us the flag of reconciliation. You are talking about reconciliation without resolving the problems faced by the Tamil people” the Thinakkural had quoted him as telling the President.

In response President Wickremesinghe had assured that the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord would be implemented by strengthening the 13th Amendment while however, claiming that it would only be possible under a new Parliament since the current Parliament was not prepared to do so. He had further assured the Tamil MPs that he would look into the ways to strengthen the provincial council system with the help of former chief ministers of those councils, which are now defunct and that a new Constitution would be adopted within the first year after the next Parliamentary election.

The controversial land issues that the Tamil people are currently faced with, resettlement of war affected people in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, implementing the laws pertaining to reconciliation, the problems faced by the Sri Lankan Tamils in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and development of the war affected Northern and Eastern Provinces were among the matters that were taken up during the discussion between the President and the Tamil MPs.

When the President referred to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was appointed by him early this month, Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam had stated that his party and the victim community of the war rejected the commission since the relevant gazette lacked mechanisms for meting out justice, international monitoring and provision for the inclusion of foreign judges.

Tamil National People’s Front Leader and Parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam while criticizing the authorities for excluding his party from the discussion observed after the meeting that the President who had been having talks with Tamil parties for the past one and a half years had admitted that all those deliberations were a drama to hoodwink the Tamils, since he now says it would only after the next general election that a solution could be found. He viewed the meeting as an effort to persuade the Tamils to vote for the President at the upcoming elections.

The pessimism over the government’s move to convince that it was attempting to find a lasting solution to the ethnic problem has now been contagious. The Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Leader Suresh Premachandran also- while rejecting the President’s assurance to find a solution after the next election- in a statement said that the purpose of the assurance was nothing but to lure the Tamils and the Tamil Diaspora to support the President at the forthcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections. Apparently a highly dejected Wigneswaran reacted by asserting that it would be difficult for the Tamils to expect solutions from any Sinhalese leader.

The discussions between the President and the Tamil leaders since late last year including the latest one have been counterproductive to the President and the government mainly due to them lacking consistency. For instance, the President in November 2022 promised to resolve the ethnic problem before the 75th Independence Day that fell on February 4, 2023. The Tamil parties reacted by calling him then to implement the 13th Amendment in full before January 31 this year which he agreed to. And the President convened an “All-party conference” as well on the matter in December 2022.

However, amidst discussion on his pledge he told a group of people in Jaffna -who had gathered to celebrate Thai Pongal - that the 13th Amendment would be fully in force within two years. Then, at the May Day rally of his party, the UNP, he said the ethnic issue would be resolved by the end of 2023. Prior to his visit to India in July he again referred to the 13th Amendment and assured that it would be implemented, but without awarding police powers to the provincial councils. After swinging thus between the resolution of ethnic problem and the implementation of the 13th Amendment he has now put off everything until the next Parliamentary Elections are held.  Interestingly, it was conveyed to the Tamil parties at a meeting convened to discuss the ethnic issue.

One has to infer according to his or her political experience the rationale behind the President’s intention to call Tamil politicians for a discussion and announce a solution to the ethnic problem that would be agreed upon within a year after the next General Elections. Also now the onus is on him to assure them that his party would be in the saddle after the election, as he said that the current Parliament is not prepared to implement the 13th Amendment. It would have been easy for the government to convince the Tamil leaders that it would strengthen the provincial council system, had it conducted the provincial council elections or at least removed the current hurdles for it.

However, it is unfair by the government if one is to blame only it for the current stalemate in resolving the ethnic issue. The intense rivalry among Tamil political parties and the diaspora groups is also standing in the way of major Tamil parties arriving at any agreement with the government; without being branded as ‘traitors’. Even the Global Tamil Forum was accused of treachery when they presented their ‘Himalaya Declaration’ which had nothing to be praised or complained about to President Wickremesinghe on December 8. The Tamil politicians always prefer to put forward extreme demands to avert the traitor label from their contenders.