War or Peace in Sri Lanka - (International Edition) - Author- T. D. S. A. Dissanayaka
I clearly recollect a statement of optimism, but also of naivety when J. R. Jayewardene addressed Rotarians at a dinner at the Galadari Hotel shortly after he ceased to be the President of our country after a 12 year stint. - "Terrorism cannot go on forever. Terrorists will run out of their resources sooner than later. We may not have been very successful in the battle field, both guerilla and conventional. But we are more successful in thwarting their fund raising abroad and curbing the inflow of arms and ammunition. We will not have to wait for that long for this era of terrorism in our country to be confined into political history."
Despite my deep involvement at the analytical level on the ethnic conflict, the words of JRJ made me feel optimistic. Hope springs eternal in the human breast and JRJ kindled in me that deep down expectation and yearning of peace. After all, was he not a man of over 50 years political experience and 12 years as Head of State familiar with the cross-currents of ethnicity and its attendant ramifications on the power levers of the body-politic? The words I heard, I thought, cannot be dismissed lightly. I felt happy.
That JRJ somber articulation was in 1990. Almost 15 years have rolled by and at least in hindsight we are poorer but wiser. Even that man of immense political acumen got it all wrong.
On the other hand my classmate at the University of Ceylon and at 39 years of age an Ambassador had the audacity to question the all powerful President J. R. Jayewardene on many a decision on ethnicity and governance. That was T. D. S. A. Dissanayaka, known as ‘Jungle’ to his friends. He certainly was not a pliant Ambassador of the President. He raised many a thorny issue with his boss the President, on matters of ethnicity and Constitution, and the removing of civic rights of Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike and others through the thoroughly obnoxious retroactive legislation. As a professional diplomat who had also served the UN, he did not have to dilute the expressions of his views. Perhaps President JRJ knew that the analyzed political judgments of his young Ambassador had depth and vision. Probably that was the reason why he did not sack this youthful Ambassador whom JRJ, and many others may have considered as a diplomatic upstart. But JRJ was a political animal and everything that he did was subject to the perpetuation of his political power. He did not have any compunction to reject the advise of his young Ambassador who worked directly under him while being a Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after completing four years as Ambassador to Indonesia.
Tremendous knowledge
From the vantage point of being an Ambassador for a 15 year period, meeting Heads of State, Foreign Ministers and other key players in the international arena who had not only expressed deep concern but tremendous knowledge, ‘Jungle’ acquired a vast corpus of knowledge on the political issues and problems that were intrinsic and fundamental to the very stability and prosperity of the nation. These he distilled into the many books on ethnics and politics he wrote, 14 in all during the last three decades. His distinction as an authority on the historicity of ethnicity as well as a specialist on the current political and military issues has been recognized by an international book publisher, Popular Prakashan of Bombay, India. At their request ‘Jungle’ refined and condensed his six books on the ethnic problem into a single international edition that was launched at the International Book Fair at the BMICH this week. It will also be launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October this year.
I studied with interest the manuscript ‘Jungle’ gave me. In Chapter 1 - Sri Lanka: What went wrong - he traces in detail the historical evolution of the problem. He evaluates the myopic political visions of all our political leaders and, positioning their personal and political agendas ahead of the greater good of the nation. Through the earlier years of Colonial rule, the transition through the Donoughmore Constitution, Independence and the subsequent early years of self rule, the author with his acutely analytical mind shows how the horrendous head of the ethnic monster surfaced. In the immediate post-independence period, he assiduously demonstrates that politicians not only did nothing to quench the embers of ethnic strife, but indeed fanned them into the flames of conflagration.
In Chapter II - The Terrorist Movements - the author evaluates how the Sinhala political leadership naively, but literally fathered terrorism and how we have been inexorably drawn into open warfare. The prejudiced and jaundiced political evaluation of the ethnic problem, the stupid and dim-witted military strategies, the author shows had to inevitably lead to the holocaust that we witnessed in July 1983.
July 1983 was a paradigm shift in the politics of Sri Lanka, the civil war commenced. In Chapter III - The Civil War and in Chapter IV - The Indian Intervention - the author takes the reader through, the important events that took place towards the resolution of the conflict, the clumsy Indian intervention including the agreement that brought in the Indian Peace Keeping Force, and in the assassination of Rajiv Ghandi. Having brought on ourselves the horrors of terrorism and ethnic strife, the author in great and indeed interesting detail presents the minds and the actions of the leaders towards the resolution of this conflict.
Chapter V - The Protracted War - details the saga of a nation struggling to survive on the continued onslaughts of the most brutal terrorist movement in the world. Obviously the author had researched extensively the many details the battles that were lost, the strategies that failed - both materially and politically and the despondency of a nation in the grip of a civil war that could not clearly be won nor even sustained. The nation was clearly battle weary and reluctantly, certainly from a position of weakness - the nation was inexorably drawn into a quest for peace, as she was, due to very different reasons was drawn into a civil war earlier.
In Chapter VI - The Quest For Peace, is a superb but a very critical analysis of the new Prime Minister and his efforts towards peace subsequent to the General Election of December 2001. The Ceasefire Agreement, the active involvement of the Norwegians in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the amazing details that the author presents in the various conferences that took place between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Government is indeed remarkable and startling.
Throughout the book the reader will be able to grasp the author’s mind in the overall assessment of the politics of the nation vis-a-vis the ethnic strife and the civil war. The author’s assessment spells out of how the horrendous JRJ Constitution with its unprecedented powers posited into the Presidency, unheard of and unseen in the recent annals of political history, which he was critical even with JRJ himself when it was being formulated, divided the body politic of the nation which augmented the terrorism of the LTTE.
Critical analysis
The author’s critical analysis has been possible due to his undergraduate studies in Physics at the University of Ceylon and post graduate work in International Relations at Harvard. The book is a must for every intellectual who loves his motherland and intends to contribute towards the alleviation of travails that besets our beloved nation. He with his vast knowledge and authorship experience has certainly presented facts and carried out his analysis with an even hand, the hallmark of a good author, with malice to none. He has presented facts and analyzed them as they are.
However I would have enjoyed reading more, had he ventured into his own analysis on the various alternatives of the resolution of the conflict. Perhaps I am asking the impossible, considering the fact that for 25 long years our politicians have failed, and failed miserably at that. Perchance what JRJ said in early 1990 at a Rotary dinner I have quoted above was right. The LTTE has run out of war options. What JRJ did not foresee was that the Sri Lankan Government also has run out of such options. War weary and exhausted, both the Government and the LTTE are now, struggling and groping towards that peace which has eluded all, over 25 long years.
Perhaps, Jungle in his next book may be able to prescribe the miraculous peace formulae!!
