Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

Required: Paradigm Shifts- Ana Pararajasingham[Ana Pararajasingham argues that a political solution to theconflict in Sri Lanka requires re examination of previously heldviews so that all parties involved in this conflict can realise theirgoals by agreeing on political structures to enable the two nationsin the Island of Sri Lanka coexist as equals and free of the fear ofdomination by the other]Preamble:There is no denying that Rajapakse received the majority of theSinhala votes in his bid to become Sri Lanka’s President. Thereis also no denying that it was his blatant appeal to Sinhalanationalism that helped him in his quest. According to KumariJayawardene, the Sri Lankan social scientist, the salient featureof this nationalism is the chauvinistic notion of the “primacyand superiority of the Sinhalese ‘race’ “ 4 Bruce Kapferer, theAustralian author of “Legends of people Myths of States”, abook on nationalism in Australia and Sri Lanka says that “in thefires of its passions, Sinhalese and especially Tamils are beingconsumed” 5Conscious of the need for the support of the internationalcommunity, Wickramasinghe was reticent in making blatantappeals to this well entrenched chauvinism. Instead, he portrayedhimself as the pragmatist, who could, with the support of theinternational community contain the situation. At the same timehe avoided elaborating on political power sharing with the Tamils,which was anathema to the vast majority of the Sinhalese. In orderto convey to the Sinhalese that Wickramasinghe was no push overwhen it came to dealing with the Tamils, senior members of hisparty boasted that it was they who cultivated the LTTE renegadeKaruna and sank the LTTE’s vessels during the cease-fire. Thenthere were the unsaid matters about how Wickramasinghe’sGovernment contrived to sabotage the arrangement reached with26