Idealists Attacking Democracy - 03 March 2008

'''Once again the same set of NGOs that launched what was supposed to be a pre-emptive strike against Sri Lanka before the last session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva has returned to the fray. This time their principal target is democracy. They would like somehow to stop the citizens of the east exercising the franchise, a desire they share with the LTTE, which has never been strong on democracy or individual choice.'''

Unfortunately for these rent seeking NGOs, the evidence for their claim is not especially strong. This has led to a series of preposterous non sequiturs, which are nevertheless advanced with total self satisfaction. Thus the Centre for Policy Alternatives ‘Fact Finding Visit – Batticaloa’ declares that ‘The overall trend of elections related violence is that since the date of nominations the numbers of incidents have been low, especially compared to the period preceding it…The low-level of violence is a positive development, reported in both the Tamil majority and Muslim majority areas.’

But, having said this, CPA feels obliged to argue that something is wrong. So they go on to say ‘While the figures cited above are indicative to some degree of the ground situation and security issues in Batticaloa, it is not by any means a comprehensive and adequate portrayal of the ground situation and the tension, fear, anxiety and threats felt by the people on a daily basis’. In short, whatever is actually happening on the ground, CPA knows better that problems are insuperable.

It seems indeed that it is only as regards the LTTE that CPA feels problems can be overcome. As part of the ongoing demonization of the TMVP, despite its efforts to get involved in an electoral process, despite its requests to institutions such as the NDI for training in democratic practices, despite the cooperation of what seems its current leadership in releasing former child combatants to government, it is described by CPA as less capable of transition to mainstream democratic politics than the LTTE, notwithstanding that the LTTE has closed down its political wing.

That at least is the implication of what CPA says, in a characteristically oblique fashion, in its ex cathedra pronouncements – ‘(The TMVP) is an organization that has replicated the violence and human rights abuses of the LTTE and one that lacks the hierarchical control of cadres that characterizes the LTTE. Ironically, the latter in particular could have a decisive impact on the TMVP’s success in achieving a transition to mainstream democratic politics’.

It would be nice to assume that what CPA meant was that the LTTE’s authoritarian (hierarchical control of cadres) approach meant it was less likely to achieve the desired transition. The significant use of ‘Ironically’ however suggests that CPA – given its own authoritarian structures that drove out Kethesh Loganathan, who joined the Peace Secretariat only to be assassinated by the LTTE as a traitor – believes that authoritarian structures will help the transition to democracy, whereas the TMVP’s comparative lack of hierarchical control will hinder this. With friends such as CPA, who seem to privilege authoritarian controls, assuming they understand the language they use, democracy does not need enemies.

But if the CPA approach is bizarre, that of their associates in the Law and Society Trust group (not leading it this time, one of a Conglomeration as it seems of seven named and two unnamed entitities), is even worse. It begins by citing ‘600,000 people currently displaced’, ignoring current UN statistics, and the resettlement of several of these, which it claims – again in contrast to the UNHCR report - was ‘involuntary’ (better than earlier allegations of ‘forced’, though indicating that they have no idea of the meaning of the words they use.) They go on to talk of IDPs from within Batticaloa ‘not allowed to go home by the military’, ignoring the fact that any restriction for these is because areas have still not been cleared of the mines the LTTE laid. Then, to complicate the issue, they talk of IDPs originally from Sampur and Muttur being promised resettlement by March 10 and say, ‘The linking of the date of the election with these resettlement “plans” indicates the possibility that this statement was made as an election pledge”. They ignore the fact that Sampur and Muttur are in the Trincomalee District where polls are not being held, so who is being enticed by whom with reference to this election pledge continues obscure.

Obscurity is accompanied by lunatic logic – ‘Despite the apparent reduction in violence in Batticaloa since the beginning of 2008, community members and leaders felt that human rights violations were widespread but going unreported. As one man told us, “Yes, it’s quiet in Batti now. But it was quiet on the morning before the tsunami, too.” This is the type of wisdom that understands it is a short leg that does not reach the ground. The Conglomeration however should understand that, as Aristotle put it, the roots of injustice lie in comparing like things with unlike.

But obviously one should not expect logic from a group that goes on to say, ‘Though weapons are currently only visible in Batticaloa in the hands of the military, there is a deep, widely held conviction that armed groups have not permanently disarmed but only put their weapons out of sight for the moment’. That is in line with what, using their silly verbiage, might be characterized as the wide, deeply held conviction that, if the TMVP were disarmed forcibly, they would be sitting ducks for the LTTE, that has already succeeded in killing two of their candidates, and in exploding a suicide bomb when its carrier was stopped. The point at issue is not whether the TMVP has disarmed, but rather whether they are using weapons to promote their electoral prospects.

The Conglomeration goes on to say that ‘It is astonishing that the reported occurrence of disappearances could drop so precipitously without intervention. It is surely notable that elections were announced in December and that nominations list closed in January. An observer could be forgiven for thinking that the holding of elections every few months might actually mitigate human rights violations in the east.’

Precisely. But the government and all democratic forces have to contend against monstrosities like the LTTE-Opposition-Rentseeking NGO combine that is dead set against democracy. Some months ago it was aided and abetted by no less than the EU Human Rights office which claimed that they had been told the time was not ripe for elections in the East. Since EU monitors had roundly condemned the 2004 General Elections in the North and East, this was seen as evidence that elections should not be held there. Leaving aside the support for this view extended by members of the Conglomeration on their regular visits to Europe, the strongest assertion that elections should not be held in the East came precisely from those who had been elected in 2004, ie the TNA. Now that is irony, if the CPA stalwarts need some object lessons in the proper use of the English language.

But proper use of language or of evidence is not of interest to the Conglomeration. Their purpose is to stop elections, and to do that they will use any argument that comes to mind. So, to discourage genuine NGOs that are concerned with democracy, such as People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections which has begun monitoring, they even claim that ‘the presence of monitors inherently risks legitimizing elections despite sincere efforts to expose any violations. Moreover, monitoring that fails to accurately reflect local experiences of the elections will become complicit in the violations that undermine democratic governance’.

What this means is that the Conglomerate will start attacking monitors who do not share their views, and accuse them of being complicit with, as the shareholders of the Conglomerate so elegantly put it, the ‘President and his coterie of murderous brutes’. Doubtless the Tamil youngsters who have joined the police will also be accused of turning themselves into murderous brutes who are complicit with a racist government. And all this will continue to be done with funding from CIDA and Aus AID and other foreign sources, fooled into thinking that these destructive idealists are the best way of alleviating the poverty their taxpayers wish to see relieved, and that their repetition of the words ‘brute’ and ‘brutality’ somehow helps the people of Sri Lanka.

The facts speak for themselves. Things are much better in the East than the prophets of doom are willing to grant. Sir John Holmes of blessed memory said that the situation there was much better than he had been led to expect, and this seems generally to be the view of the vast majority of visitors to that area. One of the most distinguished social activists who had accompanied the PAFFREL delegation to the East said that people there were anxious to vote, and though there were problems it was appalling to see the determination of a few people to claim that no one wanted elections.

But the Conglomeration claims that ‘Nearly every person we spoke to expressed fear about or disinterest in the elections.’ And then they claim that ‘It was also reported that the wife of the local TMVP leader in Ariampathy was one of the candidates for that group, calling into question the independence of the nominee.’ This tells us more about the family life of the Conglomeration than the independence of the election. Members of the Conglomeration are entitled to their own free lifestyles, but they should at least evince some understanding of the close ties between husband and wife that characterize most married people in this country.

The final rousing crescendo of Conglomeration nonsense confirms their retreat into Cloud Cuckoo Land. They complain of ‘the Election Commissioner, appointed in breach of the 17th Amendment’ (he was in fact appointed long before the 17th Amendment, and stayed on because even when there was a Constitutional Council no Elections Commission was appointed, long before the present government came into office); of ‘the decision by the UNP and TNA not to contest out of fear for their prospective candidates, thereby shrinking the choices available to voters’ (ignoring the long standing assertion of those parties that they thought elections should not be held, and the involvement of other parties whom the Conglomeration also grants have expressed fears, but are willing to take risks in the interests of democracy); and that the ‘elections seem to be about legitimizing brutality through forced political authority and participation’, which seems a bit extreme for an exercise in which six political parties and 22 independent groups are contesting, with a total of 829 candidates. How many of these the Conglomeration believes are unwilling is a moot point, but with only 101 positions are up for election it will be interesting to see if the next claim is that people were elected against their will.

Anyone who actually reads this preposterous report is unlikely to agree with its categorical recommendation, ‘Stop the election process immediately’, even though it was also transformed into a leading newspaper headline. But sadly, their target audience does not generally read or think, it simply responds with knee jerk gestures as part of the relentless campaign to destroy democracy and pluralism in Sri Lanka under the guise of unaccountable authoritarian idealism.

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha

Secretary General

Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process