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by Lalith Edrisinha

Author of 'Island of Blood', journalist Anita Pratap credits LTTE leader Velupillai Pirbhakaran with a great deal of foresight and quotes three instances when she gleaned this remarkable ability in the man. First, in the early days of militancy when the LTTE leader thought aloud of the inevitability of facing up to the might of India as he did not expect India to favour his ultimate goal of a separate state of Tamil Eelam. Next, it was at Ashok Hotel in New Delhi when Anita hoodwinked security, posing as a stewardess and gained entry to the LTTE leader's suite where he was being held incommunicado when he prophesied that the Rajiv-JR accord would fail.

And then in Jaffna, in the latter part of 1994 when he predicted that the initial euphoria over the election of President Chandrika Kumaratunga would die down and the war would continue.

intransigent position

Now, Mr. Pirbhakaran knows his own mind better than anyone else. He has taken up an intransigent position where he is not prepared to budge from his avowed goal of a separate State of Tamil Eelam. Under such circumstances it does not require any phenomenal ability to project one's mind to the future to say that all negotiations will fail for it is inconceivable at this present juncture that any elected leader in the South would be mandated to accede to secession.

In fact, the man-in-the-street has consistently expressed Mr. Pirbhakaran's opinions of great foresight for a long time now. While Anita was doing the honours of autographing a copy of her book which I had picked up I told her to as she walked out, question any of the three-wheeler drivers outside who would tell her as much as Mr. Pirbhakaran.

When I observed that from what she had had to say of Mr. Pirbhakaran I gathered that what had to be negotiated with him were the frontiers of partition she was somewhat rattled and said that, that was for the people to decide and that was not what the people wanted.

plan revealed

This brings us on to the main thrust of this article. If Anita, though a foreigner has judged the people's mood right, then partition is not what the people want. A news item, front paged in this paper on Wednesday 7 is of great interest:

"A plan has now been revealed where the UNP and TULF have named some LTTE candidates in their nomination lists. It is alleged that the Leader of the LTTE Batticaloa Political Wing has ordered former TULF MP Joseph Pararajasingham to include the names of their representatives in the list. Three of the five LTTE nominees have been entertained in the TULF list, sources said.

"One is a contractor. The second is a former MP. The third is an Education Officer from Vakarai," the sources alleged.

Despite the names of the contractor and a State bank official being on the list of the LTTE sent to the TULF, they have not been selected by the party. It has been alleged that Pararajasingham and Nimal Selvarajah have gone to the uncleared areas and met the LTTE's Karikalan and Karuna before the electoral lists were prepared. The final approval of the LTTE was obtained at around 11 am on October 25, the sources said. The LTTE has also organised a publicity campaign for these candidates, they said.

UNP list

Meanwhile, it has also been alleged that there are LTTE nominees in the UNP list of the Jaffna District. These nominees include members who are classified as from heroic families.

UNP Jaffna District Leader T. Maheswaran has told the voters not to vote for the EPDP since a victory for the EPDP will mean that the motives of the LTTE will be undermined;

Partisan political statements aside does the latest LTTE move signify an ever so small change in the war lord's mind? There has been no denial of this news item so far, so it may be possible that a welcome metamorphosis is taking place in the outfit based in the Wanni jungles with a supportive network in most parts of the world. If the LTTE expects to see a few of their cadres in Parliament albeit under various guises voicing the aspirations of the Tamil people, that would bear more credence and greater acceptance in the community at large than the awesome and belligerent reports from the barrel of a gun.

Parliament could serve as a forum for the LTTE to go before the court of the people.

case in point

The JVP of today is a case in point. They have taken the parliamentary road and capitalised on the weak configuration in the dissolved Parliament to canvas for the benefit of that segment of society that they represent. When the road to Parliament is open for those vying for political power the need to resort to arms is obviated. The LTTE having judged the mood of the people in the North and South where the consensus is for a negotiated settlement short of separation may be considering the option of a political wing functioning in Parliament even as a ploy for achieving their long-term objective in the distant future

repercussions

Whatever the repercussions, if the LTTE has decided to step out of the jungles to enter Parliament it would have weighed the impact of the decision on the political scene and found the opposition to 'terror' tactics too formidable worldwide now in the aftermath of the catastrophe that befell America on September 11. So, come hell or high water a metamorphosis of the LTTE comes at a time when the Southern polity is made to recognise that the LTTE is a key player in the politics of this country and coming election. In fact, it has been so since the mid 1970s when militants gunned down the SLFP Mayor of Jaffna Alfred Duraippa.

An AFP report in the Island (Sunday Edition) of November 11 seems to confirm the inkling of a metamorphosis of the LTTE:

Colombo (AFP) - "Sri Lanka's Tamil moderates Wednesday urged the government to open peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels saying the guerillas appeared ready to compromise on demands for a separate state. An alliance of four moderate Tamil parties said they believed the LTTE were ready to accept a "viable alternative" to an earlier demand for a separate state called Eelam.

negotiate

"They have said they are ready...," said V. Anandasangari, a top leader of the four-party alliance which had at one time or the other lost its leaders at the hands of Tiger rebels. Anandasangari who is also the senior vice president of the TULF said they were prepared to allow the Tamil Tigers to negotiate a settlement to the long running conflict.

He denied the ruling People's Alliance allegations that they were 'proxies' of the Tamil Tigers and said their objective was to end the decades old conflict. "We are against the division of this country," Anandasangari said warning, however, that failure to resolve the conflict could lead to the eventual separation. "If that (partition) happens, then the (majority) Sinhalese parties must accept responsibility for it."

resumption

Another alliance leader, N. Srikantha, said they were also seeking the lifting of a 1998 ban on the LTTE to clear the way for immediate resumption of peace talks to find a political settlement to the conflict.

"The government must lift the ban to open talks as a legally constituted government cannot be seen as having talks with an outlawed organisation," Srikantha said. "If the talks fail, it will take only five minutes for the ban to be re-imposed."

If humanity prevails, the tortuous route of partition can be bypassed.

A hint at a change in the LTTE attitude can be discerned from the news items quoted hitherto. The Canadian ban on the Tamil Tigers, preceded by that of Britain, the US and India, is the latest that endorses the decision taken by Sri Lanka to ban it in January 1998.

If these bans are pursued to their logical conclusion the Tamil Tigers will be cut off from the millions of dollars that go to finance their war machine annually. The elimination of supportive financial systems and above all a people's mandate to enter the political mainstream will further activate the metamorphosis that seems to be taking place in the LTTE.

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