The
Violence of Peace
-- Ahilan Kadirgamar
The last few months in Lanka have been tumultuous to say the
least, as a dangerous trajectory of a renewed culture of violence
is taking root. A violence that is both physical and structural.
The LTTE has recently carried out a number of assassinations.
There is renewed rampage in the East, as thousands of Muslims
have been displaced. The Sri Lankan state in turn has chosen to
ignore such violence in the interest of pursuing its own agenda
of a peace that is good for business; polices that are in the
realm of economic violence. While a new dawn for peace was welcomed
by all early last year, its outcome might be deceptive as argued
by many contributors to this magazine. It is becoming an illusive
peace, providing cover for the LTTE to attack its perceived enemies
and strength to the Southern ruling class to cynically pursue
its own power interests.
In the last thirty odd years of state repression, heightened
ethnic tension, militarization of society and outright war, there
were many paths taken that are deeply regrettable. Such paths
have led to the creation of violent sub-cultures. A culture of
economic violence, a culture of ‘traitor’ killings, a culture
of ethnic cleansing and a culture of fear all flowing out of crucial
steps taken by the Sri Lankan state, political forces in the South
and Tamil political formations.
In the realm of structural and economic violence, one of the
major steps in tandem with the ethnic conflict was the open economy
policies brought by the UNP in 1977, with arrogant disregard for
questions of social justice. Such an environment of arrogant power
led to the sacking in 1980 of 80,000 teachers on strike and macro-economic
policies leading to the pauperization of larger sections of the
lower classes. An intensified system of patronage contributed
to the ethnic pogrom of 1983, which targeted and destroyed Tamil
businesses. What was violence aimed at the Tamil community spread
to the South, with the reign of terror during the second JVP insurrection.
The logical conclusion of such a destructive trajectory was a
war economy, where production and consumption went hand in hand
with murder and massacre.
In the North, a dangerous politics of labeling and marginalizing
individuals as ‘traitors’ was escalated further by the assassination
of Mayor Duraiappah in 1975 and the murder of St. John’s College
principal Anandarajah in 1985. These were the first steps that
led to a culture of ‘traitor killings’. Such targeted killings
multiplied into the thousands including committed activists such
as Rajani Thiranagama, Selvi, Santhathiyar, Manoharan and Kanthaswamy
to name a few.
In response to indiscriminate massacres of civilians by the Sri
Lankan state, the LTTE massacred Sinhalese villagers for the first
time in 1985. That step was followed by the decimation of other
Tamil militant groups and then the massacre and expulsion of Tamil
speaking Muslims by the LTTE. It eventually led to the repression
of all dissent, of both individuals and the community as a whole,
as a culture of fear took over. A culture of fear that eventually
restricted everyday life and crippled civil administration to
private business.
The dual history of violence noted above is a familiar story.
Nevertheless, the current trend in Lanka seems to warrant learning
two lessons from its tragic history. First, certain crucial steps
lead to spiraling escalation in an irreversible direction. Second,
the impact of policies/violence restricted to a particular section
of society can come back to haunt all of society.
In that context, the recent LTTE assassination of rival political
activists and others is a dangerous step. Numerous cases of political
opponents, Tamil Army personal, former LTTE members, Tamil and
Muslim civilians targeted and murdered by the LTTE since the ceasefire,
have been documented by human rights activists. Not only is this
a grave violation of the ceasefire, it’s a calculated step in
the direction of a renewed cycle of violence and suppression of
dissent. Some may argue that the militant groups in question or
the Tamil army personnel are not without their own history of
violence. Such arguments however, can only feed the cycle of violence.
While past violations of human rights by all actors have to be
addressed, the present cycle of murder has to be dealt with immediately
and resisted. Furthermore, in the interest of honesty, it should
be noted that many living in the North and East believe this renewed
cycle of violence has already gone beyond the point of no return.
That such violence has become pervasive in Tamil society, characterized
not only by assassinations, but the horrendous violence of child
conscription, extortion aimed at businesses and intimidation of
ordinary people by the LTTE.
On the other hand, the Sri Lankan state is rapidly pushing through
financial and labor reform supported by its vision of a peace
that is good for business. Its abdication to the violence engendering
policies of the World Bank, are showing signs of what is in store
for the people. Cost of living is already rising as the impact
is beginning to be felt by society at large. Finally, such policies
have the character of irreversibility as bondage to the multilateral
financial institutions is assured through the debt cycle.
During the last few decades, both the physical brutality of war
and economic deprivation were figured into the cost of saving
the nation and nation building. The vision of a Sinhala-Buddhist
dominated nation in the South and the vision of a liberated Tamil
nation in the North were the war cries, which justified both the
crushing of dissent and poverty inducing policies. Ironically,
during the last year, it is peace and the continuance of the peace
process that is used to dismiss the new round of violence. What
is a murder here or there the people are told, as long as the
war does not resume and the peace process continues. Similarly,
the state’s World Bank dictated vision of narrow development is
rationalized as a precondition for peace. Hence a crooked ideology
of peace (not a democratic vision of peace) has now displaced
war and nation for not addressing a culture of violence.
It is the responsibility of all sections of society to condemn
and resist the onslaught of this renewed culture of violence,
before such destructive steps consume all of society. There is
very little substantive debate or constructive criticism from
the political formations, whether it is the TNA, LTTE, other Tamil
militant groups, PA, JVP or UNP. All of them are merely concerned
about manipulating the populace for future electoral gains, control
and power. Finally, speaking of the illusion of peace is not a
rejection of the peace process. The breathing room coming out
of the ceasefire has led not only to the ceasing of large guns,
but even pockets of people’s resistance. Such resistance has to
be supported wholeheartedly to counter the authoritarian and technocratic
policies, targeted killings and a renewed culture of fear. It
is such resistance that can lead to a democratic peace. It is
not a question of war or peace, rather what kind of peace.
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