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ACHA PEACE BULLETIN

http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin

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A publication of Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA)

www.asiapeace.org  &  www.indiapakistanpeace.org

 

Editor:  Pritam K. Rohila, PhD           asiapeace@comcast.net

 

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Volume XII, No. 4: April 15, 2008, Next Issue, May 15, 2008

 

______________________________________________________________________________

CONTENTS

 

EDITORIAL

*Peace is more than absence of war, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph. D.

ARTICLE

*A real chance in Kashmir, M. J.  Akbar

BOOKS

*Pakistan: Unresolved Issues of State & Society,  S. F. Hasnat and A. Faruqui,

*Afghanistan: The Challenge, K Warikoo (Editor)

EVENTS

*April 6, New York, NY, USA: SATYAGRAHA

*April 26, New Delhi, India: SAMJHOTA EXPRESS

*May 3 & 4, Chicago, IL, USA:          INDIA RURAL DEVELOPMENT ACTION

*May 6, Columbus, Ohio, USA: WORKING FOR SAFE SCHOOLS

*October 4-7, Koach, Kerala, India: SPIRITUALITY AND ENVIRONMENT

*December 3-9, 2009, Melbourne, Australia: Parliament of the World’s

Religons

EVENT REPORTS

*Pluralism Conference Highlights Importance of Rule of Law, Human Rights and

PROJECTS

*Campus Peace Centers Project

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM INDIA & PAKISTAN

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM SOUTH ASIA

UPDATE: KASHMIR

UPDATE: NEPAL

UPDATE: PAKISTAN

UPDATE: SRI LANKA

*Rauf Hakeem's entry ups the stakes in Eastern provincial elections, Jehan Perera

______________________________________________________________________________

 

EDITORIAL

 

*Peace is more than absence of war, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph. D.

 

Peace activists often engage in anti-war activities, as if cessation or absence of war would by itself result in peace. In the same way some people seem to believe that condemning communalism will be sufficient to foster communal harmony.

 

While we must do whatever we can to do away with war and communalism, we need to do something else also, which is equally, if not more, important.

 

We need to build a culture of peace and harmony.

 

We need to train our children in the art of dialog, negotiation, and compromise to resolve disagreements and conflicts.

 

We need to teach them the importance of forgiving those who have wronged us.

 

We need to coach them in how to get along with others, especially those who are different from us.

 

We need to show them ways of bridging the divides of color, class, caste and creed which distance us from others.

 

We can start by reaching out to the “strangers” in our neighborhoods and in our communities.

 

Of course it will not be easy. We will need courage to get started, commitment to keep at it after we get started, and dedication to overcome obstacle we may come across.

 

Anyway achieving and maintaining peace and harmony in our world are not like participating in a hundred-meter dash. Rather it is like running a marathon, in which a winner has to stay in the race till the end.

                          

ARTICLE

*A real chance in Kashmir, M. J.  Akbar mjakbar@mjakbar.org, Khaleej Times, 31 March 2008 http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2008/March/opinion_March123.xml&section=opinion&col=

WHAT do Pervez Musharraf, Asif Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Altaf Hussain (chief of the MQM), Asfandyar Wali Khan (leader of the Awami National Party of the North West Frontier Province, soon to be renamed Pakhtunkhwa) and influential opinion-makers in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad have in common?

They have all come to a calculated conclusion: that the Indo-Pak impasse over Kashmir is now seriously detrimental to the economic and strategic health of Pakistan; that Pakistan has been held hostage to the Kashmir dispute and it is time to shake off the fetters of history and move on. These fetters have imprisoned travel and trade between neighbours and placed an expensive and unnecessary, if not quite unbearable, tension on the defence forces of Pakistan. They understand what common sense tells us: that free travel and mutually beneficial trade between India and Pakistan could transform the subcontinent, if not into a modern Europe then at least into the Europe of circa 1955.

They may not admit it publicly, but it is likely that the leaders of the Hurriyat in the Kashmir valley accept this privately. President Musharraf is on record as saying that borders do not have to change in any future accord. Zardari has told Karan Thapar in a television interview that Pakistan can no longer be held hostage on Kashmir to the detriment of its economy and defence. Columnists in influential newspapers like Dawn have written that Pakistan needs to break out of this suffocating straitjacket and get on with life. India and Pakistan have invested too much and too long in death.

This is not the view merely of an enlightened elite. The street is also tired of a hostility that promises nothing. War may have some meaning, however expensive and disastrous it might be, if there is a possibility of victory. But you do not have to be a strategic egghead to realise that Pakistan cannot capture territory in Kashmir from India. Since India is content with the status quo, it has no desire for a single square inch of "Azad Kashmir". What then is the point of confrontation?

The change on the street is reflected in an interesting shift of perceptions. 2007 was a traumatic year for Pakistan; the Afghan war had spilled over into the west of the country; the people were livid with Musharraf; and the turmoil peaked with the terrible assassination of Benazir Bhutto. But not once in the whole chain of lurching, searing events was India blamed for instigating any trouble. India and Kashmir were totally absent from the rhetoric of the Pakistan elections, for the first time in the nation's electoral history.

That old idiom has worn so thin that it can't be seen anymore. The people know that their problems begin at home and must be addressed there. A self-declared Arab friend of Pakistan was telling me, with despondent acerbity, that the national slogan of Pakistan has changed: "They used to say 'Pakistan Zindabad!' Now they say, 'Pakistan se zinda bhag!'" Terrorism is an internal threat, and far worse than any external threat could ever be, for the enemy within is always much more dangerous than the enemy without.

The solution is not with us yet, but it would be fair to suggest that the Kashmir dispute is over. The mutually-acceptable future border will be the present border: the line where the two armies ceased fire on the first of January 1949, and which they have guarded with such zealous ferocity for six decades. Six decades add up to two generations of lost sisters, forgotten cousins, and a relentless hostility that has aborted the potential of two nations. Everyone has heard the question: why do Indians and Pakistanis get on so well in a third country, and how come they do so well in a foreign habitat? The answer was always simple: because they were not living in India and Pakistan. Over the last decade India has begun to make such jokes irrelevant, but that is nothing compared to what it could achieve in harmony with a natural economic partner like Pakistan. It would vitalise SAARC, and set the subcontinent, which still has the poorest parts of the world on its landscape, on the long route towards self-respect.

Is this column too optimistic? Perhaps. After six decades of pessimism perhaps we should be permitted an hour of optimism. The dynamic of power has changed in Islamabad. While the military-civilian partnership could be fraught with tension in domestic affairs, it is a good fit for India policy. Zardari and Nawaz Sharif are talking the language initiated by Musharraf. (Now that Pakistan has also got a Dr Manmohan Singh as prime minister, it is more important to find out Zardari says.)

But of course the moment has to be propitious on both sides. One of the minor tragedies of the Indo-Pak equation is that when one side is ready the other is busy, or seems to be busy: it is easy to manufacture an excuse when you do not want to do anything. However, India is heading into its election season just after Pakistan has cleared its calendar. No one readily fools around with either war or peace on the eve of an election, unless you have become either careless or desperate. Delhi lost a great opportunity when Musharraf was riding high; but even if high drama is not possible, there can be forward movement on trade and travel. But whoever forms the government in Delhi after the next election cannot afford to waste time, because by then time might be running out in Islamabad.

Should those Kashmiris who challenged India on the strength of support from Pakistan feel betrayed or relieved by this swivel? Practical sense suggests relief, because they were caught in a deathly squeeze between quarrelling elephants. The idea of an independent Kashmir was always a lemon; neither India nor Pakistan would have permitted such a state on such a sensitive geopolitical flank. Punjab and Bengal were divided in 1947; Kashmir was divided in 1949. Those facts are unlikely to alter. The fate of Kashmir may be settled, but not the fate of Kashmiris. Peace between India and Pakistan will give them de facto if not de jure unity because it will restore free movement of people and goods across the ceasefire line. That is not a small gain in a life that is finite.

The danger of ignoring this moment should be obvious. If peace cannot be found when it is waiting patiently in the drawing room, then we are creating an opportunity for some future warmonger. The continued American presence in Afghanistan, the repeated American incursions into Pak territory and the resurrection of Taleban are creating tensions that are making Pakistan's army vulnerable to internal pressures. Instability breeds unpredictable brats.

I have long held the slightly heretical view that India and Pakistan will have to work as allies in troubled Afghanistan, but for that to happen we have to find an alignment of self-interest and identify a common enemy. A resolution of the Kashmir dispute is a first, and urgent, requirement to meet a much larger challenge.

M J Akbar is a distinguished Indian journalist, author and commentator

 

BOOKS

 

*Pakistan: Unresolved Issues of State & Society,  Syed Farooq Hasnat and Ahmad Faruqui, Vanguard Books, 2008, 420 Pages, ISBN 9789694025094, $13.25/Rs. 795

 

Today, Pakistan is an important participant in the “Global War on Terror”. There are, however, other factors that are more permanent in nature. They make Pakistan a nation that has to be researched, analysed and studied carefully by all those with a professional interest in its future development. Pakistani society is a vibrant mixture of ideas and contradictions and this is mirrored in its institutions. On the one hand, it has been subjected to a series of unrepentant military interventions while on the other hand its people have retained strong democratic aspirations. The history of Pakistan is replete with mass movements and civil right activities that have brought down the sturdiest regimes and personalities. By all accounts, Pakistan’s strength remains its civil society. This was amply demonstrated during the mass agitation for the restoration of judicial independence in the spring of 2007. However, there remain a number of issues which are to be resolved. The authors of this book, all natives of Pakistan’s divergent provinces, view the subject through a variety of inter-disciplinary perspectives.

 

This book should not be seen as a chronological narration of events in Pakistan’s 60-year history. It is a critical statement of concerns about the complexities of Pakistani society. All the issues presented in the book pose a serious challenge to the nation’s policy makers. If they are resolved successfully, Pakistan will become a secure, stable and democratic state. If they are not resolved, it will continue to hover on the brink of failure. http://www.vanguardbooks.com/cgi-bin/vbl/vblmain.pl

 

*Afghanistan: The Challenge, K Warikoo (Editor), Manas  Pentagon Press 2007, 377 Pages, Rs Indian 995


Review “India and Afghanistan,” Khaled Ahmed, Daily time, March 16, 2008

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\16\story_16-3-2008_pg3_4

The book is an attempt by Indian scholars to analyse Pakistan's pursuit of strategic depth in Afghanistan and predictably examines the spinoff Pakistan has got in the shape of training guerrilla mujahideen militias for operations in Kashmir. The conflict that informed relations between the two states forced Pakistan to use Islamist proxies to fight the Indian aggression in Kashmir. Those groups have now come back to haunt Pakistan and also become a menace for the region as a whole.


The Indians got their chance after 9/11 when the Taliban were ousted from Afghanistan together with Pakistan and its strategic depth. The book details the economic penetration that India has effected in Afghanistan clearly with a view to not letting Pakistan repeat what it did after 1989.

Of course there is historical precedent of trade between India and Afghanistan. Celebrated text of Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira (6th century AD) refers to a group of people named Avagana (read Afghans) who sent raisin wines down to India. And Panini the grammarian who made Sanskrit into what it is today was an Afghan! President Karzai was the latter-day Panini who presided over the Indian penetration as it took place after the Taliban had been routed and Pakistan's General Musharraf, who had announced his allegiance with the Pushtuns in 2000, nicely tamed in 2001.

 

In March 2003, a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) was signed between India and Afghanistan in New Delhi with India granting 50 to 100 percent tariff concession on 30 items and receiving the same on black tar pharmaceutical products, refined sugar and cement, etc. In 2002, India expanded its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan to a historic level by opening Consulates in southern, south-eastern, western and northern regions of the Afghanistan. Over the last five years, India' exports to Afghanistan have shown a growth rate of 153 percent. When the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh visited Kabul in 2005, it was the first top level visit after 1976.

India has committed $650 million of aid to Kabul, mostly going into the infrastructure, more effectively than the money committed by Pakistan that complains of Kabul giving better treatment to India, which should be natural given the fact that Kabul is rattled by the Taliban Shura of Quetta which Islamabad denies. India was to complete by 2007 the Zaranj-Dalaram road which will connect Afghanistan to Iran's Chabahar port and save 1000 km of roundabout road to the sea and thus cut Pakistan out as Afghanistan's outlet to the Indian Ocean. It is investing in Iran too but has got out of the Iranian pipeline deal in view if its residual suspicion of Pakistan.


India's 400 buses are everywhere in Afghanistan. India has gifted three airbus aircraft, along with essential parts, to the Ariana Afghan Airlines whose staff is training in India.


Pakistan is in the process of coming to grips with the new reality but is struggling with two minds, one scared of what it has been doing in the past two decades and the other thinking of solving the current crisis by doing more of what it has done. The people of Pakistan are staying out of the moment of judgement. This tends to put a cap on the process of `self-correction' begun under Musharraf. That is a matter of concern.

EVENTS

*April 6, New York, NY, USA: SATYAGRAHA. The Satya Graha Forum, a collaboration of leading New York cultural, arts, environmental, educational and spiritual institutions, has launched a multi-faceted initiative to create a city-wide dialogue on Gandhi’s acclaimed movement, which left an indelible impression on the world during India’s fight for independence from British rule, and continues today to inspire and motivate world leaders fighting discrimination and oppression.

 

The month-long initiative kicks off on April 6, with a gathering in Manhattan’s Union Square Park, the site of New York’s Gandhi statue.  Various peace and faith-based organizations will join together in a silent walk to Union Square where there will be a press conference at the Gandhi statue and a symbolic launch to the ‘Satya Graha Initiative’.

 

“Our goal is to unite and inspire a new generation to apply Gandhi’s message to their own lives,” said Helen Tworkov, founder of the Satya Graha Forum and of Tricycle. The Buddhist Review, “Gandhi’s philosophy has just a much relevance today as it did 70 years ago. Instead of relying on others to change the world for us, we can understand that change for the outside comes from change on the inside. This is the gist of sacred activism.”

 

April marks the 78th anniversary of the 240 mile Salt March or Salt Satya Graha, led by Gandhi in protest of the British salt tax, and the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., one of the Gandhi’s most prominent disciples.

 

The Satya Graha Forum is inspired by Philip Glass’s acclaimed opera, Satyagraha, which opens at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center on April 11.

The participating institutions for the month-long events include Asia Society, Japan Society, The Nation Institute, Columbia University Teachers’ College, The Garrison Institute, and Rubin Museum of Art.

 

The events at various venues in the city will be the largest ever programme built around Gandhi in the US, and includes several talks and discourses by pastors in churches on Gandhi’s use of Satyagraha and how Gandhi matters in the present age of growing geopolitical conflict. At some of these talks, there will also be interpretative dance performance focusing on peace and non-violence. There will also be a screening of Richard Attenborough’s film, Gandhi, starring Ben Kingsley. (From a report by Sujeet Rajan, in Indian Express, dated March 24, 2008)

 

*April 26, New Delhi, India: SAMJHOTA EXPRESS, a book by written by Awais Sheikh, to help promote peace and amity between India and Pakistan and to encourage collective efforts to get rid of poverty, the common enemy, will be launched at a function to be held at India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Road, at 5.30 p.m.

 

A delegation of 23 Pakistani friends, including Zia Rizvi, former Assistant Secretary General at UNO will participate. Kuldip Nayyar and other dignitaries will address the audience. I. K. Gujral, former Prime Minister will be the chief guest, and Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister, Delhi,  will be the Guest of Honor.

 

More info is available from Awais Sheikh, President Pak-India Peace Initiatives, by phone at 9990361406 and by email at awaissheikhadvocate@hotmail.com

*May 3 & 4, Chicago, IL, USA:         INDIA RURAL DEVELOPMENT ACTION PROGRAM CONFERENCE. The primary purpose of the Conference is to develop concrete action programs for water development, healthcare, primary education and economic development of rural Indian villages. It is a follow-up to the December, 2007 Rural India Learning Journey undertaken by 24 Indian Americans.

During the Conference, participants in the Learning Journey and other veterans in grassroots development, will share their experiences and discuss the work of credible NGOs already making strides in developing rural India and how the successful models of village development could be scaled up and replicated elsewhere in India. Most importantly, they plan to formulate specific project possibilities and encourage others to participate in future Learning Journeys to different Indian states in 2008 and 2009.

More information from Ram Narayanan ramn_wins@roadrunner.com  or Raj Rajaram info@idc-america.org or www.usindiafriendship.net

*May 6, Columbus, Ohio, USA: WORKING FOR SAFE SCHOOLS: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES TO REDUCE BULLYING,   a daylong symposium on school safety and bullying prevention, hosted by the Commission on Dispute Resolution & Conflict Management, 10:00AM - 4:15PM, in Riffe Building, at 77 S. High St. It will bring together state and national experts on school bullying. State government partners such as the Ohio Department of Education, the Ohio Resource Network, and the Ohio Departments of Health and Mental Health will also participate and will provide information and resource materials for parents, educators, and students. Cost is $25.00 per person. To register see the forms pasted below or go to www.disputeresolution.ohio.gov  More info from the Interfaith Center for Peace or The Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management at (614) 752-9595, or Sarah.Wallis@cdr.state.oh.us

 

*October 4-7, Koach, Kerala, India: SPIRITUALITY AND ENVIRONMENT is theme of the World Fellowship of Inter-Religious Councils (WFIRC) Assembly 2008, at the Renewal  Centre,Azad Road, Koach-682017 in Kerala, India. Registration fee is Rs.  500 to meet the expenses, in part, of boarding and lodging. More info from Justice P.K.Shamsuddin, President WFIRC, S.R.M.Road, Kochi-682018, Kerala, India, Tel. 0484- 02993/9446572993, pkshamsuddin@rediffmail.com, and Fr. Albert Nambiaparambil cmi,           Secretary General,  WFIRC, Upasana,Thodupuzha-685 584, Kerala, India, Tel 04862-223286/9446131173, upasanadr@dataone.in & Upasana_dr@satyam.net.in

 

*December 3-9, 2009, Melbourne, Australia: The 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, will bring together the world’s religious and spiritual communities, their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious understanding and cooperation.

Parliament participants will work with others and within their own traditions to craft faithful responses to:

  • indigenous reconciliation
  • global poverty and global warming
  • environmental care and degradation
  • education of the young and the challenges of social disengagement
  • voluntary and forced migration
  • artistic expression and spirituality and
  • the value of sports
  • ethnic and religious tensions.

More info from http://www.parliamentofreligions2009.org/home.php

EVENT REPORTS

 

*Pluralism Conference Highlights Importance of Rule of Law, Human Rights and Devolution

A two day conference on pluralism in South Asia organized by the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka (Website www.peace-srilanka.org Email npc@sltnet.lk ) with the support of the Government of Canada concluded on Tuesday in Colombo with the importance of adherence to the rule of law, human rights and devolution being highlighted by the participants. Academics, policy-makers, journalists, and civil society leaders from Bangladesh, Canada, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka took part in the event.


The conference was opened by the Canadian High Commissioner, Angela Bogdan, who emphasized that Pluralism was one of Canada’s foundational values in which every individual and community had an equal voice with a right to participate as a full member of society. She added that pluralism offered a way by which minority and majority communities could positively interact to build a better society that respects and accommodates diversity. |She also thanked the government of Sri Lanka for its high level participation and assistance in making the conference possible.

Minister of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration D.E.W. Gunasekera acknowledged Canadian assistance in advancing language training in Sri Lanka. He also said that the government was committed to increasing Tamil language cadre in the administrative services. Foreign Secretary Dr Palitha Kohona said the 13th Amendment, which devolved power to the provinces, was the initial and tangible step that had been proposed by the All Parties Representative Committee (APRC) towards achieving a durable settlement. He also said that democratic inclusiveness had to be the foundation of efforts to bring the country back together and heal its wounds so that the entire country could be the homeland for every one of its citizens.

A variety of actions in advancing practices of pluralism in both Sri Lanka and the region was mooted by the participants. Matters discussed at the conference included comparing and contrasting institutional structures available in the region to promote pluralism, encouraging citizenship participation and protecting minority rights, religious identity in political systems, fostering pluralism in civil society and enhancing a shared understanding of pluralism as the foundation for peace, democratic governance, human rights and countering violent extremism.

PROJECTS

 

*Campus Peace Centers Project


Neil Altman, Ph.D. and Deborah Moldow of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns at the United Nations in New York announce the initiation of a "campus peace centers project".


This project aims to promote the development of peace centers on college and university campuses around the world. These centers will be physical spaces at which events and meetings, related to the culture of peace, social justice, and so on, can be held. The center can also be the venue for a student lounge and other activities.

 

The centers will be linked with each other, and with the UN NGO community, through the web
site www.campuspeacecenters.net.

 

The centers around the world will be able to share ideas for events and programs, and their experiences promoting the culture of peace in their particular communities.


Additionally, important events and projects being undertaken by the United Nations and its associated non-governmental organizations will be noted on the website.


The project was launched at the United Nations on October 25, 2007 with the participation of faculty and students from Columbia and Brandeis Universities, as well as the director of academic partnerships at the UN and a representative from UNESCO.

 

Our current goal is to inaugurate several peace centers on the next International Day of Peace on September 21, 2008.


More info from Dr. Altman at altman.neil@gmail.com, Ms. Mold at deborah@worldpeace.org or the website www.campuspeacecenters.net.

 

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM INDIA & PAKISTAN

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaPakistanPeaceDay/

 

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM SOUTH ASIA

 

http://groups.google.com/group/peace--harmony-news-from-south-asia

 

UPDATE: KASHMIR

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KashmirSolutionsForum/

 

UPDATE: NEPAL

 

Election Results: http://www.nepalnews.com/election/vote.php#1

 

http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/02/nepal-time-asia.html

 

UPDATE: PAKISTAN 

 

*Beena Sarwar updates http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beena-issues/   

*http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/ 

UPDATE: SRI LANKA

 

*Rauf Hakeem's entry ups the stakes in Eastern provincial elections, Jehan Perera jehanpc@sltnet.lk

 

The decision of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader, Rauf Hakeem to contest the Eastern provincial Council election has upped the stakes at the forthcoming elections on May 10.  It is evident that he is taking a great personal and political risk in contesting these elections in opposition to the government, which is backed by armed cadres of the breakaway LTTE faction of the TMVP.  By seeking to reduce his level of security, the government is sending a clear message that it is concerned too.  But it is not the type of conduct that people would wish their government to engage in.

 

Mr Hakeem was a cabinet minister in the government as late as last December when his need for security was deemed to merit 23 security personnel. Given the power of the government to award patronage to their supporters, in a variety of forms including both financial largesse and personal security, joining the government has become an attractive proposition.  In the same token, to leave a government and join the opposition requires considerable political courage.  It is not only the power they wield when they hold elected office that earns politicians the respect of people, it is also the risks that they take.

 

Mr Hakeem has already paid a heavy price for his unwillingness to stay with the government.  When he left the government his security detail was reduced to a mere 5, and it required an appeal to the judiciary to get this number increased to 8.  Now following his decision to resign his Parliamentary seat and contest the Provincial Council elections, the government is trying again to reduce his security.  The Attorney General has petitioned the judiciary to reduce Mr Hakeem's security to that of a contestant to the Provincial Council elections.

 

On the other hand, as leader of the SLMC, which is one of the most important political parties in the country and which represents a major ethnic community, Mr Hakeem is one of the most important leaders in the country.  His importance is magnified by the fact that Sri Lanka is today a country wracked by war and terrorism.  The assassination of his former cabinet colleague Jeyaraj Fenandopulle by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber underscores the vulnerability of the country's top political leadership to acts of terrorism. In these circumstances, the attempts on the part of the government to reduce Mr Hakeem's security can only be seen as an unacceptable act of political retaliation.

 

Government threatened

 

It is evident that the government is taking the challenge posed by the Eastern Provincial Council election very seriously.  Apart from seeking to punish Mr Hakeem and intimidate him so that he cannot campaign effectively in the east, the government has decided to deploy its ministers in each of the eastern electorates to ensure its victory.  A defeat at those elections could set in motion a downward spiral, where the loss of confidence in the government's political future could grow.  At the present time the government is being hard pressed on multiple fronts, which include the economy, possible international sanctions and destabilisation by the LTTE.

 

A further consequence of a poor electoral performance at the Eastern elections would be to undercut the government's democratic rationale for the war.  Through its propaganda machine the government has been making it known that the people of the east are extremely happy with what the government has been doing in that part of the country. The one horse race that occurred during the Batticaloa local government elections, and which saw the government and its ally the TMVP romp home to easy victory may turn out to be an ephemeral one.

 

It would be ironic, but not too surprising, if the people of the Eastern Province, whom the government recently liberated from the LTTE's undemocratic rule, should vote against the government when an alternative is available.  The presence of Mr Hakeem in the provincial polls will ensure that the alternative that is available is a quality one.

 

If the government should suffer an electoral defeat in the Eastern Province, it would make it more difficult for the government to justify the continuing high cost of the war.  It would suggest that the multi ethnic population of the east has felt that the cost of war is too great.  It would also suggest that from the people's perspective, replacing the tyranny of the LTTE's armed rule with that of the TMVP's armed rule is not the people's choice, notwithstanding the TMVP being in partnership with the government.

 

Empower provinces

 

On the other hand, the willingness of a politician of Mr Hakeem's stature to resign his parliamentary seat and contest for a position in the Eastern Provincial Council will do much to bolster the image of the provincial council system.  So far the provincial council system has been a stepping stone for provincial politicians to get into Parliament.  But this latest phenomenon of a national level leader of an ethnic minority community contesting the provincial council elections would add credibility to the government's proposal to make the implementation of the 13th Amendment to be the first step in the implementation of a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

 

 From the time that the provincial council system was first implemented in 1987, it has suffered from two major infirmities, both of which stem from its origins.  The provincial council system was literally enforced on Sri Lanka by India as a solution to the ethnic conflict that was modeled on the system that prevails in India.  But precisely because of this the provincial council did not get the positive attention and resources it required to function effectively.

 

The emergence of Mr Hakeem as a leader in the Eastern Provincial Council could ensure that there will be a formidable political figure who will be championing the cause of the provincial council system.  It holds out the hope that a political leader of his calibre will become a driving force in obtaining for the Eastern Province in particular, and for the entire provincial council system in general, an adequate amount of power and resources.  If this should happen an important part of the solution to the ethnic conflict would have been found.