I dont mean Heaven, I mean Nepal (though some readers equate the two). Specifically, the lessons Nepal should be teaching Sri Lanka on how to run a peace deal and subsequent devolution of power:
1. India's influence is murky and unclear, though its determination to stop the Maoists is not. This gives all players wiggle room and gives India an exit strategy and makes their involement a non-issue domestically.
2. Nepali expatriates are keeping their wallets and their mouths shut. They do not agitate for skewed settlements and send vast sums of money for either side to rearm. This might be because Nepali expatriates are poor and stupid, but somehow I doubt that. It is because both sides of the conflict have gotten their message out effectively and there is an evenly balanced debate on the needs of a modern Nepal.
3. There is intense and serious focus on Human Rights. Nepalis, their media and politicians and local NGOs make human rights their priority, and are making changes that are still being debated upon in Sri Lanka. After the pre-coup curfew, there has been no draconian Emergency Laws, murdered journalists, people bundled into white vans or grenades chucked at newspaper offices. Ofcourse, being South Asia, the transition from coup to war to peace has not been without digusting instances of wanton hate and violence. Child soldiers have also been employed by the Maoists. However, these incidents are far fewer in nature and abuses less staggering than at any period during open war in Sri Lanka.
4. They finished it fast. Bloody hell, the Sri Lankan conflict has been dragging on for two decades. The Nepalis didnt even take one, being chronically poor, culturally proud, ideologically diverse and much less educated than Sri Lankans.
5. The Nepali people are interested in their own future. They didnt like the King, they protested and got rid of him. They didn't like the high-handness of the Maoists in Kathmandu, and they made the rebels beat a hasty retreat to their jungles.
Yes, Sri Lanka is a cooler, richer and more modern place than Nepal. Yet, Sri Lankans today are complacent and apathetic, simply living off the achievements of the past. We have to start caring to make sure that our nation does not become the basket-case of the region. We cant depend on other nations being MORE screwed anymore.
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4 comments:
I'm quite tired of people comparing the conflict in Sri Lanka to the conflict in Nepal. Lots of people died. That is the only thing they have in common.
Yours is an ethnic conflict. Ours is political - yes its not even ideological, as much as the fierce one and Mr. Bhattarai would like to still believe.
It ended "fast" because the maoists cannot justify the loss of lives with empty ideology. Neither can the mainstream parties, since they have no ideology.
So the maoists and the political parties have to make the peace deal work. The maoists cannot really go back to the jungle, and the political parties are going to find it difficult to justify pushing the maoists out of the political mainstream again.
In Nepal, its only a struggle for power. In Sri Lanka, there's are conflicting ethnic identities that are perpetually fueling the conlfict. The LTTE doesn't want to form the government in Sri lanka, the maoists want to in Nepal. So its different - very different.
On a sidetrack, i think we should be applauding the King for being the catalyst and getting the ppl in the capital to get off their ass and actually doing smth. If change is to be had in Nepal, it has to be from Kathmandu.
The Maoists seem to have realised this - finally. Should talk more about this later.
Sin for all. The source of our conflict is not ethnic at all (sometimes I doubt that any conflict can be completely ethnically motivated). Our conflict began when the Tamil people were stripped of their political equivalance by a "Sinhala-only" post-independence government. This was the first time in the history of Sri Lanka that a government overtly made the dissemination of Sinhala and Buddhist values central to the idea of nationality. Tamil and Sinhala Kings both counted people from the other race as subjects and even Arab, Portugese, Dutch and English invaders abused both races equally. Tamils were quite naturally outraged (especially since the new laws made it more difficult for them to get university educated and leave Sri Lanka) and the violence began.
The continuation of this violence is also due to political struggle for equal rights for the Tamil people. Read any press release from the Tigers and they complain that the Government does not represent the needs and aspirations of the Tamil people. Our conflict is a classic case of a struggle for political power (suddenly important in a newly democratic society as opposed to an everyone-is-equally-fucked colonisation by a foriegn power) wrecking a culture of coexistence that has existed for millenia and exists on the ground today.
It would also be wrong to say that the LTTE does not want a seperate state in Sri Lanka (as much as I hate the bastards). They keep the seperate state option open so that the GOSL has to come up with some alternative. Unfortunately, the federal state solution has never gained POLITICAL traction in Sri Lanka due to opposition from nationalist, communist and buddhist parties. Everyone knows that a seperate state is not possible and all international negotiations proceed with a federal solution in mind.
I agree that the conflicts are not identical twins, but my point is that they are twins all the same. The Maoists claim to fight for the poor people of Nepal (the "wealth divide") and the LTTE claim to fight for the Tamils of Nepal (the "ethnic" divide). All the communities they used to/do represent want is more political power to determine their future. This political power was taken away from the poor in Nepal because they lived in Kathmandu and away from the Tamils because of populist politics. The divides did not really bother anyone before, until political injustice was visited upon the aggrieved parties.
Thank you for you're comments Arpit, now we can both go back to studying for our Equity Finals.
For now the LTTE can continue to fight for the Tamils in SL. We'll worry about the Tamils in Nepal a little later.
Right now i gotta fight another Tamil myself. (I'm assuming he is beegaaass of his name)
But more of what i delude myself with later.
Cheap bastard, no more pharmachooticals for you.
*WARNING: Inside joke*
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