The need for large hearts

Most analyses of the continuing Sri Lankan political deadlock focus on its disadvantages from a Colombo-centric perspective. The crashing stock market and the suspension of economic investments and foreign aid bode ill for the country's macro developmental prospects. But it is not only President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and their respective parties that stand in danger of falling into public disfavour as a result. Even the LTTE appears to be feeling the pressures of the present impasse. On the one hand, the lack of progress in the peace process means that the LTTE can utilise the opportunity to consolidate itself in the north-east, the entirety of which it has access to under the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement. In the absence of peace talks with the govern-ment, and with the suspension of Norwe-gian facilitation for the duration of the political crisis, the LTTE will have a relatively free hand to expand its recruitment drive, and set up customs, taxation, police and judicial institutions.

On the other hand, the absence of peace talks has also blocked the creation of legally recognised institutions that the LTTE can have a stake in, and which are necessary if the LTTE is to be the agent of economic change in the region it controls. A study carried out by the Sri Lanka-based Consor-tium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) has shown that people, whether in the north-east or outside, see the conflict in their lives as being primarily due to economic factors such as poverty, unemployment and land-lessness. Any organisation that seeks to be close to the people has to recognise this reality. As an organisation that needs to set itself on the path to maintain its leadership role through political means, the LTTE has to be sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the Tamil masses. While the two years of ceasefire has brought them immense solace, people also want their economic lives to improve as fast as possible. So far, the Tamil Tigers have been unable to show the people that it is bringing them this boon. The war-ravaged north-east remains for the most part in the same state it was at the commence-ment of the ceasefire.