Let's Talk About Sri Lanka

One of the world's longest running civil wars ended in May of last year. For 26 years the Government of Sri Lanka fought against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist organisation seeking statehood for the country's Hindu minority. Although the conflict has been on-going for more then two and a half decades it was only towards the end that the international community really started to take notice, mostly because of the horrendous rates of civilian casualties in the closing stages. Before I get into the nitty gritty of death tolls, displacement rates and so on I want to say a bit about Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country's president and the rebel outfit he faced. 

Rajapaksa was elected to Sri Lanka's Parliament at the age of 24 and served a stint as prime-minister before becoming president in 2005. In addition to the presidency he is his own Finance and Defence minister. His brothers occupy many top jobs in  Sri Lanka's Government including secretary of defence and speaker of parliament (the only office capable of impeaching a Sri Lankan president). Following the defeat of the Tamil Tigers the chief of the Sri Lankan armed Forces, Sarath Fonseka, challenged Rajapaksa in a presidential election. He was subsequently court marshalled, found guilty of using "treacherous words", stripped of his rank and medals and sent to prison. Sri Lanka's constitution limits presidents to two terms in office. Rajapaksa is currently trying to change this.

The Tamil Tigers were, objectively speaking, some of the worst human rights abusers and war criminals the world has ever seen. Their offences include some 163 suicide bombings, attacks on blatantly civilian targets including Buddhist shrines, the conscription of tsunami orphans as child soldiers and the ethnic cleansing of any territories they captured. During the closing stages of the war the Tigers prevented thousands of civilians from fleeing the conflict zone in order to use them as human shields to prevent army shelling. The tactic failed miserably.

Now you know a little bit about the forces involved let's talk some more about the campaign and it's consequences. At it's height just prior to the defeat of the rebels and for some time afterwards the war displaced some 300,000 Tamils from their farms and homes. Today, a year and a half after the end of combat operations, around 6000 are still prevented from returning home. Now this isn't all the Government's fault. When they started losing serious ground to the army the Tigers began lacing villages with mines and a lot of areas just aren't yet safe to go back to but there are other, more nefarious cases. An additional two ministries Rajapaksa manages to find room for on his stationary are Highways And Ports and Aviation. Many Tamil villagers are returning home to find their lands have been cleared for post-war development projects, power stations, industrial zones, etc.

The defeat of the Tigers has had a startling cost in human lives. Sri Lanka's defence ministry estimates that 6261 soldiers were killed and another 29,551 injured in the final 3 years of the fighting. The death toll over the course of the war could be as high as 23,000. This figure doesn't include civilian or rebel deaths, both of which were probably higher then military casualties. With the conflict finally at an end you might expect Sri Lanka to ease up on it's military spending. On the contrary, the army it set to grow by up to 300,000 more troops to secure the Tamil territories.

If there's one thing that makes me optimistic about the Sri Lanka's future it's that it's people are no slouches when it comes to democracy. When Rajapaksa first gained the presidency he did so with a razor thin majority of 50.3% Although much has happened in the past few years to erode the checks and balances on power I am of the opinion that democracy, once given, is very hard to take away and Rajapaksa will face an uphill struggle to maintain his authoritarian regime once the country has recovered from the effects of war.

Why I Like Israel

I'm used to being on the unpopular side of political arguments. And while sometimes I do this on purpose just because talking the bigger half of a crowd around is more fun then plain stamping on minority opinion, Israel is one of those topics where I really think one side is getting a raw deal as far as public relations go.

First a couple of facts; Israel was founded on May the 14th, 1948. The first Arab-Israeli war started May the 15th, 1948. Today roughly half of the world's 11 million Palestinians remain displaced from their traditional homeland. About 70% of Israel's Jewish population were born in Israel.

Let me be real clear about this, I don't endorse the Israeli policy in Gaza. In fact if we're going down that road I don't endorse the existence  of nation-states full stop. But since dismantling the political infrastructure of the entire world isn't usually an option in these discussions I'm going to stick to why I think Israel is the best of a bad bunch and how I think they might improve their strategy.

Discussions of why I like Israel usually come down to 3 points, first being the alternatives. Israel is a functioning democracy and Palestine isn't. Palestine's politics are still revolutionary, like Ireland's were and still kind of are in the North. When Palestine first gained the legitimacy to bestow political power they gave it to the political branch (Fatah) of the military organisation that fought for their independence (the Palestinian Liberation Organisation or PLO). Unfortunately Fatah was rife with corruption and incompetence and lost out in a more recent election against Hamas, an Islamist group for whom the destruction of Israel is part of their founding charter. And this is the grim choice that Palestinians face today; kleptocratic secularists or anti-semitic fundamentalists. Israel's politicians are no saints but you can't build a Government there without talking to your fellow political parties and this is something that isn't done in the Palestinian territories.

My second argument is against anyone who believes that Gaza and the West Bank would be the happiest places on earth if Israel just left them alone. Anti-Israel sentiment may have given the region's Arab states a common enemy but they were formally and to a degree still are a fractious brotherhood at best. A small state at the crux of Egypt, Jordan and Syria was never going to be free of foreign influence. Even a casual glance at the political history of the Lebanon will tell you that. Usually when people think of failed states their thoughts turn to Africa, they think of Somalia and the Congo, of warlords and guerilla fighters visiting arbitrary destruction on rural villages or lopping limbs off voters. But the African Union actually has a better record when it comes to the peaceful hand-over of democratic power then the Arab League. Maybe if Israel weren't around the citizens of Palestine would live charmed lives of peace and plenty with their democratic rights endorsed and upheld by their Government, but I doubt it. I think a harsh and authoritarian rule by a neighbouring power or one of their own invention would be the most lightly scenario.

My final pro-Israel argument and the one that I feel most passionately about is the savage double standards that Gaza supporters seem to have. Israel's siege of Gaza is inhumane and results in civilian deaths. But there are worse offenders. If you exclude the January Wars then India's stewardship of Kashmir is far more brutal, with 48 civilian deaths this summer alone. Yet when I ask friends who have protested outside the Israeli embassy if they have ever protested outside the Indian one the answer is a uniform no.

So what could Israel do better? I'm a fan of the One-State Solution. Israel and Palestine havn't been at each other's throats constantly for the past 60 years, there have been lulls of peace. And what you find in these lulls is commerce. Palestinians crossing the boarder in search of work and sending remittances home to the benefit of all. Raise the Palestinian's standard of living and watch the extremist support base melt away. Dismantle internal barriers (both physical and bureaucratic) and watch trade and inter-marriages flourish. Prosecute any remaining extremists as domestic criminals. Reorganise the Israeli political system so that it has an upper house (a senate or Seanad) where the elected senators from the Palestinian territories would wield a veto. These suggestions aren't a miracle cure to world's ills, but I think each is a step in a positive direction for a region sorely lacking in positivity.

First Impressions

Hello and welcome to Light Emitting Diatribe, the place for uninitiated discussion of political and economic events form around the globe. I've been meaning to start this blog for a long long time and now that the recession has bestowed upon me an abundance of free time I finally can.

A little about me; my name is Dave, I'm an economics and sociology graduate from Dublin. I am painfully under qualified to give a legitimate opinion on any of the subjects that I will be discussing which means my discussions will be blissfully free of any of that impenetrable academic jargon that professional writers seem to love so much. My main areas of interest are the Middle East and Africa but I also enjoy the politics of Central and South America as well as the small Asian states and quasi-states surrounding China and India.

A lot of people dismiss politics out of hand as boring, having some vague notion that all politics takes place in 5 week long sessions of the UN which produce non-binding resolutions on subjects so obscure that even those directly effected don't care. And they have a point. But underneath the dry flaky crust of professional politics lies a delicious gooey centre of intrigue, dishonour and bald-faced audacity that simply does not exist in any other field. Concentrated in the very human hands of a few presidents and prime-ministers is enough conventional fire power to reduce the world as we know it to a smoking ruin. Add in the unconventional (chemical, biological and nuclear) weapons controlled not just by states but by terrorist cells and other non-state actors the world over and suddenly politics is the opposite of boring. Suddenly it's the story of whether you, or I or any of this is even going to be around tomorrow.

I hope you enjoy reading these meandering thoughts of mine. I'll do my best to keep it interesting. Be sure to leave your own thoughts in the comments box.

Bye for now,
-Dave