CNN  opinion poll “Do you think the war in Sri Lanka is really over?”. please visit the following website and vote NO http://internationaldesk.blogs.cnn.com

- A text message cascaded on 20/05/2009 in the United Kingdom among Tamils

These days the term ‘discourse’ has been used in social science in many contexts and also one of the fashionable terms. Here we use the word ‘discourse’ in social constructionism perspective. 

The political discourse in Sri Lanka didn’t not change when the war ended in May 2009. This writer has been closely monitoring both the Tamil diaspora and Sri Lankan media discourse for past many years and it is reasonable to conclude that the same polarized discourse has been continuing with new language. Since the end of war, Tamil diaspora is mainly engaged in a liberal political language - human rights, accountability and governance - which was hated by them earlier. On the other hand Sri Lankan state and Sinhala nationalists resurrected the old enemies in the form of ‘international conspiracy’, ‘NGO conspiracy’ and mainly the Tamil diaspora. 

Previously LTTE used to attract resources and moral support from the diaspora by their spectacular military victories against the security forces. Now in the post-Mullivaaikkaal context, newly mushroomed various advocacy and campaign groups have been approaching the diaspora Tamils with the same strategy, “we managed to give a bloody nose to the Sri Lankan government diplomatically therefore please support us to do similar work in future”. And not surprisingly many wealthy Tamils are supporting these campaign and advocacy groups. Same applies in Sri Lankan politics as well, alleged ‘international conspiracy’ against Sri Lanka is being played out cleverly to deflect the domestic pressure which is caused by a catastrophic failure in governance.

The politics has not changed since the end of war, therefore it is the same ‘us and them’ paradigm. Tamil nationalists’ demand for accountability is not meant for reconciliation or justice rather a political maneuver to suit their incompatible political agenda.  

In this context, the US sponsored resolution  censuring Sri Lanka at UNHRC regular session, is being narrated in the same language: ‘battle’ between us and them.

In order to elaborate the Tamil diaspora’s post-Mullivaaikkaal opportunistic usage of liberal political tools such as human rights and accountability for their particularist political goals, we did a search of the word ‘accountability’ in Tamilnet using its own search facility. The findings correlate with our hypothesis, since 2009, a dramatic increase in the number of posts with the word ‘accountability’.

This is the background where the TNA is being asked to attend the UNHRC session and to speak against Sri Lankan government. Sinhala nationalists who are already ‘outraged’ due to the alleged ‘international conspiracy’ will find new ammunition to attack the TNA. On the other hand, belligerent government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa will put more obstacles during their endless rounds of talks with the TNA for a final political settlement.

To put it in context, TNA’s participation at the UNHRC session will be viewed by the government and Sinhala ultra nationalists on par with the LTTE’s targeted killings of political, military and intelligence personnel during the cease-fire period. This may look like very provocative proposition, but this is the true perception of Sinhala point of view.

Therefore the TNA’s decision to not to attend the UNHRC session - apart from the advice from ‘friendly nations’ -  cannot be dismissed easily as betrayal or being soft. TNA cannot act in a provocative manner which can disrupt the lives of many Tamils who are recovering from the destruction of war.

Many of the critics of TNA seem to be conveniently avoiding the fact that any international investigation mechanism can be enforced only under the wings of F-18 and B-52 bombers. This kind of fantasy is not going to happen in South Asian context, therefore Sampanthan can’t afford to pick a pointless fight with the government at a time Tamils are politically weak, perhaps the weakest since the independence.