Erik Solheim is reported to have said he would step down as facilitator in Sri Lanka`s peace process. A new team is expected to be appointed by the Norwegian government to play that role. These reports are not officially confirmed but have received wide publicity and we have some peaceniks beating their chests and pulling their hair, unable to bear the `sad` tidings. Therefore, we consider those reports worth a comment.
Why should Solheim`s reported decision cause so much concern to anyone? He is yet another foreigner who has forced himself into Sri Lanka`s peace process, the only difference being that his approach has been somewhat diplomatic unlike that of Dixit, who behaved more like a politician (or a viceroy?), despite his diplomatic training. But the damage they both have done has been more or less the same??ruining the relations between Sri Lanka and their respective countries and promoting terrorism. But for their overt and covert support, the LTTE would have been a thing of the past. It only takes a few years, if not months, for one man or woman to ruin friendly relations that two countries take decades if not centuries to build. Perhaps, the blame should also be apportioned to the foreign governments concerned, which saddled us with such harum-scarum characters with bulging egos and gave them a free hand to make a mess of an otherwise internal affair of Sri Lanka.
Solheim has become a cult figure to the peace lobby in this country thanks to kronor being showered on the whole caboodle of peace oriented NGOs, which have elevated peace making from a humble volunteer service to a highly rewarding profession. They usually rush to his rescue, whenever he draws fire over his ulterior motives and prejudices, which have made him a hate figure in the eyes of the terror abhorring Sri Lankans. Through their well oiled propaganda machines, his hirelings have managed to prop up his crumbling image in the peace process, notwithstanding the fact that he became a total failure a long time ago. But unlike some defeated Sri Lankan politicians, it is not so easy to get rid of him as well. (Maybe he has learnt from them the art of staying put even after being a confirmed failure!) Every time he is thrown out, he bounces back. The Kumaratunga government once turned its back on him but he found his way to the President`s House again. The same is true of the Rajapakse government, which is averse to Solheim et al, whose partiality to the LTTE stinks to high heavens but has no way of keeping them away.
The Vikings are aware of more than one way of skinning a cat or helping the Big Cats. There is the likelihood of Solheim manipulating the new team to be appointed and peddling the same agenda. Norway won`t mind such manoeuvring so long as its interests are served.
Will the peace process??supposing there is one in the real sense of the term??collapse, if he leaves? Nay, Solheim or no Solheim, the peace process will go on until the LTTE has had enough of it. It may blast a few claymore mines and run amok to mislead the world into the belief that without Solheim the peace process will be in jeopardy. How else can they be expected to behave, when a trusted friend is in a bad way? But it won`t go beyond that as a sine qua non of its terror war is destroying civilian targets, which is not possible in the present global context. If it resorts to such violence condemned the world over, the Western countries will find it too embarrassing to accommodate the outfit in their soil. Now that the US and the UK have seen terrorism for what it really is, terror strikes in Colombo will trigger an avalanche of international opprobrium, which the LTTE will not escape, this time round.
On the other hand, it is too dangerous a proposition to leave peace making to one man, especially when he is not neutral. The departure of such a person is the best that can happen to a peace process, however hurtful it may be to his friends. And if he leaves as promised and a new team is appointed, it is incumbent upon the Sri Lankan government to ensure that it won`t do as Solheim did??helping Tigers.
If Buddhism has survived the Parinibbana of the Buddha and Christianity the Crucifixion of Christ, why is it that a relatively trivial mundane affair like a peace process, in a tiny island, cannot survive the departure of a man called Solheim?
If he really wants to step down, so be it!