The foreign minister Laxman Kadirgamar has been killed and the funeral rites have been performed at last. Born as a Tamil Christian, bred as an English speaking Tamil, Kadirgamar has died with Sinhala Buddhist identity. It was Kadirgamar who had successfully redeemed Sri Lanka's prestige and honour which had miserably fallen in the eyes of the International community and the Sinhala Nation had rightly paid its debt to him by observing his funeral as a national event.

It had also conveyed the message that should a Tamil be honoured by the Sinhala Nation he has to become a Buddhist. Apart from this his death has provided the opportunity of staging a 'habina' politics. Those who had been robbed of their opportunities have come back to the field. Sinhala chauvinism that had been forced out of the political agenda with the birth of the Common Administrative Body, has again gained supremacy in the central politics.

Prime minister Mahintha Rajapakse who had met obstacles against his wish to join hands with the Sinhala chauvinists in view of his entering the Presidential election, now has the chance to overcome them sans opposition.

President Chandirika who had been made to abandon the Sinhala chauvinist agenda has again entered it as its prisoner.

Neither the Premier nor the President had dared to enter the chauvinist agenda at the beginning. They feared that the ceasefire agreement would come to an end. The President, in her first public statement condemning the killing had refrained from naming the Tigers. Premier Mahintha Rajapakse too had only mentioned that the police reports accuse the Tigers.

Everything turned upside down once JVP entered into the funeral rites programme. JVP wanted to exploit this death politically against the Tigers and an agenda was prepared for this purpose. One following the other four acts were staged. As the first of them, an all party conference was convened.

Prime minister Mahintha Rajapakse was forced to blame the Tigers publicly as the perpetrators of the killing. The International community was requested to view this killing along the lines of International terrorism. At the same time, the President was accused for having refrained from naming and condemning the Tigers and was asked to give immediate explanation for doing so, to the people of the country.

Only after this move did the President have a glimpse of the reality. She identified a scheme being staged to alienate her from the Sinhala nation. Realising that she had no alternative way of escape, she again donned the Sinhala chauvinist armour which she had been forced to cast away in connection with the formation of the Common Administrative Body. In the heels of this, the second act began to be staged.

In act two, the President addressed the nation on the television. She scourged the Tigers to the best of her abilities. She specifically maintained that the Tigers were the killers. By this, she made it loud and clear to the JVP that she was more adept than them to exploit Sinhala chauvinism advantageously in politics. Her behaviour reminded me of the Premadasa era. In those days Premadasa had stunned the JVP by loudly voicing anti-Indian sentiments. The President, even amidst her anti-tiger address did not give up indirectly attacking the JVP.

The third act saw its staging during the funeral rites. Contrary to tradition, the Prime minister spoke on behalf of the State. Blaming the Tigers he called upon the International community to join hands with the State in its fight against International terrorism. His speech seemed as if he was reading a text prepared by the JVP; the JVP stench was so unmistakeable. Though the Premier was with the Sinhala chauvinist in reality he had, in the past, successfully maintained a neutral image of himself.

His true self began to show as his speech began to dismantle his false attire. He was evidently basking in the joy that the JVP 'younger brothers' were with him. He soared happily in the air thinking that Kadirgamar's killing was a windfall to him. For a moment he had even forgotten how Kadirgamar, supported by these very JVP younger brothers, had been a keen rival to him for the premier post and how he was forced to rally round the Buddhist extremist elements to defeat them.

In the fourth act, the foreign delegates who had come to participate in the funeral and the diplomats who had kept to their embassies were all invited to assemble. An elaborate class on terrorism was held for them. It was well expounded to them that the assassinations of Kowsalyan and Sivaram assassination were not at all terrorism but that it is Kadirgamar's killing that is terrorism of the highest degree. All the diplomats were requested take express actions against the Tigers in their respective countries.

However, the staging of these four acts for the international audience did not succeed in creating the desired response from them. From George Bush, the President of the United States to Koffi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, the reaction rang similarly in the following vein:

'Learn the lesson from Kadirgamar's killing and strengthen the ceasefire agreement. Promote peace!'

As far as they were concerned they did not consider this killing as an individual incident but as a result of the past consecutive events. They meant that if the recent succession of events should continue, it will invariably reap the same results. Therefore they focussed not on dealing with the end result but with the chain of events which had been the cause,

This chain of events is nothing but the shadow war that continues between the two factions, The law of shadow war is that if it should persist, circumstances would arise where not only ordinary persons but most important persons too might meet their death. It is because of this not only Sivaram but Kadirgamar too had died. Though Mahintha Rajapakse and the President were ignorant of this law, the International powers certainly were well aware of it.

Only India was an exception in this case. It is plagued with the hatred for Tigers. One cannot expect India to embrace the International norms until this fever of hatred abates. Indians extended the war to India and as a result lost Rajiv Ghandi. Therefore one cannot expect this fever to leave them soon. Until then their cooperation with the Sinhala chauvinists is bound to continue.

This shadow war is not one that the Tamil nation had begun but one that was thrust by the Sinhala state on the Tamil nation. The International powers are well aware of this. They also know by experience that it was the Tamil nation that had cooperated with them in their peace process and not the Sinhala nation. The issue of The Common Administrative Body had given them the highest degree of such experiences. Therefore the International powers did not wish to pursue a conflicting stand with the Tamil nation and its representatives who readily cooperate with them. These were the reasons for their chosen approach to Kadirgamar's killing.

So, the recurrent question is: 'Who did the killing?'.

Kadirgamar, in recent times, was not a person liked by various factions.

International powers, America inclusive, did not like him because he was an obstacle in the path of the peace process they intend launching.

The UNP did not like him because he posed a challenge to its foreign policies.

The President did not like him because he was an obstacle to her formation of the Common Administrative Body.

Jayantha Dhanapala, who has his eyes continually glued to Kadirgamar's chair, did not like him.

Mahintha Rajapakse did not like him because Kadirgamar, though holding a secondary portfolio, had the charisma to compete with him.

The Tigers did not like him because of his opposition to the aspirations of the Tamil nation.

The only factions which liked him were JVP and India.

If he has been not liked by so many quarters, how can anyone definitely say that a single faction was responsible for the killing?

The fact that this had taken place within the high security zone, increases the chances of joint venture. If so, then the assumption of the Tigers' participation could only have been in the ratio of 1:5. It could be argued that the Tigers had had a special part to play.

If the Tigers had played such a special role then they have conveyed three clear messages to the Sinhala nation.

• First - If you can disrupt the East we could do so in the South.
• Second - We are always ready for a war.
• Third - Your leaders cannot live safely when ours have been killed.

Truly, the logistic development of a shadow war would result in this manner.

Mahintha Rajapakse may dwell in delight thinking fortune has smiled on him. The JVP may rejoice they had succeeded in bringing back the central politics into the Sinhala chauvinistic agenda which it had dropped earlier. But, in reality, the Sinhala nation continues to reap only defeats.

This is the great tragedy of the Sinhala nation.

Any nation that subjugates other nations is bound to suffer defeats. This is the law of dynamics! How could the Sinhala nation be an exception to this law?

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