The diligent professor of virology, Tissa Vitharana has been working hard to bring together all the racist, cantankerous, humanitarian, belligerent, utopian and opportunistic ideas together and make some sense out of it, but try as he may, he will find controlling viruses is easier than bringing order to our political viruses.

The latest threat emanating is from the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) which unleashed a barrage against Vitharana saying that the APRC proposals for devolution of power was a move to impose a federal system even exceeding the parameters for devolution in the Indian and US constitutions. That the JHU should object to any form of federalism should not come as a surprise. It is a fundamentalist party committed to a Sinhala Buddhist state even though its fundamentalism has varied in certain instances such as in the purchase of duty free luxury cars.

The problem appears to be in the alliance between the JHU and the ruling party the SLFP. The senior partner of the alliance, the SLFP does not seem to have any control or influence over its junior ally. Is the tail wagging the dog? The JHU proposals will be included as a separate annexure in the final document it has been reported. What form the final report will take or its main recommendations will be are not known.

There is quite a lot of confusion on where President Rajapakse and his party stand with regard to the APC and APRC. After the creation of the APC Rajapakse has been maintaining an aloofness from the APC, letting it pick up its own steam. But that should not be the attitude because an organisation such as this needs leadership, if it is to build up a consensus. After quite a while, the SLFP submitted its own proposals to the APRC which instantly became a standing joke among those involved. The SLFP proposed district level devolution which had been proposed years ago and rejected by Tamil parties including the LTTE. The proposal appeared ridiculous because after six rounds of negotiations with the participation of donor countries, a federal solution was agreed upon that was later rejected by Pirapaharan. In this context where would the district level proposal take us?

The basic question is: Does President Rajapakse consider the APC as an instrument that would resolve the problem? By putting out a mild and innocuous proposal he is covering his back. He wants the UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to stick his neck out and risk the wrath of the Sinhala electorate. But Wickremesinghe had done precisely that. At the presidential election he stood for a federal solution while Rajapakse along with the JVP and JHU beat the war drums on a unitary state and won the election in connivance with the LTTE.

Will President Rajapakse’s sole contribution to the APC be the district council level proposal and after that will he watch matters take its course? With none of the MPs of the Tamil National Alliance, the proxies of the LTTE, participating in the APC, will such outdated proposals such as district level devolution have any bearing on the resolution of the problem?

President Rajapakse’s disinterest in the APC had made critics wonder whether this is a smokescreen for him to get over his immediate problems. With the donor nations breathing down his neck to produce a set of proposals that could satisfy the aspirations of the Tamil minority, was this his way of buying time? While the APRC was meeting over and over again while splitting hairs, he launched his military offensives in the east and now claims that the east is under his control

Defence analysts say that he now intends warring in the Wanni and destroying Pirapaharan’s empire. If those are his intentions these APRC talks are mere eye wash. His JHU and former close allies, the JVP want him to war in the Wanni.

Besides Rajapakse cannot summarily dismiss the monks’ concerns. He depends on them and even the JVP – which threatens to do many things to the government but pulls back its actions — for his parliamentary majority.

The fall out of the much ballyhooed APRC after its last meeting will be watched by all.

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