The Tamil National Alliance has published their response to Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Report. They are predictably not too happy – they think that 1) the commission was flawed 2) that they almost blindly accepted government narratives 3) that war crimes were ignored and 4) that (vaguely) an international investigation is necessary. I half agree with them.

The 13th amendment is viewed as part of political reconciliation in Sri Lanka. It (devolution of power to the provinces) has been ignored since day one. In that sense it just hasn’t worked, and isn’t working. I’m also beginning to think it’s not even a good idea. What changed my mind was the words of a Tamil politician, Arun Tambimuttu:

Governments are almost uniformly disliked, because they suck. Their main selling point is that they suck significantly less than no government, or really bad government, but that’s a hard sell.

From Unawatuna to Manning Street, the government is trying to do the right thing, the wrong way. At the least, they could be doing things better, not provoking protests and confusion. Here are a few tips, basically issue press releases, stick to plans and essentially look before you leap.

Aside from what’s in the budget, what happened outside was retarded. The UNP childishly held posters and yelled, and the UPFA thuggishly assaulted them. The whole thing was a farce, and DBS Jeyaraj has a blow-by-blow. Some highlights:

The government is pushing through a bill to make them able to take over ‘under-performing’ assets. It looks like they’ll use this to first take over the Ceylinco Celestial Residencies project. What property/business has the government taken over in the past?

People have said that war should have no civilian casualties. Rather than change the frame, the Sri Lanka government responded and said ‘there were no civilian casualties’. This was dumb. They’re only now starting to admit that civilians did die. That’s a start. I was watching the government’s response to Channel 4′s Killing Fields, Lies Agreed Upon. It sucks just as much, only in the opposite direction.

I’m 28 and I grew up with the war. Now the war is over and I’d like to live. I think this is possible within a multi-ethnic Sri Lanka with equal rights for all. And I don’t think we need to wait for the government, we can simply define what Sri Lankan is ourselves. That’s what I said on the Jazeera, echoing what Kumar Sangakkara said in his speech. You know, I’m Sri Lankan. That there we can find some common ground. I think that this simple idea has some legs. People are changing, compromising and – in a word – beginning to reconcile.

Every slander against Arab protestors was true of the LTTE. They were violent, sectarian, and foreign influenced. How is/was Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka different from the Arab Spring? I don’t mean federalism (good idea, people deserve to be troubled by a government that at least speaks their language). I mean separatism, the idea of a separate state for the Tamil race in the North and East of the island.

For a long time I thought the current Sri Lankan government was all-powerful, but not anymore. In past months, they’ve gotten a couple of black eyes and had to back down pretty good. It’s interesting. I think the Sri Lankan people still have the power.