Joseph Nye coined the term smart power that is now popular within the policy circles. He , in the book, The future of power, defined smart power as the “combination of the hard power of coercion and payment with the soft power of persuasion and attraction”.
In the context of the on going conflict between the Sinhala and the Tamil nations in Sri Lanka, it is important to visit this concept. In this specific case, power projections can be
1) Intra national: As seen by the neighboring Tamil and Sinhala nations within the island.
2) Inter national: As seen by the international players
In the intra national setting within the island, as argued in this blog many times, the Sinhala nation has been solely relying on hard power to deal with the Tamil nation. The Sri Lankan state has no structural incentive to even attempt a soft power approach towards the Tamil nation.
In comparison, the Tamil nation tried both soft power and hard power separately at different phases of the struggle to deal with the Sri Lankan state. A soft power behavior of persuasion exercised in the form of negotiations was tried prior to the 70’s and then the hard power of coercion was tried from the 70’s til the 2009.
In the international setting outside of the island, in contrast, the Srilankan state has deployed soft power. Because in that arena, it has no means of hard power. It enjoyed an inherent advantage because it controls the state. The Sinhala nation has worked the two of the soft power behaviors, persuasion and attraction, to successfully enhance the third of agenda-setting.
This Sinhala nation’s success in exercising the soft power in the international arena can be attributed to several factors. British, wittingly or unwittingly, helped to set up the conditions favorable to the Sinhala nation to exercise this soft power. British furthered the myth, through a lot of omission, that the whole of island is a Sinhala Buddhist country.
1) Their agreement with the Kandiyans in 1815 to protect Buddhism, just as they were uniting the island into a single administrative unit, set the precedence. This state patronage lived on and is now part of the constitution.
2) Enamored by the cultural uniqueness of the Sinhalese, attracted by the easy access to the diversity flora, fauna and the ancient ruins, British writers proliferated the Sinhala Buddhist views of the island.
Building on this narrative, Sri Lankan state continued to make Sri Lanka synonymous with Sinhala Buddhism. It also made its international dealings oriented towards eliminating perceived Tamil threat. Having mastered the maneuverings over several centuries of feudalism, Sinhala nation has been willing to bargain away its sovereignty to buy time and space against the Tamil struggle. Perversely, this willingness to negotiate its sovereignty (despite all the posturing for domestic consumption) is what has made Sri Lanka attractive to the International powers.
Using this, Sri Lankan state succeeded in pre emptying Tamil’s hard power from turning into a smart power. It did so by soliciting international help to proscribe and delegitimize the LTTE under the war on terror slogan. In Joseph Nye’s Book, The future of Power, taking away the legitimacy is the best way to deprive actors of soft power (pg 84). LTTE’s insistence of parity of status during the peace talks was to counter this de legitimacy campaign.
Now Sri Lankan state is once again engaged in another exercise, with the help of the same international players, to blunt the soft power of the Tamil Nation. Sri Lankan state fully knows “that conventional force has become more costly when used to rule nationalistic and socially mobilized populations” (pg 41). Sri Lanka is seeking to contain the Tamil struggle within the parameters of the 13th Amendment. So the diminishing value of its military can be retained under an impotent and a farce civil administration.
Is TNA complicit in this ploy?
In the current information age, a winning narrative enhances ones soft power. TNA has a golden opportunity to turn this international ploy on its head in favor of the Tamils. Eelam Tamils have always struggled to show the world that it is the occupation of their homeland by Sri Lanka and not a domestic political violence as Sri Lanka claims. Using the NPC election platform, TNA has a historical responsibility to release a manifesto that helps to set the future narrative of the Tamil struggle. The TNA manifesto should be explicit in such a way that Tamil votes are not distorted into a wrong post election narrative. The NPC election manifesto should state that 13A is not the solution to the Tamil national question. And by contesting the elections, TNA is not endorsing the de-merged North and East. TNA should also state that an International Independent Investigations into the crimes against humanity is a necessary condition for peace and stability.
Will TNA stay true to the Tamil aspirations and mobilize the people once again?
No comments:
Post a Comment