Post-P2P, Pre-Geneva: The GR Regime’s Zero-Option Offer To The Tamils
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
Prof Rohan Gunaratna has long been a confidant of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It is a relationship that goes back at least to the second-term of MR, though the latter did not give him the access to, let alone influence in the policy making process, especially the foreign-policy making process, that the (then) Secretary/Defense had suggested.
In 2018, Gotabaya Rajapaksa held a very successful second annual convention of the Viyathmaga at the Shangri-la hotel. Prof Gunaratna was the key speaker on foreign policy.
Given that relations with India are in a fluid situation, Tamil politics including in Tamil Nadu are at an inflection point, and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is facing a challenge in Geneva, it is of quite considerable importance to read the collective mind of the Gotabaya regime, through the recent statement of Prof Rohan Gunaratna, in a Sunday Observer interview of February 14