Editorial

30th April 2000

Call a spade a spade

Its becoming obvious despite all the prevarication, that the President belied the gung–ho message delivered by the Army Commander after the Sri Lankan forces lost Elephant Pass. The Army Commander delivered himself of a homily at last week's press conference, when he said that armies are normally used to "tactical withdrawals.'' The Army's retreat at Elephant Pass said the Lieutenant General, was therefore in the fashion of a tactical manoeuvre.

Then comes the President, and calls a spade a spade. She said there was a military setback, the only truthful way in which the events of the week before can be described.

Army intelligence was adequately aware of the imminent attack on Elephant Pass. But, the Army's response, to put it in a word, was botched. Though the high command ploughed in the elite 53 unit after the LTTE established a beachhead in Vettilaikerny, the Army lost the initiative when an offensive scheduled for March 26 was called off. The LTTE launched their own offensive on the very day, and the attacks continued until the capitulation of the Army resulting in the Elephant Pass retreat of April 22.

The situation is precarious, as the LTTE is now poised towards a march on the peninsula, which has many analysts saying that the capture of Jaffna is only a matter of time. The President was no doubt cognizant of these facts when she painted her less than sanguine picture.

But, some Churchillian flair is called for in the statesmanship warranted at this hour of national angst. Any perusal of Winston Churchill's leadership of the allied war effort would indicate that the bleakest moments were the ones in which Churchill was at his inspiring best.

Elephant Pass was an unconscionable debacle, and its true that the politico-military leadership of the day has to take a large part of the blame for the way things have turned out. This includes the military high command and the psuedo- militarist civilian cabal that is headed by the Minister who had visions of winning and shaking the enemy by the hand even before any substantial military campaign was launched.

But, having said that, it's necessary to imbue a sense of perspective to the losses that have been sustained by the nation's forces. Wars and significant military campaigns before have shown that a battle lost is not necessarily the end of the war. The LTTE media machine is cock-a – hoop at the moment, but however strident the sounds that emanate from clandestine Tiger broadcasts, the fact remains that one swallow doesn't necessarily make a summer — even for the LTTE.

Perspective also should necessarily bring in a measure of circumspection to the reasoning of the national leadership. In the frenzy of post Elephant Pass reactions there was a particular tendency in some quarters of advocating foreign intervention which bordered on panic. Foreign surgical interventions would not be necessary if there was less support for the LTTE from Tamilnadu, however dissembled and oblique the succour from that quarter may seem. How can V. Gopalaswamy, (Vaiko) the mad - as- a - hatter MDMK leader advocate the creation of Tamil Eelam and still be a member of the ruling coalition of the Indian government? But then hasn't India always said it supports a united Lanka even when it harboured and trained the LTTE.

What a measure of perspective can do to the political leadership, is to hopefully make it consider what's going wrong within the military machine. For instance, what's the calibre of the weapons possessed by the forces, a far from an academic query considering the Army Commander's alarming statement that the LTTE possesses more fire-power than the Army does. Even if we forget the fact that the LTTE may have acquired this fire-power from the forces, isn't this a tragic state of affairs?

The Political Column

Editorial/ Opinion Contents