![]() 29th July 2001 |
Editorial/Opinion| Plus| Business| Sports| Mirror Magazine |
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Clueless Govt. fights TigersPoint of viewBy Susantha GoonatilakeThe attack on the Katunayake air base and the airport is no simple calamity. Years of incompetence, negligence and direct courting of separatist forces by the President herself, prepared the groundwork for it. It is another event in a nearing end game.The attack was well timed psychologically. It came on the heels of President Kumaratunga herself highlighting the 1983 calamity by appointing a politically inspired commission to embarrass the UNP. If it was a moral act then she should have appointed the commission during her first term. The President has herself deliberately distorted the origins of the Eelam movement stating several times, that the separatist war began only in 1983. The Tigers claim that separatism grew with her father's and mother's actions. More informed historians would however say that Tamil separatist moves began in the 19th century and had consolidated itself before the British left. In other words the government itself had prepared the propaganda for this attack. The attack can be compared with the attack by Canadian based Sikhs on an Air India plane over a decade ago and those attacks on Western planes by Arab terrorists. One foreign headline said "Tourists dodge bullets as Tamil Tigers attack Sri Lanka's airport". And within hours, Sky News, was conducting a poll on whether tourists should go to destinations like Sri Lanka. However the greater negative impact will be on the Tigers, who can now be easily identified as a transparent terrorist organisation. This attack may close their remaining doors in the West. No country, not even those to whom G.L. Pieris showed his infamous package before he showed it to us, would now call for unconditional talks with the LTTE. Especially Canada which harboured the Sikhs that blew up the Air India plane — and now harbours Tigers — must demonstrate its friendly status by banning the Tigers. The Sri Lankan government in the meantime should demand the extradition of Anton Balasingham from Britain. PA and UNP politicians who wished for a quick fix through various forms of separatist appeasement would have been rudely woken up by this attack. Yet, for a country that has a strong historical consciousness and nearly 2,500 years recorded history, this incident must necessarily be considered as a blip in a long historical march. On a short-term basis, this attack would further harden attitudes against the Tigers and marginalise Tamil parties which want the ban on Tigers lifted, from the Sri Lankan political scene. It was only last Sunday that a pro-Tiger columnist voiced at the increased marginalisation of Tamil parties from Sri Lankan politics. This process would now increase. When the Tigers lost Jaffna, it was in a sense a geographical loss. But the continuing war has drained its human base more, pushing Jaffna Tamils out to Sinhala predominant areas or abroad. More Jaffna Tamils probably now live in Canada than in Jaffna peninsula. This attack will only accelerate this process. But the attack is also an indictment on the armed forces. Last month a German who is familiar with the war in Sri Lanka told me that our army is only a death squad army. Its major "enemy deaths" were those innocents in the South who were picked up and summarily executed. An army is based on disciplined thinking and action. Last time when there was a similar setback and Elephant Pass was about to fall, many professionals volunteered to mobilise talent in the country. Some of them approached government politicians to give their services free. In one instance, a one-day workshop was organised by some professionals and attended by a minister to discuss ways and means by which engineers, scientists and others could do to help in the way the scientific community helped Britain's fight with Hitler. This is exactly the manner in which some expatriate Tamil professionals provide brains for the Tigers. But all these actions were in vain and a blind government did not respond in any earnest to these efforts. In a highly centralised executive presidency, the rot begins at the top. Lack of earnestness and professionalism begins with the commander in chief, the President. It is a case of those holding the top office failing to give clear, unambiguous signals to the army for it to carry out the war effectively. What have been the President's signals? She hired the Tiger propagandist Vasantharaja as head of Rupavahini. The state radio broadcast the Sinhala BBC channel, manned by Vasantharaja acolytes. Her negotiators with the Tigers were those who had publicly sympathised with the separatist cause. No wonder the Tigers, after all this encouragement, are attacking. The government blamed the UNP for allowing the Tigers to infiltrate during the opposition led pro-democracy demonstrations on July 19. The UNP was also blamed for the 1983 riots, justifying indirectly the Tigers's attack. Even at the height of calamity, government leaders cannot differentiate between friend and foe. The President has failed in her duty as commander in chief. When the Tigers attacked the Kolonnawa oil depots, she left for Europe the same day. Last week, she told the malwatte Mahanayake Thero that she was unable to take action against some of her ministers who were corrupt. In India, by now heads would have rolled and there would have been resignations. But not among this greedy, corrupt lot. At the least for her own government's safety we must demand that Ms.
Kumaratunga immediately sack those among her advisors and her media who
have supported separatist positions. We must now insist that she immediately
coop the university academics and the professionals into the war effort.
Let us at least have the degree of brains that have marshalled for this
attack.
Positive side of political crisisBy Victor IvanThe political crisis facing Sri Lanka is moving ahead as a train on a multiple track, changing its course and making it more complex.When a motion of no-confidence against the Chief Justice was being tabled, the government attempted to block, stirring a conflict between the judiciary and Parliament. When both opposition and government MPs rose against a Supreme Court order which restrained the Speaker from entertaining the motion, the Speaker gave a ruling saying the Supreme Court could not intervene in parliamentary affairs. The same day the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress broke away from the ruling coalition and joined the opposition. As a result the government lost its parliamentary majority. A few weeks later, the President, in an apparent bid to avoid defeat at a vote on a no-confidence motion against the government, prorogued the Parliament and announced a referendum for a new constitution. When the opposition took to the streets peacefully, demanding that parliament be summoned, the government used excessive force to crush the demonstrations. It was another Black July. When she set up a Truth Commission to investigate the Black July of 1983, the LTTE staged a devastating attack at the Katunayake Air Force Camp and the airport to coincide with the 1983 Black July commemoration and in response to air attacks on LTTE targets early this month. These rapidly unfolding events have not only posed new challenges to political parties but also affected social attitudes. A new political environment where ethnic divisions are forgotten and people are uniting for a common cause. It may be presumed that the unfolding developments would create an environment necessary for the creation of a new social contract which would help Sri Lankans as a united people to find solutions to all their burning problems. This new social contract would bring about the social awareness required for the purpose. Although the political aspirations of the minority communities are different from that of the majority community, the present crisis has directed them towards the need to act in unity. The religious divisions too are thinning out. If this crisis succeeds in strengthening the national unity and directs all of the people towards collectively seeking solutions to the existing fundamental problems, then it may be said that the process of building a united nation has begun. The responsibility for ushering in democratic reforms and of finding a solution to the ethnic problem has been vested in the President. However, I feel she has failed to perform that duty, because she has little or no belief in democratic principles and values. What she did, instead, was to follow a policy of making the problems more complicated in the interest of her own survival. As a result, the President's popularity among people has begun to wane. In a democratic polity, both the government and the opposition are people's representatives. It is through a just administration, trusted and respected by the people, that the leaders who come to office should strengthen democracy and achieve political stability. If the President had genuinely wanted, she could have abolished or reformed the executive presidency, effected democratic reforms and found a solution to the ethnic problem, in spite of her small majority, much earlier. If a leader with only a small majority wants a large majority for some programme of action, it is essential that he or she acts in a manner that will earn the trust and the respect of the opposition parties. However, due to her a policy of oppressing the opposition parties, she forfeited her ability to enlist their support. How can a leader who does not even respect that fundamental principles of democracy be expected to find a just solution to a more complicated problem like the ethnic problem? The writer is the editor of Ravaya
Suffice to say, at the close of July 2001, that this
country will look back at the past four weeks with a sense of unbelieving
awe. As disaster upon disaster struck, accompanied by bumbling folly upon
folly of politicians on both sides of the divide, political, constitutional
and security structures crumbled at amazing speed.
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