Sri Lankan amnesia

Today, most anti-terrorism pundits say that hardliners in the Tamil expatriate community, will attempt to resuscitate their movement in Western capitals.
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By Gamini Weerakoon

(July 12, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Since Velupillai faded off the radar screen, the incessant chatter of Colombo’s chattering classes have been: ‘Aney will they accept the 13th Amendment; 13th plus or minus or only the 13th? Or: We will not permit this treason to go through and break up our nation after all this.’

JVP’s renegade upstarts and monks seeking supreme bliss to avoid suffering through samsara, are either seeking refuge in the 13th plus or minus or just the 13th or threatening to blow up the whole works. If a person gets embroiled in this chatter, it would appear that the thinking is that the country will hold together or fall part on the 13th Amendment even though it had been on the statute books for 22 years.

We can however assure all those concerned that 13th Amendment virus will soon wear off.

Political amnesia

Remember how often the 17th Amendment virus struck our body politic and sent our political pundits into convulsions? A dedicated Chinthanaya pundit argued last week that the 17th should not even be considered now because the executive power of the president should not be diluted because he will need all power vested in him to deal with errant chief ministers and his provincial cohorts.

A UPFA activist birdie cooed: Myee, how nice no? He can remain Maha Rajaneni forever with that kind of power no!

Wily Fox

Talking of executive power, does anyone remember the great ho-ha that went on for years over the powers of the executive president? That was said to be the curse on the country, the font of all evil cast on this nation by that wily fox JRJ. Twenty two years have passed since it came into force but all successors of JRJ revelled in it. Not only revelled in it but it was the basis of their survival without a parliamentary majority!

Would the great Mahinda Chinthanaya have lasted for long without JR’s executive presidential power and the proportional representative system?

Premadasa had no inclination at all to change it. Radical chic Chandrika Kumaratunga stormed into power with the revolutionaries of the Free Media Movement and the ear shattering pledge of scrapping the executive presidential system.

A Chandrika fan says: What to do? Can’t change it no? Can’t get a two third majority and can’t change it without a two third majority. Without that we had to go on no? Don’t be sarcastic and say how nice. You should have shown us a way. Now ask Mahinda and he will tell you the same thing.

World will go on

My advice to all now hotly debating the 13th Amendment is: Don’t get emotional about it. There had been heated constitutional debates down the years; Colbrooke Commission, Donoughmore Constitution, Soulbury Constitution, Sirima Bandaranaike Constitution and now the J.R. Jayewardene Constitution. The world will go on and soon there will be the Uva Provincial Council elections. We will be all agog, at each others throats, on whether the election was rigged or not!

If ever Velupillai Pirapaharan uttered a truism, it was that we Sinhalese have a memory that lasts only for about two weeks. Remember what was our top priority before he was removed from the face of the earth? Destroy terrorism; don’t let an Eelam be formed.

A few weeks after that, what are we doing? Sure, we danced on the streets and made merry and in our post victory euphoria we keep verbally thrashing Western nations that appeared to have made attempts to save the LTTE even when it was gone. But with this continuous verbal assault aren’t we laying the foundation for another Eelam?

Resuscitating Eelam

Today, most anti-terrorism pundits say that hardliners in the Tamil expatriate community, will attempt to resuscitate their movement in Western capitals. Such exiles from many countries — Russia, Austria, France, Germany and now China, Tibet Kashmir etc. — have in Western capitals attempted to commence or revive their movements having being driven out from their countries.

The Tamil expatriate community which had great hopes of Eelam are shocked to the core, reports say. They can’t accept defeat but they still can collect sizeable amounts for a war chest. There is little that the Sri Lankan government or private individuals can do in this situation. However much we may disapprove of Western governments for their pronouncements during the last days of the LTTE, it has to be remembered that if not for these governments proscribing and cracking down on terrorist activities, the LTTE may still have been quite active.

True, during certain periods Western governments appeared to be indulgent towards terrorists despite their anti terrorist commitments but the arrest of their leaders, tracking down collections for terrorist funds and arrest of arms dealers did help end LTTE terrorism.

We too, had during the 30 year war, been highly critical of the feeble efforts made by some Western governments on cracking down on LTTE terrorism and the tolerance of well known terrorists in their midst. But it is our opinion now that if recrudescence of Tamil terrorism is to be avoided, Western governments and their leaders have to be cultivated once again. Abuse, however joyous it may be in moments of victory is not the wisest thing to do.

-Sri Lanka Guardian