Why Cyril Ranatunga salutes himself

"J R Jayewardene wanted him to “flatten Jaffna’’, and then later, the then National Security Advisor Lalith Athulathmudali who was also given very short notice of Ranatunga’s “master plan’’ for “security reasons’’ dreamed up by Ranatunga himself, also concurs with JRJ and says “flatten Jaffna” ditto."
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By Rajpal Abeynayake

(July 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) One of the most hilarious events that took place recently in the world of book publishing however did not go largely unnoticed. Retired Gen Cyril Ranatunga came out with his memoirs An Adventurous Journey, at a time when most folk who heard about the launch were constrained to ask “Cyril who?’’

But the timing of this book is altogether unseemly, to use a rather mild adjective to describe the result of the author’s ill-concealed ulterior motives. Ranatunga seems to be keen to show that the LTTE was originally vanquished by him — and him alone, if you read the book right —- which makes the recent annihilation of the LTTE look a copycat task, almost totally inspired by Ranatunga’s troth.

Such a lot of baloney I think was not written and passed off as respectable printed matter as far as I remember, for a very long time. But now that we are on the subject, there seems to be a rash of books by those who seek to say that it was their general ineptness that saved the day for Sri Lanka, and not the recent military campaign that saw the end of the abominable LTTE.

Austin Fernando came out with a biblically proportioned tome recently where he patted himself on the back for the disasters that were visited upon this country’s politico-military apparatus during the Ranil Wickremesinghe interregnum in 2002.

Now, Ranatunga has dusted the mothballs from his memory, to come out with one of the most self-aggrandising books in the recent past, written, one might say for one purpose which is the glorification of the now forgotten General Cyril Ranatunga.

It’s one of the few books I have read in recent times, which requires the reader to rely almost entirely on the testimony of the author and certain other people — all of whom are now stone dead.

According to Ranatunga, J R Jayewardene wanted him to “flatten Jaffna’’, and then later, the then National Security Advisor Lalith Athulathmudali who was also given very short notice of Ranatunga’s “master plan’’ for “security reasons’’ dreamed up by Ranatunga himself, also concurs with JRJ and says “flatten Jaffna” ditto.

Upright national hero

Ranatunga wants the reader to believe that he refused (to flatten Jaffna) but that JRJ was still so awed by his qualities, that he later offered to promote Ranatunga Field Marshal. Great yarn, but it would have been good if its most important protagonist J R Jayewardene was alive, to ascertain that bit about offering Ranatunga a Field Marshal’s accolade.

One has to give it to the ex-general, that if the reader might have been a complete moron he may have perhaps believed that Ranatunga was an upright national hero for refusing to give a single weapon that IPKF General Kalkat “...had the cheek to ask me to give to the TNA...’’

“Not a single weapon’’ he says, he told Kalkat, and we can almost see that soldier chest expanding to bursting point, because Ranatunga would have us believe that he didn’t say a simple “no’’ to Kalkat but gave him a piece of his prevaricating mind.
But this same man who told off Kalkat, apparently did not say boo to the treasonable request made by President Ranasinghe Premadasa to stock up the LTTE barracks with truckloads of weapons and ammunition.

So much then for the brave warrior who dramatises his prose to the point of histrionics when describing the fact that he “protested’’ to president JRJ when the Indians decided to bring in food supplies. Ranatunga would have us believe that he later agreed reluctantly to “temporarily suspend operations”.

The overall force commander of the IPKF Lt General Depider Singh in his book (IPKF in Sri Lanka, facing page 64), states that it was Ranatunga — not an army driver —- who chauffeured him out of the Palalay airport and into, and around, Jaffna during exactly that period when the Indians decided to drop food aid. Some protestor this, who personally chauffeured around the General of what was tantamount to an invading army?

Flattened Jaffna

Ranatunga swears that the war could have been won in 1987, but Tennamarchchi and “flattened ’ were both objectives that were unachieved when the Indians intervened, and the LTTE leadership by then had en masse fled to India, which makes Ranatunga’s claim of a certain war victory in 1987 look suspiciously like what the reader progressing through this self-hagiography would realize soon enough, is the author’s regular penchant for Baron Machausenesque braggadocio...

Ranatunga also declines to give honour where it’s due as the then Army Commander Nalin Seneviratne accomplished all that was gained upto Vedamarachchi.

Vedamarachchi, with 4000 men and with everything a very small but spunky army had at that time thrown into the effort, was won with the valiant warriors Vijaya Wimalaratne and Denzil Kobbekaduwa commanding the ground forces.

As for Ranatunga, nobody knows what his much vaunted plan was, but everybody knows that the Joint Operations Command of that time which was headed by him, was essentially an odd, hastily rigged up arrangement which could not countermand the effective control of constitutional heads of the tri-forces, who were wholly responsible for their own commands. The JOC, small wonder, the way it was constituted then, was called the Joke of the Century.

Ranatunga later takes credit for desiring to promote Kobbekaduwa over the wishes of the then army commander who wanted JRJ’s niece’s husband Gen Cyril Waidyaratne to be promoted, according to him. Again, Premadasa who made the appointment or Kobbekaduwa or Waidyaratne are no more, making this a convenient claim for a man who seems to want to perpetually underscore the fact that dead men tell no tales.

In the end, Ranatunga’s ghost-written book, probably written by the same ghost that wrote the so called Lasantha Wickrematunga over-the-grave editorial, Rohan Pethiyagoda, is a maladroit attempt, a la Austin Fernando, to seek to say that the war against the LTTE was really won by Ranatunga, even though Sarath Fonseka did some cleaning up later!

Now, we know that not a cent of the proceeds of Ranatunga’s book is going to disabled soldiers, or deserving servicemen, and that any moonlighting Johnny can publish a book — but that fantasy of Ranatunga being a “Patton’’, the General who fore-won the war for us —— why, not even Rohan Pethiyagoda is going to buy that these days.....

(The writer, editor of the Lakbimanews, weekly news paper based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.)

Courtesy: Lakbima News

-Sri Lanka Guardian