If not for the pressures from the international community, Sri Lanka would not have released even the 50,000 IDP’s recently.
Still screaming wanting peace!!State terror is substituting the terror of the Tigers!!!
(November 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) 18th of November 2009 - the hotheads in the political establishment will be celebrating six months of the victory over the LTTE. It is timely to analyse, why Sri Lanka that heavily invested on the defeat of the LTTE for its future progress is evidently progressing to fail.
The war that was conducted to defeat the evil LTTE was an immoral war. A country that is embedded in the just preaching of Lord Buddha failed to follow his guidance of truthfulness, love and non-violent conduct and sunk into irredeemable guilt that will haunt the country for decades.
Whatever the compulsion for an all out war, the forces should have mitigated themselves from prosecuting an unjust battle on the section of people, leaving aside the brutal LTTE. They should have been guided by the Buddhist Dharma, the rules of the Kurukshtra War of Mahabaratha and also by giving some respect for the modern international covenants Sri Lanka has subscribed to.
Brutality inflicted on the innocent civilians and surrendering enemies horrifies the conscience of the right thinking people who want Sri Lanka to be a self respecting nation giving credence to values. The Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka’s public comment ‘that the military had to overlook the traditional rules of war and even kill LTTE rebels who came to surrender carrying white flags during the war against the LTTE’ is disgusting and has to be the basis for any indictment against Sri Lanka.
The manner in which the LTTE leader Pirabakaran and family members were treated in the Dharmic society is incomprehensible. He should have put to trial and meted with the due process of the Law of the country or the International law.
In his address to the nation following the defeat of the LTTE, the President of Sri Lanka failed to hold him as a national reader. His speech was deeply sunk in the brutal bloody victory and failed to reach all the communities of Sri Lanka. He came out with his new analysis to submerge the deep wounds of the nation by classifying there are only two class of people can be there in Sri Lanka. One is those love the country and the other that hate. What a camouflage to bundle all the section that question the conduct of the government as enemies of the state. The haters include the opposition parties and the minorities in the country. He missed a golden opportunity to reach the cross section of the Sri Lankan’s to join force to arrest the underline crisis affecting the country for far loo long.
Within the past six months, he has failed to speak even about a political resolution to the conflict to educate the people for a broader approach to the crisis facing the country. Even his All Party Representative Committee (APRSL) proposal for a political resolution is held as a dandling carrot to mislead the international community.
Intoxicated with power, the government is on the attacking spree. Anyone questioning its conduct or revealing the hidden facts have come under terrifying attack by its officials. The government had gone beyond all limits to bludgeon anyone irrespective of their status to uphold its terror culture.
If not for the pressures from the international community, Sri Lanka would not have released even the 50,000 IDP’s recently.
When the European Union put Sri Lanka on notice on the violation of GSP+ agreement well before it engaged in the full scale bloody war, it could have mitigated the annoyance of EU, if it had respected the international laws mentioned in the agreement in its final war. Whilst on notice, it went ahead with its brutal onslaught and response to the damning report is still on hold except for saying it would engage with the EU to redress the situation. What a arrogance after violating the very basics of an important agreement?
It is important to undertake a comparative analysis of the conduct of the Sri Lankan government with the conduct of the LTTE. Mahintha Chinthanaya of the President has been binned and methodology of the LTTE has become the guiding principles of governance in Sri Lanka.
v The LTTE thrived on the fear it imposed on its people by its violent and draconian conduct. This included arbitrary execution, punishment for not towing the line of the LTTE and many more random measures to uphold its control. Is there any difference in the state of affairs of the post war governance in Sri Lanka? Kidnapping, arbitrary killing, silencing the media, preventing the free functioning of the judiciary, marginalising the opposition etc are synonymous to the culture of the LTTE.
v Misusing the state funds and raising funds for political campaign work by threatening businessmen in the Armour St in Colombo is another comparable situation of the LTTE.
v Offering positions to pandangkarayas and marginalising the independent thinkers who make value judgements are the culture of the LTTE that government is practicing heavily.
v Then investing in covert operations in intelligence gathering and targeting individuals is a method pioneered by the LTTE under Pottu. The government of Sri Lanka has heavily invested in establishing sophisticated technological infrastructure to keep the population on tab which is semblance to the LTTE methodology.
v Tamil aspiration was the cause of the LTTE and it carried out heinous crimes against the state and its people by espousing this cause and similarly the President of Sri Lanka too is foul playing by not implementing the constitution fully. Failure to implement the 17th amendment and abusing the implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution incriminates the dishonesty of the government.
v The LTTE survived on the funding by the Tamil Diaspora. The so called legitimate government knowing financial potential of the Tamil diaspora too is on the spree to tout for money post defeat of the LTTE from the Diaspora. Issue of Central Bank bonds targeting the diaspora and inviting them to meet the President and the business leaders are methods followed by the government cream funds.
v The LTTE prevented the media to visit its controlled area and anything allowed were conducted tours. The government too learnt the benefits of preventing the media to the Tamil areas and stage managing it like the LTTE.
The minority issue is the cancer that is literally killing Sri Lanka since independence. It needs transparent and sincere political surgery to arrest the situation for the betterment of the nation.-Sri Lanka Guardian
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