The events taking place in Sri Lanka are certainly disturbing but for that matter our Island Home the Pearl of the Indian Ocean is not a tyranny.
Most of what is written in many websites by those of the Tamil diaspora, the accusations by divers foreign human rights activists, Amnesty International , and local politicians opposed to the government of Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse are part of a false propaganda campaign, each for their own benefit, and to the benefit of the terrorists( who have large sums of money to spend); against the Government. However, they do not “portray” the actual situation of Sri Lanka under the President Mahinda Rajapakse and his Government.
[ad#200×200]After Independence, there were no radical changes taking place and the people did not see a difference between colonialism and the self-rule. The early UNP government headed by D.S.Senanayake was a mere change of hand, from the British to the Sri Lankans. It was unable to make any difference until C.W.W.Kannangara introduced the free education system.
The UNP was highly respected by the people because they represented their own social hierarchy- Baron Jayatilleke, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Ponnambalam Arunachalam, D.S.Senanayake, Dudley Senanayke, J.R.Jayawardhane, John.Kotelawala, A.Ranayake, T.B.Jayah and so on. They were their representative in the State Council. But they did not make any thing different to make the people feel independent from a foreign rule. The UNP in power and their political leaders were still different from the ordinary people. ( nothing has really changed in UNP even in 2009)
It was only with S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike, in 1956, that a real political change took place. And with changes come conflicts, discriminations, distrust and political and social rivalries. That was what brought about the feeling of differences, and the beginning of building barriers each group or race trying to protect one from the other.
But these were still the pains of becoming “Independent”, like the pains at child birth, which as we grow old take different forms. It was “the birth pains” of a new country in the making, delivered from 150 years or more of slavery under colonialism. The Independence was a new adventure into an unknown future. The placid peace and calm slaving under colonial masters gave place to other problems and difficulties.
There were the racial riots, and a exodus of a part of the population some to escape from fear of the riots, and others making it an excuse to immigrate into richer lands, later to become the diaspora. Those who migrated directly from Jaffna had no experience of living with the Sinhala. They new Sinhala people from what they had heard from others , and the race riots made them believe that the “Sinhala” were a community of “monsters”. And of course Narapalasinghams interpretation of Mahavamsa, the history of the Sinhala people did not help to change the image.
These Tamils in the diaspora, who knew nothing about the Sinhala fed their children with the stories they had heard from others about the “monstrosity” of the Sinhala people. In the mean time the political shape of the country changed. Many governments were formed. The Sinhala who got the majority of votes under a democratic system of elections formed each of those governments, and the Tamil and Muslim political parties opposed these governments or supported them under coalition agreements.
The Tamil politicians wanted equality with the Sinhala majority, and continually asked for political concessions. It was first the language, and then constitutional changes to make them political leaders of areas separated for Tamils in the North and East. These demands were made not by the ordinary Tamil people but rather the high caste Tamils, such as Chelvanayagam, Thondaman, G.G.Ponnambalam, Sundaralingam and others, to preserve their vellahla nobility above the ordinary working class, and divers others considered low according to the Hindu caste system.
In the meantime a group of youth took to arms thinking that they can realise with the guns what the Tamil political parties had failed to obtain through democracy –a separate state for the Tamils. The Tamil diaspora a generation or two after, still had the image of the Sinhala from the stories related to them by their parents, and elders. They were happy that Prabhakaran a Tamil man like them had at last decided to take revenge from the “Sinhala monsters”, that had frightened away their parents and elders, from their mother land.
They may have thought it was a good idea to have a separate homeland for the Tamils as marked out by Prabhakaran and his terrorists on the map of Sri Lanka, from Putlam right up to Jaffna and down to Batticaloa and beyond. It was therefore, an opportunity for those second generation Children of the Tamil diaspora along with their parents to vindicate their rights by establishing their own Homeland. Hence they contributed to the coffers of the terrorists at the rate of between 200 to 300 million dollars per year.
The ruthless Prabhakaran with followers made up of kidnapped boys and girls, who were trained by the Indian Secret Service, later with brained washed men and women trained to form battalion of suicide bombers, took to the jungles of north and east Sri Lanka killing maiming and torturing all those who opposed them, killing the army personnel, government offices, Ministers, and Presidents.
They were greatly assisted by the Western Countries who were opposed to developing countries, because kept poor they could each stabilise its leadership over a series of small poor countries, setting them up as their holiday resorts, kinky naturist beaches, plantations, and for mineral extraction.
Of them Norway went all out to help the terrorists to set up a separate Eelam State, and got the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, who was a bootlicker of the West, a pretentious, anti patriotic element to sign a CFA , with the terrorists on the conditions laid down by the Norwegians in consultation with the terrorist leader Prabhakaran.
Under this CFA the terrorists were handed over territories to be kept under their control, without being interfered by the Government Forces, and the Police. In them the terrorists built their administrative centres. They bought Ships, planes and radio transmission equipment and huge stocks of arms and armaments, from the regular income they were receiving from the Tamil diaspora. These well equipped terrorists, settled down in their various territories to continue a period of terror for thirty long years.
According to the conditions of the CFA, the terrorists, were permitted to come to the Government controlled areas for political work, but instead, they sent their pistol gangs on motor bicycles, grenade lobbers, snipers, to kill who ever they want and escaped into the areas under their control, into which the police or the army were not allowed to enter in search of the killers.
This went on unchecked, and the terrorists, killed, murdered , assassinated, massacred, kidnapped , tortured with impunity. On the 18 November,2005, Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse was elected the President of Sri Lanka with a majority of 50.3 percent of votes. He would have had a larger vote , but for the fact that the out going President who was against a man from the South becoming the President, worked with the leader of the opposition to divide the vote, thus giving Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse a less number of votes than were expected.
However, Mr.Mahinda Rajapkse a man of the people very sincere and dedicated to the political cause in his election manifesto had given priority to end terrorism by negotiating for peace with Prabhakaran the terrorist leader. The foreign press, and the media lead by the BBC who were sympathetic towards the Rightist Presidential candidate started a campaign against Mahinda Rajpakse, and when he was elected they called him a hawkish President.
Nevertheless, the President Mahinda Rajapakse true to his election promises, invited the terrorist leader Prabhakaran for peace negotiations. But Prabhakaran refused to meet him personally and agreed for peace negotiation through his representatives. There after there were several rounds of negotiations between a delegation from the terrorists, and a delegation from the Government, in foreign countries selected by the terrorists. The terrorist delegations abandoned the negotiations half way each time they met, and took time off to negotiate purchase of arms and ammunitions with foreign arms dealers.
Finally, the terrorists refused negotiations and to emphasise their determination to set up their Eelam State by force, blasted a claymore bomb targeting a bus carrying civilians, in which 64 men, women, and children were killed, and 39 wounded. But despite that despicable mass murder, the President did not stop his call for peace negotiations.
The terrorists who were determined for an armed confrontation with the Sri Lanka army which they thought was not a match to their well equipped terrorist forces, closed the sluice gates of a tank depriving the farmers of water. The engineers who went to open the gates were shot at by the terrorists.
It was only then, in July, 2006, that the President ordered the Army to intervene to open the sluice gates. That marked the first retaliatory attack against the terrorists, by the Sri Lanka Army. The terrorists who were then claimed to be an invincible armed group, by the pro-terrorist activists including Norway, began turning their heavy artillery on the Government Forces.
The President as the Commander in Chief of the Armed forces, called his brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse, a war veteran with 20 years of experience fighting against the terrorists to join the Government as the Defence Secretary. He modernised the Army, to take up the challenge of the terrorists
The President left the organising and carrying out of the military operations in the hands of the Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, and the Commanders of the Air and Naval forces without politically interfering into the military operations.
The result was the well equipped army who planned and carried out a successful military campaign against the terrorists. The army first cleared the east of the terrorists, and allowed the government to set up a Provincial Administration in the East after democratic election of Provincial Councillors.
Thereafter, the Army set up Defence Lines to separate Jaffna peninsular from Wanni which was under terrorist control. The terrorists had taken all main roads to Jaffna under their control, isolating the Jaffna Peninsular from the mainland, and set up a well fortified terrorist Head Quarters in Kilinochchi.
The Sri Lanka Army planned new strategies and sent out small armed groups to capture from the terrorists the main roads and the terrorists encampments . The Wanni gradually fell under the Sri Lanka Army control, and on the 2 January, 2009, the Army captured Kilinochchi the Administrative Centre of the terrorists, where their elusive terrorist leader Prabhakaran had taken residence.
With the capture of Kilinochchi the myth of the invincibility of terrorist forces ended and they dispersed in disarray, calling it a tactical withdrawal and hid in the jungles of Mulaitivu taking with them the civil population to deter the army from bombardment and artillery fire.
The army is continuing to pursue its operations and many key towns once under the control of the terrorists have been captured.
The successful military operation carried out by the Government Forces of Sri Lanka, is seeing an eventual end to terrorism that had taken hold of the country for over quarter of a century. This does not seem to please every one. Specially some of those who may be loosing “benefits” they had been accruing from terrorist sources.
The critics of this government who say that the President and his Government are a set of good for nothing corrupt politicians making their families rich, organise assassination of journalists, are people with an axe to grind. These accusations are made mostly by the Tamil diaspora, the opposition politicians who are yearning for political power, to benefit from many businesses, and other operation that they think they were unfortunate to have lost, and Tamil politicians who have political ambition for their own self aggrandisement.
The voices of these prophets of doom are heard through various Websites from the TamilNet of the terrorists, to Transcurrent, Tamil Week, and Sri Lanka Guardian. And News papers like those of the Leader publications.
The din made by the anti government forces, and pro terrorist voices have drowned, the true voices of the Ordinary Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim people, as they do not write to these websites, or they have no news papers that represent them. If there were to be any they would have been called the papers carrying government propaganda.
But the fact is that the ordinary people of the country know who the President is and who his brothers are, and what the Government is doing. Therefore it does not really matter what the Tamil diaspora or the opposition, and ambitious Tamil politicians have to say about the government.
A silk cloth will remain a silk cloth in what ever colour it is died. Therefore, the government cannot be assailed, ridiculed, or accused by these senseless berates. These are attempts by the Sri Lanka Tamil diaspora, local and foreign terrorist sympathisers to under value the importance of the glorious heroism of Sri Lanka Armed Forces.
At last after 60 years of independence we have a Political leader, a wise Statesman in the President Mahinda Rajapakse. He has given to the ordinary people the pride of belonging to a great nation of Sri Lankans.
By Charles.S.Perera
source: Lankaweb
If Mahinda truely cares about his Nation , he should settle the Tamils’ long standing concerns and allow all citizens to live in peace and dignity.Then Sri Lanka will be a paradise.