By Darmitha-Kotte – It is now nearing three years since the incumbent GOSL began it’s forward march towards eliminating terrorism (which is well known to be the most brutal terrorist group in the world) from Sri Lanka. To their credit, the Combined Armed Forces have been operating a very well coordinated strategy through which they have been able to systematically erode the myth that the LTTE cannot be eliminated or defeated which has been promoted by vested interested parties who have been reaping the rich harvests through the misery wreaked on innocent civilians in the North, East and other parts of the country for nearly thirty years.
With each and every victorious step the Armed Forces have been taking to move further and further into the once “terrorist held areas” and defeating them by stages, we see signs of the famous Sinhala proverb
” Kakuluwa Natanne Wathura Natana Kal Vitharai”( translated in English “The crab swims happily in the water only until the pot of water begins to boil”)- all anti-national forces have been swimming happily for over two decades using slogans like “human rights”, “peaceful co-existence” , “child rights”(not when LTTE mobilizes children into their army), “Free Media Movement”, etc and formulating highly fanciful projects which are sometimes not even relevant to our local situations in rural areas. The INGOs and the expatriate foreign community operating in these areas ofcourse, have set one example for locals to learn- moral turpitude by morally misbehaving in front of villagers who probably, have never seen such scenes before! By portraying a gloomy picture to the outside world, they have managed to justify their existence in Sri Lanka to prosper on highly lucrative business propositions for which they obtain unlimited funding through which they live like kings and queens- a luxury they cannot afford back in their own countries.
In terms of eliminating terrorism in Sri Lanka, after thirty years of manipulating the masses for politicians to remain at the helm of power, it is only during the last three years that a consorted effort by the Combined Armed Forces without any political interference is proving to show ” a silver lining” for which we are ever grateful to our brave soldiers and their Commanders be they Army, Navy or Air Force. However, with every move forward into enemy territory and gradual clearing of terrorist held territory, there are three main segments in our society that do not wish to see terrorism defeated in this country- they are opposition politicians, INGOs and NGOs and the Christian Churches operating in this country irrespective of whether they belong to the category of Orthodox Churches or the “Born Again” Evangelicals. To these segments, nothing the GOSL is doing is correct- there are always holes to be picked in everything! On the other hand, for the ordinary masses in this country be they Muslims, Tamils or Sinhalese who do not belong or support the LTTE terrorists, eliminating terrorism is uppermost in their hearts with a fervent wish that living in this country would ultimately return to normalcy without terrorist atrocities being committed of which they are sick and tired. Even though the LTTE claims to be “the sole representative of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka” majority of decent Tamils living here are happy with what the Armed Forces are doing-eliminating terrorism so that they could live without fear of murder, kidnappings and disappearances of their school-going children to be trained at LTTE fighters!
Politicians & Their Gimmicks:
The politicians in the Opposition which includes the TNA, “Amerasinghe faction” of the JVP and UNP( who seems to have a joint agenda) it is a terrible sense of insecurity about their very political survival, that makes them do and say absolutely frivolous statements against the GOSL. With the Provincial Elections in the North Central Province(NCP) and Sabaragamuwa areas just only weeks away, we see lots of irresponsible behaviour from these elements. In order to enter politics, we have a UNP film star candidate who is a born Catholic who supposedly changed his religion and became a Buddhist one day before handing over nominations!
These days we see lots of statements made by the Leader of UNP Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe against the incumbent GOSL. According to him this government must be defeated because they are not ruling the country according to Buddhist principles. He does have a very short memory of his own tenure as Prime Minister from 2001-2004 when he appointed a 60% Christian Cabinet in a Buddhist country and permitted unlimited harassment to Buddhists. It was during his tenure as PM that they even applied for an ADB Loan to construct an abattoir within the Anuradhapura Sacred Area on the recommendations of a Catholic Minister! Fortunately, due to the timely action taken by Buddhist Monks and other lay Buddhists, this plan was stalled. Today, he seems to have forgotten his own actions of how he insulted Buddhists and Buddhism in this country. Being the President of the International Democratic Union(IDU) for the Asia Pacific Region which is a Christian organisation comprising of mostly Christian countries, he has been noted to be working very much against Buddhist principles and the position given to Buddhism in this country. It was his first act after taking office as PM to sign the now infamous CFA to give LTTE terrorists a free hand to do anything they wished with government blessings and move freely in all parts of Sri Lanka to carry on their terrorist activities but today, he cries from platforms saying that there is no security in this country.
Today he talks about media freedom, human rights, corruption and unfair election practises totally forgetting that it was during the previous UNP regimes that all these violations were most rampant. The ’83 Black July rampage on Tamils in this country which has brought a black mark on the Sinhalese in this country was due to UNP politicians like Cyril Mathew who organized the brutal attacks while President JR Jayawardane (his late uncle) remained silent for 4 days before he addressed the nation to stop the carnage! Very famous journalists like Richard de Zoysa & lawyer Kanchana Abeypala were murdered in the most brutal manner, gun toting UNP politicians wreaked havoc at Polling Stations threatening Election Officers with death if they protested against blatant transportation of ballot boxes filled with rigged votes which replaced or added to the official boxes at Polling Stations! Has Ranil Wickramasinghe forgotten the famous “tyre burning” with human bodies that were seen all over the country during the UNP regime that he now talks about missing persons & kidnappings planned out by the incumbent GOSL which is only a ruse to instil fears in the minds of the citizenry. Ranil Wickramasinghe has also conveniently forgotten how many hundreds and thousands of murdered bodies went floating down our rivers during the 1977 -1994 UNP rule of dictatorship. It was just a couple of days ago, that the notorious “white van” thuggery through which the UNP was attempting to accuse the government of, was exposed and pointed fingers at his own security staff!
When a political party is so bankrupt like the UNP under Ranil Wickramasinghe’s leadership, it is not surprising for us to hear all the ranting about government abuses to rattle dissention in the country. Too numerous are the silly and irresponsible statements made by him from political platforms that we begin to wonder whether he is going through “his second childhood” already? To his credit the UNP under his leadership has 15 election defeats to it’s credit! To make matters worse, his working partners like Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mangala Samaraweera cannot bring any solace to the pathetic UNP in any way. They all know one thing and that is, to knock on the doors of western governments and donor organisations and complain about the incumbent GOSL only because they find it hard to come back into power.
The JVP now splintered into the Amerasinghe & Weerawanse factions, are themselves rather a sorry sight these days. They seem to have forgotten who the main enemy of Sri Lankans is-that it is the LTTE terrorists. The JVP must never forget that their own track record of brutality is almost as bad as that of the LTTE beginning from early 1970s until the 1990s. How many people and families suffered because they took the law into their hands- today those very same people talk about lack of discipline. We must not forget that it was the JVP that was instrumental in breaking down the social order of this country during their own era of terror! Today, they too stand together with the UNP and other anti-national forces and criticise the GOSL without an aorta of feeling for the soldiers out in the battle field who are stretching their necks to fight LTTE terrorists so that we could live in peace in other parts of the country. Their island wide agitations and strikes only give a sense of insecurity to our soldiers but give a morale booster to the LTTE terrorists. They forget the fact that when a country is in the throes of a civil war, cost of living is bound to increase no matter whether it is Sri Lanka or any other country in the world. They forget (given the fact that they claim to be comrades) that at this crucial moment when our Armed Forces need the maximum amount of back up psychological support from all citizens who are against terrorism, it is not the time for them to agitate for material & personal monetary benefits while our soldiers are sacrificing everything for the sake of our country and a better and peaceful future for this country. They must know that they too are playing into the hands of the INGOs, NGOs, UNP, TNA and in this exercise they are helping the western vested interests more than the national interests of continuing to maintain Sri Lanka as a Sovereign independent State. They are even attempting to create rifts between our neighbouring States like India by making uncalled for anti-Indian statements.
NGOs & Other Western Powers:
Most individuals working in NGOs are citizens of this country but have now diverted their loyalties towards the channels through which they can get maximum financial benefits for helping the LTTE terrorists. Their loyalties are more towards western governments who have shown us that they have double standards- one when they deal with similar problems in their own countries and another when it comes to developing Third World Countries like Sri Lanka. They have shown us many a time how they join hands together with the NGOs and Opposition politicians to plan out strategies to destabilize this country and make us ever dependent on their monetary support. “Humanitarian” assistance should be without any strings attached to them but we see all the strings when they threaten to introduce economic sanctions against a government that is fighting a terrorist war. Does the definition for “terrorism” change when it happens to be in a western country as against a developing third world country? Why would they want to enter this country in the guise of humanitarian assistance and dare to help the terrorists more than the democratically elected GOSL? Do they have no working ethics when they contradict their own statements?
It is no secret that even organisations like the United Nations has been exposed in their activities which show preference to the terrorists rather than the GOSL. Their mandate for operating in this country certainly does not give them “Diplomatic Immunity” to interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. On the other hand, if the GOSL requires their assistance then they are duty-bound to offer assistance without bias but they are not expected to give assistance to an illegal terrorist organisation with links world-wide BUT the UN, affiliated organisations have been doing just that-backstabbing the GOSL and offering support for the terrorists.
Anti-national NGOs such as Berghof Foundation with their links to other local and international organisations such as Centre for Policy Alternatives(CPA), International Centre for Ethnic Studies(ICES), National Peace Council(NPC), Centre for Society and Religion of Father Tissa Balasuriya, Marga Institute, People’s Peace Front, Sarvodaya, National Christian Council, Foundation for Co-existence of Mr.Kumar Rupasinghe(to name only a few) have banded together more to sling mud & criticise the incumbent GOSL on various charges rather than to convince LTTE terrorists to resort to peaceful means of achieving their so called “Mythical Homeland Theory” which holds no grounds whatsoever because they even do not represent the entire Tamil community of this country.
Organisation of Professionals Association(OPA) even had the audacity recently to propose bringing an impeachment order against our Executive President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse.
Organisations like the National Peace Council(NPC), Foundation for Co-existence of Mr. Kumar Rupasinghe together with foreign Donor Organisations have been openly organising events which will directly support the LTTE and the terrorists. Decency will permit us to check whether their actions are ethical or not? These organisations are now even trying to mobilize organisations which are operating overseas in foreign countries like Australia, USA,Germany,UK to name only a few and making plans to build up a world wide propaganda campaign to push the GOSL into stopping the war against terrorism. For thirty years, the LTTE terrorists have been violating all norms of decency and also committing violent bloody attacks on individuals as well as government institutions- never have the NPC or Foundation for Co-existence talked to the terrorists or tried to convince them that they must stop the violence and enter the democratic political process!
On the one hand while attempting to destroy the morale of our Armed Forces, these same elements are also plotting and planning and carrying out various agendas to destroy Buddhism in this country by trying to buy over our Buddhist Clergy using sweet words and offering them material support for Buddhist activities so their agendas are two-pronged because they know fully well, that our Maha Sangha wield a lot of respect in this society and silencing them against the NGO / Christian agendas is important for the success of the NGO/INGO hidden agendas.
Christian Church Involvement in Destabilizing Sri Lanka:
The Christian World Service(CWS) which is an international humanitarian and development agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia together with their branches in other western countries are today working hand-in-gloves with other Christian INGOs and their local Christian affiliates within Sri Lanka to begin a propaganda campaign to put pressure on the GOSL to consider stopping the war and ” pamper the terrorists”- they should do it the other way around. They should try to teach the terrorists what decent and humanitarian democracy is all about and teach them “non-violence” because they were the ones who initiated the violence, definitely not the GOSL then or now. The Australian Foundation for Co-existence is working together with the Foundation for Co-existence in Sri Lanka which we now see is also another Christian counterpart involved in the destabilization programme within this country.
For a very long time the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka were successful in hiding their direct involvement with the LTTE terrorists but photographs cannot lie- too much evidence of their clergy being directly involved with supporting terrorist activities, of their using the Tamil Net websites to send out messages to the Christian World outside, their permitting terrorists to plant landmines within the premises of Madhu Church while the Church Fathers turned a blind eye all go to show their direct patronage towards the LTTE as against the democratically elected GOSL. The Bishop of Mannar Rev.Father Rayappu Joseph has more than on one occasion appealed to the Holy See through Australia, to get international mediation to appease the terrorists-is this ethical we beg to ask?
The National Christian Alliance of Sri Lanka together with their other Christian counterparts in Sri Lanka have been organising so called ” inter-religious committees” not to prevail upon the terrorists but rather to dictate terms to the GOSL on what to do and what not to do. Even the Congress of Religions which is heavily wielded by the Catholic Church has thought it fit to dictate to the incumbent GOSL on how peace in this country should be achieved without continuing the elimination of terrorism in this country. To stop the onward march against terrorism in Sri Lanka will be like stopping midway through a “cancer surgery” once stopped the cancer cells will spread even faster and destroy whatever is left of this “body” called Sri Lanka.
Within these two years many have been the cases where Christian Church representatives from Four Square Church and other Evangelical groups and their “Pastors” have been detected either hoarding explosives inside their residences or involved in transporting explosives to and from terrorist held areas to the south. Can we ever say that Christian Churches are not directly involved in promoting terrorism in this country.
When these organisations are building up campaigns within this country to achieve their own hidden agendas, we need to ask them whether or not it would be in order for the Ministry of Defense or Dept of Immigration and Emigration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka to take appropriate steps to take action to stop their activities and request them to leave our shores without creating agitation within the country. Their prime motive is to give absolutely distorted information to the unsuspecting general public through what they call “Awareness” Meetings and Rallies and agitate for the GOSL to stop the war right at the doorstep of eliminating the LTTE once and for all. If anyone says that such actions are in the national interests of Sri Lanka, they need to be dealt with forthwith.
This is not a time for us to smile and show hospitality towards forces that are hostile towards our national interests! This is a time when all civic conscious Sri Lankans must stand behind our governments efforts to eliminate terrorism from this country so that all citizens of this country could live in real peace and harmony.
By Darmitha-Kotte