n Executive Presidency 2010:

Sour grapes for veterans, a mirage for amateurs

by Ranjith Amarasekera

What we thought and also stated about Mahinda in 2005 became a reality; we are quite certain that he would continue as President beginning 27/1/2010 on accrued merit on account of saving 300,000 civilians alone, held by the LTTE as a human shield during the humanitarian operation.

A patriot would always love the President who has done wonders by eliminating the LTTE in spite of all the INGOs, NGOs, Western nations, Tamil diaspora, private media, CNN, BBC, not forgetting the UNP, TNA and the JVP.

We cannot think of any amateur challenging an individual of Mahinda's calibre who has been in politics for 40 years, in the meantime, growing up to be a statesman who has proved himself beyond doubt, who deserved the Nobel Prize but alas! He was from the Orient.

The newly formed questionable alliance, trying their very best to use the abolition of the Executive Presidency as a trump card, probably would have forgotten who the architect of same was.

J.R. Jayewardene was a politician from time immemorial, even with an abundance of experience, he was marking time to secure his position as a leader for many, many years.

Sir John Kotalawala should have been the Prime Minister after D.S. Senanayaka's demise but it was Dudley Senanayake who was made PM. Was it not a family affair? was Sir John not capable enough?

Correct moment

JRJ was patiently waiting, calculating and building up the party to strike at the correct moment and in 1977 was successful. Then he became PM and made himself Executive President thereafter. His party was in power for 17 long years.

One half of the population thought JRJ did the correct thing in opening the flood gates for the open economy and the other half resented same, but JRJ batted on continuing to be lord and master thanks to the constitution which came into being in 1978 which was designed by him for the UNP to rule for ever and for no other party to raise its head and furthermore stripping the civic rights of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who was World's 1st woman Prime Minister who was also the wife of the people's (Sanga, Wedha, Guru, Govi, Kamkaru) Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

The Leader of the Opposition, A. Amirthalingam voiced his opinion in Parliament against the despicable act but failed to succeed and retreated.

PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike was not only the first PM but one who was instrumental in crushing the JVP in 1971 when they revolted against the Govt. The front liners and those that surrendered were taken into custody, some were released having rehabilitated them and the hard core were safely behind bars.

JRJ pardoned them, probably because it was Sirimavo Bandaranaike who imprisoned the JVPers and also allowed Rohana Wijeweera to contest the Presidential elections while Sirimavo Bandaranaike was confined to 'barracks'.

Once again JVPers showed their true colours when the UNP had to proscribe the party taking them into custody and killing the rest of them, not in battle but identifying them through various informants and 'Goni Billas'.

Same treatment

The entire operation was carried out by death squads. In the process many media personnel too were given the same treatment. It was the very same UNP which killed Rohana Wijeweera while in custody.

As mature citizens now we feel that even during the humanitarian operation in liberating the 300,000 civilian population held by the LTTE, the average citizen did not have to live in fear of a bheeshanaya as what we faced during the 87-89 period, main actor being the UNP and the JVP adding fuel to fire; although now both parties are trying to accuse the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime of bheeshanaya, mardanaya and the West trying to frame charges against human rights violations.

Those of us who have memories of the '77 to '94 era are somewhat flabbergasted when people of the above two parties talk of malpractices of the present day rulers.

We are of the view that only a limited number of politicians dared to oppose the then president or speak against the regime openly, when Mahinda Rajapaksa decided to launch the Pada Yathra from Colombo to Kataragama.

Up in flames

We as Sri Lankans are well aware that it was during the UNP regime that the Jaffna library was burnt down, riots escalated and the country went up in flames. The then Govt, not quite interested in quelling the unrest, made the Tamils to take up arms which was the beginning of the LTTE.

JRJ signed the peace accord with Rajiv Gandhi bringing in the Indian Peace Keeping Force and going ahead with the merger of North and East.

In the good old days we never saw any Westerner trying to hold JRJ responsible for human rights violations while our citizens were being killed by the 1000, JRJ said if you want war we will give you war and that was the end of story.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was one of the few who voiced his opinion against the brutal set up even at that time.

Then came Ranasinghe Premadasa who thought he could handle the situation by obtaining the support of the JVP. The IPKF was hounded out at a stage when the LTTE were in tatters.

With the limited experience Ranasinghe Premadasa had in negotiating with a terrorist organization, he wanted to talk peace with them brought them to Colombo, gave them 5 star accommodation, gave them cash, weapons, cement, vehicles and got our own Army to hand them over to the LTTE, furthermore he instructed the police to surrender to the LTTE unarmed. The LTTE massacred 600 policemen. That was the end of another episode. No charges framed against anybody.

When Prabhakaran was almost cornered during the Vadamarachchi operation spear headed by Denzil Kobbekaduwa, Vijaya Wimalaratne and others they were ordered not to proceed.

Thereafter 9 high ranking officers including Denzil Kobbekaduwa, Vijaya Wimalarathne and others died in Araly in a bomb blast and it was the sad end of another story. There was an inquiry but it was of no use.

Then it happened to the Minister of Defence, Ranjan Wijerathne was blown up in the heart of Colombo. During a May Day rally Premadasa was blown up at Armour street.

Prabhakaran was cocky enough to send a suicide bomber to garland PM Rajiv Gandhi who had been instrumental in training LTTE cardres in India. Even though Prabhakaran killed Rajiv Gandhi he was not charged and no one dared to bring him to book.

Short spell

D.B. Wijetunga assumed duties as Executive President but escaped unhurt as he was probably not greedy for power and left honourably after a short spell when Chandrika Bandaranaike was elected Executive President.

Then came Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister and not only wanted to talk peace with Prabhakaran but being what he is aligning himself to the western powers signed a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE, the President and his own Cabinet being unaware of.

1/3 of the land and 2/3s of the sea area were given in writing to the LTTE with the Army confined to barracks. Almost all the INGOs and NGOs under the sun arrived in 100s to Sri Lanka.

The brokers of the peace agreement were the Norwegians and there was the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) entrusted with the task of checking ceasefire violations.

There were violations by the LTTE almost daily but the mission continued to exist and no one spoke about either bheeshanaya or mardanaya as probably 1/2 of Sri Lankan citizens accepted Prabhakaran to be their North East Governor or the PM.Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed duties as Executive President in Nov 2005. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was made the Secretary of Defence. As we all know Mahinda Rajapaksa challenged Prabhakaran to come for direct talks, minus 3rd parties.

When he did not accept the challenge the President ordered Gotabhaya to get ready for war but also resumed peace talks, which had been stalled for quite some time; made an effort to negotiate as done by all his predecessors for 30 long years.

It was the Secretary of Defence who selected his men thereafter.

The war ended in double quick time as it was more of a humanitarian mission. What the Commander-in-Chief wanted was to tame the Tiger and save the civilians by getting the human shield out of the clutches of the LTTE.

Even while the LTTE had 300,000 men, women and children held in captivity none from the UNP, TNA spoke against the perpetrator Prabhakaran.

The 'military genius Prabhakaran' according to Eric Solheim was routed by the 'political genius' Mahinda Rajapaksa on 18th May, 2009.It was only with Mahinda that Prabhakaran and his gang could not play hide and seek, for, he is a man who knows his onions who hails from the south and born to a political family; D.A. Rajapaksa being his father; D.M Rajapaksa being his uncle.

Numerous others being Rajapaksas who happened to be politicians of yore have not been mentioned in this article.Even at the age of 11, when we first met Mahinda had leadership qualities although being mischievous, dare-devil but straight forward and fearless.

We need not elaborate any further as he has not only proved to all Sri Lankans but to the whole world what he is capable of.It is somewhat sad to hear people, some who are not worth his salt trying to belittle him for narrow political gain.

'Whoever offends a man who is harmless, pure and free from unworthy tendencies, on him will the evil fall back as fine dust tossed against the wind'.

'Dhammo have rakkathi dhammachari'

(The writer is a member of the Thurstan College Group of 1957)