For Sri Lanka, India comes first - President
President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he considers India first and others
later. “As soon as I came to power, I went to India and got their
support; after that, I did not have to bother about the UN, UK, US, and
so on. In fact, we got help from the US by way of vital information
about LTTE ships which made it possible to destroy them at sea,” he said
in an interview with Deccan Chronicle in Colombo.
“As for China coming here with major infrastructure projects, I must
tell you that every project that we gave the Chinese we first offered to
India, including the big port project in Hambantota, but there was no
response. Even the Colombo port expansion was advertised but only the
Chinese came,” President Rajapaksa said.
Asked whether the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) victory at the last
Parliamentary election indicated the existence of a strong demand for
autonomy in spite of the elimination of the LTTE in view of the claims
by the Jaffna Chamber of Commerce (JCC) that the Tamil Diaspora will not
invest in the country until there is a political solution, the President
said: “These elections were held under the proportional representation
system.
There was also a substantial number that voted against the TNA. You
must note that 54 percent of Tamils live outside the north and the east.
The JCC is free to have its opinion, but there are Sri Lankan Tamils
abroad who have shown interest in investing in the north.
We are keen on a sustainable political settlement. But it must have
wide acceptance, especially in the context of the post-conflict
situation.” President Rajapaksa also said regional autonomy was a slogan
used by the terrorists and their apologists. “The need is for strong
unity in diversity, for which regional autonomy is not the only way. A
better approach would be equality of opportunity, and the spread of
democratic freedom and rights, together with speedy economic development
of the north, in tandem with other regions of the country,” he said.
The President also said the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) is a
good approach to what has been a vexed problem because in a democracy it
is Parliament that will ultimately have to agree to any solution.
“Unfortunately, the TNA has not named its representatives to the PSC.
They (TNA) have the same attitude as the LTTE.
They demand impossible things - merger of the north and the east,
land policy and Police. See what happened in your country when Rahul
Gandhi was travelling in Uttar Pradesh. Chief Minister Mayawati tried to
get him arrested. Do you think I want to get arrested by these people
(by giving the Tamils a police force)?,” he asked. “The TNA seems to be
driven by the Tamil diaspora, which does not want peace and political
settlement, as they fear that their host countries might then send them
back home. The TNA cannot represent the same separatist agenda of the
LTTE, which will not find acceptance with the majority population. I
want to work towards a solution but the TNA is not cooperating,” the
President said.
It is not true that school functions or library meetings and such
activities require the permission of the military. But there could be
cautious surveillance, knowing the nature of the defeated enemy. We are
still getting hidden arms caches of the LTTE. The presence of the
military will be phased out in keeping with security needs.”
Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle
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