Opinion:

LTTE rump intensifies anti-Lanka campaign

By K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

The LTTE rump appears to be conducting a series of events to intensify their anti-Sri Lanka campaign. The UNHRC chief Navi Pillay’s recent visit to Sri Lanka, the Northern Provincial Council elections and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (GHOGM 2013) are being used to project a gloomy picture in the eyes of the international community.

Pillay’s controversial remarks during the final news conference before leaving Colombo two weeks ago, has given fresh hopes to the Tiger cohorts who are targeting the GHOGM 2013 to mislead leaders of the Commonwealth. The LTTE rump made every effort to prevent Sri Lanka from hosting the CHOGM 2013 in November.

Having failed with their different ploys to stop Sri Lanka from hosting the CHOGM 2013, the LTTE rump carried out a worldwide campaign to stop Commonwealth leaders attending the event. Since they have failed in that too and even the newly elected Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed his participation no sooner he was elected. Tiger cohorts would now adopt a different strategy to mislead the Heads of State before they arrive here.

Under an illusion

On the other hand, the Tiger sympathisers and LTTE cohorts would make every endeavour to use the former Tiger-proxy party TNA to democratically win their goal. In other words, the TNA is keeping the people in the North under an illusion once again, spreading racism and claiming that they would achieve the same which the LTTE failed to do through an armed struggle with a series of terror attacks.

TNA’s election manifesto is ample testimony that there is hardly any difference between the dreams of Sampanthan and his men and that of Prabhakaran. Hence, people in the North should not dig their own grave by voting for the TNA and push them back to that dark era again.

The TNA should not be allowed to rob Sri Lanka’s hard-earned peace in the guise of democracy.

The most valuable lesson learned by the end of the battle against terrorism in May 2009 was the opportunity to replace the seeds of discord that divided the country with a unified, common goal in the best interests of our country's development.

On May 18, 2009, all Sri Lankans, irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations, rejoiced the end of LTTE terror that had devastated the nation for three decades, crippling the country’s social, economic and developmental progress. Thousands of soldiers had made the supreme sacrifice for their motherland, alongside many innocent civilians ruthlessly killed by LTTE attacks on civilian centres in all parts of the country.

Prolonged terror

The nationwide celebrations were not without considerable reflection, and not founded on the bastions of a military victory. Thousands poured into the street with emphatic joy despite the tragedies that their families had endured over decades of prolonged terror unleashed by the LTTE. Even in the liberated areas of the North and East, people were united in their unanimous joy that the destructive terrorism was over.

Every Sri Lankan was profoundly grateful to the Government and the political sagacity of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who brought an end to three decades of terror.

The government has consolidated their expressed intention to develop and promote the North and the East as a significant component of the country’s economic and social development. The children in the North and East, who had been liberated have now access to educational resources they richly deserve.

Their parents have new opportunities in terms of employment, and businesses have developed as a result of the government's committed investment in transport and infrastructure. These businesses are now the beneficiaries of the protection offered by the nation's legal system, and no longer subject to the authoritarian taxation imposed by the LTTE to fund their nefarious activities.

LLRC recommendations

The Government's efforts to rebuild the North and the East in next to no time, provide constructive assistance to rehabilitate, resettle and provide opportunities for the affected communities is the strongest measure of their commitment towards peace, stability and prosperity in Sri Lanka.

In terms of reconciliation and resumption of the livelihoods of the affected communities in the North and East, this is the ideal preliminary measure towards setting up a framework for future execution of the LLRC's recommendations that remain to be implemented.

But the West should not intimidate Sri Lanka in the guise of national reconciliation. Those who turned a blind eye when 21 million Sri Lankans were at the receiving end due to LTTE terror have no moral right to tell us what we ought to do. As President Rajapaksa has said, no foreigner could have a greater pain on people in Sri Lanka than our own leaders.

Certain Western politicians shed crocodile tears for people in the North to put their agendas in motion. All what they want is a regime change and have a Sri Lankan leadership that would dance to the melody of the West. They are acutely aware that they could not achieve their goals and put Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in danger as far as President Rajapaksa remains in office. Hence, they make every endeavour to intimidate Sri Lanka and find a puppet regime to meddle in internal affairs of Sri Lanka.

Work together

The Government’s efforts to develop the nation as a whole, the government has actively encouraged and incentivised the Sri Lankan public, industrial bodies and businesses to work together in this vital endeavour. The affected communities in the North and East are now in a position they only dreamed about over the past thirty years - a position of hope, opportunity and future well-being.

Over 21 million Sri Lankans now embrace the concept of unity, and our shared role in developing our nation for the benefit of future generations. The country’s progress will be cemented on the diversification of opportunities in all economic sectors, and spread across all lands with equal access for every member of our population. This mindset and mentality can be directly attributed to the practices and efforts implemented by the Government under the leadership of President Rajapaksa.

The Northern and Eastern provinces have shown the fastest development in 2013, though starting from a low base, helped by construction but also banking and agriculture. The Northern Province grew 25.9 percent nominally (real gross domestic product plus inflation) with inflation down from 27.9 percent in 2011, followed by the Eastern Province at 25.0 percent, up from 13.5 percent.

No discrimination

In contrast, the Southern province came third at 21.3 percent, up from 21.3 percent helped by manufacturing, construction and government services. The North and the East have developed by over 27 percent, compared to the average national nominal growth rate of 15.9 percent in 2012 down from 16.8 percent in 2011. The Western province, which is linked with the rest of the world and has the higher population and generates the most economic output share of 43.4 percent, grew at only 13.4 percent. Its share fell to 43.4 percent from 44.2 percent in 2011.

This clearly shows that the Government has given preferential treatment to people in the North who had suffered the most due to LTTE terrorism. Hence, there is no truth whatsoever in the allegations that the Tamils have been discriminated. The GDP share of Northern Province has risen to 4.0 percent from 3.7 percent, East to 6.3 percent from 5.8 percent, while that of the North Western province fell to 9.6 percent from 10.0 percent from 2011 to 2012.

It is perhaps the most constructive step ever taken in directly addressing the societal and economic divisions that prevented a united movement in our country's best interests. This semantic shift is the foundation of our continued progress, and the possibility that our future generations may develop in an environment mindful of our ability to unite and develop together in the best interests of mankind.

Enthusiasm

Under the recommendations of the LLRC Report, the Government has taken far-reaching steps in establishing the economic stability and framework for development, equitable opportunities and national progress. It has cemented the foundation for economic, educational and social advancement, and consolidated the unified enthusiasm of all Sri Lankans in reaching this goal.

Undermining the Government's progress and commitment towards national reconciliation could only be detrimental to the many persons who are on the cusp of realising the economic and social rights that they richly deserve after many years of terror and lost opportunities. That would destabilise such progress go against the interests of all Sri Lankans who retain a vested interest in the future of the next generation.

Considering of the recent events taking place in Egypt, the Middle East and Iraq, we cannot emphasise the importance of recognising Sri Lanka’s efforts in uniting our countrymen and working towards the development of the North and East. We wish to remind Pillay that the context of the allegations of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka which the UNHRC continues to highlight in the international arena, that these incidents were primarily the result of actions taken by the LTTE in a desperate attempt to leverage the escape of their hierarchy.

Human shields

It was the LTTE which had taken thousands of innocent civilians hostage and obstructing their safe passage to the ‘no-fire zone’ designated by the Sri Lanka’s Security Forces in a commendable effort to adhere to international humanitarian principles, the LTTE deliberately put these innocent civilians in the line of fire as ‘human shields'.

What is most baffling is that the UNHRC consistently questions the necessity of the Sri Lanka’s Security Forces to invade their own country’s territory forcibly held by a terrorist outfit which killed thousands of people for nearly three decades.

The LTTE was not only a terrorist group, but an organisation sustained financially as a result of an international criminal network committing systematic acts of transnational crime and violations of international criminal law. The Western World, and many of the countries in which we reside have had their sovereignty violated by the LTTE's international procurement of arms, international drug smuggling and money laundering activity.

Those who now weep buckets of crocodile tear over the human rights of LTTE terrorists killed in action have forgotten how the LTTE recruited child soldiers by the thousands, denying these children their fundamental rights and freedoms and deliberately forsaking them for a cause that endorsed separatism and division within our society. Hence, the West must look at Sri Lanka with an open mind and must not feel shy to accept Sri Lanka’s landmark achievements in eradicating terrorism.