Opinion:

Lankans must unite to face international challenges

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

The LTTE rump and certain quarters in the West seem to have sacrificed their seasonal holidays to work overtime as they use all their might to strength their campaigns against Sri Lanka in the coming year.

A soldier feeding a child. (File photo)

With less than three months away from the next UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) in Geneva in March next year, these sinister elements are working round the clock to mislead the international community and attempt to take Sri Lanka before an international war crimes tribunal.

The best way to face these international challenges is to unite all Sri Lankans under one banner. Whatever the differences or problems we have politically, those scores should be within ourselves without leaving any room for foreign forces to pork their fingers.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his concluding speech of the budget debate on Friday appealed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan and his party's Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran to co-operate with the government to evolve homegrown solutions to bring about national reconciliation, peace and development in the country.

The President wound up the budget debate that lasted from November 21, by delivering a prepared speech for one hour to a well-attended Parliament.

Constructive criticism

The President, in his timely speech, countered criticism on the budgetary proposals by opposition members. However, there was an element of constructive criticism and recognition of his government's achievements by the opposition this time.

"We commend this. You have to criticise us constructively. Then, we can correct ourselves. UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva recognised the government's ability to reduce the budget deficit to 5.8 percent from 9.9 percent.

We target to reduce it further to 5.2 percent next year and to 3.8 in 2016," the President had said.

Similar to his last year's budget speech, the President drew examples from the folklore woven around a villager who took a sack of tamarind to a vendor.

"In this story, the vendor concerned weighed the amount of tamarind and deducted payments for husks, seeds and the sack that contained it. Then, there was none left. The disappointed villager asked the vendor whether this meant there was no tamarind in the sack. The opposition's criticism cannot be compared to this story this time. They have admitted that there is some tamarind in the sack," he told the House amid ripples of laughter.

The President tried to counter criticisms mainly by UNP MPs such as Sujeewa Senasinghe, Ajith P. Perera and Sajith Premadasa in their speeches during the course of the debate. He said state institutions were considered unsuccessful business ventures both by successive governments between 1977 and 2005.

Policy deviation

As the President pointed out, State institutions had been privatised at a rate. Late UNP leaders J.R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa built the opinion that governments should do away with them. The same policy was followed by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. But the country has deviated from that since President Rajapaksa first assumed office in November 2005.

Without criticising every move of the Government, the UNP, TNA and the JVP should look at the achievements of the Government with a positive mind.

Referring to the mega water project aimed at supplying drinking water from the Iranamadu Tank to Kilinochchi and Jaffna, the has urged TNA MP S. Sritharan who is from that area, to assist the government to address problems cropped up in the implementation of this project.

Modern equipment used for demining in the North.

He outlined the government's development projects such as road projects, port projects and the airport project. "I kindly request the UNP not to think of privatizing the Hambantota port and the airport at any cost," he said.

The President's observations are food for thought. If the Opposition does not provide ammunition to the sinister elements in the West, the international community could do nothing against Sri Lanka. Hence, it is important that the political parties in the Opposition act in a responsible manner to beat the common enemy.

The TNA has a big role to play in meeting the aspirations of the Tamils living in the North and the East. They must understand that the expectations of Tamils in the two provinces are different from their fellow Tamils in Colombo or the Tamil Diaspora in the West.

Work with Government

It seems that the TNA has taken over from where the LTTE had left to please the Tamil Diaspora, completely ignoring the aspirations of the Tamils in the North and the East who had voted for them.

In this scenario, Wigneswaran has a greater role to play and should act like a moderate Tamil politicians who is only interested in the well-being of the people in the North. Tamils in the North never voted for Wigneswaran to spread the separatist agenda and push back to the people in the North to those dark days again.

Hence, Wigneswaran should ignore separatist ideology by some of his colleagues and concentrate on the well-being of the people in the North. In order to achieve that, the Chief Minister of the North should work closely with the Government and its representative in the North - the Governor. If the TNA goes on fighting over petty issues, they would never get a chance of developing the province or helping their own community. If that happens, Tamils in the North could lose the facilities that had been offered by the Government prior to the establishment of the Northern Provincial Council.

If the TNA is sincerely interested in the well-being of the Tamils in the North and the development of the Northern Province, they should work hand in hand with the Government. There is no point in playing a crybaby role by running to India and the West from time to time.

As the President had told before, no foreigner could have a greater pain on people in Sri Lanka other than the country's leaders. Hence, the TNA should desist from making overseas tours to discredit the country and settle their scores within the democratic framework of the country's political system.

Controversial statements

But all those should be in keeping with the Constitution of the country. We have seen a few TNA MPs and Provincial Council members making controversial statements to please the LTTE rump and the Tamil Diaspora.

Stern legal action should be taken against them under the prevention of terrorism act (PTA) or breaching the clauses of the Constitution. Moderate peace-loving Tamils in the North would never approve those acts. Instead of looking ways and means to tame Sri Lanka for its legitimate battle against terrorism, the international community should have a closer look at the positive developments hare and the peace enjoyed by one and all after the eradication of LTTE terror.

Despite contending with one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the world, the 2004 tsunami and the global food, energy and financial crises, Sri Lanka's attaining the MDGs is salutary. Statistics speak for themselves. Sri Lanka was ranked 92nd out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index in 2012. Absolute poverty in Sri Lanka declined to 6.5% in 2012 from 15.2%, over a period of five years, surpassing the MDG mid-term target.

The goal of universal primary education will be easily achieved by 2015. The key dividend from this strong educational infrastructure has been a drastic reduction in the unemployment level. Sri Lanka's accomplishments in healthcare include the infant mortality rate of 9.4 per 1,000 live births, highlighted by UNICEF as a success story.

The international community should at least at this late stage, should stop harping on human rights of the LTTE terrorists killed in action. They could never be considered ordinary civilians.

True that they would have been in civilian attire but they had been terrorists who had been fighting with a legitimate army of a sovereign state. The UN should not expect Sri Lanka and US to act in two different ways when battling against terrorism.

As President Rajapaksa had once pointed out, there are no good terrorists and bad terrorists. Terrorism in any part of the globe brings nothing but agony and disaster to human lives. Hence, terrorism in all parts of the world should be eradicated in similar fashion.

We do not question the acts of the US or the NATO forces in their battle against terrorism. They have committed greater human rights violations than any other country. But they go scot free with a simple apology - 'sorry'! In contrast, these self same countries try to take Sri Lanka to task for violating 'human rights' of the LTTE terrorists - killed in the battlefield.

The UN which had acted a toothless tiger against the human right violations by the US-led NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and US drone attacks in Pakistan that have killed hundreds of civilians, flex its muscle when it comes to Sri Lanka's legitimate battle against terrorism. This is typical Western hypocrisy.

The UN cannot treat the identical topic two member countries on two different viewpoints.

All those who point an accusing finger on Sri Lanka should think twice before airing their views at the next UNHRC sessions.

They should not get carried ways by what David Cameron or Navi Pillay says. They must evaluate the true ground situation in Sri Lanka.