West can’t expect Sri Lanka to perform
miracles
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party
(SLFP)-led coalition governments have ruled the country for almost two
decades. The resounding victory of the SLFP-led People's Alliance at the
1994 Presidential election marks its 20th anniversary next year. Sri
Lanka has been governed by Executive Presidents from the SLFP completing
almost four successive terms. The SLFP-led PA recorded a landslide
victory at the 1994 Presidential and General Election the same year,
ending 17 years of dictatorship by successive UNP regimes.
From the day the UNP won the July 1977 General Election, it had
headed towards dictatorship with organised election rigging and putting
off elections. The 1978 Constitution introduced by the then President
J.R. Jayewardene gave the UNP the muscle to deviate from a democratic
framework towards dictatorship.
The Jayewardene regime even went to the extent of folding the
electoral map, thereby postponing elections to avoid facing the masses.
President Jayewardene crippled the then powerful Opposition at the 1982
Presidential election by withdrawing the civic rights of his main
opponent and the world's first woman Prime Minister Sirimavo
Bandaranaike. This helped him to scrape through the election and hold on
to his second term.
Being acutely aware that the masses would reject the UNP altogether,
Jayewardene went for a controversial referendum in 1982 to extend the
term of Parliament by another six years. Thus, he exploited the UNP’s
1977 election victory to cling on to parliamentary powers for 12 years
without any general election. Moreover, the 1982 controversial
referendum was marred by mass-scale election rigging and intimidating
Opposition parties. This was the track record of the so-called UNP
democracy.
In contrast, the SLFP-led coalition governments were people-friendly
and held elections at the appropriate time. There have been elections
every year since Mahinda Rajapaksa was first elected President in
November 2005.
A popular political leader who reposes implicit faith in democracy
and people’s power, President Rajapaksa has held elections even ahead of
the scheduled dates and this enabled the masses to exercise their
democratic right more often and send signals not only to the parties in
power, but also to the world at large. Be it a Presidential,
Parliamentary, Provincial Council or Local Government election, the
masses have in no uncertain terms demonstrated their faith in President
Rajapaksa and the UPFA Government. Significantly, these elections were
conducted in a free and fair manner and the masses voted for the
political party of their choice.
The success of the SLFP-led UPFA at every election since 2005 was
largely due to the people-friendly programs implemented under the
direction of President Rajapaksa. Hence, the election results reflect
the aspirations of the people across the length and breadth of the
country.
The Government will sooner than later throw another political
challenge at the Opposition with the Western and Southern Provincial
Council elections slated to be held early next year. The Western and the
Southern Provincial Councils are most likely to be dissolved before the
end of this month and elections held in March next year.
Insidious elements who are attempting to discredit Sri Lanka and take
the leaders of the country to an international war crimes tribunal would
again learn a bitter lesson with the results of the forthcoming
Provincial Council elections.
There is no doubt, whatsoever, that the UPFA would record another
magnificent victory at the forthcoming Western and Southern Provincial
Council elections. This would also be an eye-opener to the international
community.
The LTTE rump and a few Western countries have been making a
desperate attempt to project a gloomy picture on Sri Lanka. They try to
portray a dismal picture on Sri Lanka as if it is governed by a regime
which had captured power through undemocratic means.
The West should bear in mind that Sri Lanka is led by a President and
a Government democratically elected by the people. Above all, the
Government and the President received fresh mandates from the people at
regular intervals as the UPFA won successive elections.
Sri Lanka's fearless foreign policy may not suit certain Western
countries which expect the leaders here to dance to the tune of the
West. When the West fails to find a leadership which does not dance to
their whims and fancies, they invariably level various charges against
such governments.
These Western leaders should bear in mind that Sri Lankan leaders are
only answerable to the people here, who elected them and certainly not
David Cameron or Navi Pillay. The conduct of Navi Pillay is also
questionable. It seems that she has a score to settle with Sri Lanka,
personally. She has overstepped her mandate as the UNHRC head and yearns
to take Sri Lanka to task at the next UNHRC Sessions in Geneva in March
next year.
Sri Lanka has taken various steps to implement certain important
recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission
(LLRC). Nevertheless, the West should not compel Sri Lanka to implement
measures that are harmful to the country’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity.
Do Western leaders have the right to dictate where Sri Lanka should
locate its military camps? These are purely internal matters of a
sovereign state. A government could locate its military camps in
strategic locations, in keeping with national security. No force on
earth has the right to tell Sri Lanka where it ought to locate its
military camps.
The West should desist from pontificating to Sri Lanka about internal
matters pertaining to national security on the pretext of
reconciliation. Sri Lanka, or any other country for that matter, would
not compromise on matters relating to national security. Human rights is
another pliable tool which the West has often used to intimidate Sri
Lanka. It is anybody’s guess whether people such as Cameron and Pillay
treat human rights of unarmed civilians and that of armed terrorists
equally. Where were these guardian angels when Sri Lanka was at the
receiving end of brutal LTTE terror? None of them uttered even a word of
comfort when the human rights of 21 million people were at stake.
It is an open secret that the LTTE rump and some Western countries
have been trotting out various figures of people killed or gone missing
during the humanitarian operation. These figures have been highly
exaggerated to woo international sympathy and project an adverse picture
of the Security Forces alleging that they killed a large number of
civilians. Those are, no doubt, vile attempts to divert the attention of
the international community on the thousands of civilians killed by the
LTTE through mass-scale bomb explosions. Almost 11,000 persons, both
civilians and Security Forces personnel, were reported missing during
the 30-year terror unleashed by the LTTE, the world's most barbaric
terror outfit. Around 5,100 Security Forces personnel are reported as
disappeared during the period, according to the convenor of the Dead and
Missing Persons’ Parents Association.
Over 6,000 people of all communities - Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims
- had been reported missing in the North and the East. This figure could
include LTTE terrorists killed in action. The LTTE deployed some of its
cadres in civilian attire so that when they get killed or injured and
discard their weapons in the battlefield, the INGOs would count them as
civilians either killed or injured!
Sri Lanka is making a tremendous progress in implementing all
possible recommendations of the LLRC Report. An independent
investigation committee would be appointed soon. The committee, to be
headed by a retired High Court Judge, will probe complaints on missing
persons and communicate its findings to the Presidential Commission to
Investigate Complaints regarding Missing Persons. The West cannot expect
Sri Lanka to perform miracles and set deadlines on something which no
country has achieved after a conflict situation. The West should realise
that the Government was compelled to launch the 2006-2009 humanitarian
operation to protect 21 million people.
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