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.