|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 30 November 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Should the Prime Minister have defence ministry back? Sixth Sense by Raj Gonsalkorale In his farewell address to the American people given in January 1953, President Truman referred to this concept very specifically in asserting that, "The President-whoever he is-has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job. - * Mitford M. Mathews, ed., A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1951), I, pages 198-199. Sri Lanka is one country where the buck does not stop anywhere. We have mastered the art of buck passing to a fine art. In this climate it is strange that the two topmost political leaders of the country are vying to hold the buck, presumably hoping that the kudos from a positive outcome of the peace process will only be enjoyed by one of them. Is this cynicism at its highest? Possibly so, when one considers that the President is still maintaining that the Prime Minister should lead and conduct the peace process. Or does the President think that this particular buck, the LTTE interim council proposal, is a poisoned chalice and she is infact passing it to her opponent hoping that she will not get poisoned? More cynicism? Probably. After all the President has not taken over the government but only the defence of the country, quite legally and as all previous executive Presidents have done, and in her opinion, with good reason. If the current bickering politicians can remember, President D B Wijetunga retained the defence portfolio when Chandrika Kumaratunga became the Prime Minister. It appears now that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNF government are on a collision course with President Chandrika Kumaratunga on the question of where the buck stops in regard to the peace process and its direct link, as claimed by the Prime Minister, to having full control of the defence forces. It is common knowledge that the Prime Minister had full control of the defence forces prior to the take over by the President, and, as he has said, he was able to move the peace process unhindered by the President until that time. It must naturally follow that the Prime Minister and no one else must take responsibility for the evolving political strategy of the LTTE, the security situation in the country, the state of preparedness of the Sri Lankan armed forces and the maintenance of a balance between the strength of the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE military establishment. After all the Prime Minister has led the peace process unilaterally till now. He cannot pass the buck to anyone else, and point fingers at anyone else if there have been shortcomings during the period he was in charge of the security of the country, and if the LTTE have engaged in activities contrary to the terms of the MOU that he signed with the LTTE. This has to be unequivocal, and the Prime Minister has to take full responsibility for any breaches in this regard. Citizens of Sri Lanka as well as members of the international community are entitled to note the Prime Minister's claim that he must have full control of defence, if he is to continue the peace process, within the backdrop of his performance when he did have full control of defence. They must consider his claim after making a judgement as to whether he had the Sri Lankan armed forces in a state of preparedness, and whether he was able to prevent the LTTE being better equipped than the Sri Lankan armed forces during the period he was in control of the Sri Lankan defence establishment. They should also examine where the LTTE is today compared to where they were 20 months ago, and the political demands they have made which most analysts feel go beyond the expectations of an interim council. Some, including the President, argue that the LTTE has been able to do this on account of concessions made by the Prime Minister. In any event, irrespective of who says what, the measure of where the LTTE has got to needs to be judged by outcomes. If the military strength of the LTTE, and their standing in the international arena, and their being emboldened to propose a carve up of the country into two very distinct states, is the outcome we see today, then it would not be incorrect to say that they have benefited significantly from whatever "concessions" allegedly granted by the Prime Minister. If, as claimed by the Prime Minister, they have not been granted any concessions, and the LTTE has been able to increase their military strength to such a degree within the terms of the MOU, and propose a political solution akin to a separate state from a position of considerable strength, one could very well argue that the MOU is a flawed document as claimed by the President. In terms of what has been reported about the state of the Sri Lankan armed forces and the significantly increased strength of the LTTE during Mr Wickremesinghe's stewardship of the defence of this country, there are serious questions that should be raised about the advisability of handing over the defence of the country back to him. Of considerable concern is the LTTE strength today as opposed to their position before the ceasefire. To make it even more shocking is information relating to the preparedness of the Sri Lankan defence forces and the very obvious tilting of the balance of strength very much in favour of the LTTE. Even more shocking is that these revelations, and also perhaps information known to many people have not raised an eye brow or woken politicians from any side from their slumber, to ask questions from the man who was responsible for defence, and get some straight answers. The obvious bias of the international media, particularly the CNN, and to a lesser extent the BBC, has been towards the Prime Minister, to portray him as a man of peace, popular, and as per the representative of the CNN in Colombo, the man who won the last election by a landslide, when the UNF is in fact in power with a two seat majority! The President on the other hand has been shown to the world as the wrecker of the peace process and the destroyer of the economy. Intelligence sources have said the LTTE possesses surface to surface missiles, surface to air missiles, new radar equipment to monitor sea and air movements, new direction finding equipment (DFE) have been acquired and placed in key locations in the North and the East to locate artillery and Mortar positions of the armed forces, they have procured large stocks of artillery and mortar ammunition, they have purchased additional stocks of anti aircraft weaponry, they have established a new Air Wing, training is being conducted with micro light aircrafts, the Sea Tigers have been strengthened with some of their crafts equipped with sophisticated and powerful radars, new guns have been fitted, live firing exercises in the deep sea continues and the manufacture of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) continue. Advance training for Sea Tigers include underwater demolition, attacks and suicidal missions for Black Tigers. Model training is also said to have been carried out on a number of vital targets. Sometime after the Katunayake debacle, it was reported that the LTTE had carried out model training on how they could inflict maximum damage at Katunayake. These developments (barring the Katunayake fiasco) occurred when the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had full control of the Defence portfolio and when, if he believes that freedom has to go with responsibility, the buck stopped with him. He cannot pass the buck to anyone now, and find scapegoats. The rest of us in the country must ask whether it has been in the best interest of the country to have given him such unfettered freedom to manage the defence of this country, when he and his government allowed the LTTE to build their armed strength to such an extent at the cost of not revamping the Sri Lankan forces to at least have a balanced strength as a deterrent to a resumption of aggression by either side. It appears that the deterrent has been one sided and the Wickremesinghe government and the Monitors have turned a blind eye to this development either by design, fear or stupidity. The fact that the LTTE has successfully built their international image as a group now hankering for peace, ably assisted by sections of the local media and the big guns of the international media, while the Sri Lankan President has been portrayed as being the obstacle for peace, the destroyer of the economy, reflects badly on Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and his government. After all, the Presidency of the country is an integral part of the country's dignity and honour, and something all responsible people should strive to treat with the respect that it deserves. When the Head of State, and the Commander in Chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces expresses concerns about the security situation in the country, it is treated with disdain and derision, and the world media promotes such concerns and the action taken by the President, as being an obstacle to peace. No one wishes to have a resumption of hostilities and everyone wishes for peace and a just outcome to this conflict. As scores of correspondents and contributors have pointed out, the LTTE proposal for an interim council is not a proposal for an interim council, but a transitional proposal towards a separate state. In the context of contemporary realities in Sri Lanka, such extravagant claims cannot foster peace. Whatever the intentions of the Wickremesinghe government may have been, the ultimate result could be seen by some as demonstrating their complicity in allowing the LTTE to have reached the status quo today. This might sound harsh, but when one looks at the political dynamics today, it is difficult to imagine anything else but this. Take for example the Prime Minister's statement that he cannot continue the peace process unless he is given full control of the defence establishment. What does the PM want? Under his stewardship, when he had the full control, he appears to have made the Sri Lankan armed forces a second rate fighting unit by strangling it slowly by depriving it of essential equipment and ammunition. When the defence establishment was under his full control, he has allowed the LTTE to arm itself and increase their armed cadres by almost 100%. Under his stewardship, we have now witnessed a strong, well equipped and well organised LTTE, who have won an international media backing for their portrayal as a group transformed from a terrorist unit to a political unit, and come up with their interim proposals, which are anything but interim, and nothing but a separate state in disguise. True we have had considerable relief from years of war, death and destruction during the last twenty months. But one should not be taken for a complete idiot, if one concludes that this relative peace has helped the LTTE to consolidate their military and propaganda position, to regroup and to end up in a commanding position to dictate terms not only to the Sri Lankan government, but even to the international community, and get them to pressurise the President and the Prime Minister to continue this "peace" discussion. Several commentators have pointed out how strange it is that no one has asked serious questions of the Prime Minister, particularly his own political backers and members of the UNF, the local and international media, and more importantly, the people of the country. There appears to be considerable perplexity as to why no one is asking the Prime Minister as to why he wants full control of the defence establishment again, when he clearly failed the country when he had that full control for 20 months? Or why no one is asking him how he is going to restore the strength of the armed forces at least to the levels that existed at the time the ceasefire was declared. One wonders whether it is possible that no one cares anymore whether the LTTE is given a separate state as long as it is not called one. Have people got so tired of the war, they are quite willing to let the LTTE have what they want? Is this the mood of the people and has the Prime Minister read that mood better than anyone else? If this is the case, we might as well end this charade about peace discussions and grant the LTTE what they want. On the other hand, if we are to believe that the LTTE can be moved from their long held position on the question of a separate state, we should disregard the proposals made by the LTTE on the not so interim, interim council, and pass legislation in Parliament that would allow the now forgotten rehabilitation and reconstruction of the North and the East to proceed without any further delay. The fact the LTTE should play a major role in an interim council designed for this specific reason, is well understood. After all, they are in an unassailable position having won the international propaganda war that they are a peace outfit while rearming themselves to the teeth. The UNF government and the PA should introduce appropriate legislation to give whatever additional powers that the combined North East provinces requires to pursue rehabilitation and reconstruction for a given period. What is required now is not a new interim council, as one already exists in the North and the East, and the President has extended its amalgamation for one more year. What is required are special powers for this existing council so that they can begin the process of reconstruction, resettlement and rehabilitation. It will be interesting to see the reaction of the LTTE and the international media if the two major political parties can combine to provide the avenue for the three "R", reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement to commence in the North and the East. It was the expectation of many that the interim council was mooted to consider ways and means of pursuing the three "R". It was never an expectation that the interim council was going to address all the political issues related to this conflict. Maybe we have been utterly foolish and shortsighted. Maybe this has been the LTTE agenda since they commenced the ceasefire. Maybe the Prime Minister knew it and did not tell his countrymen. Or maybe he also didn't know, and he took the LTTE at their word, and hid his head in the sand wishing this LTTE menace to pass and the tiger to turn into a pussycat. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
