Alas, Balasingham did not see Eelam

Commonsense by Y.King

The death of LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham was announced Thursday . His demise brings further trouble to the LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran who has already been losing his hold in the East. Balasingham, the mentor and advisor to Prabhakaran for over 30 years stood as a strong pillar in his dream palace of Eelam, and the death of the theoretician would be a turning point of the terror movement.

Prabhakaran would find it difficult to make a replacement as he finds it difficult to pick a person equal to that of Balasingham who had many a foreign influence, may be through his Australian born wife, to play all the tricky games in the international scene to swell its fund raising machine, propaganda and other illegal activities.

Though, Balasingham appeared for the LTTE in peace negotiations from its beginning from Thimpu, he saw any success in finding a peaceful solution to the conflict, as he was also compelled to tune his music to Prabhakaran's Eelam dream on the bleeding path that laid over the death and destruction of thousands of Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims and their hard earned property for over two decades.

Things have changed drastically during this two decades and it is high time the LTTE understood this reality and bury its separatist ideals in the very own grave of Balasingham and enter the new line of peace. Wars between countries are fought, people killed and property destroyed, but the very same people are compelled to set aside revenge, and come to compromise the enemy as to save the people and rise from the ashes. The LTTE never follow suit of such action, proves that their major concern is not people.

Muslims vs. Muslims

Sri Lankan had heard of different factions of Muslims killing each other in Iraq, Afghanistan and so on, but it is pathetic to hear similar incidents have been reported in Sri Lanka too in the recent past.

Two Muslim groups clashed at Kathankudi, a predominantly Muslim area over a burial site, and the mob taking the law into their hands killed a person and injured several others. They behaved like terrorists attacking police, security forces and setting State and private property such as banks and shops in flame.

LTTE created food shortage

The LTTE is trying to create an artificial food shortage in Jaffna Peninsula.

They have forced the closure of consumer shops on one hand and on the other hand, they attack Government cargo vessels. Their propagandas cry fouls to show the world that the Government blocks food supply to the Peninsula, intending to bring disgrace to the Government.

Last week, President directed officials to import foodstuff directly from Chennai to Jaffna as sea roots are also threatened by LTTE attacks. Adding more burden to the already excessive duties, the security forces and the police have opened retail outlets near security installations in Jaffna to distribute goods to the needy.

In the same time, Government acquired six ships, one with 16,500 mt. per journey to transport cargo and passengers to and from Jaffna. The sea transport would also reduce the cost of transport charges.

It costs Rs. 10 to 15 per kg on A9 road while the sea charges begin from Rs. 5 to 10 per kg. As a result, prices of certain goods such as sugar have comparatively gone down in Jaffna.

Sugar was sold at Rs. 67 per kg at John Keels while Nallur shops sold it at Rs. 63, reports reaching Colombo said.

Therefore the Government has decided to extend this sea transport service to Galle very soon.

Exodus of Sinhala families

Innocent people including women and children who were predominantly farmers have fled their villages in fear of continuous LTTE attacks in Serunuwara, and sought refuge in Kantale. This is part of the LTTE's ethnic cleansing such as they chased away Muslim and Sinhala communities in early 80s from the North.

However, some people who were caught in the LTTE trap in Vakarai have dared to walk through heavy mine fields and started fleeing in small numbers to reach Batticoloa. This proves that they are in safe hands in the Government and confidence that they are looked after better than in the hands of LTTE. The security forces with some NGOs have now put up makeshift camps to shelter them and provided food and medicine.

Capital punishment

Several senior judges during their meeting with the President last week had insisted the latter the necessity to activate the capital punishment in order to reduce crime. The latest convicts put to death are those who killed a spinster after grabbing her necklace during Tsunami and the murderers of Colombo high court judge Sarath Ambepitiya. It is well known that certain politicians annulled the capital punishment as they had no courage to pass it on to some criminals who collaborated with them in winning elections, but President Mahinda Rajapaksa whose power was only the People's power would not hesitate to take timely action in this regard if it is the demand of the majority public.

However, loop holes of the law could bring death penalty to the innocence as well, so to compensate and prevent such untoward incidents, all capital punishments should be thoroughly reviewed by a panel of jury or similar legal and sociology experts before the noose is put around the neck.

Anura on Christmas jaunt

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has insisted that the hostilities between the Government and the LTTE should not be taken as an excuse to cover up the failure in the part of poor performances of certain Ministers.

Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike recently blamed the political instability that prevented tourists coming to Sri Lanka. Then it is the duty of the honourable minister to explain to the public why he approved millions of rupees on promotional campaign in London recently and also organised some other lavish tamashas bringing to the country world beauties spending public money. Reports reached here are that such tamashas were also failures due to poor organising skills, and no tourists were attracted as a result of this extravagant promotional campaigns.

After joining her sister former President Chandrika Kumaratunga at a meeting with their constituents in Attanagalle, both were said to have been critical of the way the Rajapaksa Government handling the conflict. They might be thinking that Rajapaksa's handling the job the way the people want would not be the way that the brother and the sister and their clan handled during the last 11 years, purchasing old guns, outdated ships and refurbished aircraft at brand new prices.

No country has so far issued serious travel advisories on Sri Lanka as the country except the North and East is safe for travellers. The terrorist problems is not a confining issue to Sri Lanka, and it is known world over, and no foreign tourist has thus far been affected in the conflict. Therefore, blaming the conflict for lack of tourists arrival is childish.

Many a time, Anura quoted Royal College motto to challenge the leadership of Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe (both are former Royalists) during press conferences, learn or depart. Now time is ripe for Anura too, to follow his school motto.