Opinion:

Western powers seek to influence Lanka's destiny

by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

Several anti-Sri Lanka elements and LTTE sympathisers seems to have been inspired to raise their voices after the recent controversial observations made by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay who is reportedly to be of South Indian origin.

The LTTE rump, former Tiger proxy TNA and certain bankrupt Opposition politicians seems to have been inspired by certain baseless allegations made by Pillay during her final news conference before leaving Sri Lanka last week.The LTTE rump too has intensified its campaign targeting this week’s UNHRC Sessions after Pillay’s statement pampered Tiger cohorts. An supporter of LTTE, set fire to himself on Thursday morning in front of the UN's Human Rights Committee building in Geneva, Swiss. There was a photo of a soldier next to him with a symbol of the LTTE as well as documents on self-immolation of Tibetans in Tibet. The man was first taken to hospital in Geneva and later by helicopter to Lousanne's University Hospital, but died before he could be identified.

Regime change

One wonders whether former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake too has been inspired by Pillay’s baseless allegations. Though

we exactly don't know whether there has been any inter connectivity, it was merely three days after Pillay's statement that Bandaranayake informed the Bribery Commission last Wednesday that she would not present herself before the Commission in the future.

Her ‘excuse’ was that she did not trust the integrity of the process and the Commissioners. This could well become a bad precedence.

On the other hand, the leader of the UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe too appears to have been inspired by the latest developments and is day-dreaming of a regime change that certain countries in the West want. When there isn't a general election or a presidential election scheduled for 2014, the UNP leaders has claimed that his party would capture power by next year. Is he expecting interested parties in the West to meddle in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka for a regime change so that his party, which has failed to win 27 successive elections and been rejected by the masses in toto, would automatically capture power?

If not, why has Wickremesinghe, at his party's recent 67th anniversary celebrations, claimed that it was the last anniversary celebrated as the opposition and that the party would be commemorating its 68th anniversary next year as the governing party of Sri Lanka.

Political relay

“This is the last anniversary we are celebrating as the opposition. The UNP will pave the way for a general election to take place in 2014 and we will win it. We will celebrate our 68th anniversary under a UNP government,” Wickremesinghe was quoted as saying.

Wickremesinge is using his party's National Youth Front (NYF) as the senior party members have been disgusted. He accused the government of killing innocent youngsters in the country. Has he taken the baton from Pillay in the relay race against Sri Lanka after the Prabhakaran had done the first lap. There is no doubt that Wickremesinghe will hand over the baton to Sampanthan or Vigneshwaran to do the anchor lap.The TNA, who had been totally blind to the sufferings of the people in the North and the East when the LTTE terrorism was at its height and danced to the tune of Prabhakaran and his goons, is now shedding crocodile tears. Sampanthan is now playing the raciest card to grab power in the Northern Provincial Council (NPC). The TNA is trying to push the Tamils in the North to that dark era again.

The TNA last week called for the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces in its manifesto for the NPC election. The controversial manifesto also states that devolution of power should be on the basis of shared sovereignty, necessarily over land, law and order, socio-economic development including health and education, resources and fiscal powers.

According to news reports, TNA’s Chief Ministerial candidate C.V. Vigneshwaran had even claimed that they will get direct aid from the Tamil Diaspora. This is against the Constitution as any foreign funding to a Provincial Council should be changed through the central government. How could TNA pledge unconstitutional acts to the people? Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has quite rightly stated that there is a possibility that certain Western powers wish to have a Lankan Government that is closely aligned with their interests and may seek to influence country’s destiny.

Defence seminar

“There is a possibility that some western powers wish to have a Sri Lankan Government that is closely aligned with their interests. They may seek to influence Sri Lanka’s destiny so that it cannot pursue the independent course it is following at present,” he told the Defence Seminar in Colombo last week.

External Affairs minister G.L. Peiris too has clearly pointed out the sinister moves that have been in action after Pillay’s visit here. He charged Pillay of ignoring a report produced by UN officials in Colombo about claims of the intimidating presence of the military in the North.

As Prof. Peiris had stated, it appears that Pillay had not read the reports produced by UN officials in Colombo who belie this claim after interviewing about 200 people chosen by the UN itself. Nearly 90% of them had said they were comfortable living there. What baffles all peace-loving people here is why the UNHRC chief has ignored such evidence produced by none other than the UN itself. She must justify why she had ignored that evidence. If not, it is a classic example of being prejudiced.

Bomb explosions

What Pillay or any other world leader or international official for that matter, should realise is that the Government is responsible for the safety and security of nearly 22 million people in Sri Lanka. None of those so-called godfathers of human rights were there when we were at the receiving end.

When the lives of nearly 22 million people were in danger with the LTTE exploding mass-scale bombs targeting civilians, none of them came to our rescue. It was the Security Forces which protected us and if not for the supreme sacrifices of the great sons of our soil, we would still have been subjected to that untold misery. But the TNA had forgotten the days during which the LTTE held over a half a million Tamils as a human shield. If not, Sampandan and his Tiger sympathisers must be angry that the Security Forces liberated them without allowing the LTTE to forcibly keep them as a human shield.

Pillay was invited by the Government about two-and-a-half years ago to come and see for herself the developments in Sri Lanka. This was purely because Sri Lanka had nothing to hide and that its conduct in the humanitarian operation was transparent. Yet the report she has just produced is indicative of a prejudiced mind and in no way shows the fairness and open-mindedness of an official undertaking such a mission, the longest she has spent in any one country.

Unique achievement

Even where Navi Pillay acknowledges progress and positive developments it is given so grudgingly and belatedly. What we find disturbing is the tone and substance of her report, the lack of fairness and balance.”

Why can’t Pillay see the enumerating the steps taken by the Government to settle 296,000 persons, provide them with infrastructure on which the government has spent a record US $ 3 billion.

These people who had been forcibly held as a human shield had been liberated by the Security Forces and the Government provided them with new lives in such a short time – a unique achievement that few countries have emulated.

But to dismiss these achievement as just physical reconstruction as Pillay has done, is simply not the case. The UN Human Rights Commissioner’s claim that Sri Lanka was moving towards authoritarianism is a well calculated statement to put the Western agenda in motion. Pillay has no empirical evidence to support this claim.

Democracy reinstated

On the contrary, for 25 years the people of the north who lived under the LTTE had no suffrage. But the Government has provided them with the opportunity of expressing themselves later this month when they vote at the NPC elections. It is the LTTE which silenced the power of the ballot through the bullet. But the Government has reinstated democracy in the area after crushing the LTTE.

The essence of democracy now prevails in the country, allowing the people to freely express their views and elect Governments or Presidents of their choice. But Pillay has ignored all this evidence before her.

As the Leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), Wimal Weerawansa said, the recently unveiled manifesto of the TNA contains nothing but the policies of former LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. The TNA is now trying to democratically win the goals which the LTTE had failed with bullet.

Merger

Though the LTTE was defeated in 2009, the political threat of the emergence of a separate State still prevails. The TNA, in its election manifesto, demands land, police, education, social and economic powers. They also demand the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. These are the things that were demanded by Prabhakaran,TNA’s Chief Ministerial Vignashewaran has stated that Prabhakaran is a hero and such statements indicated that the TNA supports separatism. Through the proposed merging Northern and Eastern Provinces the TNA wants to destabilise the government with the support of other extremist elements in the East.

Hence, the people in the North should not dig their own grave by voting the TNA to carry forward the separatist agenda from where Prabhakaran had left. Vigneshwaran will never be allowed to be another Prabhakaran and rob the country’s hard-earned peace. People in the North must decide whether they would go back to those dark days again by voting for Vigneshwaran and his goons who play the raciest card with the lavish funding from the LTTE rump and a section of the Tamil Diaspora. The LTTE rump and the Tamil Diaspora do not understand the grievances and the aspirations of the Tamils in the North and the East, which are far apart. While the LTTE rump and the Tamil Diaspora still live in the separate state fantasy created by Prabhakaran, the people in the North are enjoying the rich dividends of peace. There should not be any room whatsoever for the TNA opportunists to play the raciest card and deprive the Northern Tamils the freedom that they enjoy today.