S. Akurugoda

Responding to a series of questions raised by JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Deputy External Affairs Minister Neomal Perera told parliament that the government had no expectation to engage South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa or the South African government as an international mediator to solve the national problem of Sri Lanka.

This decision, if maintained, is laudable.

We learnt from media reports earlier that the aim of the Deputy President, South Africa’s Special Envoy appointed to help ‘consolidate peace’ in Sri Lanka, was to help the Sri Lankans with the Truth and Reconciliation process, their own constitutional reform and to ‘make sure Sri Lanka does indeed become a stable country where they will enjoy human rights.’

Ramaphosa concluded his visit after meeting a number of political leaders including the President Mahinda Rajapaksha, Minister GL Peiris, UNP Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, TNA Leader P. Sambanthan and NPC Chief Minister J Wigneswaran and a visit to the Northern Province. As per the media reports, he is expected to brief South African President Jacob Zuma and the Indian Government on his engagements in Sri Lanka.

We hope the ‘help’ volunteered by South Africa will come to an end at this stage, unlike the ‘help’ offered by volunteers who came to rescue us in the past.  

There are many examples, throughout our history and even during the last three decade, of how our rulers allowed foreigners to intervene to resolve our own internal matters and got into trouble as a result of such actions. India, our neighbour, is the first country came to interfere after the independence, initially, by way of arranging ‘Thimpu Talk’ to find ‘Peace’. What happed later are well known and hence there is no need to repeat here. How many lives we lost during that period? The infamous Norway extended their hand, far from the European Continent, with the same message of ‘Peace’ during Chandrika’s rule and we were in a real mess-up until 2009. How many lives and how much worth of property we lost during that time?

These ‘Peace’ volunteers came to’ help’ us purely for their own political, regional or global interests. But thanks to our patriotic people, who did not allowed this drama to be a reality, by acting at the right time thereby saving the mother Sri Lanka, not only from terrorists but by driving away the myths generated by these ‘Peace Makers’ and their local agents for more than two decades.

Thus, it is unlikely that the very same leadership who blocked this dramas to continue in 2009, will get into another trap set by the same producers to stage the same drama, this time from a different Continent under a different name ‘Consolidate PEACE in Sri Lanka to ensure stability and human rights’ There should not be any significant change to the theme (or events) of the drama, although ‘South Africa’ is now going to be in place of ‘Norway’(if move forward with the ‘help’ volunteered).

Before going further, the statement of Ramaphosa .. make sure Sri Lanka does indeed become a stable country where they will enjoy human rights” is an indication that the volunteered peace maker is already assuming that country is ‘unstable’ and ‘not enjoying human rights’. What more can we expected from this Peace Maker” different to that of Norway’s ErikSolheim? Further, Ramaphosa’s reported question put on NPC Chief Minister Wigneswaran as to why he is not taking legal action if the power has not been devolved to NPC is another indication of ‘letting the cat out of the bag’.

Meanwhile, another invisible hand is working hard in promoting the concept of so-called ‘common Presidential candidate’ to split the ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ votes, in addition to the UNP leader, to ensure the installation of their long waited ‘Puppet’ in the driving seat with the overwhelming support of non-Sinhala votes.

It is not surprising that the very same actors (both in and outside the ruling coalition) who were playing various supporting roles during the previous Norwegian drama are now attempting to identify the political parents of the ruling leadership, the ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ who put him back to the driving seat during the last Presidential and general elections, as extremists.

The UPFA coalition which was elected by the people, during the previous two general elections, is not the UPFA ruling the country today. According to some political analysts, the current coalition policies are led by ex-UNPers and the political parties who were leading critics of the Mahinda Chintanaya introduced in 2005 and worked hard in support of the opposition candidates during the last two Presidential elections. These elements, who managed to get key position within the ruling party, are working had to provide a multi faith (Bahu Agamika), multi racial (Bahu Jathika) and other various phases (Bahu Bootha) , to the hardly won driving force of 2005.

One outcome of these development, apparently due to frustration, is to see that prominent political figures representing nationalist movement who were in the forefront of the driving force of 2005, knowingly or unknowingly, are now either paying visits to ‘Sirikotha’ giving unprecedented political backing to the well known ‘Puppet’ of the west or having meetings with the so-called common Presidential candidate of ‘Naga Vihare’.