S.Akurugoda

As per a news item that appeared in The Island of 12 .02.2024 titled ‘ SLPP MPs not consulted on ECTA, alleges government member’, MP Sarath Weerasekerais is urging President Ranil Wickremesinghe not to exploit the continuing political, economic and social crisis to advance his agenda.  https://island.lk/slpp-mps-not-consulted-on-etca-alleges-govt-member/. The SLPP MP said that the two countries suspended talks on ETCA in 2018 following a spate of protests here. Negotiations commenced in 2016 between Modi’s India and the Yahapalana government, a year after Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat at the 2015 presidential election.

Interestingly, MP Sarath Weerasekera is one of the SLPP members who voted to elect Ranil Wickremesinghe as the President of the country and is still a member of the government group. Although the MP has not stated what the President’s agenda, it is not a difficult task to presume what his agenda would be for those who are aware of what the current President Wickremesinghe has done during his political carrier.

UNP leaders are well known for signing notorious agreements, detrimental to the country in many ways, with foreign powers or with their involvements, without going through the parliament or briefing the contents of the agreements to the opposition political parties or the general public. 

We remember how the UNP leader J.R. Jayewardene (JRJ) signed the Indo-Lanka Pact, in 1987, amidst curfew, disregarding the opposition to the treacherous agreement, its repercussions and the composition of the country. Later, the Constitution was amended to accommodate what was agreed. Fortunately, no government has yet devolved the police and land powers, as per the said agreement, based on ethnic lines. If fully implemented, it will be irreversible and, if an attempt is made to reverse them, the consequences will be disastrous.

President Wickremesinghe, overturning the mandate given by the people during the last presidential election,  is making wild declarations openly accepting a fully implementation of 13A without even having the decency to consult or to get the consensus of the other political parties before making such a declaration. There is no mention of the fully implementation of the 13th amendment in the declaration of the President Gotabhaya who was elected with a mandate of 6.9 million in the last presidential election or in the recommendations of the committee appointed by him to prepare a new constitution.

Similarly, the CFA, arranged by the Norwegians, and signed by the UNP leader Ranil, and the terrorist leader, Prabhakaran, in 2002 without the knowledge or the approval of the country, was not transparent and didn’t serve any purpose to the country. Unless this foolish agreement was abrogated and the LTTE defeated, militarily, to remove the so-called “LTTE territories”, the situation of the country would be entirely different today. Its legality is questionable since the agreement was signed by the PM who was neither the Head of the Executive nor the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers. 

We remember how the UNP leadership believed that the government would have to give up the area it seized from the LTTE to facilitate the peace process and how he attempted to satisfy the requirements of the so-called international community and the Norwegians, who were openly interfering with the internal affairs of a sovereign nation (Sri Lanka) with sinister motives.

We also remember how PM Ranil Wickremesinghe attempted to sign the MCC agreement before the last presidential election without presenting it to the parliament. His Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera has said that the agreement will be presented to Parliament after signing it.  Ranil-Sirisena’s so-called ‘yahapalana’ government handed over the Sothern deep sea port of Hambantota to China for 99 years in 2017.  In addition to moving forward with ETCA, the latest is the reported planning to hand over the Milco, airport management of three ports, telecom, aviation etc Fuel storage etc to India.

Thus signing any form of treacherous agreement by a UNP leader like Ranil, behind closed doors disregarding its consequences, is not a surprise at all. Unfortunately, most of our politicians, and who elected them to power today have either forgotten or are not aware of even the most recent past including the mass murders during JVP insurrections (1971 and 1987-1989) and LTTE’s 30-year terrorism. As I remember, Uma Maheswaran, the founder and leader of the separatist People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), told once how the Sinhalese have a short memory. Unfortunately our political party leaders today are queuing up to see the Indian PM Modi, either expecting help to hang onto power or to grab power by hook or crook.

S.Akurugoda