CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Anura Bandaranaike should 'Learn or Depart'

Dr Kamal Wickremasinghe

By all available accounts, the Sri Lankan defence forces appear to be gaining battle ground advantage over the LTTE. It is also encouraging that there are signs of bipartisan unity developing on achieveing victory over the Tigers. Therefore it is vitally important that the government forces are given every possible support to drive home this military advantage to a final victory over the unprincipled Tigers outfit.

The recent diatribe by Mr Anura Bandaranaike on the alleged 'intervention' in Sri Lankan domestic affairs by the Indian High Commissioner Ms Nirupama Roy gives reason for concern in this context, mainly because they reverberate another historically crucial blunder: that committed by the late R.Premadasa at a previous critical juncture of the war. It is also notable that Mr Bandaranaike is not on record expressing concern over the 'Norwegian' meddling (brought upon by his ex-brother-in-law, Kumar Rupasinghe).

The country, and Mr Premadasa himself, paid an enormous price for the folly of re-arming and resurrecting the Tigers at a time when they had been nearly annihilated by the Indian peace Keeping Force (IPKF). Just before Mr premadasa'a foolish generosity, the Tigers were in dire starits. Their plight was such that 'The Economist' wrote a “Requiem for the Tigers” on its 17 October 1987 issue:

“The Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka are facing extinction. Like the great beasts they named themselves after, they were fighting tooth and claw this week against the Indian soldiers sent to disarm them, but it was a losing fight. They were outnumbered, outgunned, running out of supplies and, with the Indians blocking every exit, had no place to retreat to. Guerrillas are no match for orthodox battalions in a pitched battle, the sort that was taking place in the Tigers stronghold in Jaffna. By Thursday it was estimated that may be 300 Tigers had been killed, for the death of 57 Indians. Never before in Sri Lanka’s civil war had the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to give the guerrillas their formal name, taken such punishment.”

According to the Indian assessments (of Major General Ashok Mehta), who served with the IPKF, LTTE was delighted by Premadasa's 1989 demand that India withdrew the IPKF completely in three months. His subsequent 'directions' to the Indian High Commissioner and his letters to Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi to expedite the process of withdrawal were similarly appreciated by the LTTE.

Premadasa, following his election as President, all but revoked the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. His 'deal' with the Tigers (rather what he thought was a deal) provided them the resuscitation they badly needed. According to the memoirs of Bradman Weerakoon, an important part of Premadasa's hairy-brained strategy was to force out the IPKF, and to strengthen the LTTE fighting forces so that they would firstly survive, and secondly, be able to cause maximum damage to the IPKF. Premadasa's talks with the LTTE in February 1990, were dominated by the issue of the LTTE taking over areas to be vacated by the IPKF in the North and East. Importantly, Weerakoon reports that this high risk strategy was not discussed in the official rounds of talks, did not appear in the Agenda or was referred to in the Press Releases.

Premadasa's foolish actions were based on the belief that the IPKF was there to stay for ever, with the hidden objective of establishing the (LTTE rival) EPRLF as Indian proxy in the North-East. Premadasa's formal ultimatum for the IPKF to leave Sri Lanka issued in June 1989, was co-sponsored by the LTTE! The Indians to-date, refer to this disgraceful deal as 'Operation Double Cross'.

Throughout the 'talks', Balasingham, being the venomous, dishonourable man he is, cynically exploited Premadasa's folly. He pretended to play-ball with Premadasa and manipulated him to achieve one and only one objective: to secure military equipment. He duly achieved this objective and by June 1991, we had what was called the Eelam War II break out with disastrous loss of government troops. Fifteen years on, we are still fighting them!

A few years later General Mehta summarised the Indian attitude to this sordid episode as follows: "The IPKF was invited there by President Jayawardena of Sri Lanka. His successor stabbed the force in the back by joining hands with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Greek tragedy was re-enacted with the LTTE back-stabbing the Sri Lankans: first by [then Sri Lankan prime minister R] Premadasa and then by [the current PM, Chandrika] Kumartunga. The latter, having survived a Tamil human bomb attack, is now being led up the garden path - to the Norway-brokered peace talks with the LTTE. Given their track record, the Oslo talks are unlikely to succeed". Prophetic words indeed!

Though Mr Bandaranaike (within the Rajapakse regime) does not yield power similar to that yelded by Premadasa (thank God for that!), the kind of remarks he is making has the potential to turn the impending military victory into disaster. As a politician who has been around for a long time (albeit an ineffective one), Anura needs to be appraised by those close to him, of a bit of recent history- (not ancient history, that is too complex for him) of the Eelam war.

The history of the war with the LTTE clearly indicates that the Tigers understand only one language; that of military strength. Anura should not, through ill-thought-out statements, distract the government or its military forces from this important task at hand. In order to achieve this military objective, the government needs the support of India (and, ignoring the yelpings of 'Human Rights concerns' of NGO merchants such as Jehan Perera and other international busybodies who are intelligence gathering at the battle front rather than feeding the hungry as they purport to be doing).

Anura needs to be reminded of the motto of his 'alma mater' (and mine), 'Disce aut Discede' which in English means "Learn or Depart". The motto applies equally to a career in politics as much as it applies to College education. It is clear that Anura has failed to learn from the privileged political position he has been occupying for several decades now.

May be, it is time that Hon. Anura Bandranaike left the Sri lankan political scene, leaving it to those with an appreciation of the situation and the needs of the hour!

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