CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Please do not compare our poltical leaders to incomparables Ms. Kim Soo-a

By Charles Perera

The Intervention of Ms. Kim Soo-a, The Programme officer of the Asian Human Rights Commission, with regard to the appointment of her Excellency the former President of Sri Lanka Mr.Chandrika Kumaranatunga, as a Senior Consultant to UNESCO, will I am sure be considered by the Director General of Unesco, His Excellency Koichuro Matsura, as an uncalled for interference into the activities of the Organisation, and its independence.

Madam Chandrika Kumaratunga the former President of Sri Lanka , was twice elected under democratic system to the high office of the President by a majority of the people of Sri Lanka. She was highly respected and was very close to the people. She

brought lot of democratic changes to Sri Lanka which for a long time suffered under very strong rightist governments. The President of one such government , denied her mother, another very respected former Prime Minister her civic rights.

Madam Chandraka Kumaratunga was the first as the President of Sri Lanka who extended her hand of friendship to the LTTE terrorists inviting them for negotiations for devolution of power. Her proposed package as her proposals for devolution of power to the North East was called, was not accepted when presented in the Parliament, and the then opposition refused to attend her call for discussions of the proposals.

She at the risk of her popularity, an even her life brought the LTTE terrorists to the negotiating table offering them a Regional Council. She fearlessly went forward to settle the ethnic issue democratically. She was responsible in getting the Norwegian Mediator Solheim to be the interlocutor between the terrorists and her government.

At a later stage with the election of the UNF Government, with Ranil Wicktamasinghe at its head, Madam Chandrika Kumaratunga, HE the President, was boycotted, by her Prime Minster, and it was Ranil Wickramasinghe, her Prime Minister, who behind her back signed a CAF with Prabhakaran, making things considerably difficult for her and to the country.

When she later on took over the Defence Ministry, it was too late for her to put things in order. It was in that situation that the elections were called for and the UNF government was defeated. Then the difficulties followed with the tsunami and the terrorists becoming violent. It was only then that certain actions she took to appease the terrorists that brought criticism against her. Added to that at the end of her term of office, she had made attempts to prolong her continuation in power, and she did not cooperate with the candidate proposed by her party to replace her as the President. Those were matters that stood against her popularity at the time, and made her the target of many critics.

She cannot under any circumstances be compared to Fernando Marcos or Suharto. Mr. Kim Soo had done a great wrong to the people of Sri Lanka in comparing Madam Chandrika Kumaratunga to those two personalities. Mr. Victor Ivan s book should not be taken as an objective account of Madama Chandrika Kumaratunga s life. That is his personal opinion and not many of the people of Sri Lanka will agree with him.

All politicians may have skeletons in their cupboards, whether in Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, UK, France or USA., because no body is perfect, and that should not be the reasons to reduce them to very low levels.

Her appointment as a Senior Consultant to UNESCO, is an asset to the Organisation. She is known for her hard work. Sri Lanka is honoured buy her appointment to this prestigious post. We wish her well.

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