CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Know Your Enemies, Know Your Friends: Can Ranil Wickremasinghe Separate the Two?

S. Hewage

Ranil Wickremasinghe, the darling of INGOs, fundamentalist Christian evangelists, and numerous local agents of neo-colonialism who have been profiting from the ongoing war against the LTTE terrorists, has consistently failed to distinguish friend from foe. He made numerous blunders by trying to appease the terrorist group, thinking that he can influence the outfit to change its modus operandi, and enter into a democratic path. The problem is that the LTTE makes friends with no one, let alone believe in democracy. As far as the terrorist outfit is concerned, it does not think that it can afford to make friends in a civilized world, as it would be detrimental to its dream of creating a mono-ethnic fascist state.

We all know what happened to those politicians who tried to befriend Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the terrorist group. Rajive Gandhi, the prime minister of India, is the best example. He helped the LTTE in its early days to obtain military training in India, and provided financial and logistical support for their campaign of terror. This brought his eventual death by a LTTE suicide bomber. The simple fact is that Prabhakaran is a diagnosed psychopath, and those who think that they can make business with this man is equally suffering from amnesia.

Ranil Wickremasinghe thinks that he can work with Prabhakaran for mutual benefit. Having lost 14 elections, Ranil’s life is an eternal failure, a laughing-stock around the water coolers across South Asia. He is willing to commit any treacherous act to attain political power. He will make political deals with imperialists who want to have access to strategic ports and natural resources in the country. He signed agreements with Prabhakaran to get his support to come to power. Ranil is so desperate that he will do almost anything if it helps him to become the prime minister, or the president of the Republic of Sri Lanka.

As the English Daily reported the other day (Aug 2, 2007), Ranil Wickremasinghe is ready to seek foreign help to gain political power under the pretext of “establishing the sovereignty of the people,” a pseudonym that imperialists often use when they interfere with internal affaires of a sovereign nation. These very same imperial forces invaded Iraq and Afghanistan under the pretext of bringing democracy and “establishing sovereignty of the people,” the act that was publicly backed by Ranil Wickremasinghe. Almost everyday hundreds of civilians are killed in violence in these two countries, and there is no law and order, let alone democracy. There is enormous human suffering taking place in these two countries everyday, thanks to Ranil’s international friends. It is to this particular end that Ranil Wickremasinghe is seeking support from his international friends, so that he can become the “puppet” leader carrying out the orders of his imperial masters. Sri Lankans may recall how such opportunistic and treacherous Sinhala leaders in the past collaborated with the British colonialists to achieve their personal goals, and in the process helped the British to capture the Kandyan Kingdom.

In the meantime, Ranil Wickremasinghe’s friend, Prabhakaran is living in hell, isolated, and haunted by the constant fear of being killed by his own people or by the SL army. The only way that Prabhakaran can survive is by helping Ranil Wickremasinghe to form a government. Prabhakaran and Ranil Wickremasinghe are mutually interdependent, and one cannot survive without the other. At present, Prabhakaran is urgently in need of some breathing room, some time to acquire new weapon systems and to recruit child combatants. However, Prabhakaran will never agree to a lasting political solution to the problem that would end the conflict once and for all. Instead, he will use the gullible Ranil Wickremasinghe and his foreign friends to negotiate a new deal, a deal that will prolong the agony of the Tamil people, and keep Prabhakaran in business.

Ranil Wickremasinghe’s problem is his inability to distinguish friends from enemies, and to choose an honorable national program to achieve political power. His constant appeals for foreign powers to intervene on his behalf makes him loathsome to the masses, and all right-thinking members of his party. His party men with intelligence, self-respect, and feelings for their country are abandoning him like filthy rubbish. It is time for Ranil Wickremasinghe to stop insulting the majority, the Sinhala Buddhists, and abandon foreign forces, Western imperialists, that cannot bring him to political power. He should know that those imperialists use him to achieve their own geo-political programs. They cannot help him to get political power in Sri Lanka. Thus, Ranil Wickremasinghe must undergo a vigorous rehabilitation process, beginning with a heartfelt apology to the nation for his past sins, and then identifying himself with the patriotic forces. Until this is done, Ranil Wickremasinghe has no political future.

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