Sri Lanka is in Grave Danger Thanks to the UNP-LTTE Intercourse, Nothing Else

Dilrook Kannangara

Zombies of 2001 are making a return in time for Ranil’s paraja yoga ascendance; it is amazing how they were in stark silence when the UNP-LTTE were legally married on 22/02/2002 amidst fireworks in Mulaitivu sea. The best thing that can happen for the LTTE now is a government change. Sadly, again, Ranil is trying the same trick by creating instability in the South aiding the LTTE terror plan.

What the LTTE is trying to do is to attack economic nerve centres thereby crippling the economy; thereafter Ranil will agitate for elections and with the support of LTTE suicide attacks, grab power. However, this time he is bound to fail as we have a better government than in 2001. Although there are shortcomings, this government is far better than every government that ruined Sri Lanka since 2000.

Of course, one can make allegations based on what the political losers may say; they use the same vigour as the political losers in making such allegations. However, the fact remains that corruption, incompetency, treason, etc. today is much lower than 2001-04 era when,

1. defence capital expenditure was running high irrespective of the Feb ’02 surrender; terrorists were sent to brothels for entertainment wasting tax payers money in the pretext of ‘studying federal systems’!; the armed forces and the secret service was deliberately exposed to the LTTE resulted in the deaths of many highly effective officers.

2. all bidders withdrew from SATHOSA privatisation due to record breaking corruption caused by Hon. Karupiah’s mafia

3. the chairman of the cricket board ran the Sri Lanka Telecom; even the NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephony) refused to acquire more shares contrary to wide expectation. SLT financial statements were qualified by the auditors due to colossal irrecoverable receivables; threats and bombs were used to intimidate a top financial officer when he tried to reveal the undercurrents; immigration law was violated by the main financier of the then ruling party after an Indian movie style murder spree.

4. public money and public schools were used to entertain in cabaret style the homosexual desires of top government personnel (old Royalists) including you know who-although he tactically avoided participation

5. all attempted privatisations failed in grand style including the SLCTB privatisation that was a monumental failure

6. reduced FDIs as the security and law and order situation was assessed by the investors as a ‘calm before the storm’ where blacklisted terrorists were running a quasi state with fiscal, monetary and judicial powers and under the apparent and real sanction by the government.

7. a large number of businesses closed down (than started up) including footwear manufacturers; no power stations, roads or any other infrastructure were built; inflation was as today’s irrespective of $26-a-barrel-and-flat oil prices (>$60 today and highly volatile); the promise of Mundo gas was all that remained in the UNP economy.

8. large scale alighting of paddy stocks by farmers showed their utter disgust when bumper harvests were ignored to profit from the great rice import cheat. High positions in PERC, BOI, corporations, were filled with ministers’ confidantes; remarkably, corruption today results mainly from these appointees than by today’s rulers!

9. powerful positions of the government and media was controlled by highly incompetent, inexperienced and corrupt individuals connected to Ranil Wickremasignhe. A premier newspaper company is still owned substantially by the Wickremasinghe family; a TV/radio network owned by the same family; Secretary to the Treasury was a very close confidante of Ranil who had no experience what so ever on anything. Burning down of premises used to publish independent newspapers at the time including Lakmina (ran by Sripathy), Lanka and many others went unpunished.

10. Utter failure in law making where 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd proposed constitutional amendment attempts were rejected by the Supreme Court with warnings. UNP has failed to come up with any kind of proposals to solve the national issue, yet they burnt others’ proposals while their leader was asleep in Parliament! What lawmakers are we talking about in the UNP? Ranil’s second disastrous government collapse occurred in 2004 merely 27 months after it was formed and the first one lasted only 15 months!

11. the biggest ethnic riots after 1983 occurred in Valachchene in June 2002 which was not reported due to a media backlash; more than 100 people died and more than 10,000 were ‘ethnically cleansed’ because they were Muslims; a government Minister incited Sinhala-Muslim riots in Colombo to divert attention.

12. Ministers’ sons were gun-running the country when one slapped a police officer, another attacked civilians in a five star hotel, another attempted ravish at an international school, etc. Nothing was done about them as the country was indirectly ruled by the LTTE. A Minister fired gunshots in a five star hotel, while another entered the Borella police station and demanded to be worshipped by the law enforcing police officers!; another attempted to akin the Supreme Court to dogs!

13. murders and road havoc was the order of the day; an off duty military officer was killed inside a police station in Mt Lavinia and nothing was done about these as LTTE Khans enjoyed it!

The list is endless and is far more severe than anybody could challenge. However, the present day government is marred by inaction. This is the only grave crime committed by them and should change immediately if they are to remain in office for a full term; UNP style gangsters should be removed from the government and justice should be done to them. Having said that there is no way the UNP can topple the government because they are worse in all avenues. Too much havoc by Ranil will result in him losing the Opposition Leaders’ post as only a thin margin of six seats saves him from possible disaster.

In terms of the biggest problems facing the nation, the present government has achieved remarkable success. For the first time in 24 years, civilian flow during military operations has been inward to GoSL controlled areas not outward; this speaks volumes about who is winning the war. The LTTE that was enthroned by the UNP in 2002 has been limited to Vanni and are in graver danger of extinction. LTTE will surely launch attacks to divert the military resolve and to cause panic among the civilians; however, it cannot stop the GoSL from steamrolling the LTTE.

Another notable tendency of Ranil’s henchmen is that they heavily rely on LTTE’s destructive capability. They predict impending terror attacks; to tell the truth, they are looking forward to it. They know only the LTTE can bring them into power (as they did in 1993 and 2001), since the people will never trust the monumental loser to ascend to power again; in fact, he is struggling to remain the Opposition Leader! If any feeble minded individual pins his hopes on Ranil’s paraja yoga, he is in for a lot of misery.

Consider what would happen if this was a developed country like Australia, US, UK, Japan, Singapore, any EU country. Will there be any room for terror aligned political parties to exist or agitate people for surrender? Not at all. Those who try to topple governments untimely by unleashing terror would be severely handled. Why do we have to put up with them?

Gotabhaya Rajapakse has been a remarkable defence secretary who salvaged the nation from the 2002 surrender; although a lot got to be done and there are mistakes to be corrected. All in all he is best suited for the post than anyone else as he has achieved much more victories than anyone else could; LTTE attacks or UNP verbal attacks should not dictate who our Defence Secretary should be.

The proper strategy of the hour is to take the good opportunity to wipe out the terrorists for good; restrictions on foreign aid, blows to the economy; etc. got to be put to good use. These would come anyway when a nation tries to overcome their problems and it got face them one day. If we put off the grand offensive against the LTTE now, we would end up having all the above evils and the continued presence of the LTTE. The day has come to leverage the disadvantages to our advantage. All those who have committed treason should be punished according to the Constitution, PTA, etc. Any attempt by the LTTE to cause harm beyond the war zones should be retaliated with extreme ferocity.

However, too much family associations need to change; they have created more trouble than good. Senanayake (including Kothelawala) family, Bandaranaike and Ratwatte families, Wickremasinghe (including Wijewardena and Jayawardena) family, Athukorala family, Parabakaran family, Premadasa family, etc. are examples of intense family involvement in national affairs. However, the best example is the Rajapakse family, including the president’s many brothers (3?), sister, father, mother, nephews are/were all into government or affiliated affairs. The President should free himself from this embarrassing situation.

I haven’t forgotten the other family; the family formed by the LTTE-UNP intimate relationship; they now threaten to retake the country. They have enough offspring to make their presence felt in media, ‘independent’ bodies/centres, peace mafia, etc. They have multiple citizenship of both Sri Lanka and Tamil Elam plus Malayanadu and Nazarustan; they stammer trying to locate Maha Oya as they claim it belongs to all four above-mentioned countries! Thank God, these are the offspring of horses and donkeys for they cannot have a continuation.

Whatever the shortcomings of the present government, they have to be corrected and progressed; replacing it with the UNP isn’t an option at this juncture.