Air-strikes and union-strikes

S. Akurugoda

The decision to closedown the Katunayake International Airport from 10.30 pm to 4.30 am beginning this week must have been taken as a temporary measure since no responsible government can continue to sustain this situation for a long time.

Although the damage to the vital installations under the previous air-strikes are said to be minor, there is no guarantee that the next possible strike will have the same effect unless urgent countermeasures are taken by the government to prevent possible disasters.

It is not only the LTTE who is trying to achieve its objectives of crippling the country's economy and creating political instability in Sri Lanka by all means. There are other foreign funded NGOs and international conspirators interested in the internal affairs of the country to share the same objectives. The alleged interference of the British government, its high commissioner and some parliamentarians after the exposure of the true colour of the peace merchants of the Norwegian government is a case in point.

Sadly, another threat (as reported in media) said to have been made by the trade union wing of the JVP with series of strikes from middle of this month and called upon workers to 'establish an administration of the working class' has come at a time when the LTTE has threatened the government with a series of air-strikes.

The 'formation of an administration of the working class' is not a new slogan to the ordinary citizens who witnessed the consequences of such acts of old Marxist parties, during the past. The majority of the voters got fed up with the 'comrades' and joined hands with the 'capitalists' of the country in 1997 and gave an unprecedented mandate to form an administration based on 'free economy'.

The capitalist administration, thus formed in 1997 by JRJ, had introduced almost an unchangeable constitution, free economy, drug business, underworld thuggery to politics, torture chambers, communal riots, terrorism, foreign forces and interference, 'bheesana samaya' etc and the country is still struggling to get out the mesh created by the regime.

JVP, despite its miscalculation of the extent of state power twice, has done well to safeguard the national interests of the country during the last few years. The party fought against Chandrika's infamous devolution package, P-TOMS and the amalgamation of North-East issue and took a leading role to ensure the defeat of Ranil during the last presidential election and supported the formation of Mahinda administration, all for the betterment of the country.

The same very administration, which they supported to establish, managed to lead the security forces to secure the eastern province from terrorist and is now facing a challenging situation due to air-strikes of the terrorist, treacherous acts of the same very person they defeated and undue local and foreign interference in favour of separatism.

It is true that the administration has many shortcomings but what is needed is to weigh the pros and cons and to get the maximum benefit out of what is available to defeat terrorism without repeating the same mistakes done in the past by the old 'comrades'. One cannot expect to have a clean administration within a short period of time after decades of corrupted regimes led by the leaderships of both the main parties. There is no doubt that the groups favourable to the LTTE are waiting to see another opportunity to weaken the patriotic forces by hook or crook.

Therefore JVP, who managed to set up an example to other politicians of the day with regard to corruption and dedication, should think twice before they act at this crucial juncture, failure of which may strengthen the hand of the terrorist and completely jeopardise what the country has achieved up to now due to its own contributions.