CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Are Ranil Wickremasinghe and the Fellow UNPers Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

S. Hewage

Ranil Wickremasinghe, the leader of the United National Party (UNP), and his fellow party members appear to be suffering from Stockholm syndrome in the phase of Sri Lanka’s battle against the Tamil Tigers Terrorist group. In recent months, Ranil and the leading members of the UNP, the main opposition in the Sri Lankan parliament, have been trying hard to belittle the achievements of the armed forces, and the determination of the commander in chief, president Mahinda Rajapaksa, while expressing subtle sympathy with the terrorist outfit. Their frequent news conferences highlight thinly disguised emotional attachment to the terrorist outfit, and adoration of their desperate tactics. According to psychiatrist, Nils Bejerot, who coined the particular term, Stockholm syndrome is a broad psychological condition in which the victim develops a sympathetic attitude to the perpetrator of the crime.

The victim tends to display emotional attachment to his/her oppressor, and even defends the oppressive actions regardless of the danger. This is very common among the victims of such crimes as kidnapping, hostage-takings, and even the victims of long-term abuse.

During the last three decades, the LTTE terrorists have killed many prominent members of the UNP more than of any other political party in the country. On the top of the list were Ranasinghe Premadasa, Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanaike, and Ranjan Wijerathna. In addition, a large number of less prominent Sinhalese and Tamil members of the UNP was killed by the terrorist group during the last three decades. However, the current leader, Ranil Wickremasinghe and other leading figures of the party are very reluctant to criticize the terrorist group during their public speeches, frequent news conferences, and even in parliamentary debates.

Many observers find it troublesome that the UNP leadership has become accustomed to attacking the president and the defense secretary for their determined campaign to rid the country from the scourge of LTTE terrorism. What is even more disturbing is the degree of sympathy that Ranil and his party men seem to have developed toward the LTTE, the group known to be the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world.

The onset of symptoms of emotional attachment to the terrorist group began to develop in the late 1990s, following a wave of LTTE atrocities against the UNP regime. When Ranil Wickremasinge became the prime minister in 2002, he signed a secret peace accord with the leader of the group, Velupille Prabhakaran, the man convicted in absentia for the assassination of Rajive Gandhi, the prime minister of India. This secret agreement, according to many observers, helped to legitimize the murderous tactics and clandestine operations of the group, not only in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka, but also in other countries in Europe and North America.

The so-called peace agreement had nothing to do with the cessation of violence, recruitment of Tamil children for combat training, extortion, smuggling weapons, and a host of other crimes carried out by the group. Rather, it was designed to strengthen the group as a fascist, criminal organization with a long-term objective of establishing a mono-ethnic feudal state, in which Prabhakaran and his terrorist organization could continue to enjoy the status of “sole representative” of the Tamil people. The irony was that this particular agreement was not only anti-democratic by any measure of the term, it was drafted by the Norwegian government representatives who have become accustomed to accommodate the Tamil terrorist outfit’s unceasing demands for greater recognition from the international community.

The LTTE has been able to mesmerize the international community with its brutal terror campaign for more than 30 years with the results that not only Ranil Wickremasinghe and his fellow UNPers appear to be suffering from Stockholm syndrome, but also the Norwegian peace brokers, and some politicians in the west who, time and time again, come to the rescue of this terrorist group. This continuing appeasement of the terrorist group serves only to contribute to the unabated misery of the Tamil community, in particular, and the Sri Lankan society, in general.

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