|
Nothing but
Lip Service: Ranil?s Political Solution
Dilrook
Kannangara
It has been twenty (20) years since the UNP came up with any political
solution, proposal, framework or policy for discussion for the much
talked about political solution to the ethnic problem. The existence
of an ethnic problem in Sri Lanka is highly dubious; however, the
UNP has many a time accepted the existence of it and has gained a
lot of votes over it. It is time that the UNP gives back to the Tamils
and Muslims the illusive political solution that the UNP promised
but avoided for the past 20 years.
It should be noted that even the 1987 attempt to ‘solve the ethnic
problem’ via the 13th amendment, etc. was forced upon them and
therefore the UNP cannot have any credit for it; even for attempting.
Why does the UNP vehemently avoid political solutions?
There are a few striking reasons.
-
The LTTE avoids them as well; being the Servant
of the LTTE, the UNP is left with no leeway to divert from the stance
of its Master.
This is the same reason why the TNA also avoids the issue of political
solutions. They are for disintegration and not devolution. The funny
name ‘tamil eelam’ is proposed for the inconceivable child
of the LTTE and the Tamil people. No wonder Tamils distance themselves
from the ‘tamil eelam’; they have settled in millions
among the Sinhalese and continue to run away from the LTTE ‘liberation’
in their thousands!! But the LTTE has found another mate –
the UNP; and the rest is public knowledge.
-
The UNP, LTTE and their offspring (peace humbugs,
some NGOs, bankrupt politicians and psychopath ‘professionals’
–their fancy title is “alternative policymakers”)
believe in terrorism as the (only) means of winning the rights of
the Tamil people. They fuel terrorism and promote terrorism as evidenced
from the CFA, MoUs, the broadcasting equipments issue, Jayalath
Jeyawardena’s nonsense, etc. On the other hand they force a
submissive approach upon the government.
-
Fear of losing their grip on the minorities when
tolerance replaces ethnic tensions, democracy replaces terrorism,
unity replaces division, ambit of human rights broadening to cover
the whole population instead of terrorists and terror suspects and
schools replace terror bunkers. These may translate to losing Tamil
votes and adversaries of the UNP engaging in election rallies without
terror attacks. Additionally, development focus of the voters plus
the UNP’s inability to manage a people-friendly economy means
election loss. The plight of the most ardent UNP voters- the upcountry
Tamils- depicts what the UNP has in store for their voters. However,
‘ethnic isolation’ has been used to rob their votes. This
game can only last as long as ignorance and division remain rule
the day.
-
Peace industry is another big consideration; remember
Charles Gnanakone, Raj Rajaratnam and Lalith Kotalawala’s freedom
fighters? The Peace Industry has the following finance inflow streams.
4.1.1. Donations from ‘peace mongers’ for advancing their
distorted versions of peace (true peace need no advocates or financiers!)
4.1.2. Donations from LTTE front organisations, LTTE charities and
LTTE sympathisers
4.1.3. Gratifications and commissions for facilitating the transfer
of weapons, telecom/broadcasting equipment to the LTTE
4.1.4. Donations from anti-Buddhist and anti-Hindu organisations
4.1.5. Grants from NGOs for supporting their projects and for the
sustenance of their disaster management projects. No disasters mean
no business for these NGOs, so they love sustenance of long term
disasters just as a drugs supplier would do his utmost to sustain
the cravings of its victims.
4.1.6. Payments and other kickbacks from LTTE affiliated industries.
These industries cover drugs, the underworld, forced conversions,
dishonest businesses-mainly illegal finance companies and immoral
industries.
4.1.7. Pleasures of foreign trips and foreign brothels with the
company of the LTTE delegation; they called it ‘peace talks’
and tax payers paid the bill.
4.1.8. The possibility of winning some awards/prizes for working
for ‘peace’. It’s a shame that CFA didn’t attract
the peace prize for Ranil and Parabha. Instead they awarded it to
the fiercest critic of the CFA!
There are no think-tanks within the UNP to contribute to political
solutions. Today the UNP depends heavily on charges made by Mangala,
Sripathy and Chandrika to grab attention. Ranil’s stranglehold
on electronic media and print media is the only piece of cloth to
cover his pitiable state. The present UNP Residue of 43 MPs can
never formulate anything significant, let alone political solutions.
Ranil is busy holding onto the Opposition Leader’s position
than concerned with anything else. At least the UNP MPs should not
have burnt others’ proposals in Parliament while Ranil was
at sleep; they are the real parliament jokers.
And the joke continues; Ranil has challenged the government to come
up with devolution proposals. The government initiated this process
and is actively crafting theirs. Even the UNP ‘dissidents’
or the UNP cream as some call them are busy compiling theirs. What
about the UNP; where are their proposals? Well, the UNPers are going
to fall asleep in Parliament and burn others’ proposals when
awakened.
We urge the government to go to town over UNP’s inability to
come up with specific proposals for the grand political solution.
Also we urge the government to expose the duplicity of the UNP on
their commitment to a political solution to the conflict. It may
trigger more cross-overs; five more wickets and the UNP will be
all out! We will have a new Opposition Leader who is capable of
delivering more than Ranil’s lip work.
Considering all this, there emerges the century old question. Do
we need a United NATIONAL (emphasis added) Party? We only have ONE
(1) nationality and we are more than united, we are UNIFIED as Sri
Lankans. But we need a National Party to take the stance we expected
from DS Senanayake on our unitary state, our sovereignty, our national
right of self determination and to remain unwaveringly committed
to the nationalist cause.
Karu Jayasuriya has to rise up to the challenge of leading the National
Party. Sri Lanka will have a formidable batting line-up including
the PM, the President, the (new) Opposition leader and the leader
of the National Party and of course a huge Cabinet to face any challenge.
It is also pivotal that our national leaders are protected from
LTTE barbarians.
Let’s start the process by counter challenging the UNP to come
up with their own political solution; they’ve played their
hide-and-seek game for too long.
|
