{"id":142115,"date":"2015-04-02T13:38:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T08:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=142115"},"modified":"2015-04-07T17:17:42","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T11:47:42","slug":"reconciliation-ranil-chandrika-or-maithri-mahinda-sajith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/reconciliation-ranil-chandrika-or-maithri-mahinda-sajith\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconciliation: Ranil-Chandrika Or Maithri-Mahinda-Sajith?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dayan Jayatilleka<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka<\/p><\/div>\n

On his three day trip to the North Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/a>, promised a political solution to the ethnic question, without which he said, there would be no stability.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, according to an interview given to Ceylon Today<\/em>, \u201cTamil National Alliance (TNA) Leader Rajavarothayam Sampanthan<\/span><\/a> expressed confidence in the ability of the Special Presidential Commission headed by Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga<\/span><\/a> to find a suitable solution by the end of this year, to the issues confronting the Tamil people. \u2018\u2026When Kumaratunga became the President in 1994, she was very keen about settling the grievances of the Tamil people and she also mooted a suitable political solution to those issues. We were however, unable to see anything come out of it\u2019 he said.\u201d (\u2018TNA Confident in CBK Headed Commission\u2019, Mirudhala Thambaiah, Ceylon Today<\/em>, March 31, 2015)<\/p>\n

To this expression of confidence by the TNA in CBK, all I can say is: \u201cI\u2019ll bet\u201d.<\/p>\n

How can Ranil and Chandrika politically reconcile the Sinhalese and the Tamils when they cannot themselves reconcile with the majority of Sinhalese? These are not personalities the majority of Sinhalese trust politically, to safeguard their interests and natural, demographically derived leading share of political and state power on the island. In that sense they are the very worst personalities to be entrusted with the task of ethno-political reconciliation.<\/p>\n

CBK\u2019s Track Record<\/strong><\/p>\n

The moderate, Westernized wing of the SLFP led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga had its chance to win the war and re-mould Sri Lanka in accordance with its more reformist pluralist ideology but it threw the chance away.<\/p>\n

The re-taking of Jaffna in 1996 was vitiated by the failure to cut off the LTTE\u2019s retreat thereby permitting the Tigers to escape together with large number of civilians, base themselves in Mullaitivu, regroup and make a dramatic comeback. The strategy was one of taking territory rather than annihilating the enemy; recruitment was negatively affected by campaigns such as Sudu Nelum, Thavalama and the efforts of the National Integration Policy Unit (NIPU) etc; corruption was rampant in the sphere of defence procurement. Above all, there was no commitment to a strategic goal of destroying the enemy but rather to one of driving the Tigers to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

Worse still, the Karuna\u2019s rebellion was double-crossed and Prabhakaran\u2019s Sea Tigers allowed to violate the CFA and land in his rear area; General Sarath Fonseka<\/span><\/a> was transferred from Jaffna and placed on the shelf in charge of the Volunteers; and the tsunami weakened Tigers were sought to be given an administrative\u2013financial authority in the form of the PTOMS, probably as part of a projected deal with the TNA which would permit CBK\u2019s \u201cConstitutional Revolution\u201d which would have enabled her to waddle into Parliament as PM, foreclosing Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>\u2019s chance of being elected President.<\/p>\n

Ranil\u2019s Record of Reconciliation<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Feb. 22nd<\/sup> 2002, Mr. Prabhakaran signed the Cease Fire Agreement negotiated by Norway\u2019s Erich Solheim with the then Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.<\/p>\n

The CFA enabled the Tigers to come into territory controlled by the state but disallowed the state from going into theirs. With the signing of the MoU, the democratic and legitimate Sri Lankan state conceded parity of status to Prabhakaran and his Tigers. It also agreed to the disarming of the anti-LTTE Tamil organizations while the Tigers remained armed to the teeth.<\/p>\n

The Wickremesinghe administration at the highest levels, asserted that the war was unwinnable, hence its concession-heavy peace drive. This assertion was a lie. The SLA Special Forces \u2018deep penetration\u2019 teams had \u2018decommissioned\u2019 around eight LTTE field commanders in eight months, including Shankar, the ex-aeronautics engineer from Canada who had planned the Katunayake Airport attack.<\/p>\n

The government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had put this elite strike force \u2018beyond use\u2019, done Prabhakaran<\/span><\/a> the enormous favour of getting them off his back, by stabbing them in the back. The entire covert operation and its support network were blown.<\/p>\n

Months before the incident commonly known as the \u2018Aturugiriya\u2019 affair, a leading Sunday newspaper blew the whistle on the thermobaric SHMEL ordnance, which by the subsequent reports in that paper itself, had devastated Tigers in their dens. It was the Tiger-zapping \u2018weapon of choice\u2019 of the deep penetration teams.<\/p>\n

Immediately after that expose, a group of 14 Tamil MPs (who were soon to become the fellow- travelling TNA) protested to the President and the diplomatic community about the use of the weapon as a \u2018war crime\u2019, an \u2018atrocity\u2019.<\/p>\n

Then came the kicker. During the election campaign, none other and none less than the UNP Chairman put the spotlight on the project, complaining to the Elections Commissioner about the Directorate of Military Intelligence, the thermobaric weapons, the teams\u2019 ethnic composition, their training bases etc. Who gave the information, on whose behalf was the finger pointed and as part of what deal?<\/p>\n

Virtually the morning after the election, came the Athurugiriya Millennium City raid, the TV coverage, the Interior Minister\u2019s action. The existence of such teams was exposed, deniability over, cover blown. Our own government, our own authorities, fingered our own Directorate of Military Intelligence and compromised the deterrent capacity of our own state. Where else in the world would this happen?<\/p>\n

CBK\u2019s PTOMS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The P-TOMS agreement was negotiated on behalf of President Kumaratunga by veteran Sri Lankan diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala and her Ethnic Affairs Advisor. (Both \u2018negotiators\u2019 are back in the post January 8th<\/sup> government-state apparatus). It was a sell-out, and one that was not in the least warranted, given the advantageous position the Lankan state was in and the weakened situation of the Tigers, in the aftermath of the Tsunami.<\/p>\n

The state acceded to an outcome in which the murderously aggressive \u2018negotiating partner\u2019 was accorded preponderance: the largest single share, plus the Chairmanship and the casting vote in the regional committee, while the government was relegated to the deputy chair. The PTOMS contained a hegemonic structural preponderance for the LTTE.<\/p>\n

A Supreme Court ruling spearheaded by Chief Justice Sarath N Silva aborted Chandrika\u2019s PTOMS. Today her disastrous, anti-national Sudu Nelum\/PTOMS crew is back, working on the 19th<\/sup> amendment and the Ethnic Reconciliation Task Force. Not for long one hopes, what with elections likely in the latter half of this year.<\/p>\n

A Maithri-Mahinda-Sajith Equation<\/strong><\/p>\n

US Army Major Paul Marks was right, when in an essay in the Joint Forces Quarterly of Spring 2000, he identified Sri Lanka\u2019s central weakness: \u201cstrategic direction from the political authorities <\/strong>has never been adequate\u2026This absence of strategy is matched by a lack of success<\/em>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus what was most crucial was the role and responsibility of \u201cthe political authorities\u201d. That\u2019s where the real failure resided. That where it had to be rectified. Nothing else would suffice. When at long last, Sri Lanka produced the \u201cpolitical authorities\u201d that got it right; when Mahinda Rajapaksa became the highest \u2018political authority\u2019, the three decades long conflict was brought to a close.<\/p>\n

The manifestly unsuccessful \u2018political authorities\u2019 of yesteryear, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe are two of the three personalities who constitute the political authority today! Those who failed the country in its hour of greatest need direct the destinies of the country! By contrast the one person who when he was the \u201cpolitical authority\u201d provided the vital direction for victory is at home and is sought to be politically marginalized. What\u2019s wrong with this picture? The upcoming general election gives us a chance to rectify this massive anomaly; nay, utter travesty.<\/p>\n

My bottom line is this: Let President Maithripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a> handle post-war politico-ethnic reconciliation while a new Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, guarantees state sovereignty, security and the national interest, and Sajith Premadasa<\/span><\/a> provide patriotic leadership to the UNP and the Opposition. Such a triangle can give us peace and reconciliation with security and stability. Let\u2019s get Ranil and Chandrika out of our hair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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