THE BOAT EPISODE
The recent boat episode clearly demonstrates that the so-called Memorandum of Understanding is an agreement between the LTTE and the "government of Sri Lanka" on surrendering the northern and the eastern provinces of the country to a gang of terrorists that has the support of the west. As far as the west is concerned the LTTE has now become the most "economical" weapon against India. LTTE has "graduated" from being only a hand against Sinhalathva in Sri Lanka to an effective weapon in the armory of the USA against India. The USA - LTTE (Eelam) - Japan axis is in operation against India and the rest of South Asia. Sri Lanka, due to a set of politicians who could not see beyond the Anglo Saxon world would soon become the "pariah" in the Afro Asian world. The leadership of the UNP, the Uncle Nephew Party, has seen the most subservient set of "leaders" who would go to any extent to please their western masters. They are the nephews of uncle Sam and are not merely the uncles and the nephews of each other. The "proto UNP" of the nineteen twenties, that helped the British to defeat Anagarakia Dharmapala and thus thwarted the independence struggle, resorted to send petitions to the British colonial secretary not to gain independence but a dominion state. It should be remembered that for number of years the former USSR vetoed any resolution to admit "independent" Sri Lanka as a member of the United Nations.
The ministry of Defense is not defending the country any more. It has become the ministry of Defense of the LTTE. When the so-called monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, that happens to be another mission from the Christian west, who went aboard the arms carrying ship to inspect it, made a statement to the effect that the LTTE terrorists set fire to the ship before they (missionaries) were asked to leave the ship, the Defense ministry contradicted it by claiming that the monitors were warned before the terrorists did the damage. The Defense ministry would claim that they were not defending the LTTE but were only giving the correct facts. If that is the case then it implies that the statement by the monitors is misleading, to say the least. The Defense ministry not satisfied with issuing a statement contradicting the monitors, rushed to identify the boat as one registered in India. What was the hurry to do so? Did the ministry want to imply that India had a hand in the LTTE smuggling arms to the country. Here again the ministry could say that it was a fact. But now since the Indian High Commission has protested against the statement by the ministry of Defense, their self Defense would not be that good.
The Norwegian embassy has tried to protect the LTTE with its statement issued on the incident. The statement does not mention the death of the three LTTE terrorists and the embassy has not even condemned the violation of their own "memorandum of understanding." The Norwegian embassy, headed by Jon Westborg, whom the majority of the people in Sri Lanka want to be deported, wishes to blame the Sri Lankan Navy for the episode. The stand taken by Anton Balasingham is more explicit and he has accused the Navy for checking the LTTE ship.
The "government of Sri Lanka", in spite of requests from Maha Sangha and different organisations to declare Westborg a persona non grata, has decided to keep Westborg for another three months as the ambassador of the Christian Norwegian state. This clearly shows that the "government" is not concerned about the views of the Sinhala people. It is true that the majority of the Sinhala people voted for the PA and the JVP at the last general elections, but that should not be a reason for the "government" to
ignore the Sinhala people in taking decisions.
It is quite clear that the west that spread, in collaboration with the Tamil racists, the myth that the Tamils have grievances in the country because of discrimination by the Sinhalas, especially the Sinhala Buddhists, is determined to teach a lesson to the Sinhala people. There are some Sinhalas who think that the west and their representatives in Sri Lanka including the "UNF government" would have listened to the Sinhalas if the latter were armed. These people are of the opinion that the "government" listens only to the "vedi handa" or the talk with the barrel. However, I do not think so and it is disadvantages for the Sinhalas or even to the Muslims to be armed, as the west is determined to crush any non Christian armed struggle and would help the 'government" to defeat any such movement, with their might. What could be done is to dissolve the parliament, send this "government" home, appoint an interim cabinet and hold general elections as soon as possible. The majority of the Sinhalas and the Muslims are not with the UNF and an SLFP - JVP - MEP coalition that has the support of the vast majority of the Sinhalas is bound to win with a comfortable parliamentary majority. Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga should not consider the opinion of the west that is not concerned with the views of the Sinhala people and should not be afraid of using the powers of the executive President, under the JR Jayawardhane constitution.
There is nothing that west that pretends to be democratic could do under such circumstances and with a foreign policy that does not toe the line of the west, an SLFP- JVP- MEP government should be able to crush the LTTE terrorists who have become a threat to the peace in the South Asian region. The LTTE has to be defeated before a South Asian Israel is established with the help of the west, in the name of a Thamil Eelam. Otherwise there would not be any peace in this region until the western civilisation is defeated on a global scale, an event that is inevitable, though I would not predict when it would happen. The last five hundred years under western colonialism have been an aberration in the history of the mankind and globally it would come to an end unless it manages to wipe out the entire humanity from the surface of the earth before that.
However, there are various advisors to the President, who are ex, neo and retired Marxists and a few western liberals who are out of touch with what is happening around them, and they would try to influence her not to take such "drastic" action. The President has to be protected from some of her advisors and the JVP has a big role to play in this power game. As I have said on many occasions, the majority of the Sinhalas are against federalism and not even quasi federalism is supported by them. There is no reason why the unitary or the eksesath state, of more than two thousand years, should be changed. Even if there are so called grievances of the Tamils it is clear that a Federal state would not solve such problems, as clearly demonstrated by the latest demand of the LTTE terrorists, who head the Tamil racist movement at present, at the so-called peace talks in Berlin. They want the "government" to appoint committees to go into the problems of the Tamils in the districts outside the northern and the eastern provinces. Uncle Sam and the Sri Lankan nephews have agreed to the demand of the Tamil terrorists and given an assurance that such committees would be formed. It is a case of Balasingham demanding and GL Peiris and Moragoda agreeing. Even two "pambayas" (scarecrows) would have done the job for Uncle Sam.
If there are problems of the Tamils not solved by a federal state what is the problem that it is supposed to solve? Why not the President stop this humbug immediately by dissolving the parliament and she herself ponder on these so called problems of the Tamils. The whole problem started when around 1912 when the Tamil racist leaders realised that they could not continue to be the leaders of the country as a whole. Until then with the maneuvering by the British, the Tamils, especially the Coomaraswamy -
Ponnambalam family, had been the leaders of the country, but with the introduction of limited franchise to the so called educated Ceylonese (In the case of the Sinhalas, they were the least educated with respect to the history and the culture of the country) the Tamil racists who had wanted a united Sri Lanka under their leadership realised that their dream would not be realised. They demanded representation in the western province not on a territorial but on a racist basis. This demand cannot be compared with the creation of Seruwila and other electorates that are territorial in principle. There are Tamils in Seruwila but in the case of the western province electorate for the Tamils, it was not an electorate that had any of the so-called educated Sinhalas, that the Tamil racists demanded. The problem in this country is nothing but depriving Sinhalathva its rightful place with respect to leadership, employment, business etc., with the help of the Christian west.
Coming back to the boat episode, according to Balasingham who was explicit and Westborg who was implicit, it is the Sri Lankan Navy that has blundered. The terrorists and their supporters who are defended by the Ministry of Defense, are of the view that the Navy should not intercept any ships carrying arms for the LTTE. The LTTE by transporting arms do not violate the MOU drafted by Norway but the Sri Lankan Navy that checks the ships carrying weapons is to be blamed. What we need is not joint Naval exercises with the USA navy to "warn" the Indians but joint operations with the Indian Navy to cut off supplies of arms to the terrorists. If the USA is well meaning they could have used their Navy to do this job without any difficulty, but they would not do so as their intention is to see that the LTTE is well armed before the next confrontation with the Sri Lankan armed forces begins. The "government" will try to make sure that the armed forces are not prepared when the LTTE is armed to the teeth to take on the former.
The missionaries, meaning the members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, have said that they are not prepared to sacrifice their lives, I thought the missionaries should be prepared to do anything for the success of the mission, and that they would not go aboard to check the LTTE ships and boats. In any event from the boat episode it is clear that they are not the best to undertake such inspection, which should have been left to the Sri Lankan Navy. The Navy is forbidden to carry out any inspection by the cyanide swallowing LTTE terrorists and with the missionaries backing out the terrorists would now have a field day, or is it a sea day, in smuggling arms. The nephews of uncle Sam who are globe trotting under the pretext of peace talks have no say in these matters. They could only claim that the MOU is in tact, it must be in tact like the hymen of a prostitute, and plan for the first anniversary for the marriage between the LTTE and the "Sri Lankan government". If the MOU is in tact it simply demonstrates the impotency of the "pambaya" nephews of Uncle Sam, who consider impotency to be an important virtue.
Professor Nalin de Silva
>
>
>