NORWEGIAN BLACKMAIL
Norway has withdrawn from the so called peace process, temporarily according to Vidar Helgessen, after doing the maximum damage to a "permanent" peace in this country. The Sinhala Buddhists know that there is nothing permanent in the universe, and permanent peace does not mean an eternal truce. However, this country has experienced peaceful times over long periods sometimes extending to few centuries and the word permanent is used to denote a long period compared to the life span of an "average" person. It is very clear, or clear as a crystal as my friend Dr.G. L. Peiris would put it in his pedantic style, that Norway is blackmailing the country. Norwegians assume that the people are of the view that the services of Norway are essential. What the Norwegians do not know is that the majority of the Sinhalas do not want to see Helgessens and Solheims coming out of the Katunayake airport in the future. However, unfortunately the so called leaders of the Sinhalas could be the most subservient set that is found in the world and with them the Norwegians know how to "play the game".
Norway got themselves invited as the so called facilitator of the "peace process" on the strength of the hegemony of the western powers. We knew from the very beginning that the Norwegians were the facilitator of Eelam. They were here to facilitate the establishment of Eelam. Though an Eelam is yet to be established Norway had legitimised the LTTE with the signing of the treacherous MoU which the Norwegians helped to draft and was on the verge of making the "sea tigers" an officially recognised "navy" in the eyes of the so called international community. The western powers had already recognised the "sea tigers" but there was no binding document for them to show to the others that the LTTE had a "navy". It was the process of recognising the "sea tigers" that finally made the president to use the executive powers that the JRJ constitution has vested in her.
Norway and the other western countries especially the USA and the UK in the meantime had helped the "internationally recognised" LTTE to submit its proposals on a confederation that paves the way for an Eelam. The "interim self governing authority" is nothing but a confederation. Any interim solution has a "final" resolution that the former would try to meet. Interim proposals are only transitional that pave the way for a final document that embraces the interim solution. Interim has to be interpreted as transitional from the present to the future and an interim state is in between the present state and a future state. The so called "interim proposals" were given currency by the Norwegians on behalf of the western powers and Norway having withdrawn from the process of Eelamisation, mischievously named the peace process, wants to come back to complete the treachery against the Sinhalas. They want to convince the Sinhalas that they (Norwegians) have to be invited to complete the worst betrayal in the country. They have decided to blackmail the country through the PA, by withdrawing from the process of Eelamisation.
The legitimisation of the sea tigers was getting delayed thanks to heroic commitment of the Sri Lankan Navy and the president was the other obstacle on the way of the process of Eelamisation mainly due to her personal power struggle with the UNF "government". The president had to act in order to defend her executive "powers" from the encroaching cabinet that acted on behalf of the legislature. The matter was referred to the Supreme Court but the legislature in their impatience decided to impeach the chief justice before the supreme court would have decided in favour of the president in agreement with the constitution of the "second republic" according to JRJ. The decision to impeach the CJ amounted to politicising the judiciary and the whole judicial system joined hands against the legislature that attempted to politically influence the judiciary. If the legislature was given the time and the freedom to go through the impeachment against the chief justice the president knew that it would be her turn next. The legislature was trying to gain power at the expense of the judiciary and the executive, on behalf of Tamil racism that is maintained and sponsored by the western powers. The president had to act for her personal survival more than that of the country and she had no alternative but to take over three important ministries and prorogue the sessions of the parliament making the impeachment motion invalid at least for the time being.
The UNF with or without Ranil Wickremesinghe in the country could not muster power in the form of public opinion or organised rallies and pickets (udghoshana) to force the president to give back the three ministries to nominees of the prime minister. On the other hand the president also could not induce any UNF MP to join the PA to form a government. The UNF still enjoys a majority in the parliament and the president has reverted back to the national government rhetoric. She has extended an invitation to all the political parties represented in the parliament, to form a national government.
As soon as Ranil Wickremesinghe came back to the country from his much publicised meeting with the president of the USA the UNP would have known that there was no possibility of applying pressure on the president to force her to give back the three ministries. The "masses" did not "turn out" in the proportions the UNF had expected and getting back the three ministries was not that easy. This is where the Norwegians had to intervene on behalf of Tamil racism. Ranil Wickremesinghe did not lose time in declaring that if the president was in charge of the ministry of defence then she had to be in charge of the process of Eelamisation as well. Obviously the president had not expected the UNF to adopt such tactics and all that she could say was that she was prepared to form a "national government". The Norwegians had a discussion with the president and they announced that the "peace process" was in tact meaning that the country was not in tact. However, within forty eight hours of meeting the president the Norwegians declared that unless they knew who was responsible for the "peace process", there was no way of "facilitating" and hence suspended their "services" to the country temporarily.
The Vikings know their onions and we all know that they know their onions. There are number of options available. (i) The president is in charge of both the relevant ministries and the process of Eelamisation. (ii) The president is in charge of the ministries but the prime minister is responsible for negotiations. (iii) The prime minister is in charge of the ministries as well as the process of Eelamisation. (iv) The president is in charge of the process of Eelamisation and the prime minister is responsible for the three ministries. There is a fifth option where neither the president nor the prime minister is responsible for any one of the ministries and the process of Eelamisation, but another party(ies) is (are) responsible for these activities and a sixth option where nobody is responsible for either the ministries or the "process". (There are four more options involving the third party (ies) and either the president or the prime minister). Norway wants the Sri Lankan "leaders" to agree on one of these options and inform them so that they could complete the process of Eelamisation. It is obvious that the prime minister is agreeable only to options (i) or (iii) but the president is not in favour of either. Thus there is a stalemate at the very beginning. Norwegians who had previously said that process of Eelamisation would go unhindered, all of a sudden wanted to know who is in charge of what. The Norwegians have said that they would come back once a decision is taken on the responsibilities. Thus they are blackmailing the leaders (country) telling us "look peace is essential for the development of the country (the businessmen who are incapable of generating an economy - they are only good at "borrowing" money from mainly the state banks and then engaging in buying and selling like the pavement hawkers.) and we are all out to help your beautiful country but solve your power struggle first, for us to help you". However, what they do not say is that they want option (iii) and nothing else. The Norwegians have twisted the hands of the president and blackmailed her whether she and her so called advisors realise it or not.
The UNF that does not have the strength to force the president to give back the three ministries have become a force thanks to the foreign intervention. The president has been cornered by the UNF with the help of the Norwegians. The president has only two options now. Either dissolve the parliament and go before the public and/or ask the Vikings to concentrate on the peace in the western Asia. In either case the President has not so much power in terms of pickets and rallies as PA only, and she was determined to enter into an alliance with the JVP before the nineteenth, the day on which the new sessions of the parliament are scheduled to begin. The president should know by now that only a broad alliance of the nationalist forces could save her and the country. The majority of the Sinhala people, not the majority of her so called advisors, want an alliance not only of the SLFP, the JVP and the MEP but of the Sihala Urumaya and the Bhomiputhra party as well, if one is thinking in terms of the registered political parties. However, the president after finalising the draft of the agreement between the PA and the JVP has decided to postpone the signing to a later date, on the advise of one of her Kevattyas.
Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga's problem is that she has no nationalist policy. As we have said on number of occasions she does not reflect the "aspirations" of the SLFP as a party. The pink socialist she was in her youth, she is more a Kumaratunga than a Bandaranaike. The betrayal of the Sinhala people began in the recent years with her husband who used his popularity as an actor to hoodwink the Sinhala people. How many of her so called advisors have any links with the rural masses who vote for the SLFP? These "advisors" only mislead her but she doesn't have to be misled as she is more guided by a western chinthanaya than a Sinhala chinthanaya. She takes a nationalist stand only when her very survival is under threat and when she has no other option. Sometimes she is unaware that her survival has been challenged but she continues to listen to her English speaking advisors drawn from the non nationalist forces. Unfortunately the leader of the opposition is a prisoner in the hands of the NGOs and he is worse than the leader of the party when it comes to the feelings of the Sinhala people. Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse is not in touch with the people of Giruwa Paththuwa and if he succeeds to get elected at the next general elections it is because he is a Rajapakse and since the people in the south have a respect for that name.
In our history there have been occasions when non nationals took care of the offspring of the kings and the leaders only to use them later as agents against Sinhalathva. We have often referred to Dona Kathirana. Long before her it was a Vaithulla Bhikku Sangamithra who came from Chola Desa to take care of Mahasen. In the recent years the NGOs have been doing the very same and we are witnessing the same phenomenon. The ideology of the NGOs is Vaithulyavadi in more than one sense. Unfortunately this time around we do not have a Konoppu Bandara or a Meghawarnabhaya and we are going through a very bad patch in our history. However, that does not mean that we cannot defeat Tamil racism that is being used by the western colonialists to destroy Sinhalathva. The nationalist forces should get together to give direction to the president in the coming weeks before she herself becomes a prisoner of her so called advisors.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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