ACHIEVE PEACE BY DEFEATING LTTE
The LTTE has been exposed at last, and now everybody seems to know that the terrorists are no match for the Sri Lankan armed forces. They are only good at throwing bombs and exploding human bombs, sometimes killing hundreds of innocent civilians in the process. The LTTE cannot take on the armed forces in a conventional fight, and are doomed to fail if they do so. The armed forces with a new high morale are not prepared to be confined to the barracks any more. The LTTE is not invincible as the so-called experts used to say but would run like a set of jackals when they are hit hard. For the last twenty odd years the LTTE was able to survive only because of the support they got from the "international community", India, Japan and the weak-kneed political leadership in Colombo. In Athulathmudali's time, when the armed forces were wining the battle for Vadamaarachchi, it was India, by resorting to the parippu diplomacy of Dixit, that gave the LTTE the much needed oxygen and parippu to survive. On many occasions the "international community" was interested in the survival of the LTTE and wanted the government to initiate negotiations with the LTTE whenever it was weak.
The LTTE had the support of the western countries, Japan and India from time to time either together or separately, very often without telling the public, especially in the west and Japan, of what was taking place in Sri Lanka. To make matters worse most leaders in Colombo who wielded power were dictated by the west, India and the NGO anti-war brigade. Mahinda Rajapakse at least so far has shown other qualities such as strong political leadership to the dismay of the international forces, and is prepared to honour the pledge he has given to the public in the Mahinda Chinthanaya. He should by now know that whether a country is small or big its sovereignty has to be respected by the "international community", and it is the government of the relevant country that has to take decisions, and not the so-called aid groups and co-chairs.
The LTTE is reported to have said that it is prepared to negotiate with the government if the armed forces are withdrawn to the positions of the CFA. However, unfortunately for the LTTE, the CFA of the Norwegians and others is only a piece of paper thanks to its violations by the LTTE itself. There is no point in crying for an agreement that they had violated, and the answer of the SLFP to the demand by the JVP that the CFA should be abrogated would have been that the agreement is not valid anymore and the need to abrogate it does not arise. The JVP should not raise a hue and cry over a defunct document, but should make things easier for the two parties to come closer. The JVP by demanding the abrogation of the CFA is only giving some legal status to a document that is defunct.
The so-called war experts who had said that the LTTE could not be defeated, have now eaten their words, and are pontificating on post-Sampur activities. It is these "war experts" who have to be exposed without delay as they are poisoning the minds of the people with the so-called effects of war on the people. Some of them would be praying that the LTTE would defeat the armed forces very soon while others are still supporting organisations such as the EPRLF, and are waiting for the day an anti-LTTE force would come to the fore to challenge the Rajapakse government. Those who want the LTTE to defeat the armed forces are probably waiting for the day the "international community" would come to the rescue of the terrorists, and bully the government to give up even the limited operations against the LTTE. Some others would want the UNP to come to power somehow and go back to the so-called process.
Rajapakse, who has been able to muster the support of most political parties, has invited the UNP too to follow suit. However, according to some newspapers the UNP has demanded the post of prime minister while retaining that of the opposition leader in order to support Rajapakse. The strategy appears to be that a section of the UNP joins the government while the others remain in the opposition. If the UNP is to retain the position of the leader of the opposition then it would be necessary to have more members than the JVP has in the opposition, assuming that the latter would decide not to join the government. In any event there is a risk in giving the post of prime minister to the UNP, as the prime minister would succeed Rajapakse in the event he is removed from the post of president. Knowing how the "international community" works in countries such as Sri Lanka, Rajapakse should not consider these demands even in his dreams.
The armed forces should not be ordered to stop the limited operations that they are engaged in at present. Anybody who is interested in peace in this country has to crush the LTTE first, as it is the latter that is the enemy of peace. The anti-war brigade boys and girls would say that the LTTE had to resort to terrorism as there are problems that the Tamils face in the country. Anybody who comes with arguments of the sort is only supporting terrorism, and should be considered as such. Even if the Tamils have problems, they cannot be confined to the Eastern and the Northern Provinces, and there is no logic in demanding a separate federal unit for these two provinces established by the British as late as 1889. If the Tamils have a problem the solution to the problem should be for the entire country where the Tamils are dispersed, and not confined to the Eastern and the Northern Provinces. When the LTTE demands a so -called solution confined to the Eastern and the Northern Provinces it is clear that they have something else on their minds.
The armed forces have done well up to now due to their commitment, training and the sacrifices they have made. This commitment was there, but what had been lacking was a political leadership that could stand up to the "international community", Japan and others who tried to interfere with the politics of a sovereign state by resorting to various ball games. The president up to now has taken decisions without bowing down to the demands of the players and the umpires of these ball games, where the umpires also play when they think it is appropriate to do so. It has to be reminded that limited operations do not mean meeting the enemy only at places the latter decides to attack the armed forces. It also means destroying the bases of the enemy because if not for the bases the enemy would not be in a position to attack the armed forces.
The anti-war brigade who had a protest march and rally in Colombo recently wanted the limited operations also stopped giving the LTTE a free license to kill the people. We were promised by the organisers/speakers that very soon an anti-war rally would be held in Kilinochchi but so far it has not materialised. It is clear that the anti-war brigade is only anti-operations by the armed forces, and not by the LTTE. This was the fact that the bhikkus who protested against the anti-war brigade at the Vihara Maha Devi Park wanted to bring to the notice of the general public. The bhikkus have been successful though some armchair commentators who claim to be Buddhists by birth and conviction have aired their views in The Island against the protests. What some of these Buddhists by birth and conviction do not seem to understand is that what we have in Sri Lanka is Sinhala Buddhism and not Asokan Buddhism or any other variety. In Sinhala Buddhism which has a tradition of going back to the period of (Dutu) Gemunu (Dutu is in my view a term coined by the then armchair Buddhist commentators-not the atuvacharins- who were against Prince Gemunu going to war against the invaders, as a Buddhist) where the bhikkus went from Magama to Anuradhapura with the prince and the army.
In more recent times the bhikkus at Vidyalankara Pirivena had been involved in protests, not to mention Ven. Variyapola Sumangala Thera who protested when the Union Jack was raised in the premises of the Magul Maduwa in Mahanuwara. It is the actions by these bhikkus, some of whom were killed by the British (and the other colonial forces before that), that have protected Sinhala Buddhism in this country, and not the civil and post civil actions by the armchair commentators. As I mentioned in my article on "The Anti War Brigade" the Bhikkus had a right to protest against the so-called anti-war rally going right up to the Vihara Maha Devi Park where the rally was held. The public could go to a public event for which there is an open invitation, either to give support to it or to protest against it, in addition to being mere participants who occasionally clap their hands in a very western traditional way. If the bhikkus confined themselves to the invited area there was nothing that anybody could say in protest. However, they made the mistake of getting on to the stage and as I had said in my article it was one step more, as the stage did not come under the definition of invited area. This action however exposed the character of the anti-war brigade that resorted to violence against the bhikkus instead of offering gilanpasa and negotiating with them. Perhaps there were no mediators and facilitators (facilitraitors) nearby, and the anti-war brigade had no option other than manhandling the Bhikkus.
Even in the future the anti-war brigade has to be exposed in spite of armchair commentators, of course, within the limits of an open invitation. The anti-war brigade is only interested in appeasing the LTTE, and if one listens to the members of the brigade even the limited operations of the armed forces have to be cancelled immediately. We have enough experience of the "war", the "international community", the co-chairs, NGO peace vendors and others to know that the LTTE is only an organisation inflated by the western media who support the terrorists in general, and that it can be crushed by the armed forces, provided the latter is given the correct political leadership. So far what we lacked was the political leadership, and hope that President Rajapakse would not bow down to "international pressure" to stop the limited operations until the LTTE is defeated.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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