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Friday 27 December 2013

Habits, habitats and armed forces


Those who were not in favour of operations against the LTTE have a habit. They wanted the operations to be stopped and engage in so called peace talks with the terrorists. The UNP ridiculed the armed forces and Ranil Wickremesinghe referred to Thoppigala as a jungle. Ravi Karunanayake wanted to find out whether the army was in Medawachchiya when they were in Killinochchi. He probably does not know where Alimankada is as he thought it was another name for Pamankada. As far as he is concerned it appeared that all mankadas were the same. Then Lakshman Kirielele said any ass or some other animal could fight a war. The NGO pundits and self appointed specialists on warfare, echoing the westerners, said that the “war” cannot be won by either party. However, the Sri Lankan armed forces were able to defeat the LTTE and to become the first to defeat a terrorist organization.

The peace talks were to be based on the thirteenth amendment, which was a result of the infamous Indo Lanka Accord which is not a document valid politically or legally. The Indo Lanka Accord referred to the historical habitats of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, and it was to these so called habitats that power was to be devolved in order to solve the “discriminations” against the Tamils by the Sinhala Buddhists, who in the eyes of the westerners and NGO pundits are the worst Chauvinists in the world. The government of the Sinhala people as the Tamil racists call the Sri Lankan government has no respect at all for human rights according to the west, their agent UNP and of course the NGO pundits and the TNA.

Almost all these anti Sinhala Buddhist organizations habitually tell us though the war was won, peace was not won. They seem to be of the opinion that peace could have been won without winning the war. For them winning the “war” was not a necessary condition for peace. It is clear what they mean by peace is not what the vast majority of Sinhalas and probably Tamils have in their minds. As far as the UNP, NGO pundits and others are concerned peace is nothing but betraying the sovereignty of the people and the territorial integrity of the nation. For them peace is handing over a piece of the country to the Tamil racists. In any event most of them talk of a non-existing Tamil nation and their self determination.

It is wrong to say that there is no peace in this country. Peace was won by the Sri Lankan armed forces under the political leadership of the President and the direction of the Defense Secretary. However, England and some other western countries want another \war against the Sinhala people this time through various means. They employ the dispersed Tamils in their countries on one hand and on the other, their so called international organizations such as the UN and human rights agencies, and of course the NGOs. The displaced Tamils operate through a faction of the TNA that had its annual conference recently in Vavunia without Ananda Sangari who was not sympathetic to the LTTE but with the widows of the terrorists and others such as Sumanthiran the MP appointed on the national list. The anti Sinhala lobby shout slogans inside and outside the Parliament, stage demonstrations in London and Geneva and attempt to give the impression that there is no peace in the country. In the whole of Sri Lanka the arrival of the prince of peace was celebrated day before yesterday unlike in the days of Prabhakaran the devil of terrorism and some Bishops of the Catholic Church who dominated the Church then, and some other Churches. We cannot forget that the Bishop of a Christian denomination referred to the terrorist leader as a humane person. It is time for the Catholic and other Christian Churches to look back and correct the mistakes. After all there are Sinhala Catholics and Christians whom the Church cannot ignore in the name of finding so called peace that is detrimental to the sovereignty of the people and the territorial integrity of the nation.     

As we have said very often, this so called solution is backed by the Tamil racist Vadukoddai resolution, though the Tamil problem is more than hundred and fifty years old. The Tamil racists took so much time to formulate “the problem” in order to suit the solution that they had from the state council days. Nagnathan who became the treasurer of the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi (Lanka Tamil State Party) later wanted a separate country for the Tamils even before the first Parliament was elected in 1947. In the case of Tamil racism the solution came first and then the problem was formulated.

However, the process was so artificial that the solution does not address the problem. The problem is “discrimination against the Tamils by the Sinhala Buddhists and their government”. The solution is devolution of power to the historical habitats of the Tamils, identified by the Indo Lanka Accord as the Northern and Eastern Provinces, though the “Eelam Map” refers to an area to the north of Chillaw on the western coast and Panama in the eastern cost. This “Eelam Map” is based on judicial districts demarcated by the Dutch who imported the Vellalas to the country. Incidentally the word Eelam was coined by C Sunthralingam who spelt it as Eylom. If the Tamils are discriminated then a solution has to be found for all the Tamils in the country and not only for the Tamils living in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.  

It has to be emphasized that the solution depends on the concept of habitats as stated in the Indo Lanka Accord. It does not depend on the so called homeland concept and it is clear that it is the concept of habitats that is used to justify the solution of devolution of power to the Northern Province and the Eastern province. Thus when the Catholic Church issues a statement recognizing habitats of the Tamils, the Sinhalas especially the Sinhala Buddhists are disturbed to say the least. The Church in its defense may say that they do not refer to the homeland, but then the notorious Indo Lanka Accord also does not refer to the homeland of the Tamils. The Catholic Church like any other organization is entitled to engage in politics forgetting the differences between the God and Caesar without correcting its mistakes, but then the Church should realize that it is not immune from criticism.

It should be realized even by some ministers belonging to the leftover left, not to mention the TNA leaders that the Provincial Councils in operation today do not confirm to the Indo Lanka Accord as such. The Northern and Eastern Provincial councils act separately and the provinces are not amalgamated for the purpose of implementing the thirteenth amendment and the provincial councils act. The present provincial councils are not a solution to the so called discrimination of the Tamils and they function in the framework of the “eksesath rajya” a form of unitary state if one were to use modern terminology. The Northern Province Provincial council is not different from any other provincial council in the country and this is something that the TNA should realize sooner than later. The original idea of provincial councils was bound to fail as there was no problem to be solved envisaged by the so called solution.

It is in this background that we have to consider the employment of the armed forces in the country. Sumanthiran who said a few weeks ago in a television discussion that there were no Tamil speaking policemen in most of the police stations in the Northern Province, but  did not respond to the media spokesperson for the Police who challenged the honourable MP, is now shouting slogans against the presence of the Army in the Jaffna Peninsula. It is the commander of the Army who decides where to employ the platoons, and as long as Premachandrans, Sritharans who want a separate state it appears that the commander cannot confine the army to the barracks. The Provincial Council of the Northern Province has no authority to decide where the army should be stationed and as long as the Army is not involved in civil administration there is nothing wrong in having the army in the streets of Jaffna or Colombo, if the commander is of the opinion that there are separatists who are controlled by external forces that act against the sovereignty of the people and the integrity of the nation. The faction of Sampanthan and Wigneshwaran is only using Sumanthiran to counter the faction of the dispersed Tamils in the TNA, and this policy would not succeed.


Nalin De Silva

27-12-2013