The UNP, TNA, JVP and some other
political parties are propagating various stories on Paranagama Commission that
has been appointed to investigate into what happened during the humanitarian
operations, especially with regard to those who disappeared and losses of
property. The official terms of reference of the Commission may not be the same
as above but essentially it has to look into the disappearances of individuals
and property losses. What is interesting is that there are not many complaints
from Mannar area where Bishop Rayappu Joseph claims that there was a massacre
of civilians. In fact there are some people including members of Western
Governmental Organisations and dispersed Tamils in the west who make charges
against the government and the armed forces of genocide of Tamils.
The Chief Minister of the Northern
Province, C Wigneswaran and some others have said that they are prepared to
give evidence before the Navi Pillai Committee. However, whether they would
give evidence before the Paranagama Commission is not clear. Wigneswaran is a
retired Judge of the Supreme Court but who apparently does not know the 13th
amendment to the constitution. It has been revealed recently that he has
instructed or given orders to the Secretary of the Northern Provincial Councils
that do not come under his purview. It
could be even abuse of power though nothing has been mentioned on this aspect.
In any event what could be asked is
whether Wigneswaran saw any of the “war crimes” supposed to have been committed
by the armed forces. It is not clear what he is going to tell Navi Pillai
Committee, and we cannot make any observations on Wigneswaran’s evidence in
advance. It is not clear how the Pillai Committee is going to deal with hearsay
evidence but Wigneswaran and other stalwarts of the TNA could go before the
Paranagama Commission in “open court” so that we in Sri Lanka could find out
from them their opinion on so called charges. The Bishop Rayappu Joseph, of
course has already gone on record stating that he has no faith in the
Paranagama Commission. He should have tried to convince the commission of his
view rather than expressing his reservations of the commission.
The most recent volunteer to have
expressed his willingness to appear before the Paranagama Commission is Mangala
Samaraweera. He claims that the Commission has been appointed to protect the
Rajapakses meaning of course the President and the Defense Secretary and to
betray some officers in the armed forces. He is of the opinion that Mr. Desmond
de Silva and two others have been appointed as consultants to the Commission
for this purpose and he would give evidence before the commission though it is
not clear what he is going to reveal.
However, unlike the Bishop of Mannar,
Mangala Samaraweera does not say that he has no faith in the commission. He is
expressing his views on the appointment of the consultants and it may be that
he thinks that the Commission would have come out with an unbiased report if
not for the consultants. In the meantime the President has said that he wants
to appoint more experts as consultants to the Commission, and we will to have
to wait to find the opinion of Mangala Samaraweera on those appointments. Would
they be appointed to protect some others is something that people of the ilk of
Mangala Samaraweera could tell us?
However, Mangala Samaraweera has to be
congratulated on not confusing the consultants to the Commission with the
members of the Commission. There are some UNPers and others who would say that the
President has appointed Mr. Desmond de Silva and others to the Commission.
Either these people are ignorant of the difference between members of a Commission
and its consultants or are trying to mislead the people.
The government should either extend the
terms of reference of the Paranagama Commission to include an investigation
into the acts of the JVP as well as the armed forces during the period from
1987 to 1992 or appoint another commission to look into these acts. The JVP
like the LTTE took up arms against the state and many innocent lives were lost
during this period. It is true that the JVP did not fight to establish a
separate state and undermine our limited sovereignty, but fought to change the
system and establish what they believed to be a socialist state.
The JVP is essentially a Marxist Party,
though many self acclaimed Marxists would deny the Marxist status to the JVP on
theoretical and practical grounds but the cadre and the majority of
sympathizers of the JVP think that theirs is a Marxist Party. Though the Party
cannot poll more than three hundred votes in the entire country it can do
better than all the other “super” Marxist parties that are almost unheard among
the people.
The JVP is occasionally dragged
into nationalistic policies but it is
not a nationalist party. In fact they would oppose anybody who would claim that
the JVP is a nationalist party claiming that Wijeweera has given a Marxist
solution based on class analysis to the so called ethnic problem. The JVP also
thinks that there is an ethnic problem in the country they like parrots go on
repeating that the Sinhalas, Tamils and the Muslims should be treated equally in
the country. What the JVP does not understand is that as individuals all are
equal before the law in the country, the way law understands it, and in Sri
Lanka the basic problem is denying the Sinhala Buddhist culture its due place.
The JVP based on its class analysis does
not see the problem that way and like all the other parties that refuse to take
a nationalist line would lose votes as they go by. However, the JVP unlike the
other Marxist Parties has the uncanny ability to be drawn into nationalistic
politics and they could make an impact, though very limited, on Sri Lankan
politics unlike the “Super” Marxist Parties that are only walking dead bodies
at present, sixty years after the hartal. In another sixty one years only the
historians would be interested in these parties.
The JVP is supposed to have killed many
civilians during the 1987- 1992 period and it is hilarious to see Anura
Dissanayake, the leader of the JVP complaining against both the UNP and the
UPFA for organizing demonstrations after nominations to the Uva Provincial
Council elections. It is very likely that the JVP was not adhering to the
instructions of the Commissioner of Elections but they were unable to organize
demonstrations in Badulla and Moneragala far away from Colombo Fort Railway
Station and Lipton Circus. I am not condoning the actions of the UNP and the
UPFA but the JVP is not the innocent party that Anura Dissanayake projects on
the stage.
It was the JVP that threatened to kill
the first person who went to the polling booth at the elections to the first
provincial councils and we know that it was not only a threat. They are
supposed to have killed many innocent people though they did not use the public
as a human shield the way the LTTE did. On the other hand many LTTE cadres and
innocent people are supposed to have been killed by the armed forces and the
government should institute an investigation into these events. The human
rights people are only interested in what is called the “thirty year war” that
was supposed to have begun in the late seventies. What these Samaritans forget
is that the 1987-1992 period is not outside the “thirty year war” period and
the government is bound to investigate the actions of JVP and those against it,
especially regarding disappearances and property losses.
Nalin De Silva
15-08-2014