Flogging a brain-dead cob
Editorial-July 23, 2014
The government and the UNP locked horns in Parliament on Tuesday over a Chinese aircraft maintenance base to be set up in Trincomalee. Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe demanded that External Affair Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris explain the government position. The UNP’s contention has been that Sri Lanka should not undertake anything that India may consider detrimental to its interests. Discounting the UNP’s claim, Prof. Peiris stressed that the project would in no way pose a threat to India.
Sri Lanka should be able to do what is good for it to attain its development goals. If the government is convinced that the project at issue is feasible and beneficial to the country and poses no threat to any other nation it should have the facility set up wherever it wants. India and China will always look askance at each other’s involvement in this country, but that is no reason why their development assistance and investment should not be sought.
Interestingly, the UNP, on Tuesday, in a bid to drive its point home, invited Parliament’s attention to the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, which, it rightly pointed out, prohibited the use of the territories of the two countries for purposes detrimental to each other’s interests. Accord or no accord, Sri Lanka must not allow its soil to be used against India. In fact, having a formidable enemy like India is the last thing Sri Lanka wants. The late President J. R. Jayewardene, in his wisdom, antagonised India by wooing the US and the price he had to pay for his foreign policy blunder was enormous. India harassed him in every possible way with its diplomats even dictating terms to him, and finally made him sign the aforesaid accord against his will.
The Indo-Lanka Accord required India to disarm the armed Tamil groups it had created and pave the way for a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict. But, nothing of the sort happened and the LTTE remained armed until 2009, when the Sri Lankan security forces succeeded in neutralising it. The Indian territory was used by the LTTE for its war against this country. Even today the outfit is operating freely in Tamil Nadu with many South Indian politicians backing it to the hilt. India having thus failed to fulfil its obligations, how can the Indo-Lanka Accord be considered still valid?
TNA Leader R. Sampanthan, MP has told this newspaper that the government is in the present predicament with a UNHRC war crimes probe underway because it has reneged on its promises to India to devolve power among other things. True, it has not honoured its pledges and, therefore, fallen foul of India. But, the question of a war crimes probe against Sri Lanka and resistance to devolution would not have arisen if India had, in keeping with the Indo-Lanka Accord, disarmed the Tamil militant groups including the LTTE within 72 hours and pressured them to accept devolution. Had India honoured its obligations Sri Lanka’s war would have been over about 26 years ago and thousands of lives and property worth billions of dollars could have been saved.
The Indo-Lanka Accord ceased to be worth the paper it was written on when the surrender of arms in the hands of militant groups failed to materialise. Curiously, the provisions of that much-touted pact continue to be invoked selectively from time to time with no mention made of the fact that it failed to be a solution to the armed conflict and, therefore, lost its raison d’etre.
So, using the Indo-Lanka Accord as a peg to hang one’s argument against the proposed Chinese aircraft maintenance facility can be self-defeating.
