Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Democratically Defeated Leader and his LTTE bogey

Mahinda Rajapaksa may be having the subject of national security closest to his heart but as a former head of state he should guard against making sweeping statements. Or is this a build up to the Geneva sessions in September where the “sell out” claim would sound more authentic and a boost to his political project?

by Lalith Alahakoon

(June 16, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has done it again. Issuing a message that was read out at the Matara rally Rajapaksa accused the Government of removing 59 military camps in the Jaffna Peninsula and endangering national security. This was refuted by UNP General Secretary Minister Kabir Hashim who said the camps were in fact removed during the tenure of the previous Government and went on to challenge the former President to name the camps and the dates they were removed.

Hashim also charged Rajapaksa of twisting a recent statement of Jaffna Security Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Nandana Udawatte where he had said out of the 152 camps in the North 59 were removed with the gradual improvement of the security situation .The Jaffna Commander also said 50 percent of the land in the Palali HSZ were released during the previous Government.

It is obvious that Mahinda Rajapaksa is fast running out of ideas and reverting to his pet subject of resurrecting the LTTE bogey, oblivious to the fact that this tactic backfired on him at the last Presidential election. Then too accusations were made of a “sell out” with the state media giving full play to an Al-Jazeera interview that featured Dr Harsha de Silva and TNA MP. M Sumanthiran where some comment made by the former was construed as being pro- LTTE. But the sophisticated voters did not buy into the wild claims such as pacts with the TNA to dismantle army camps or secret meetings with the pro- LTTE diaspora.

Rajapaksa would do well to refresh his memory and recall his 2005 Presidential campaign where he expressed his willingness to meet Prabhakaran the Leader of the LTTE which he now claims is still endangering national security though the outfit was vanquished six years ago. It is thanks to this self same LTTE that he won that election, through the enforcement of a voter boycott that killed the chances of his main rival. Wasn’ t Rajapaksa mollycoddling the likes Karuna Amman responsible for the massacre of 600 policemen ,attack on the Dalada Maligwa and the Bhikkhu massacre in Aranthalawa? Did not Rajapaksa know that KP who provided arms to the LTTE was not only a threat to national security but also a real threat leading to the division of the country when he was accommodated as a special guest of the state?

Rajapaksa it appears has a childlike faith on the effects of a resurgent LTTE on the voter and hence his harping on this theme at every turn. The LTTE is no longer currency as an election slogan and Rajapaksa most of all should have realized this from the results of January 8. The minorities who might have voted for him were completely put off by his majoritarian rhetoric and what is more is continuing to be alienated. His post defeat speech in Medamulana that he was defeated by LTTE votes, forgetting that he assiduously campaigned in those parts FOR THE LTTE VOTE not only exposes him as a poor loser but also a rabble rouser. Only 39 percent of the white vote went to Barrack Obama at the last US Presidential race but no white claimed that Obama was elected by the black vote and he is President only of the blacks. In contrast Rajapaksa is banking on the vote of the majority but in doing so is playing a dangerous game attempting to drive a wedge between the two main communities just when things are looking bright for prospects of reconciliation.

Besides, does Rajapaksa want the North to be perpetually under siege by the military? Now that he has passed on the baton, is any protégé of Rajapaksa who may one day aspire to the throne also going whip up the ghost of the LTTE, making the Tamils forever a condemned race? The former President is well within his rights to criticise the Government but his comments should be backed by facts. Making sweeping statements of a perceived risk to national security is unbecoming for a former head of state and conduct which could stoke the embers suspicion and distrust. Rajapaksa it may be recalled was among the first to speak of an LTTE revival in the face of the mob violence in the North in the aftermath of the gang rape of a school girl. It looks as if the former President is hell bent on seizing upon even a semblance of an opportunity that will help drive his political project, especially if this has a LTTE flavour.

( The writer is the editor in Chief of the Daily News, a daily newspaper based in Colombo, in where this piece was originally appeared.)