The Dilemmas the GOSL finds itself in

 

– by Shenali D Waduge –

No post-independent Government has faced such a barrage of disputes as the current Government many of which have been as a result of its own making.  The momentum brought about by the patriotic forces following the LTTE’s closure of the Mavil Aru water supply forced the Rajapakse Government to take a detour from following the customary path of appeasement via negotiation table to a virtual declaration of war. That led to the eventual collapse of the LTTE and liberation of Sri Lanka ending 3 decades of terrorism. The collapse dealt a severe blow to those aligned to the LTTE in a partnership that had an agenda beyond that of a utopian Eelam for Sri Lanka’s Tamils. Whatever Eelam currently being drafted was never meant for Tamil Hindus though it is taking longer for Hindus to realize this hard fact. The ultimate agenda objective remains very much in place championed by Hindus forsaking their own. Yet without the terror factor the quest has become somewhat rocky to say the least made all the more difficult given the position the Government finds itself placed in. Giving in to the Agenda-lobbyists would mean their downfall – not giving what the agenda-lobbyists desire would mean a plethora of international demarche s’ in the form we are witnessing courtesy Geneva – all leading to the same objective – regime change and eventual take over no different to Sudan and Kosovo.

Immediate post-LTTE dilemma

The Allied forces after defeating Hitler’s Axis powers went on a ‘Denazification’ program that declared all Germans as Nazis and the scale of crimes committed upon Germans remains to be investigated. Advisors of the Government opted to follow a massive resettlement, development and reconstruction plan totally ignoring the need to at the same time identify and take action against those that were not necessarily wearing LTTE uniforms but were very much aligned to LTTE and over the years had been recipient of hand outs by LTTE’s sponsors and backers. The people needed to have these names at least exposed/ their organizations revealed and action taken against politicians violating with a clear Constitutional Amendment that states no political party/individual can attempt to separate/divide the country (6^th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka)

Those aligned to the LTTE were not interested in what the Government was doing for the Tamil people – they were more interested in knowing what they were not doing and in creating lies that would diminish the Governments efforts.

With the failure of the Government to bring to book or take legal action against these separatist elements we see that these same parties under the bogey of democracy have not only contested elections but have won and are now using the political mantle to continue to carry the crusade for the division of the country not for the Hindus but on behalf of the Western nations who wish to get a foothold in the Asian continent following the same colonial policy of Conquer – Commerce and Convert.

The current demands to demilitarize the North has been as a result of not clearly demarcating to the international community in what context we would welcome their assistance. All these boils down to the lack of a proper plan that advisors should have addressed given their knowledge of the pressures that the country faced while the war was taking place against the LTTE. All these may be past and history however there are key lessons to be learnt from each we find ourselves continuing the same battle to prove that we eliminated terrorists banned in 32 countries – why should a country have to prove that we fought terrorists and saved 300,000 lives and be dragged to Geneva annually for some showdown that has been orchestrated to cook up civilian death totals staged round the world by paid channels and former UN personnel who are proven liars?

Indian factor

A golden opportunity to set the no-go lines with India was not taken immediately after the war before India re-strategized itself to corner Sri Lanka economically and through various other forceful deals placing the sop story of their concern for Tamils. As such Sri Lanka has landed itself into Indian economic militancy which has meant a whole surge of sub-standard Indian goods flowing into Sri Lanka with unaccounted number of Indians as well. If that is not enough cowering to the Indians has come to such levels that we had been foolhardy to sign the Sampoor deal just to get Manmohan singh to attend the CHOGM which he chickened out from attending showing to us that India today is not led by Indians who wish to protect the sovereignty of India but sepoys in the form of manmohans that worship the West for which they are crowned as ‘friends’.

Therefore, if Sri Lanka’s leaders and public officials are at all concerned about the sovereignty of Sri Lanka they would first need to realize that India is not led by Indians who value India’s sovereignty and therefore signing deals with India in this scenario is detrimental to both India and Sri Lanka moreso since the ground tremors taking place inside India even along the coastal belt of Tamil Nadu prey to conversions are of a nature that should shock Sri Lanka’s policy makers. But people who come with celluloid backgrounds are not intellectually competent to understand the dynamics of geopolitics on either side of the Palk Straits!

In such a scenario we remain bewildered on what grounds Sri Lanka hesitates to demonstrate its sovereignty. If for cordial relations we hesitate from declaring India’s role in training terrorist elements on India well before the 1980s, how has India reciprocated? India has drafted Resolutions against Sri Lanka not once but twice.

Are we a nation deranged to continue offering India whatever it demands knowing how India has treated us and is treating us and will continue to treat us under western worshipping Indian leaders?

An Indian diplomat was strip searched in the US. At least the Indians had the pluck to send a US diplomat back to the US, numerous times Sri Lanka’s clergy and pilgrims have been attacked including the Sri Lanka Mission in Chennai and while Sri Lankans need to apply for visa, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister/Ministry is ever ready to give everything away free of charge and not a word gets said about the humiliations and antagonisms suffered by Sri Lankans in India or elsewhere. The establishment has let us down numerous times.

Now there is news of Tamil Nadu desiring direct flights and sea passages to Jaffna/Mannar – calculate that and the ever rising Indian illegal immigrants to envisage the demography changes in years to come and dangers lurking for Sri Lanka as well as the future of Sri Lankan Tamils themselves and it is no better a time for the Sri Lankan Tamils to ask if they are prepared to have themselves under Tamil Nadu rule in decades from now as well as for the rest of Sri Lanka to look beyond their noses or beyond the current level of making personal financial advantage and think of the future of a sovereign Sri Lanka unless we are watching that sovereignty being handed over by our foolish decisions made for monetary and other gains.

Commissions and Corruptions

The scale of corruption is nothing we need to take alarm in or point fingers – the simple question is where is there no corruption today? From peon to the highest echelons of Governance corruption prevails and it appears it is not anything confined to the Third World alone. Having said that all governments find themselves in enviable positions. They need numbers in parliament to make a majority, politicians are not men of integrity – they are easily swayed by dangling some notes and portfolios are a perfect way of ensuring the numbers game. Governance has been turned to buying and selling. We were laughing at celluloid Tamil Nadu but soon we are likely to see a celluloid Colombo unless voters wake up to ensure they do not make a joke of government by voting the wrong people into power.

The vying for a common candidate is already in place and the key decision makers have become the astrologers or the kapuwa ever ready with coconuts to break together with the ceremonial journeys made to get the blessings of the Buddhist monks have all become quite a farce today.

Geneva is no free lunch

A key argument used often by the minorities whose headquarters are found in foreign climes is that Sri Lanka must be ever grateful to the countries voting for Sri Lanka. There is certainly no free lunch and none of these votes are based on principles – we need to add though special reference to China and Russia for the scale of their support has never come with any demands or preconditions. As such we need to know where to align ourselves given the dynamics at play.

When the world accuses the Sri Lankan army as the ‘Sinhalese army’ – in many ways it is true because it is the Sinhalese Buddhists who sacrificed their lives to save the nation and it was only a repetition of all the historical times that the same Buddhists fought against every invader that came to take over Sri Lanka. There is a long history of the Buddhists saving the nation – it is nothing for anyone to mock or laugh at. It is something that we all need to be proud of. It is no better a time than for the people to start being proud of their heritage instead of laughing at it.

The most recent tweet by the US ambassador was something we had been awaiting. We knew it was coming and we are well aware of those pretending to be patriots and pretending to uphold the rights of Buddhists.

Today’s CIA is not the ordinary secret service personnel – todays intelligence come in the form of NGOs and Religious organizations that are all heavily funded and supported by Western Governments to build the basis for regime change and conversion an effort that goes hand in hand. We await too for incidents of rape, criminal activity to also emerge. These are all part of the theatrics as rehearsal for Geneva to form the basis and foundation for why the US and India have decided to draft a resolution against Sri Lanka. What does all this have anything to do with the war? Well there’s no point talking rationale – these countries only view scenarios in dollars and pounds and what they can tap in terms of resources or geopolitical positioning.

Historians and political analysts shy from mentioning the manner that Sri Lanka has been a victim – the Portuguese Inquisition extended beyond Goa to all Portuguese ruled Asia including Sri Lanka, the Dutch who arrived thereafter victims themselves hated Catholics so much as to include a clause in the 1538 Treaty with King Rajasinghe 2 to expel all Catholics. Yet we see a plethora of Christian denominations with different doctrines continuing to pursue the same goal of conversion and that is continuing together with the other Abrahamic religion of Islam. Both Christianity/Catholicism and Islam whose religious headquarters are overseas ensure that their followers remain dual aligned with one foot in Sri Lanka and the other aligned to their headquarters overseas and this is creating a very damaging effect on the patriotic aspect for their indoctrination is such that even those that realize the wrongs taking place cannot take a call. With the numbers game well in play it is always a question of how well these lobbyists are able to influence the Government through their global headquarters and the massive coffers that are able to make handouts to silence any government into inaction. Why has the Anti-Conversion Bill not been enacted for it has the blessings of the 2 majority populace – Sinhalese and Tamils.

The Opposition has always erred getting the numbers wrong for placing all the minority votes together still cannot win them into power. While the Government has erred in thinking that because it has a ready block vote it can compromise space of the majority Buddhists giving these to the minorities to win them their allegiance as well. What the Government has done is to create and sow the seeds for the current wave of dissent taking place without drawing the proper boundaries and declaring no-go areas upon which people can live in peace. The Government has to know that if the anti-conversion element is not dealt with this single aspect will become an issue for both Buddhists and Hindus.

These inactions have seen a very calculated move to take away the Buddhist identity of Sri Lanka and plug in a multicultural element which has found the Government falling hook line and sinker. Note the public statements issued by the Government which never fails to use the word multicultural to realize the influence these elements have inserted.

Traditional space of the Buddhists has been incurred to such extents that now these former historical sites like Sri Pada are claimed by all religions simply because they too visit the sites. Just because Buddhists visit Vatican or Jerusalem or other religious sites can we claim these as being Buddhist sites and recreate historical data to demand that these places are multicultural? Well such things appear to only happen in Sri Lanka! The examples of these incursions will be separately dealt and will give examples of how traditional Buddhist space has been usurped. More importantly how the officials tasked to protect these sites are even punished for using their office to declare these are heritage sites! All these wrong precedents have resulted in people taking the law into the hands. However, no group has any right to be using physical force on anyone – person or property. These actions have nothing to do with protecting Buddhism and we must condone such actions. However, the Government and officials must take complete blame for watching provocations take place because they are getting advantage in other ways and then crying foul when elements take law into their hands. What needs to be investigated is who is creating the action that is causing the reaction. The actions must be thoroughly investigated first. The reactions come secondary.

The dilemma the government finds itself in is quite precarious to say the least. It cannot trust its own Ministers – they comprise people who have a history of being kangaroos. We are certainly starved for choice. The external forces lurking using varying dynamics of religion, western laws, western political lobbying, UN and other dimensions finds itself tightening the noose around Sri Lanka’s neck – money becomes a key fact – money is needed for development, for internal survival and for politicians to contest. These are all factors that play in the decisions that politicians take. Then there is the Resolutions against Sri Lanka and the competency of those tasked to safeguard the integrity of the nation. We cannot afford to have manmohans in our camp as well – we do not need people ready to serve a piece of Sri Lanka simply because they are welcomed into elite Western society and given accolades and funds as a result.

We wonder how many of our Ministers and other members of the Government enjoy a rollicking time being all important wherever they go are even aware of the dangers lurking in our midst?. It is the handful of military personnel working with the Defence Secretary that keeps us happy that the country remains safe – we have little confidence in all others we have voted in be they in government or opposition.

However, as a country we now need to put petty politics aside. We need to look at the larger picture. We need to realize that the people of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Sudan never knew what was happening until it was too late. We cannot afford to fall into the same disposition as these people who are suffering as they never have. There are many who think they can simply fly off and live elsewhere if the Sri Lankan ship falls but how many of these can actually afford to do that when the countries they have earmarked are themselves falling apart?

It is time the people of Sri Lanka start to wake up and in so doing wake up all others in slumber as well. We need to protect the country against all odds.