Then there was no UN Panel to find ways to end terrorism in Sri Lanka, no articles in the Economist asking the world to come to rescue Sri Lanka from terrorism, there were no debate in the British parliaments to find ways to help the lone fight of Sri Lanka against terrorism.
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In Sri Lanka a resplendent Island home to three main communities the Sinhala, Tamils and Muslims, the people lived a peaceful life each community making their communal problems heard in their legislature and solutions found without aggression. Where when the problems were not solved they were made to be heard through the respective media, or voiced through their political representatives.
In a developing world our Island depending on repayable loans “ kindly” offered, without transfer of precious technology by the former Colonialists and the rich West we managed to exist content with our lot as a developing country. However, we progressed as unindustrialised we were, having a sufficient agricultural out put, depending on rubber , coconut and tea to earn foreign exchange. We were helped by the US Aid under PL40 and became addicts to eating bread made from American Wheat flour.
But our population continued to grow and with the introduction of free education more of our children became literate and few entered university as places were limited. Gradually the problems began to accumulate and number of unemployed youth increased . It was in that climate that some of the unemployed Tamil youth in the North were enticed by the Indian RAW to be trained in terrorism.
After an intensive training in the jungles of TamilNadu, these youth were released in the North, where they were initiated by their “gurus” to win over the Tamils by creating a situation to enrage the Sinhala Community to the extent the Sinhala in the South take revenge from the innocent Tamils. All they had to do was kill 13 Sinhala Policemen to commence the riots of 1983, with which the Tamil expatriates still blame the Sinhala. But in all such riots it is the goons who get involved.
All that time, the West did not interfere too much into our affairs as we were subservient and always sought their aid, when we had our problems. The West had no problems with us who were satisfied with the “ crumbs” we received from their rich tables.
But when the terrorism raised its ugly head and things were not so peaceful as it had been, the West did not come forward to help us solve our problems and stop terrorism taking a hold in the country. They did not give us arms and ammunitions to fight off the terrorism. The terrorists were helped by a large expatriate Community, who were brain washed against the Sinhala. These Tamil expatriates in turn brain washed their children, teaching them that the Sinhala are their enemies who had deprived them of their homeland.
These Tamil expatriates were forced to contribute to the terrorists, who had promised them to win back their homeland from the Sinhala and give it to them. With those earnings the terrorists became very rich and acquired modern arms and ammunitions, ships and planes. The Government had only old guns and were helpless against the well armed terrorists.
The West did not move an inch to help us. The UN did not set up panels to ask the west to come to help Sri Lanka- a member state- facing a well armed force of terrorists, fighting to divide the country .
Sri Lanka was all alone to deal with terrorism. India its neighbour not only refused to give any aid or sell arms and ammunitions, but also prohibited us from buying offensive arms from China or Russia. India also issued warnings to Sri Lanka or sent their government Representatives to intervene on behalf of the terrorists to please the TamilNadu.
The tsunami that hit our east coast brought in all sorts of NGOs, some to aid the tsunami affected people and others to help the terrorists to become a formidable force, by transferring heavy earth moving machinery, constructing air strips for an air force of the terrorists.
The west who promised us “donations” to help reconstruct tsunami hit areas, were forcing the government to share their “donations” with the terrorists. The terrorists had been given control of the areas they occupied by a CFA prepared by Norway and signed by the then Prime Minister - Ranil Wickramasinghe who was at the beck and call of the West. The West used the CFA to recognise the terrorists as a party to share in the funds allocated for reconstruction of areas affected by the tsunami.
In the mean time terrorists demanding a separate Eelam State become a threat to the Unitary State of Sri Lanka. The Norway which had been selected to mediate between the government and the terrorists, became sympathisers of the terrorists and were secretly manoeuvring to help the terrorists to set up their Eelam State.
The Norway acting through Eric Solheim a supporter of the terrorists in Sri Lanka arranged peace negotiations between the Government and the terrorists. Norway wanted the terrorists to meet the government on equal terms. Therefore, Norway raised the terrorists taking part in the negotiations to “military officers” giving them military ranks such as Colonels, and Majors.
The Terrorists became a considerable Force able to combat the Government Armed Forces, while many governments changed, without any one of them able to successfully even weaken the terrorists. It was in 2005 that the West was surprised by the election of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse as the President of Sri Lanka, a man of the soil a still unknown “entity” to the West..
The West announced his victory as the “hawkish” President Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse ……… This “hawkish” President had one great determination. It was to end terrorism through peace or war. Having failed his attempt at peace negotiations, he was forced by the terrorists to employ the alternative to peace negotiations , which was - military operations. In less than five years after his swearing in as the President, he was successful in elimination of terrorism. The Army Commander Sarath Fonseka was not pleased as he thought it was he who was responsible for the elimination of the terrorist.
Though one expected unanimous applause for the great fete of eliminating terrorism, it was not to be. The West when the Sri Lanka terrorists were facing defeat awakened shedding their hypocrisy of being just and fair, and avowed fighters of terrorism where ever it exists and declared “ no negotiations with terrorists ”.
The Governments of the West sent their Foreign Ministers in groups, and the American Secretary of State made declarations from the State Department demanding a cease fire and access to “war zone”. The West strangely, while having their forces in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting Al Queida terrorists were going all out to save the Sri Lanka terrorist leadership.
That is how the West worked against Sri Lanka and continue to do so even now.
Ranil Wickramasinghe the Opposition leader is the man of the West-their stooge. He is even today being formed by the West to breakdown democratic governance in Sri Lanka. The tactic Wickramasinghe is adopting against the Government to-day, is surely prompted by his patrons in the West.
Ranil Wickramasinghe nominating persons to the Parliamentary Council who are unlikely to accept nomination is a delaying tactic which would delay the work of the Parliament in putting into effect the 18th Amendment. It is called “ filibuster”- practiced in the Senate of USA.
On this Barrack Obama in his book , “The Audacity of Hope” writes as follows:
“……….Senator Richard.B.Russell of Georgia ……used the filibuster to choke off any and every piece of civil rights legislation before the Senate, whether voting rights bills, or fair employment bills, or anti-lynching bills. With words, with rules, with procedures and precedents-with law-Southern senators had succeeded in perpetuating bl ack subjugation in ways that mere violence never could. The filibuster hadn’t just stopped bills. For many blacks in the South, the filibuster had snuffed out hope.”
Is this what Ranil Wickramasinghe is up to……to stop good governance and progress which is the hope of many Sri Lankans ?
Of course only way to stop” filibuster” was a “cloture” in the American Senate. But the 18th Amendment to the Sri Lanka Constitution has foreseen that possibility and has allowed the President to nominate a Councillor in case the leader of the Opposition fails to do so.
The people of Sri Lanka has no problem with the President. The people knows better than Ranil Wickramasingh and other anti-President elements that the President Mahinda Rajapakse is not a Dictator.
Who is a Dictator ?:
“A dictator is a ruler …….. who assumes sole and absolute power (sometimes but not always with military control)
In modern usage, the term "dictator" is generally used to describe a leader who holds and/or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power, especially the power to make laws without effective restraint by a legislative assembly. Dictatorships are often characterized by some of the following traits: suspension of elections and of civil liberties; proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree; repression of political opponents without abiding by rule of law procedures; these include single-party state, and cult of personality.”(Wikipedia)
We can understand the West’s interest in labelling our President Mahinda Rajapakse, a dictator, a power hungry politician, or one who kills democracy. Because the West wants to mobilise the media and the influential political stooges to rise up against the President as they did in Chile against the President Salvador Allende or in Iran against the Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq .
Hence Ranil Wickramasinghe is only a tool in the hands of the West to destabilise Sri Lanka.
The 18th Amendment takes away the two term limit of the office of a President. It allows a workable method of appointing members to Commissions. The leader of the Opposition will have his own man besides him in the PC to oppose any irregular appointments.
The Election Commissioner will also be independent, and the IGP will be a flexible appointment- if he is not carrying out his function effectively to be removed and replaced without waiting for approval by a Commission.
Under the 18th Amendment there will still be democracy, and the Parliament will continue to function . The people will have the right to use their vote to appoint a new President after the term of office of the Present President.
The 18th Amendment has not provided any right for the Present President Mahinda Rajapakse to continue as the President until the end of his life. It depends how the office of the Leader of the Opposition and the opposition Political Parties function. If people have no trust in the Opposition and its leader, and still places its trust and confidence in the Present President Mahinda Rajapakse , the people will definitely vote the Present President for another term of office. Therefore all depends on the opposition to make the 18th Amendment work democratically.
The President Mahinda Rajapakse is not a Dictator but a determined Sri Lankan to direct the country towards progress and development , unhindered by interested parties utilised by unfriendly West to stop the development projects that he had initiated.
The President Mahinda Rajapakse is working for the wellbeing of the people and not against the people. It is the over zealous sycophants who want to make a travesty of democracy by wasting the time of the government which wants to go ahead with the development projects. It is they who disfunction democracy .
Who are really the enemies of our country:
i) it is Ban Ki Moon of the UN who is trying to stab, one of its own member states, on the back by trying to investigate the military operations against terrorists to accuse the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka for war crimes.
ii) USA States Department , by interfering in to the affaires of Sri Lanka which as a sovereign state has the right to adopt Amendments to its Constitution or abrogate it and adopt a new Constitution. It is the business of Sri Lanka and not of USA. Sri Lanka has its own ideas about democracy without having to adopt the Western system of Democracy to the letter.
Lets see what Barrack Obama in his book already referred to say about American Democracy: “……what troubled me was the process- or lack of process- by which the White House and its congressional allies disposed of opposing views; the sense that the rules of governing no longer applied, and there were no fixed meanings or standards to which we could appeal……”. And again “…. The notion that the Democratic barons who then controlled the house of Representatives consistently abused the legislative process for their own gain…”.(page 78).
iii) the Western media like the Economist, which wrote, ““The Sri Lanka described in the revised charter is not a pretty place. It is one where the forms of parliamentary democracy are preserved but the substance has become subordinated to almost untrammeled presidential power.” and
iv) the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, Karu Jayasuriya and the rest, JVP, and TNA.
Then we have our own analysts saying , “……Democracy, thus, emerges as the soul of the constitution and anything that compromises democracy compromises the nation. The 18th amendment does not merely compromises this but in fact kills that democracy. It is an attempt to usurp all powers and consolidate that into the person of one man. This is why it kills democracy and the nation in the process.”. This goes for wise intellectual pronouncement.
And another, “Mr. Rajapaksa had a free hand to reform a country bruised by 30 years of violence into a social democratic state. As he instead focuses on consolidating his power, this hope fades away, leaving people in the years to come with a difficult choice: total compliance or desperate revolt.” (Nira Wickramasinghe).
But the bear fact, without delving inside to see the intricacies, contradictions, and complexities is that the 18th Amendment to the Constitution does not “kill” the democracy, but strengthens it and gives the President to go ahead with development projects without stumbling over delay tactics -“filibuster” -of Ranil Wickramasinghe , or overcome impediments TNA, JVP, and the local and foreign critics try to create trying to mobilise the people against the government on falsehood and predictions of doom.
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