S. Akurugoda, Melbourne, Australia

In an interview with Rajesh Sundaram of India Today, the LTTEƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s arms procurer and new proclaimed leader, K. Pathmanathan (alias KP), has said that his outfit would fight for their past separatist goals ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-through political meansƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ (without specifically mentioning what those political means are) until a political settlement is reached based on the principles of Tamil nationhood, homeland and right to self determination.

The latest love for the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in full, initiated by the foreign funded NGOs and proxies in their pay-roll (both in and outside the government) is thus not a mere coincidence. Those who were campaigning for a mythical Tamil nationhood, homeland and right to self determination etc for decades but failed to achieve their objective, via military means, now believe that the present climate is the last available opportunity to achieve their target by capitalising the pressure said to have being exerted by the West and India in this direction. Reactivating the Indo-Lanka Accord based on the theory of Tamil homeland is their obvious choice as a starting point.

The said NGOs and the proxies think that the ordinary people will not oppose the President (who was once labelled as a hawkish by the very same people several years ago) for his actions at this stage, whether right or wrong, due to his current popularity. What NGOs and the proxies in their pay-roll have forgotten is that oneƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s popularity depends not only on the person himself, but also on those who admire him as well.

We have witnessed once how a very popular Prime Minister among common people, who reached his maximum popularity by opposing the Indo-Lanka Accord, became very unpopular, within years, when he became President, partly due to his associations with wrong advisers. Ironically, one of his notorious advisers is in the driving seat of the current ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”devolution bandwagonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢, while being a high ranking emissary of the President of Sri Lanka.

This highly controversial diplomat is beating all the records of the so-called five star democracies in the world, by publishing his so-called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”strictly personal viewsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ on politically critical issues, almost one after the other, some of which are highly detrimental to the stability of the government he represents. Although we have had opportunities to observe how foreign diplomats of five star democracies in Sri Lanka are interfering in internal matters of our country, we are not aware whether those foreign diplomats have been permitted to express their ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”personal viewsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ on political issues affecting the governments they represent. Is he being paid by the government to brainwash the people in favour of devolution, in addition to his present paid assignment? Why he is using the official website of Sri Lanka mission to propagate his so-called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”personal viewsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢? Is this website, giving the same publicity to the views of those who oppose his ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”personal viewsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and if not why? Is this person, who once wrote ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”devolve or dieƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ aware of the priorities of the people of Sri Lanka today?

The country is experiencing real peace not because of the so-called peace envoys, peace vendors or other wolves in sheep clothing, but to a great extent, due to the unequivocal support given to the President to wipe-out terrorism by those who were labelled as war mongers, chauvinists, hawkers, Sinhala extremist etc. The LTTEƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s surrogates and the proxies in their pay-roll are still continuing to use these pre-fabricated labelling, shamelessly, when referring to those who were instrumental in eradicating LTTE from our soil. The most recent news item appeared in Lakbimanews under the heading ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Govt for ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”lucky 13ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” Extreme political parties sidelinedƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ is a case in point. The news item is referring to National Freedom Front (NFF) led by Wimal Weerawansa M.P and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-extremistƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ elements”. Apart from any one who is not suffering from amnesia, the whole country is fully aware of the role played by Wimal Weerawansa, his party JVP and JHU during the last presidential election, though the writer of the said news item is appeared to be unaware of it.

Most of the campaigners for the full implementation of the 13th Amendment were either supporting the opposition candidate or were not taking an active role in support of Mahinda Rajapaksa during the last presidential election due to their strong affiliation with the former President Chandrika Kumarathunge and her federal packages. The obvious questions we have are; what contribution these people have made to bring the President into power and in what way they have helped to eradicate LTTE during the last three decades? What support they have from the public in favour of their policies? How many of these people can win a seat again, if a parliamentary election is held now?

Last month we came across a cabinet minister attempting to find fault with Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the founder leader of his own political party, for making Sinhala the official language. Acceptance of Indo-Lanka Accord, which was opposed in 1987 by its former leader Mrs Bandaranaike, as the best solution to move forward could be viewed as an another attempt to find fault with a former leader of the same party by its incumbents . With this trend of acquiring policies which were opposed by their previous leaders; the day may not far for people in Sri Lanka to see future leaders of the same party finding fault with the current leader for killing Prabhakaran when they were finally pushed towards Eelam as the best solution!

As Minister and government spokesperson, Keheliya Rambukwella, quite correctly identified, our first, second and third priorities are to resettle the 300,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and see that they become fully integrated and happy citizens of Sri Lanka. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-The need of the hour is not to implement the 13th Amendment of the constitution or any system of devolution power. The fisherman in Trincomalee wants a boat that was disrupted in the war, to begin fishing. He will say: give me a boat, not devolution,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ the Minister remarked.

Tamil civilians liberated from the clutches of the LTTE Tamil Tiger terrorists are not interested at all on the 13th Amendment to the constitution, as their priorities are the peace, employment, development and re-building their lives.