S. Akurugoda

Just over six months ago we were able to show the entire world, how powerful is our unity and its strength. Firstly, determination to end the terrorism was taken firmly by the peace loving, right minded patriotic people of this land at the last presidential election by defeating the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”puppet of the west’ and electing the right leadership to achieve the target. Secondly, the President elected made the right decision by appointing the right people to the right places prior to the operation against terrorism. Thirdly, the President and his team commenced the operations at the right time while achieving the political stability of the country and removing the obstacles to such operations at national and international levels.

The entire operation against terrorism was a result of teamwork and this is not the time to quarrel over the lionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s share of the credit for eradication of terrorism. It is not only the President, Defence Secretary, Commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force who should share the credit. The great sons and daughters of the nation who sacrificed their lives, who lost limbs or have been totally disabled in military or naval services and the public who have been patient and sacrificed many things in their day to day lives, too, are to share the credit to some extent. With all due respect to those who played a great role when fighting against terrorism, I must say that it is a bit childish if one is claiming the sole responsibility for the eradication of terrorism disregarding or underestimating the effort or the role played by the others.

No body is perfect and war heroes are of no exemptions. Selection of targets in politics and espionage heavily depends upon an intimate knowledge of human psychology, whereas selections of such targets depend on weaknesses and motivation of the people. The spies, in order to achieve their objective, were to practice all kinds of fraud and tricks.

Exploitation of weaknesses of personalities, such as burning desire of revenge or voracious hunger for power, to the fullest advantage is the strategy adopted by spy agencies throughout the world including those who are interested in destabilizing Sri Lanka. Although their tactics may be different, the ultimate goal of the spy network of the west and that of the region are the same. Thus creating widespread unrest to ensure that we remain as a poor nation forever, paving the way to interfere in the internal affairs of our country in the form of helping and providing so-called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”solutionsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ for their own benefits are the sole aim of those western and the regional exploiters.

There is no doubt that, the eradication of terrorism militarily under the current political leadership of this island, within three years of its operation, is of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”grave concernƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ to some countries (including those who trained and armed the racial groups to destabilized the country at the very beginning of the armed separatist movement), who are interested in maintaining their ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”superiorityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ over the others.

The eradication of terrorism also caused tremendous hardship to a section of the media and the lobbyist NGOs who were local paid agents of those spy agencies. Surely, the danger of losing their lucrative jobs must be of real concern to them. These agents are now playing a dangerous game of demoralizing the heroic troops who were instrumental in winning the war against terrorism by spreading false news. Manipulation of public opinion by these local agents is used to create disharmony and distrust, ill-will among allies, loss of confidence in their leadership and disruption by psychological means.

Despite the fact that we have the most undisciplined politicians in the world, with few exceptions, we have had the most disciplined armed forces in the world, remarkably during the last three years under the supervision of the President as the commander of armed forces, defense secretary and the three commanders of the army, navy and the air force. Unfortunately the latest developments as reported in the press are not healthy signs at all to all those who love their motherland.

What is happening today remind us what we learnt when we were 2nd or 3rd year students, a story of a bird hunter (watu vadda) who managed to get the advantage of conflicts among birds. As long as the birds were together and united, the hunter could not catch a single bird, because the birds had the strength to flyaway with the net laid by the hunter. But the hunter easily caught all the birds at once, when the birds were quarrelling for petty things.

The coming few months will be very crucial as the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”huntersƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ of our nation and their paid agents will work overtime and will spend billions of rupees to set one hero against the others to trap all the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”heroesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ at any cost. Unless we are fully aware of what is going on and act wisely to defeat the sinister motives of those ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”huntersƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢, the much awaited peace, stability, progress and democracy of our country will be at stake, probably, with no return for several decades (or another generation) to come.