Ben Silva

Acknowledgement to Nihal Perera for his valuable contribution towards this article.

There are number of reasons why we need to identify who is the father of the war victory. The main reason is that we need to know the leader who actually liberated the country from terrorism, and who stood firm when foreign forces wanted to divide the country to maintain their interests.. The other reason is to challenge those that are propagating false propaganda, that SF alone was responsible for the war victory. There is a need to show that the war victory was team effort rather than the effort of one person.

In organisations, authority is delegated downwards, so that management will have the authority to carry out a job. Responsibility flows upwards. So even when mistakes are made at a lower level, responsibility ends up at the top. Various legal cases have clarified the relationship between the employer and employee, and the responsibility of the employer for the actions of the employee. Policies of the board , which is at the top level, are carried out by the employees, who are at a lower level in the organisation.

In certain cases, if organisation policies are breached, the employee is made responsible for an act/omission as the case may be and appropriate action taken. Responsibility for success or failure of a business/organisation rests with the CEO.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the case of the Govt., the CEO is MR and the policies of the Govt. are implemented by the Govt. employees. In the case of the successful war against terrorism, the credit naturally should go to MR, as the CEO of Sri Lanka..

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is the responsibility of the Government to take higher level decisions such as those related to strategic planning and the responsibility of commanders of the forces to take operational/Tactical decisions and implement plans/decisions of the Government. No doubt Commanders may have input for planning decisions as well, but the overall responsibility for strategic plans/decisions rests with the Government.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the case of SF, he signed his letter of resignation as ‘Yours obedient servant’ clearly indicating that he recognised that he is carrying out the instructions of the Government, serving the Government. It has to be recognised and remembered that SF has spilt blood and taken enemy lead for the country. It also has to be recognised that liberating the country required team work and the leadership of a good leader. The good leader I am referring to is MR. In view of SFƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s statement related to the interview with Ms Jansz, many wonder if SF is suitable to become the President of the country.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ War victory is due to the team effort of many. It would have been impossible for SF to win, if there was no team effort. Winning a war (any war) is a team effort – not a one man show. War against LTTE was no different. It was MR, backed by Gothabaya, who raised the standard of the forces to the level required to eliminate terrorism.. The Navy destroyed the floating warehouses of LTTE, which if allowed to continue, would have caused havoc to the army. The Navy has to be given credit for carrying out successful operations far away from the Sri Lankan coast. The air force, not only destroyed artillery pieces of LTTE, but destroyed fuel dumps, LTTE communication facilities etc, all of which, if not destroyed, would have caused havoc to the Army. No doubt all these would have been coordinated and managed by the Government of MR.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ For 30 years, when politicians could have wiped out LTTE, they did not have the courage nor the mental ability to defeat the terrorists. In fact during UNP time, LTTE was even allowed to install check points and raise taxes, funding the terrorists. The biggest fool was RW, who allowed LTTE to grow in strength, and acquire planes and naval capability. When LTTE was at its weakest after 9/11, when the whole world was against terrorism, RW gave territory to be under LTTE control. In fact RW displayed stupidity beyond belief, when he gave territory to LTTE instead of defeating them militarily. CFA is a monumental blunder, that allowed LTTE to gain territory, and eventually LTTE could have linked up with Tamil Nadu and captured the rest of Sri Lanka. Remember TN politicians have threatened to send the Indian Army to create an Elam. RW should have apologised to the nation and resigned from politics. MR has to be given credit for not only undoing mistakes of RW, such as the CFA, but defeating LTTE when it was at its peak strength. LTTE was so confident of victory that it had the audacity to challenge the Government ,triggering a response at Mavil Aru., which lead to the downfall of LTTE.. It was the Government headed by MR, who set the goal of taking back the occupied territory (1/5th of the island) – not SF. It was Gothabaya who picked SF – not the other way around…!

It is rather sad to see SF joining a group of traitors who caused problems to Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It was the Defence Secretary, Gothabaya who made it possible to revamp the old Army into a modern fighting force, with the state of the art weaponry, thus giving SF the opportunity to lead the Army without any political interferences, unlike the previous governments of CBK and Premadasa, under which the Armed Forces were not in a fighting fit form.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ We should also not forget the fact that the LTTE had the biggest gains of the territory and the weaponry during CBK/Ranil regime, with the blessings from the pro-LTTE Norwegians, Viking Peace Monitors, and other local and foreign INGOS, making the LTTE one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the world.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The main credit for the war victory has to be with the Government, as the Government planned and provided the resources to defeat terrorism. Without appropriate management functions such as coordination, control, delegation, communication etc, the war could have never been won. In fact it has to be recognised that the war was well managed, and anyone less competent than MR would have made us loose the war as happened previously. As the head of the Government, MR should get the main credit. Remember that the Colombo University awarded degrees to MR and GR for their contribution.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Many SF supporters now seem to have forgotten how the Western governments and their pro-LTTE forces, such as HRW, AI and UN were trying to influence and pressure GOSL to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, in order to save the LTTE. It is to his credit that MR never gave into the international pressure. Also, it was Gothabaya, who resisted pressure by British and French FMs (Miliband & Kouchner), when they came to Sri Lanka to force the GOSL to stop the final phase of the military operation. Any one less capable than MR would have yielded to foreign pressure, and we would still be suffering from terrorist violence. If MR yielded to foreign pressure, in a manner similar to previous leaders, then, we would have lost the war, and still would be under the threat of terrorism. Even from this angle, MR has to be given credit for winning the war.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It was under the correct and unwavering political leadership (CEO), with the help of all Tri-Forces, that Sri Lanka was able to eliminate the most ruthless terrorist group that world has ever known.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ No Corporation or an Organization can perform successfully without a strong and a capable CEO, no matter how strong the Directors or the Managers are. MR has shown that he is a strong and a capable leader.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Many wonder what is happening to the JVP as they appear to have lost direction and joined hands with the enemies of the people of Sri Lanka. Many fear that any UNP associated Government will allow terrorists to come back and along with it pain and suffering to the people.

As many may recall, during RWƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s rule, the country was in the dark about the security situations and our army was loosing. Terrorists were winning and people were living in fear. Surely, we do not want to go back to the bad old days.

There is now a great need for people who understood the situation to explain the situation to the masses, rather than sit on the fence. If we are silent, we deserve everything we get.