Three Idiots and a Blind Woman
Posted on August 22nd, 2019
By Rifat Halim
Three Idiots is a classic Hindi movie that features a group of morons. Sri Lanka has gone one step further by producing three modayas and a blind woman in real life.
Future historians would be hard-pressed to explain Sri Lanka’s civil conflict (1983 – 2009). How could a small section of a microscopic minority terrorise the country for so long? In 1983, Sri Lankan Tamils were barely 10% of the populations and the LTTE (also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a minuscule group
The answer lies in the stupid rivalry of the politicians. Every time the Tigers committed an atrocity, the politicians blamed someone else. They were so transfixed by their petty quarrels that they were blind to the big beast.
Ranasinghe Premadasa
Premadasa’s name will ring long in the country’s memory. He was the only non-Govigama President or Prime Minister. His energy and determination were legendary. He wiped out the JVP, a feat that eluded JR Jayewardene.
However, his legacy is forever tainted by his Hilton Honeymoon with the Hitler of Asia – Velupillai Prabhakaran. He not only gave the Tigers the lease of life in 1989, but he armed them against the IPKF.
Former Defence Secretary-General Cyril Ranatunga has written on page 103 of From Peace to War, Insurgency to Terrorism that President Premadasa had decided to give arms to the LTTE”.
When the TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam was killed by the LTTE on 13th July 1989, President Premadasa defended the LTTE. He refused to blame his negotiating partner, who was then enjoying his hospitality in Colombo’s Galadari hotel.
On May 1st, 1993, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed Premadasa. He could only be identified by his watch, which was fitting for such a punctual man.
Ranjan Wijeratne
The white-haired Minister of State for Defence Ranjan Wijeratne was a planter who had immense administrative skills. His crowning achievement was the elimination of the JVP leadership in November 1983.
Unfortunately, his record with the Tamil Tigers was a collaborationist. Like Premadasa, Wijeratne absolved the Tigers of any responsibility in killing Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran. In fact, he knew that the three assassins had visited the Tamil Tiger delegation in the Galadari Hotel shortly before the killing.
When the LTTE Mahathaya admitted that the LTTE killed Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran in October 1989, Ranjan Wijeratne still refused to blame the LTTE.
In March 1991, karma (and the LTTE) caught up with Wijeratne. He became the first politician in the subcontinent to be killed by a car bomb. The white-haired Wijeratne charred body was unrecognizable in his white Mercedez Benz. Several others perished with him. The assassination was blamed on the LTTE, whom he had once defended.
Gamini Dissanayake
Dissanayake was a politician of exceptional charm and charisma. He will be remembered like the ancient Sinhalese Kings for taming the mighty Mahaweli River. He brought Test status to Sri Lanka in 1981.
His revulsion towards Premadasa was even stronger than the gushes of the Mahaweli river. After Premadasa sacked him from the Cabinet in March 1991, Dissanayake was intent on discrediting his rival.
When the LTTE killed Major-General Denzil Kobbekaduwe and Major-General Wijaya Wimalaratne in a landmine blast in August 1992, Dissanayake tried to implicate Premadasa. His private secretary Palitha Pelpola engaged a British military consultant to issue a report that the bomb was placed inside the vehicle. The implication was that foul play was at hand.
Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali rebelled against Premadasa’s UNP and formed a breakaway party called the DUNF.
In April 1993, Lalith Athulathmudali was shot dead by the LTTE in an election rally. Dissanayake refused to blame the LTTE and pointed the finger at Premadasa’s government.
A week after Athulathmudali’s death, Premadasa himself perished in a suicide bomb. Dissanayake still refused to blame the LTTE. He said, Premadasa has fallen victim to the same violence that he brought upon the country.” He did not have one word of sympathy for a man with whom he sat in the same Cabinet.
Eventually, Dissanayake has suffered the same fate. In October 1994, Dissanayake (who had rejoined the UNP) and over 50 others were killed by a suicide bomb in an election rally.
Chandrika Kumaratunga
Kumaratunga is the scion of one of Asia’s political dynasties. She endured the assassination of her father in 1959 and her husband in 1988.
Wisdom deserted her despite these tragedies. When Gamini Dissanayake was killed in October 1994, Chandrika Kumaratunga was negotiating with the LTTE. Dissanayake’s killing was on the eve of the second round of talks.
Kumaratunga promptly blamed the blast on the internal politics of the UNP. She was refused to blame her negotiating partner. No action was taken against the perpetrators.
In December 1999, karma visited Kumaratunga. She was grievously injured in an LTTE suicide blast at the Town Hall. The President lost her sight in one eye.
Not only was she blinded in one eye, but she was blind to reason. In 2005, she signed the P-TOMs with the LTTE. Luckily, the Supreme Court prevent Kumaratunga and her collaborationist ally Ranil Wickremesinghe from the evil designs of the P-TOMs. If it was enacted, it would have funded the LTTE for many years. The long night of suffering of the Tamils would have never ended.
Only one man in the Cabinet opposed the P-TOMs – the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. He recognized that only the physical elimination of the LTTE would bring peace. In May 2009, President Rajapaksa’s forces put a bullet into the head of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Peace has since reigned on the island.
August 22nd, 2019 at 3:41 pm
Two glaring errors.
1. “In 1983, Sri Lankan Tamis was barely 10% of the populations and the LTTE (also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a minuscule group.”
In 1983 Tamils (this Tamils, that Tamils and other Tamils) were 18.5% at that time and LTTE, EROS, etc., etc. were very active large terrorist groups armed to the teeth. Thanks to war it reduced to 15.5% in 2012 and totally eliminated Tamil terrorists.
Don’t forget that war didn’t start in 1983. In 1978 Tamils bombed an Air Ceylon passenger plane. In 1975 they did assassinations targeting government politicians.
2. “Only one man in the Cabinet opposed the P-TOMs – the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.”
At the same time it was the same person who presented P-TOMS bill to parliament! He should not have presented it in parliament in the first place. It was scrapped after the JHU and the JVP petitioned the Supreme Court.
August 22nd, 2019 at 3:59 pm
These are not errors, these are deliberate attempt to mislead the public.
Tamils are misleading the world saying LTTE terrorism started after black July. In 1974-75 VP,UM etc were on the list of most wanted, public posters were paste offering huge some of money leading to arrest.
P-TOMs was presented and opposed as he thought fit that time to political advantage. If we consider politics in Sri Lanka as noble, he has done nothing wrong. Problem is the dirty politics, not the person.
August 22nd, 2019 at 4:59 pm
As I can see, the idea of the article is to expose another aspect of the game, that is the betrayal of Mother Lanka by our own politicians.
It highlights the following:
• It was the opportunistic Sinhalese politicians who saved LieTTE for their own political advantage,
• It was the opportunistic Sinhalese politicians who got rid of General Kobbakaduwa who could have defeated LieTTE as early as 1978,
• All the opportunistic Sinhalese politicians who slept with LieTTE and got eliminated by the same LieTTE even though they did not betray LieTTE.
• It was the opportunistic Sinhalese politicians who blamed other politicians for all these assassinations carried out by LieTTE. As a result of which, LieTTE enjoyed the status of “Rebels” or “Freedom Fighters” in the international media.
In fact, these mistakes by Sinhalese politicians had serious consequences, which haunt this nation to date:
• As a result of this, LieTTE won the sympathy of general public worldwide (although the West and India were supporting and funding them secretly for their own reasons)
• This sympathy is still playing a big role in their minds and they still strongly believe that Sinhalese people were the culprits and Tamils were the innocent, including LieTTE.
• This “Good boys” image has become a big beast which came back and bitten us. This is one of the big hurdle we face while trying to defend our nation.
August 22nd, 2019 at 6:08 pm
Use of phrase “blind woman” to insult a former president simply because of she negotiated with LTTE shall be condemned.
Other presidents not only did the same but also went beyond that. She lost an eye as the president of the nation because LTTE did not in anyway like her.
August 22nd, 2019 at 11:02 pm
ELIMINATING the EXECUTIVE PRESIDENCY is the MOST ASININE and DESTRUCTIVE thing that can be done, especially to Sinhala Buddhists!
It is the Executive Presidency that PROTECTED, DEFENDED and ULTIMATELY PRESERVED Sri Lanka’s TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY and INDEPENDENCE since it was CREATED!
ABSENT the Executiove Presidency, Sri Lanka today would be a Balkanized Patchwork of Communal Bantustans!
These so-called “Civil Society Groups” are ASSORTED TRAITORS and TOOLS of Foreigners PLOTTING & SCHEMING to COMPLETE THE DESTRUCTION of Sri Lanka they INITIATED on Jan 8, 2015 with the CONNIVANCE of Foreign Powers and simple-minded IDIOTS like the COMMON CANDIDATE for President who swallowed hook-line-and-sinker the incessantly chanted mantra of these TRAITORS, and could not control his own greed for pomp and power!
INSTEAD of DISMANTLING the Executive Presidency, STRENGTHEN it INSTEAD!
Get RID of the 13th and 19th Amendments to the CONSTITUTION!
ELIMINATE the REDUNDANT POST of Prime Minister; the SPEAKER can handle the conduct of Parliamentary Affiars!
RESTORE Control over the CABINET to the EXECUTIVE President of the Nation without DIVIDING the EXECUTIVE Powers of Government!
The current SUPREME COURT is STACKED with BIASED STOOGES of the UNP that Ranil Wikunansinghe strived to do anticipating a Constitutional Struggle to OUST HIM as in ALL OF HIS PREVIOUS STINTS as PM! RESTORE the IMPARTIALITY, PATRIOTISM and INDEPENDENCE of the Supreme Court as an URGENT NECESSITY!
August 23rd, 2019 at 2:32 am
When Sri Lanka opened its doors to unadulterated capitalism, with the 1977 constitution, natural corollary was the rise and rise of our major export oriented industry, export of servant maids and minor trades to the emerging oil rich countries of the Middle East. High percentage of labour supply firms were from the Muslim community and it took a long while for the embassy services to provide the most basic assistance to the new class of emigrant workers.
Businessman were quick to see opportunities to import all sorts of material from Qat, marijuana gold and also establish religious contacts selling the potential of Sri Lanka to be the next Muslim dominated country following once Buddhist Afghanisthan, Pakisthan, Malaysia, Indonesia etc. Of course politicians welcomed the change, as it brought foreign exchange for them to travel in luxury cars and with the wealth of the cities, new rich businessmen muscled their way to controlling positions in every political party.
Yahapalana government did not succeed in getting a Volksvagen assembly but they do have a University to train lawyers on Shariya law and Mewlawis for the world.