{"id":104039,"date":"2020-06-28T15:24:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T22:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104039"},"modified":"2020-06-28T15:24:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T22:24:33","slug":"defeating-domestic-and-foreign-conspiracies-against-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/28\/defeating-domestic-and-foreign-conspiracies-against-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Defeating domestic and foreign conspiracies against Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Translation of the speech made by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday 28 June on Defeating domestic and foreign conspiracies against Sri Lanka\u201d.)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Most\nvenerable members of the Maha Sangha, Clergymen of all other faiths, people of\nSri Lanka and friends, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A socialist\ngovernment assumed power in this country in 1970, but nobody said that it had\nbeen brought into power through Russian or Chinese intervention. Likewise, a\ncapitalist government assumed power in 1977, but we never said that it had been\nbrought into power through American or British intervention. However there was\nforeign interference to an extent never before experienced in this country at\nthe 2015 presidential election. Certain foreign parties began to intervene in\nthe politics of this country in a major way after we won the war in 2009. They\nnever thought we would be able to win that war. This\nintervention actually began at the 2010 presidential election but the people of\nthis country conclusively defeated that early attempt. However the conspiracy\ncontinued till 2015. Everyone knows who prevailed on the leader of the UNP to\nstand aside in favour of a common candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation\nthat prevailed in this country following the assumption of power by the\nyahapalana government in 2015 was akin to having been taken over by a hostile\nforeign invading force. They systematically persecuted the nationalist\npolitical camp in this country. They jailed leading Buddhist monks on trumped\nup charges in order to intimidate the Maha Sangha which has always been at the\nforefront in protecting the sovereignty of this country. They went after the\nelephants and tuskers belonging to the temples in a major way, in order to put\nan end to the perahera traditions of the Buddhists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They moved to demoralize and render\nineffective our armed forces which defeated terrorism and ensured the territorial\nintegrity of the country. Selected members of the armed forces ranging from the\nlowest ranks right up to the Chief of Defence Staff were arrested, kept in jail\nfor weeks, months or years and cases were filed against them on trumped up\ncharges. The intention behind all this was to create the impression in the\nminds of the local population and also to convey to the world the idea that\nthese were not war heroes but thieves and murderers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nationalist politicians\nwere also systematically persecuted. Various Commissions of Inquiry were\ninstituted against them. They were hauled before the police, remanded for\nmonths and cases were filed against them on false charges. All this was done\nwith the intention of completely destroying the nationalist camp in this\ncountry and thus facilitating the division of Sri Lanka by introducing a new\nconstitution. What they could not achieve through war, they tried to achieve\nthrough political manoeuvres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These plans could not be implemented\nin their entirety because we won the 2019 November presidential elections.\nHowever domestic and foreign conspirators have not yet given up. Everyone saw\nthe drama that was orchestrated within days of the new President assuming\noffice alleging that a local employee of a Western embassy had been abducted\nand questioned. That showed that these conspirators were not willing to give\nthe new dispensation any breathing space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main\npledges given by the yahapalana conspirators to their foreign masters were\ncontained in resolution 30\/1 which the yahapalana government co-sponsored in\nthe UN Human Rights Council in October 2015. They admitted that the Sri Lankan\narmed forces had committed war crimes, and they pledged to establish a special\ncourt to try those war crimes with the participation of foreign judges and\nprosecutors. They also undertook to remove through administrative means, members\nof the armed forces who were suspected of having committed war crimes even in the absence of evidence against them which can be used in courts. The\nintent behind all this was to demoralise and render ineffective the armed\nforces of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though\nthe yahapalana government was not able to implement these pledges in the manner\noriginally intended, they have introduced new laws to implement them by other\nmeans. In August 2016, the Office of Missing Persons Act was rammed through\nParliament without leaving room for any debate. Though it\u2019s described as an \u2018office\u2019,\nthis is actually an inquisitorial body that can issue summons, examine\nwitnesses, and collect evidence. Officers of the OMP can search without a\nwarrant any armed forces installation, police station, or prison and take into\ntheir possession any document or thing they deem necessary. All state bodies\nincluding the intelligence agencies and the armed forces are legally bound to\ncooperate with the OMP even in contravention of the provisions of the State\nSecrets Act.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March\n2018, the yahapalana government passed Act No: 5 of 2018 in order to make the\nprovisions of the International Convention Against Enforced Disappearances\napplicable in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this was not to faciliatate the\nlocation of disappeared persons, but to persecute members of the armed forces.\nUnder this law, a person suspected of being responsible for an enforced\ndissappearance in Sri Lanka can be extradited to a foreign country and either\ntried in that country or handed over to the International Criminal Court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August\n2018 the yahapalana government passed an amendment to the Mutual Assistance in\nCriminal Matters Act which will enable a foreign country or the International\nCriminal Court to locate suspects or witnesses in Sri Lanka or to obtain\nevidence they need from Sri Lanka.  The\nUN Human Rights Commissioner has already requested Western countries to\ninstitute legal action in their respective countries against members of the Sri\nLankan armed forces suspected of war crimes under the concept of universal\njurisdiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the yahapalana cabal had won the 2019 presidential\nelection, they would have implemented all this and finished off Sri Lanka. We\nneed a very strong mandate at this election to conclusively defeat these\nconspiracies. You will recall that at the end of 2018 when the yahapalana\ngovernment began to break up, diplomats of certain Western embasies sat in the\nvisitor\u2019s gallery in Parliament and applauded and cheered the yahapalana\nSpeaker\u2019s efforts to protect their investment. We must bear in mind that even\nthough the conspirators lost the presidential election, they have not given up\ntheir quest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My request to\nthe people of Sri Lanka is to always have the broader picture in mind when it\ncomes to politics. Given the threats we are up against, we will be destroyed if\nwe fail to distinguish between what is politically important and politically\nunimportant. Various things can be said about the question whether social\ndistancing was observed in the proper manner at Mr Arumugam Thondaman\u2019s funeral\nor whether someone had been guilty of fixing a cricket match back in 2011.\nHowever these are not politically important matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest\nproblem that we had to face after President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa came into power\nwas the Covid-19 pandemic. What is politically important is whether that major\nissue was handled competently. I wish to state that we are right on top in the\nworld in controlling Covid-19. Even New Zealand is behind us. Countries like\nVietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan learnt how to contain pandemics like Covid-19\nthrough the bitter experience of the SARS pandemic of 2003. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have\nmanaged to bring Covid-19 under control in this manner without much experience\nwith such diseases. As of now the only possibility of another Covid-19 outbreak\nin this country will be if an infected person coming from overseas somehow\nfinds his way into the general population. If the yahapalana cabal had been in\npower, would they have been able to bring Covid-19 under control in this\nmanner? If we are able to distinguish what is important from what is\nunimportant, and always have the broader picture in mind, our people will\nalways be the winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw the\nmanner in which the yahapalana cabal made a hue and cry about a comment made by\nKaruna Amman to the effect that he had been responsible for the deaths of\nthousands of soldiers in attacks on army camps when he was in the LTTE. This\nshows how easy it is to obscure the broader picture by bringing other issues to\nthe fore. After I became President in November 2005, we destroyed the LTTE\ncompletely. Because he had by that time given up both terrorism and separatism\nand surrendered to military intelligence, Karuna was not destroyed along with\nthe LTTE. It was Karuna who formally identified Prabhakaran\u2019s dead body for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we look at\nthe doings of those who are asking the people to vote for the yahapalana camp because\nof what Karuna said, some interesting facts emerge. Those now in the yahapalana\ncamp gave lorry loads of weapons and gunny bags full of cash to the LTTE in\n1989 in a foolish attempt to win them over. For years afterwards, the LTTE\nattacked us with our own weapons. In 2002, the yahapalana camp virtually ceded\nthe Northern and Eastern provinces to Prabhakaran through the ceasefire agreement.\nThe yahapalana government drafted a new constitution to divide the country.\nThen they incorporated the conceptual framework of that constitution in their\n2019 presidential election manifesto as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the time Karuna Amman was murdering people, and\nafter he had given up doing so,  and\nright up to the present day, what has been right at the top of the yahapalana\nagenda has been the division of this country. Karuna may have given up\nmurdering people, but the yahapalana cabal has not given up trying to divide\nthe country. That is what we have to realise here. In any case, the CID is\ncarrying out an investigation into what Karuna said. If we allow ourselves to\nbe distracted and forget the broader picture even for a moment, the consequences\ncould be disastrous. That is why I always stress the importance of the broader\npicture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If people cast their votes on the basis of various\nminor distractions, we will lose everything, our country, our nationhood, our\nreligion, our culture and the future of unborn generations. The people should\nalways ask themselves who can rule this country effectively, ensure economic\ndevelopment, eliminate terrorism and ensure the security of the nation? Who can\nsafeguard democracy by holding elections on time? Who can build a Sri Lanka\nwhere future generations will be able to live freely and be proud of? I need\nnot spell it out, every Sri Lankan knows the answer to those questions.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May the\nblessings of the Triple Gem be upon you, God bless you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Translation of the speech made by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday 28 June on Defeating domestic and foreign conspiracies against Sri Lanka\u201d.) Most venerable members of the Maha Sangha, Clergymen of all other faiths, people of Sri Lanka and friends, A socialist government assumed power in this country in 1970, but nobody said that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mahinda-rajapaksa","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}