{"id":46835,"date":"2015-08-12T02:25:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T09:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=46835"},"modified":"2015-08-12T02:25:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T09:25:47","slug":"protect-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/08\/12\/protect-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"PROTECT SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY M.L.WICKRAMASINGHE<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The country takes precedence over any other thing says CBK. This is dead right. This is why Mahinda Rjapaksha despite enormous pressure exerted by the West to save the LTTE and Prabhakaran, took all the pressure on himself and mobilized the Nation to pave the way for the security forces to defeat LTTE terrorism.<\/p>\n

Once again Sri Lanka is under threat not due to an impending war by ex-LTTE cadres and or diaspora ; but due to an ongoing internal political and constitutional subterfuge, supported by the LTTE diaspora,\u00a0 some western governments, and Tamil Nadu to pressure Sri Lanka to award a federal government to a combined northern and eastern Province. This is invisible than the Eelam wars; hence more dangerous.<\/p>\n

Some would say that this is exaggerated talk designed to confuse people?<\/p>\n

It is not; this is evidence based reasoning.\u00a0 There is clear evidence of an impending threat: TNA\u2019s 2015 Manifesto refers to the principle of national self-determination and winning a federal form of government as the electoral goal of the 2015 parliamentary election. At a launch meeting of the TNA Manifesto, it was reported in a few media that the people were psychologically and emotionally persuaded by the organizers to invoke\u00a0 Prabhakaran as a hero who brought Tamils of Sri Lanka into international prominence<\/p>\n

The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister (CM) played a different role in establishing pre-conditions for identifying North as an independent entity. He called upon international organizations to provide international assistance directly to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC).To catalyse the ire of the international community the CM made a statement that since D.S. Senanayaka\u2019s time the Sri Lankan governments had committed genocide against the Tamils. The Wickramasinghe Administration did not take up issue on either of the two statements. The second erroneous statement may create an impression that the Tamil people need to be separated from the Sinhalese in order for them to be safe.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Vijayakala Mahendran, the UNP\u2019s lead candidate for the Jaffna district, as informed by Dr.Dayan Jayatilaka at a TV interview with CSN, had prevented the raising of the National Flag of Sri Lanka at a cricket event in the peninsula. She is also quoted by Hindu as having told the Paper that the Wickramasinghe administration had agreed to give autonomy to the North. This was followed up by Mr. Sumanthiran in a statement to the \u2018Divaina\u2019 Sinhala newspaper of August 10 to the effect that western governments have agreed to establish a Federal Government in the North of Sri Lanka. All these and the below noted international signals tend to give the impression that the North is a distinct entity, and plans are a- foot to strongly publicise such an unfortunate rhetoric.<\/p>\n

The most recent is the war crimes investigation document of the United Nations Human Rights Commissioners office leaked to the international media. The most dangerous recommendation said to contain in the document is that the national war crimes investigation should be done by both the Central Government of Sri Lanka and the Northern Provincial Council. If the leaked document is accurate, the implication of this recommendation is that the United Nations has apparently and may be perhaps innocently equated the Republic of Sri Lanka to the Northern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka. However, such unfortunate references may provide an opportunity for extreme groups to push the issue that the north is different and a separate entity. And about 2-3 months ago, the Ceylon Daily News an organ of the State Media reported that the Head of UNDP in Sri Lanka had reported about a \u2018Northern province Government or a similar idea. Neither the government of Sri Lanka nor the United Nations had corrected this erroneous comment,( to the best of my knowledge).<\/p>\n

The Asian Tribune has raised another serious issue\u2013 that is the planned entry of the United Nations Peace Building Fund (UNPBF) to the north and east of Sri Lanka. The Asian Tribune article titled UN in Jaffna: Needs answers from Sri Lanka Government\u201d <\/strong>published \u00a0on August 06, 2015, states that the operatives within the Tamil Diaspora have been advocating a UN entry to these provinces to administer affairs in the region to lessen the authority of Sri Lanka\u2019s central government\u201d. The article raises the concern that the LTTE diaspora\u2019s hidden agenda for advocating UNPBF\u2019s presence in the north and east may be to advocate for a UN sponsored referendum in the north and east.<\/p>\n

It thus appears that many local and foreign interest groups are apparently synchronizing their activities to advocate a federal solution for the north and east. Unfortunately the vast majority of Sri Lankans are currently involved in a game of electoral politics without a concern about the effect of a call for federalism on the territorial integrity of the Country.<\/p>\n

We are not questioning the right of political parties and personalities to make statements urging federalism. But we are questioning the attitude of some of the politicians in the government that equate a public discussion of the implications of giving federalism to the north ( and east) to raising communalism and catalyzing communal disharmony in the country. This attitude borders on application of double standards.<\/p>\n

Even though Sri Lanka defeated separatist terrorism, it appears that a fresh political and constitutional battle is beginning to be waged against the unitary state of Sri Lanka. What the LTTE could not achieve with its military might, (in Sri Lanka), the LTTE diaspora, western governments , Tamil Nadu, some international agencies , TNA, and foreign funded \u2018civil society\u2019 groups are planning to achieve \u00a0through political \u00a0cunning. The apparent plan is to dupe the power-eager political elements who want to convert their short run of governance into a much longer run, by offering support to form a political union that would be pressured to provide plums to the north and the east.<\/p>\n

The August 17th<\/sup> would really be a choice between those patriotic forces who want \u00a0to keep Sri Lanka as a unitary country where all citizens the Sinhalese the Tamils and the Muslims can continue to live not in idealistic harmony(which is not available even in the USA) , but certainly in positive harmony as we have been living for centuries, <\/strong>but with the added assurance that aberrations that occurred in the fifties, late seventies and in 1983 would never\u00a0 be allowed to happen.\u00a0 All communities would also be positively and pro-actively supported to enhance the quality of harmony, and fundamental rights, through the introduction of new legal, educational, economic, and human rights measures brought in by a leader who has learnt lessons due to the weaknesses of his previous administration. This group also did start economic renaissance-oriented activities on an unprecedented scale national scale(since the Accelerated Mahaweli scheme), while bringing back universal franchise to the people of the north, which was deprived to them for about two decades.<\/p>\n

On the other side are forces that supported the ill-advised draft constitution that attempted to force a Confederal system of governance on Sri Lanka in the mid to late 1990s,and a Post Tsunami\u00a0 Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) which attempted to give greater power to the LTTE to rule the north and the east. Both were rejected. This same side is also integrally linked to the forces that supported the signing of the 2001 Cease Fire Agreement with the LTTE under Norwegian guidance .The CFA which was designed to bring peace to the country did not succeed in bringing any real and palpable peace to Sri Lanka as proved by the enormous number of contraventions of the provisions of the CFA by LTTE.\u00a0 The ultimate purpose of the CFA was to reach a political solution through peace talks. The LTTE dashed those expectations by unilaterally withdrawing from the peace talks. The majority of Sri Lankans who were better readers of the minds of separatists knew that this would eventuate.<\/p>\n

On August 17 people would decide whether the country would move towards the facilitation of a gradual but sustainable ethnic reconciliation process through the maintenance of a unitary system of government combined with the implementation of politically feasible and peace-nurturing new devolution mechanisms,\u00a0 OR take a path leading towards the potential of gradual destabilization, through a series of divisive and emotionally-charged \u00a0power struggles to bring in a federal system of government with participation of some western international \u00a0elements and the LTTE diaspora.<\/p>\n

It is imperative for all Sri Lankans to understand the issues facing the Country at this crucial time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY M.L.WICKRAMASINGHE The country takes precedence over any other thing says CBK. This is dead right. This is why Mahinda Rjapaksha despite enormous pressure exerted by the West to save the LTTE and Prabhakaran, took all the pressure on himself and mobilized the Nation to pave the way for the security forces to defeat LTTE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46835","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=46835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}