{"id":77045,"date":"2018-05-01T16:03:23","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T23:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=77045"},"modified":"2018-05-01T16:03:23","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T23:03:23","slug":"despot-disrobed-or-potshot-misdirected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/05\/01\/despot-disrobed-or-potshot-misdirected\/","title":{"rendered":"Despot Disrobed or Potshot Misdirected?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

I was shocked to read Sarath De Alwis\u2019 article titled \u2018Despot Disrobed\u2019 in Colombo Telegraph. It\u2019s aimed at Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It prompted me to write this response to dispel many false allegations and shocking connotations in that article. This is my right to reply as a very concerned citizen.<\/p>\n

It starts with a quote on Polpot, the Cambodian dictator responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity. This is a very unfair comparison which ruins the objectivity of the entire article. Gotabaya has not shown any resemblance or potential of the Cambodian dictator. In fact, Gotabaya contributed as an uniformed military personnel and Defence Secretary to eliminate local Polpots, twice. Robert McNamara is a far better comparison, but Gotabaya\u2019s restraint in warfare far exceeds that of the former US Defence Secretary. Alleged use of force and violence outside the war are merely accusations; unproven and unsubstantiated. It is best to allow courts to take the course of justice without jumping into conclusions.<\/p>\n

The main charge of the article is that the former Defence Secretary was in charge of intelligence services during the time of Lasantha\u2019s murder. Chronology of events doesn\u2019t support this claim. The writer quotes from a speech made by the former Defence Secretary in 2013 on how he merged a multitude of intelligence agencies to better co-ordinate under his supervision. Lasantha was killed in January 2009. The speech was made more than four years of the conditions that existed in 2013. The writer may be unaware of the fact that our intelligence services were restructured in 2011 when they were brought under the supervision of the Defence Secretary. Concurrently, a new modern building was to be constructed for their use. Were there any incidents like the Lasantha incident after that?<\/p>\n

Following the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) of 2002 which was declared illegal by the Court of Appeal in 2008, Tamil terrorists killed dozens of intelligence personnel. This prompted these agencies to decentralize to save their personnel. The army had many intelligence units. As the Army Commander, Sarath Fonseka was in charge of these. In addition, he also supervised the role of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID). He did an excellent job in keeping Colombo safe from repeated Tamil terrorist attempts. Some of his highly effective yet controversial security arrangements including the tighter control of visitors to cheap lodges in Colombo sparked rowdy protests by Tamil sections. When the terrorism threat was eliminated in May 2009, it made sense to amalgamate intelligence services.<\/p>\n

Gotabaya settled matters with Lasantha through courts. He filed defamation cases against Lasantha. Media reach of Lasantha was at an unprofitable low by early 2009. According to another senior associated with the newspaper group, a weekly donation from a third party sustained the finances of the company. It made no sense for Gotabaya to allow the killing of Lasantha who had become irrelevant in the wider Lankan society by then.<\/p>\n

It is important to complete the investigation and prosecute the culprits. Welikada prison massacre must be investigated and its culprits must be punished. Convicted criminals carrying machine guns is not a matter to be pushed under the carpet. As a responsible government, guns had to be separated from criminals. It does not justify execution-style killings (if they happened).<\/p>\n

\u2018White van abductions\u2019 is another series of events blamed on Gotabaya. Strangely, there is not a single police complaint backed by evidence of anyone permanently missing due to this. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong in restricting movements of a terrorist or anyone with explosives or attack plans in their possession. That saves lives.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no apologist for Gotabaya who is capable of defending himself through the courts system. Clearest proof of his innocence comes from USA. He is a US citizen and there is nothing that prevents the US government or any US citizen from filing legal action against him. US citizens are under the US law no matter where they reside. Besides Gotabaya never held any position that attracts diplomatic immunity. Even if he had diplomatic immunity, it doesn\u2019t operate against USA for a US citizen. It\u2019s an internal matter to USA. Close to 9 years have passed but nothing of the sort has happened. The war crimes beggar\u2019s wound keeps the Tamil separatist lobby and a Sri Lankan political section going. Both lose if the war crimes beggar\u2019s wound heals. One needs it to sell their separatist demands while the other needs it to win votes.<\/p>\n

As the 2019 presidential election draws near, these things against Gotabaya (who is poised to win it) will only increase. With Ranil outsourcing contesting it to someone more capable, the Opposition must not take the contest for granted. Only Gotabaya can win the 2019 presidential election from the Opposition camp. Anyone else will most likely lose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara I was shocked to read Sarath De Alwis\u2019 article titled \u2018Despot Disrobed\u2019 in Colombo Telegraph. It\u2019s aimed at Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It prompted me to write this response to dispel many false allegations and shocking connotations in that article. This is my right to reply as a very concerned citizen. It starts with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77045","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=77045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}