Mervyn Number Two Gunned Down
in Duriappa Style
Dilrook Kannangara
Just a week after Mervyn staged a fiasco at the SLRC, his Number Two
was gunned down. Maheswaran was exactly Mervyn Number Two, only difference
being he was not confronted by anyone until a gunman - who is also from
Jaffna - attacked him, again in broad daylight.
Assault on Customs Officers and Police Officers
Almost a year ago Maheswaran was shipping illegal goods to Jaffna violating
the procedure of declaring the goods to authorities. Fortunately his
ship was ordered to be berthed at the Colombo Port where a thorough
investigation was carried out. However, during the investigation this
MP assaulted customs officers and police officers who were only doing
their duty. Had they allowed this shipment to go, LTTE would have launched
their air attacks with the added strength of Cessnas.
However, no action was taken against this MP who seriously violated
national security interests. He was set-free and his rowdy behaviour
increased.
Worse than Mervyn
Maheswaran’s behaviour was much worse than that of Mervyn’s.
He staged a naked rowdy dance in the Parliament and threatened violence
inside the national legislature. He cited police action as the reason
for his rowdy behaviour which is not justifiable. In the meantime he
earned heavily from food supplies to Jaffna that were sold at exuberant
prices. In doing so he violated the LTTE’s embargo on the Jaffna
Peninsula. LTTE’s plan was to block all supplies to Jaffna so that
the people would demand the opening of the A9 road (aka Kappang Highway).
Security forces assessed the danger of unrestricted movement of vehicular
traffic along this road as a threat to Muhamalai FDLs and they also
considered LTTE’s ransom operations along the highway.
A similar fate befell many businessmen who operated in the North when
they fell-out with the LTTE.
Providing Ministerial Security to Everyone Means a Super Jumbo Cabinet
Sri Lanka already has a jumbo Cabinet with 107 Ministers. There are
115 other MPs apart from the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the Opposition
Leader. If Ministerial security is to be provided to all of these 115
MPs, that is equal to having a Super Jumbo Cabinet of 222 Minsters!
However, all MPs are provided with security including Maheswaren. In
fact it was one of security personnel that shot the assassin. A Ministerial
security division costs at least a few million rupees a month in addition
to normal security that is provided to MPs. One hundred and fifteen
(115) more Ministerial Security Divisions means an additional rupees
300 million to half a billion a month. In annual terms this comes to
rupees 3.6 billion to 6 billion!
This is a colossal waste of money and accounts for more than 5% of the
defence budget! Considering the fact that MPs other than Ministers do
not contribute in anyway for the country (other than hindering development,
obstructing national security, etc.), there is no justification for
providing Ministerial Security to every Tom, Dick and Harry over and
above what is already provided to them.
On the other hand, a former Indian Prime Minister and a Sri Lankan President
were killed by the same terrorists amidst massive security. It takes
only a single bullet to kill anyone anywhere no matter how strong his
security is. The challenge to security forces is to identify and destroy
these terrorist elements before they get into the attack mode.
From Jaffna to Colombo and Colombo to Jaffna
However, amidst many spineless politicians, Maheswaran stood apart.
He was the only prominent Tamil politician who didn’t worship Parabakaran
and his LTTE. He had no MoUs with the LTTE in wide contrast to Mano
Ganeshan, P Chandrasekaran, A Thondaman, each and every TNA MP and R
Hakeem who all had Memoranda of Understanding with the LTTE accepting
that they are mere pawns of the LTTE which is the sole representative
of the Tamil people and in the case of the SLMC leader, LTTE is the
sole representative of Muslim people in the East.
As a result, Maheswaran couldn’t remain in his home base in Jaffna.
Although he won the 2001 election, he was forced to go to Colombo where
he won the 2004 election. If not for the LTTE, he would have represented
his own constituency. During his election campaign in 2004, the LTTE
attacked him but failed to kill him. This gave him enough sympathy votes
supported by Tamil movie songs.
In addition he started transporting goods from Colombo to Jaffna which
earned him a fortune. The LTTE was furious about this and sought to
compel him to give up and support their ‘embargo’ on Jaffna.
The logic of blaming the government
The UNP was quick to blame the government; but it doesn’t make
any sense. If the LTTE wants to kill anyone, they have an assortment
of weapons including suicide bombers and there is nothing the government
can do to stop that from happening. More important politicians were
killed by the LTTE where mammoth security didn’t stand a chance.
However, what the UNP is trying to do is to discredit the government,
whitewash the LTTE of the act of terrorism it committed and to get Ministerial
Security to everyone which will take away a substantial amount of funds.
Also Ministerial Security personnel are habitually used by unruly politicians
to attack the general public. The UNP was ultra quick to nominate the
slain MP’s successor! Appointing a Muslim MP in place of an elected
Tamil MP would certainly cause trouble within the UNP and with the LTTE.
The UNP staged a similar drama when TNA MP Raviraj was killed. However,
they dumped his body the moment they came to know it was done by the
LTTE. As a result they didn’t even give him periodic commemorations
which are customary!
Tamil Tigers have gone a step further to blame the government directly
for the killing. They have used this strategy ever since they took their
first Tamil politician in 1975 in the same way Maheswaran was killed
in 2008. If the government wanted to hunt down Tamil politicians, they
would have started from TNA politicians who are actively involved in
promoting terrorism! Even better, they could bump-off the Mangala-Sripathi
duo so that two more government backing MPs could be brought into parliament
at the same time reducing the Opposition by two!
Tigers claim that the slain MP had threatened to reveal those who are
behind abductions and deaths in Jaffna on the 8th January 2008 and hence
he was killed before that day. Complete absurd and illogical. Why should
he wait till 8th January 2008 to reveal such an important matter? He
could reveal it the moment he got to know so that many more lives could
have been saved from abduction and death! Also what is there to reveal;
we all know who are behind these acts! These violent acts are an essential
part of the LTTE’s Tamil Elam struggle.
On the other hand the mere fact of killing a Tamil politician no matter
who did it brings sympathy to the LTTE and its cause from around the
world. A vivid example of this how the BBC reported this. In their report
they stated that there is a war between Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil
Hindus. If so Tamil Hindus may be suffering from severe suicidal tendencies
to willingly migrate internally in hundreds of thousands to Sinhala
Buddhist areas anticipating death!! Strangely more Tamil Hindus die
in Tamil Hindu majority areas than in Sinhala Buddhist majority areas!
Killing civilians must stop
Politicians are civilians and they must not be targeted by any group.
Since no amount of security can save individual politicians, the urge
to kill politicians must be resisted by all parties, especially the
LTTE which gunned down hundreds of democratic political activists in
the name of peace during 2002-2004. Even Maheswaran ran for his life
from Jaffna to Colombo during this bogus peace time.
However, this killing may be a part of a grand plan to kill other politicians
by the LTTE as happened in the case of the Nugegoda and Kabithigollewa
bombings that were blamed by the LTTE on a self-instigated claymore
attack on its own civilians.
PTA must be implemented
Prevention of Terrorism Act must be implemented in its full strength.
There are elements that always obstruct the operation of the law. These
operations are essential to rid the City of terrorist infiltrators.
Ironically, Maheswaran was also instrumental in hampering security forces’
attempts to make the Colombo City a safer place. In doing so he ended
up as Mervyn who also became a target of his own making!
Therefore it is essential that effective measures are taken to clean
up civilian areas by weeding off LTTE terrorists. Those who try to obstruct
these activities must also be handled according to the law. That will
ensure civilian security, their own security and also national security.
|
