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The UNP's Criticism Of The Government Over The Ceasefire Abrogation Needs To Be Trashed!

© Insight By Sunil Kumar For LankaWeb.

Jan 7th 2007

In a very negative response as is usually the case with the UNP who are more adept at placing obstacles in the path of this very progressive Administration of Mahinda Rajapaksha the main opposition UNP is reported in the media as describing the Government’s decision to abrogate the Ceasefire Agreement as one which has weakened the country both internationally and domestically and had benefited the LTTE’s aspirations for a separate state.

The primary argument to discount this theory is that it is instinctive on the part of the UNP to criticise the Government's action as it was the UNP which set this lop sided deal with the terrorists calling it a Peace Agreement and a Ceasefire in the first place and to see it undone by the present administration is not only a loss of face for them but also reflects upon a meaningless agreement considering the reality that the deal was done with terrorists and not the Tamil Community where the UNP should have had better sense and intelligence to differentiate between the two entities.

This can be said very confidently that today it has become very clear that the LTTE cannot be recognized as the overall representation of the Sri Lankan Tamils~ there being many conscientious objectors to this concept within the Tamil community both at home and abroad which by far overides the lesser proportion of overseas Diaspora and other terrorist supportive Tamils who are being gradually overwhelmed and choked towards accepting the reality that the LTTE are unrelenting terrorists and have no right to the acceptance as Tamil representatives.

This also provides carte blanche to the Government's stand that it is confronting terrorists and not Tamil representation within Sri Lanka and no matter what the UNP says to contradict this the reality of it is etched in stone.There can be no more deals with the LTTE terrorists which will merely promote more loss of lives, Nation destruction and mayhem if they are permitted to exist as terrorists, as such is their genre and creed!

When the Government is magnanimous to still leave the door open to negotiation it does not necessarily mean a door open to the terrorists but to the contrary, terrorists who are prepared to relent, come clean and join mainstream society inasmuch as some others who shed affiliations with the terrorists and hold public office today and are the examples which the LTTE should follow rather than depend on the frustrated bickerings of the UNP which they probably initiated where this criticism by the UNP if viewed in the proper perspective seems tantamount to propaganda and a means to stave off the relentless pursuit of the Armed Forces combined with dejections of the UNP as a catalyst towards the cause on behalf of the LTTE!

President Rajapaksa has nothing to explain to the people of Sri Lanka about abandoning the framework for a negotiated settlement to the conflict in the country as he in all his perceptions and pragmatism has drawn the right conclusion that these are worthless, mendacious terrorists he is dealing with. Given their track record and what has transpired within the Nation ever since the Ceasefire was signed has been the creation of a one sided platform for the LTTE to regroup perhaps going back to the memorable days of the Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera leadership of the Armed Forces when they were being hammered from all fronts and were running for cover even as they are today.

The vacuum created in Sri Lankan National Security became very apparent as the Janaka Perera displacement by those within the Sinhala Administration who orchestrated his removal ( a shameful faux pas at the least!) was synonymous with the LTTE's opportunity to regroup and the rest is history. It also seems a fair assumption that under the Perera leadership of the Army Sri Lanka could well have been in a similar situation as the present where the LTTE may have been cornered and facing elimination albeit speculative.It could also have been cost effective where Sri Lanka may not have lost all the time valuable towards re-development with the exception of the Tsunami.

There can be analogies drawn as a parallel with Sri Lanka's current situation relative to the terrorist issue where Lieut Gen. Sarath Fonseka has more than adequately taken up the reins where Maj.Gen Janaka Perera left off and perhaps the President of Sri Lanka is very perceptive of this reality as well as the strength of the Armed Forces being overwhelmingly stronger than the residue of the LTTE and being aware of this fact is prepared to press home the advantage towards ridding the Nation of them permanently regardless of the opinions of wayward theoreticians who don't seem to know the difference between terrorists and peace loving civilians.

The only glitch in the President's decision to abrogate the Ceasefire on the basis of its meaningless is his willingness to negotiate with terrorists. Perhaps he would be better off taking a page from the books of other nations who persist in their common stance of no deals with terrorists unless they lay down arms and relent their terrorist idealogies rather than beat around the bush about a negotiation which is somewhat unlikely to transpire merely to appease the international community knowing fully well the mentalities of the terrorists particularly that of its megalomaniac leader Prabhakaran.The only deals needing to be entered into has to be with the non-terrorist supportive Tamil community of Sri lanka helmed by a sane leader after the terrorists have been deposed and the President would be on the right track once this direction is established.


For the UNP to talk about economically and internationally disadvantageous positions on the basis of ceasefire abrogation seems somewhat far fetched given its own track record which left the nation in a shambles both economically as well as how it was viewed by the more discerning of the international community when they initiated the Peace Process and Ceasefire.(Norway perhaps the odd exception ) Perhaps as a bunch of misguided bunglers who gave wings to vultures and freedom to dangerous terrorists that were pretty close to being coralled.This in collussion with the meddling NGOs and Foreign Monitors who eventually also turned into meddlers who came in droves to Sri Lanka for this exact purpose perhaps funded by the huge coffers of the LTTE at the time.In this sense the only clarification needed is about how the Administration hopes to conduct peace talks with the Tamil community liberated from the clutches of the LTTE once the Army has overrun them permanently as the duplicitous Foreign Monitors and NGO have already begun to run voluntarily in addition to those officially asked to depart and will not pose any threat towards Sri Lanka's well being and posterity!


It therefore has to be reiterated that the UNP needs to come to terms with the imperative importance of security measures required to counter terrorism where a long-lasting peace is possible only through a negotiated settlement with the displaced communities within the land as a direct result of the ravages of terrorism once the terrorists are eliminated, and to euphemise that the eradication of terrorism is possible only through democracy somewhat puerile and foolhardy given the unrelenting hardcore nature of the LTTE to whom the term democracy seems to be in the same context as chewing betel and spitting it out!

The UNP in quoting the Lord Buddha who advocated that hatred does not end hatred probably needs a few reminder about some of its own attrocities particularly during the tenure of Ranil Wickremasinghe where a certain location called Batalanda did not personify all these noble teachings and there are many who have not forgotten. It needs also to be emphasized that by saying that " Furthermore terrorism does not end terrorism." is a direct accusation that the present Administration resorts to terrorism where the accusation truly belies the justification of a Sovereign Nation's right to confront and crush the terrorist menace which has plagued it for decades and more than justifiable!
This in the present climate of Sri Lanka would certainly be an acceptable norm to all communities and in this sense the UNP's criticism of the Government's decision to abrogate the ceasefire needs to be trashed!






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