13.10.2008
By Tisaranee Gunasekara
"The
intention of the government is very clear. They want to
put my life at risk and get me killed by the LTTE".
Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera (Media Net – 14.7.2008)
Maj.
Gen. Janaka Perera was killed by the LTTE. He had often
pointed out that there was a threat to his life from the
LTTE (which was why he kept on asking the state for some
security, in vain) and he was right. A reasonable doubt
about the authorship of his murder would have been possible
had the instrument of death been anything other than a
human bomb. But only the Black Tigers posses the irrational
commitment to a cause, the unquestioning faith in a leader
(religious or secular) that go to make suicide killers.
And only the incurably unintelligent or the knavishly
dishonest can seriously entertain the thought that a suicide
bomber can be deployed by any other actor or entity in
the Lankan political scene other than the LTTE.
The
killing of Janaka Perera by the LTTE also proves that
the defence establishment, led by Gotabhaya Rajapakse
and Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, acted either with unpardonable
inanity or in shocking bad faith. Contrary to the repeated
assertions by defence authorities, the Tigers did have
Gen. Perera on their death list. The fact that he joined
the UNP under the pro-Tiger leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe
did not make the Tigers regard him in any other light
than that of an old enemy (the same fate befell Gen Lucky
Algama in December 1999). Ranil Wickremesinghe may be
pro-LTTE but that does not make Vellupillai Pirapaharan
pro-UNP. This is best evidenced by the decisive help Mr.
Pirapahran gave to Mahinda Rajapakse at the last Presidential
poll. The lesson is simple: Mr. Piraparan has permanent
interests and permanent enemies but never permanent friends.
Janaka
Perera understood this reality. He knew he was a marked
man and the Tigers would get him sooner or later. That
was why he repeatedly asked the government for the necessary
security. And the government turned down these requests
claiming that there was no risk to Gen. Perera’s
life, citing ‘intelligence reports’. The murder
of Janaka Perera therefore compels one of two conclusions:
either the intelligence officials who compiled the aforementioned
‘reports’ were criminally unintelligent or
the government (particularly Gotabhaya Rajapakse and Sarath
Fonseka) lied about the very existence of such reports.
In the interests of national security there should be
a parliamentary inquiry as to why the defence authorities
failed to provide Gen. Perera with the protection he consistently
asked for. If there were intelligence reports stating
that Janaka Perera was not under any Tiger threat, it
is imperative to find out who prepared them. The authors
of any such dangerously stupid report must be removed
from the vital task of intelligence gathering and analysis
immediately, in public interest. This is a task the parliament
has to undertake and if the government has nothing to
hide it must cooperate fully. (Incidentally if the President,
the Defence Secretary and the Army Commander believed
in such reports, it raises some frightening questions
about their intelligence and their understanding of the
LTTE).
On
the other hand if no such reports existed and the defence
authorities denied security to Gen. Perera on a whim or
as an act of vengeance, that too should be revealed to
the country. Such irresponsibility must be punished and
if the government is not willing to do so, the Supreme
Court can step into the breach. After all by failing to
provide Gen. Perera with the security he needed and deserved,
both as a citizen of Sri Lanka and a former Army chief,
the government did fail in its fundamental responsibility
to protect the people.
Grossly
Partisan
So
the government of Mahinda Rajapakse stands indirectly
condemned in the murder of Janaka Perera. The regime did
not get Gen. Perera killed; but by depriving Gen. Perera
the security he needed (and asked for repeatedly) the
regime facilitated the task of the Tiger killer. Though
the government did not want to provide any security to
Gen. Perera, there is no such reluctance when it comes
to its own henchmen. For instance during the PC poll campaign,
UPFA candidate Berty Premalal Dissanayake was provided
with a massive security detail, despite the fact that
he was not under Tiger threat. Gen. Perera had to go to
courts in order to get some degree of security from the
state (and even this meagre protection was withdrawn soon
after the elections). True, even if adequate security
was provided, the Tigers may have succeeded in their gory
task, but with much less ease. What the regime did was
to render Janaka Perera vulnerable to the wrath of the
Tiger.
According
to media reports shortly before he was assassinated Gen.
Perera had filed a complaint with the police stating,
once again, the existence of a Tiger threat to his life.
“Maj. Gen. Perera in his complaint to Anuradhapura
SP’s office said that on a Supreme Court order prior
to the provincial council elections he was provided seven
police guards but all of them were withdrawn a week after
the elections” (The Sunday Times – 12.10.2008).
His request for security was ignored yet again by the
police. According to his lawyers Gen. Perera was planning
to seek some redress from the Supreme Court. “Maj.
Gen Perera had signed the proxy giving permission to the
lawyers to go ahead with the petition….. The petition
was to cite Defence Secretay Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Police
chief Jayantha Wickramaratne and Army Commander Sarath
Fonseka, among others” (ibid).
When
Janaka Perera was killed the President appealed to all
Sri Lankans to rise above politics and back the war against
the LTTE. The sentiments are timely and the President
should set an example by following his own advise. After
all not only did the Rajapakse regime fail to rise above
politics in the provision of security to Gen. Perera.
It failed to put politics aside and act with humanity
and decency even after he was killed. The manner in which
the regime responded to the UNP’s request for a
helicopter to transport Gen. Perera’s body to Anuradhapura
for the people of the district he represented to pay their
last respects was reprehensible, to put it mildly.
The
Prime Minister had promised a helicopter; however after
five hours of waiting outside the Ratmalana airport with
the coffins the family and colleagues of the late general
were informed that a helicopter would not be available.
In parliament the PM made a desperate effort to give a
reasonable excuse for what happened, trying to make it
seem the result of miscommunication. But his efforts at
covering up were dashed by the spokesman for the Media
Centre for National Security who stated that no promise
was made to provide a helicopter as no helicopter was
available because of the ongoing war. (The war of course
did not prevent the government from providing a helicopter
and a transport plane to bring Minister Mervyn Silva to
Colombo when he met with an accident some months back;
on the very day a helicopter was unavailable to transport
the body of Gen. Perera, a helicopter was being used to
bring the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province Mr. Pilliyan
to Colombo to watch the swearing in of his erstwhile leader
Mr. Karuna as a UPFA National List parliamentarian).
The
story did not end there. After waiting five hours for
a helicopter it was decided to take Gen. Perera’s
body to Anuradhapura by road. The government did what
it could to impede the funeral procession, closing roads
and withdrawing police escorts. A protest organised by
a group of traders in Anuradhapura to condemn Gen. Perera’s
murder was stopped by the police.
What
emerge from this sordid saga are the lengths to which
the real power-wielders in the government are willing
to go to punish those they see as political enemies, even
in death. Perhaps such indecent conduct is to be expected
of a party and a leadership which publicly celebrated
when President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed by the
LTTE.
Heroes
And Traitors
So
who is a patriot in the eyes of the regime? Janaka Perera
obviously was not as he was denied security when he was
alive and denigrated after he was killed by the LTTE.
If the argument is that he forfeited the right to security
when he entered the political field, this cannot apply
in the case of Gen. Parakrama Pannipitiya, a serving officer
who too had his security withdrawn arbitrarily and unlawfully.
Gen. Pannipitiya who played a leading role in the war
in the East had to go to the Supreme Court to have his
security restored. According to media reports Gen. Pannipititya’s
security was withdrawn because he fell foul of the Army
Commander. In the meantime government ministers (including
the likes of Mervyn Silva) get enough security even though
the LTTE is unlikely to waste a suicide bomber on many
of them.
So
the criterion is obviously whether one is with the government
or not. If one is with the government, one is a patriot
by definition. If one is not then one is a real or a potential
traitor and therefore not entitled to any protection.
For instance two key participants in the Wickremesinghe
appeasement process, GL Peiris and Milinda Moragoda, became
patriots by the simple expedient of changing sides and
backing the Rajapakses. A retired general and a serving
general do not qualify as patriots as they are not in
the good books of the Rajapakses. What the regime is demanding,
in the name of patriotism, is unquestioning obedience
and unconditional support. This is neither possible nor
desirable in a modern democracy, especially when the regime
in question is as short-sighted and prone to self-made
disasters as the present one.
For
instance take the worsening situation in Tamilnadu; this
is a development which was predictable and in fact was
predicted by many. As usual the Rajapakses ignored the
problem until it festered (As the Chief Minister Karunanidhi
candidly stated his political future as well as the future
of the Congress administration could be decided by the
manner in which Manmohan Singh responds to the Lankan
situation). Unfortunately even this late in the day the
President seems unaware of the nature of the problem and
how he should respond to it. This is evident from the
fact that in his statement to the APRC he made no mention
of either the ethnic problem or devolution. Clearly he
cannot fathom that if he takes steps to arrive at a political
solution to the ethnic problem based on a reasonable degree
of power sharing and shows a real willingness to ensure
the protection of civilian Tamils in the war zone, Tamil
Nadu can be neutralised, giving the Lankan state the time
and the space necessary to take on the LTTE. Is such incomprehension
a mark of a true patriot?
The
situation is no better vis-à-vis the economy. Sri
Lanka has been identified by the World Bank as one of
28 countries with little or no debt headroom. In plain
words Sri Lanka should not borrow from private foreign
currency markets since doing so can push her into a debt
trap. However the Rajapkses, happily immersed in their
favourite delusions, are in no mood to listen to sage
advice. Accordingly Sri Lanka will continue to borrow
from international capital markets; in fact the Central
Bank is already seeking a new loan to the tune of US$300
million. Deputy Finance Minister Ranjith Siymbalapitiya
is on record stating that government expenditure for the
year 2009 is estimated at Rs.980.6 billion and of this
Rs.849.9 billion will be obtained from international capital
markets as foreign currency loans. Is it patriotism to
bankrupt a country?
What
will be the fate of a country where greed, revenge and
stupidity masquerades as patriotism?
Courtesy - Asian
Tribune