‘Hunger games,’ closed doors and what next?

Dr. Vickramabahu Karunarathne-Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Fascistic gangs of Mahinda claimed that LTTE is active in the North and in many occasions LTTE flags were being hoisted in that area. However, immediately this was countered by the police and security forces and the latent regime of Mahinda did not challenge it.

Any one visiting North East could see that army is not operating in the streets and there is civil governance with police implementing law and order. Army is confined to the camps and part of land occupied is given back to the owners. Still large part of agricultural land is within the high security zone; but ways and means of reducing that is considered by the relevant authorities.

The UNP General Secretary and Cabinet Minister, Kabir Hashim has said that the new government has not withdrawn a single Army camp. But the fact remain that civil authorities in the north- east have taken over the duties of governance while armed forces are confined to the barracks. Also it is clear under normalcy it is necessary to cut down the strength of armed forces, and give back the land so far occupied while keeping any land for expansion.

No one has opposed the presence of the security forces in all areas. It must be clear to every body that security forces will be present in all districts of the country even though under normal conditions they will be confined to the barracks.

In fact it has to be reminded that Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran demanded that armed forces should be removed from the streets and check points while leaving implementation of law and order to the police.

Perfectly correct

It is perfectly correct if the government is to take action, under conditions permitting, to further reduce the Army presence in the North, to release more LTTE detainees and to do much more that would facilitate reconciliation, given the fact that more than six years have passed since the end of the war. All suspected LTTE detainees, even those charged under the penal code should be considered to be political prisoners and should be released under a general amnesty. Mahinda regime too had released more than 11,000 suspected LTTE cadres who were accused of various crimes, by 2011. It proved to be an action in the right direction. Also, all that 59 Army camps mentioned had been withdrawn from the North by Mahinda regime.Mahinda regime some times relaxed military control and released political prisoners for opportunistic reasons. Addressing the Defense Seminar 2012 in Colombo, the political Defense Secretary of Mahinda regime stated “In five stages between October 2010 and November 2011, much of the area covered under the High Security Zone near the Palali Cantonment was released.” He added that in 2009, there had been approximately 2000 checkpoints, sentry points and barricades in the North and the East, but there were none in 2012. “28 battalions that were in the North have been relocated in the South and the East. The overall number of troops in the North has been reduced by more than 21,000 since 2009. In addition Mahinda regime had withdrawn the security forces’ facilities even on political grounds. Hence it is clear that the present campaign of the latent Mahinda regime is to create a separatist bogey for conspiratorial purpose. It expects the fear created would lead to furtherance of animosity between communities creating calamities such as the 1983 riots and the recent unfortunate incidents in Aluthgama.

Legitimacy

Disputing this accusation the former President claimed that he has at his disposal many weapons against the present government other than this Tamil bogey. The legitimacy of the present government, the breach of promises and the morality of rule by a minority government exceeding its so-called mandate, are some of them. However none of these is powerful enough to shake the mass mandate given to the regime of Maithree and and Ranil. All attempts so far to bring impeachments and no confidence motions against the ruling regime have collapsed leaving only the crude mechanism of resorting to racism and anti minority sectarianism.

Mahinda had claimed that “to the rude shock of the patriots the Elam flag was now being hoisted, 59 army camps had been withdrawn from the North, some groups in the government were insisting on the release of dreaded terrorists and the so-called peace activists such as Erik Solheim who wanted to see the country in flames were openly working on a separatist agenda.” Further more Mahinda while on his temple rounds has been claiming that terrorism is raising its ugly head again and the country is fast moving towards division and separation. But the fact is, the country faced the danger of division exactly because of chauvinism and racist terror against minority communities.

Radical masses

Though he claimed to be a Buddhist he has thoroughly rejected the path of Meththa, Karuna, Muditha and Upeksha given by Buddha. On the contrary he has worked on the basis of Raga, Devesha and Moha and brought misery to the people of Lanka. His fascistic organization claimed he will be the Prime Minister candidate of the SLFP for the coming elections. This sent a shock wave among the radical masses that participated in the January 8th uprising. In particular trade unions, people’s councils and social groups condemned this betrayal. However table has turned against Mahinda.

President Maithripala Sirisena has flatly rejected to grant any concession to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the forthcoming election campaign, Cabinet spokesman and Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said recently.

Minister Senaratne told the weekly Cabinet news briefing that President Sirisena categorically told the six-member committee appointed to mend fences among the two factions that Mr. Rajapaksa did not qualify to be nominated as the Prime Ministerial candidate nor in the national list, or get nominations from the SLFP to contest the poll.

The people have clearly rejected the policies and the style of the governance of the previous regime and therefore, attempts to bring back rejected politicians and policies back to power was an insult to the people who elected Maithripala Sirisena as the President and the government formed under his leadership. “The people must decide at the forthcoming election whether they would continue to support the good governance under President Sirisena or restore the pillaging and plundering Rajapaksa regime.

They also must decide whether they approve to punish the rogues who looted public money or let them free and open the gates once again for corruption, lawlessness and thuggery” Minister Senaratne stressed.

That sounds the door of the SLFP is closed for the fascistic group of Mahinda. We should be watchful for the next step of this menace.