Maithri-Mahinda pact; a reality or a farce?

BY Gagani Weerakoon- SEP 02 2018

President  Maithripala Sirisena who attended the 4th Summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation  (BIMSTEC) held in Kathmandu, Nepal, commenced his two-day State visit to Nepal with the conclusion of the Summit, yesterday (01) by worshipping at several religious places including the magnificent Lumbini, the birthplace of Siddhartha Gauthama.
The Chief Minister of the province and the Minister of Culture warmly received the President when he arrived at the venue.

Later, the President engaged in religious observances and the authorities had made arrangements for the Sri Lankan President to worship at the sacred area where the Prince Siddhartha took his first step forward after the birth, by touching the place. This is an exceptional opportunity that no other State leader will receive when visiting the Lumbini, according to the President’s media division.

Ven. Galahapitiye Premaratana Thera, the Trustee of the Lumbini Sri Lanka Maha Viharaya, performed the religious observances and invoked blessings on the President and the delegation.

Later, the President informed the officers to apprise him regarding the development activities done by the Lumbini Development Foundation and further said that he is ready to provide assistance in this regard.

Thereafter, President Sirisena worshipped at the Maya Devi Temple located in the premises of sacred Lumbini.  A special memento was presented to the President at the temple. Subsequent to that, he visited the Sri Lanka Maha Viharaya located in the premises of sacred Lumbini. The President also paid homage to the sacred relics placed at the temple.

During this visit the President made an observational tour of the Dutugemunu Pilgrims Rest which is constructed for the benefit of visiting Sri Lankan devotees and inquired into the shortages at the Rest.
A Na sapling was planted at the premises to mark the visit of the President.

Meanwhile, the President also joined the religious observances at the famous Pashupatinath sacred Hindu kovil. This temple complex was included in UNESCO World Heritage Sites’ list in 1979.

Maithri-Mahinda Pact?

With President Sirisena visiting Medamulana last Saturday to attend the funeral of Chandra Rajapaksa where he met former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Chamal and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, speculations are rife, that there will be an early Presidential Election in 2019.

 According to political sources former Minister S.B. Dissanayake has played a role in Sirisena visiting Medamulana to meet Rajapaksas breathing speculations that the former is trying to get Rajapaksa’s support in contesting for Presidency once again.

As of now, only Rajapaksa could bring back SLFP stalwarts back to Darley Road’s Headquarters and it is unlikely that UNP would support Sirisena’s candidacy once again as there are quite a few hopeful presidential candidates in the party in addition to UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Sources claimed the alleged Maithri-Mahinda Pact includes Rajapaksa being appointed as the Prime Minister to head the Government. However, it was also said that former President is extremely skeptical about this pact as he still finds it difficult to trust Sirisena following his ‘betrayal’ in 2015.

A recent statement by Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was earlier slated as a presidential candidate also provided oxygen into this alleged pact.
Former Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that it is not a matter of whether Mahinda Rajapaksa can contest for the Presidency once again or not, as long as whoever becomes the President at the next election, forms a Government with him (Mahinda) as the Prime Minister.

He was responding to media queries after appearing before the Investigation Unit of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to give evidence regarding the formation and initial operations of Mihin Lanka during his tenure as a Director of its Board.

“The country wants Mahinda Rajapaksa as the leader. So, if he can’t become the President the people want him as the leader of the Government. This is what we have been saying all along. We will back whoever that has his (Mahinda’s) blessings to contest the next Presidential Election. That is if he cannot become a candidate,” he added.
Early Presidential polls are predicted in the backdrop of political developments that indicate further delay in holding Provincial Council elections.

Shedding light on the new review committee, appointed by the Speaker, to look into the now rejected Delimitation Committee Report on Provincial Councils (DCRPC), sources in-the-know say that this too will be a futile effort and would once again pave the way to a delay of the Provincial Council Polls. They attribute it to the Act - Provincial Council and Local Government Elections Act No. 17 of 2017 per se being flawed.

Meanwhile, Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya, also agreeing to this contention, says the implementation of the DCRPC would be impossible even if it was ratified in Parliament with a two-thirds majority, due to shortcomings in the Provincial Council and Local Government Elections Act No 17 of 2017.

He said before enacting the DCRPC during the next PC polls, it would be imperative to rectify the shortcomings in the Act.
He stated that despite the DCRPC not being ratified in the House through a majority vote, certain decisions could be taken by the five-member Delimitation Review Committee (DRC) headed by the Prime Minister and appointed by the Speaker.

Deshapriya charged that the Government had wasted six months having failed to table the DCRPC in the House since last March, and asserted that he was not prepared to shed light on those six months that had been wasted.

He noted that he was keeping his fingers crossed till a decision is taken by the DRC headed by the PM prior to staging the 2018 PC polls.
He made these comments when asked for his views on the DCRPC which was defeated in Parliament last Friday and also when quizzed as to why MPs do not criticize the Act which was the basis for the DCRPC.

The Secretary of the DCRPC, Saman Ratnayake, who explained matters to this paper last Sunday, stated that if there were any shortcomings in the report compiled by the DCRPC, the reason for that will be the shortcomings in the Provincial Council and Local Government Elections Act No 17 of 2017.

He added that they had compiled their Report based solely on the Act.
These sources affirmed that what is requisite for rectifying the shortcomings of the report compiled by the DCRPC will be to close the loopholes visible in the said Act.
“If there are limits visible in the report filed by the DCRPC those are only limits stipulated in the Act,” sources said.

Bharat Ratna

Dr. Subramanian Swamy, a Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart representing the Indian Rajya Sabha, was recently in Sri Lanka to invite former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to address a public meeting in New Delhi on September 12.

A recent tweet by Dr. Swami suggested former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa should be given the Bharat Ratna award for freeing Sri Lanka and India from the LTTE terrorism.

“Just as we have awarded Bharat Ratna to Mandela for freeing his people, we should award MR for freeing his people and Bharatiyas from LTTE terror,” Swamy
tweeted.

Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted in 1954, the award is conferred “in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order”, without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex.

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan of Pakistan and the former South African President Nelson Mandela were the only non-Indians who have been honoured with the Bharat Ratna Award so far.

No show Field Marshal

The 8th ‘Colombo Defence Seminar - 2018’ (CDS) at the BMICH, the Sri Lanka Army’s flagship symposium on the theme, ‘Security in an Era of Global Disruptions’ drew to a close on Friday (31) evening after an assortment of more than 115 world-wide security experts and nearly 800 service personnel, distinguished scholars and intellectuals, articulating their desire to carry on with the endeavour of finding comprehensive and cohesive strategic and practical solutions to matters of security concern.

The presence of a diverse gathering of like-minded foreign and local professionals, experts and scholars whose deliberations were incisive, thought-provoking and intellectually valid in relation to contemporary issues laid the foundation for many inspiring perspectives and necessary advice to decision-making processes which would in turn help groom a global society, free from violence, disruptions to peace and extremism.

The inaugural ceremony on Thursday (30) was marked by the presence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene, Presidential Secretary Udaya Seneviratne, Defence Secretary Kapila Waidyaratne, Foreign Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam , Chief of Defence Staff Ravindra Wijegunaratne, Commanders of the Army and Air Force as well as IGP Pujith Jayasundara.

Notable absentee amongst the distinguished guests was Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. While the organizers claimed the latter being invited for the coveted defence event, many speculated the bitterness he showed in recent times against much preferred post-war Army Commander Lt. General Senanayake as the reason for his alleged boycott of the event.

Giving a comprehensive interpretation to what political extremism means, Lieutenant General (Retd) Ms Orit Adato, Research Fellow and Lecturer in International Counter Terror (ICT) Research Institute - Interdisciplinary Centre (IDC) Herzliya, Chair of the Gesher Leadership Institute, Founder and Director of ‘Forum Dvora’ - Women in Security and Foreign Affairs, Founder and Managing Director of Adato Consulting Ltd, Israel, spoke at length on ‘Ideological Polarization’

She dwelt on Religious, National, Territorial, Socio Economic and Extreme Ideology, highlighting polarization’s diverse motivations. Focussing on radical Islamism in general, and Sunni /Shiah within radical Islamism in particular, related to Iran vs. Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, she elaborated on how radicalization finds articulations among religiously, devoted people and how it infiltrates all borders.

In the same vein, national and territorial issues do contribute to this phenomenon. For example, the Europeans’ separation desires and separation process like in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Chechnya, Spain or Israeli - Palestinian dispute drew the attention of all stakeholders.

On the other hand, deep gaps at Socio Economic levels between parts of the society, revolutionist approach within countries, civil riots and demonstrations, such as the ‘Arab Spring’ in the Middle East and Europe in the past contribute to this polarization in a large scale.

Similarly, Extreme Ideology that gives birth to Fascism, Anarchism, Communism, Racism or even Liberalism vs. Conservatism as has been the case among different tribes in Africa, Rwanda, South Sudan, Afro-American population in the US, Mexicans in the US, etc. encourages extremists to take weapons into their hands. This polarization might turn into violence and terrorism through escalated phases, like Pragmatism, Dogmatism, Extremism, Terrorism, etc.

“Since the defeat of Tamil Tigers by the Sri Lanka Government, we haven’t seen many insurgents going toe-to-toe against States. They lose or at least they don’t win. Localized insurgencies must be recognized as potentially-existential threat to notion of State,” says Dr. David H. Ucko of Sweden, Director, Combating Terrorism Fellowship Programme, College of International Security Affairs, National Defence University, Washington, DC commenting on ‘Role played by Violent Non-State Actors’ under the Session 1 theme, ‘Political Extremism’.

Delivering his 20-minute presentation to the Session 1 in Day - 2 at the ‘Colombo Defence Seminar - 2018’on Friday (31), he covered a wide spectrum of violent manifestations, across the globe and asserted the importance of identifying their behaviour.

The notion of winning back populations and territory, of connecting these positively to the Government, by far exceeds State ambition and, often, capacity as insurgency is changing, or perhaps it hasn’t changed, but we need to change the way we think about insurgency. Traditionally, insurgency seeks to create counter-State and capturing the State through military means are obvious as many examples from the Cold War proved.
“Yet since the defeat of Tamil Tigers by the Sri Lanka Government, we haven’t seen many insurgents going toe-to-toe against States.
They lose, or at least they don’t win. ISIS and some factions fighting the Syrian war are exceptions but also illustrate the point: once they gave up on their asymmetric advantage - the shapelessness, the dispersion - once they claimed territory and tried to build, they became a far easier target for largely conventional clearing operations. States struggle to follow up on these operations and deal with political and social drivers of alienation.

Speaking on ‘insurgent’s dilemma’, difficulty of asserting yourself as a start-up of challenging State authority, and of establishing yourself sustainably as the new source of power, he said track record is abysmal: not many recent cases of insurgent group winning militarily over a State and establishing itself as the new authority has done. Yet, if this form of insurgency is dying, it will lead (as has already led) to adaptation. Herein that one finds the potential rebirth of insurgency as a strategic threat to democratic norms and stability, Dr. David H. Ucko said.

Meanwhile, insisting on the need of States sharing intelligence, training and knowledge, wherever relevant to ensure global security, Foreign Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam, in his closing address to the ‘Colombo Defence Seminar - 2018’, urged the participants to remain always vigilant against violent extremism and terrorist organizations
world-wide.

 “Present day disruptions are multidimensional, multifaceted and security is the right to live without fear. You have discussed all possible and conceivable aspects of security disruptions during these two days. To add value to your two-day-long deliberations is indeed a difficult task. In this era of unprecedented global disruptions, it became evident that all who were homo-sapiens several thousand years ago have now become top class technologists, scientists, et al. We need to understand the disruptions in correct perspective. At every level of this human evolution there are disruptions and it has become a norm. Disruptions are in fact a way of life everywhere. As scientists say, we have transformed ourselves to an unimaginable extent. Our transformation in this biological sphere has produced unprecedented challenges and some yet to follow,” Kariyawasam pointed out.

He noted that good rapport and working relationship among security stakeholders locally and internationally are keys to success in making future security challenges that are disruptions.

“In the midst of these disruptions, it is a test for us to adopt and adapt while securing the right to live without fear. Putting the disruptions to rest is not that possible, it is a continuous process and unpredictable. As the Prime Minister said on Thursday (30), ‘global security needs global response’. States need to respond by sharing intelligence, training and knowledge wherever relevant,” he said.

The 8th ‘Colombo Defence Seminar - 2018’ (CDS) at the BMICH, the Sri Lanka Army’s flagship symposium on the theme, ‘Security in an Era of Global Disruptions’ drew to a close on Friday (31) evening after an assortment of more than 115 worldwide security experts and nearly 800 service personnel, distinguished scholars and intellectuals, articulating their desire to carry on with the endeavour of finding comprehensive and cohesive strategic and practical solutions to matters of security concern.