A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Sophisticated response to terror attacks needed
by Jehan Perera-April 29, 2019, 6:45 pm
Sri
Lanka ended its first week after coordinated terror attacks in six
locations left more than 250 killed and 500 injured without any further
attacks. But the country remained in a state of semi-paralysis with
people fearful about going to their workplaces in urban areas and to
crowded places such as shopping centres and markets. Schools also remain
closed. Some foreign embassies even ordered the evacuation of children
and asked their staff not to report to work. After churches and hotels
were attacked people do not know what the next target will be.
Such sustained and widespread fear did not grip the country even during
the worst days of the three decade long war with the LTTE. There were
suicide and other bombings then too but they did not denude the streets
of people for so many days at a time. The willingness of the NJT to
expend the lives of as many as nine of its members as suicide bombers on
a single day suggests the availability of more waiting in the wings.
This is a major cause for apprehension.
The NJT is reported to have had about 150 members. Whether they are all
ready to be suicide bombers is a matter for speculation when little is
known of this organization. So far the security forces have made many
arrests. Whether they are all members of the organization or others who
are supportive of them or members of other extremist groups is not
known. The people await the government’s announcement that security is
assured before they will be willing to venture out of their homes with
confidence.
The ending of the nationwide curfew on Sunday a week after attacks seems
to have had a positive impact on the public mood. There is more of
normalcy in the flow of traffic and in office attendance. The
continuation of the curfew was an indication that the government was
adopting a cautious attitude to national security. The country cannot
afford another bomb attack that kills and maims people.
DANGEROUS ANGER
There is already much anger seething in society about the government’s
failure to give the people advance warning about the possibility of
these attacks. This is anger that can be turned into a communal
conflagration as in the past which needs to be prevented at all costs.
Information regarding Muslim extremists was given by the Muslim
religious and civil leaders to the government as long as three years ago
and also more recently. This information was detailed, giving names and
even videos of the speeches that these extremists were giving.
There was information that came from Indian intelligence services of the
day and specific targets. It is a grave dereliction of responsibilities
that the government failed to take all these warnings into account to
protect the people. It is beyond belief that the top political leaders
of the government and opposition did not get these intelligence reports
about the impending catastrophe. These intelligence reports appear to
have been widely disseminated within the security and intelligence
services, and it is difficult to believe that none of them shared this
information with those who were leading the country and with whom they
had been working closely.
The tragedy of Sri Lanka is that no one takes responsibility for the
security lapse or for downplaying the threat or for waiting to take
political advantage of the crisis that was bound to come. The president
and prime minister who lead the country have been pulling in different
directions since their working relations began to seriously deteriorate
last year. The government from which so much was expected has failed to
deliver on its potential due to infighting.
The leaders of the opposition who continue to have influence in the area
of national security claim innocence. They promise to come back to
power and deal effectively with the situation. There is widespread
public yearning for strong leaders who will do the needful to eliminate
terrorism. Indeed there is a very powerful undercurrent of emotion
amongst the people that unscrupulous political leaders can seek to
exploit. When anger is mixed with fear it can easily get transmuted into
hate.
RELIGIOUS ACHIEVEMENT
One of the achievements of the present time, and in which Sri Lankan
society can take strength, is that there have been no acts of
retaliatory violence. The primary credit for this should go to the
clergy of the Catholic Church whose adherents paid the biggest price in
terms of the numbers of lives lost. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has been
the public face of the church in calling for accountability from the
government leaders who did not take the necessary action to prevent this
catastrophe and for asking the people not to take the law into their
own hands.
Sri Lanka can also take strength in the competence of its security
forces that once battled the LTTE and set up systems of information
gathering and counter terrorism that military personnel from other
countries have come to study. The government has brought in Emergency
Regulations to arm the security forces with additional powers. It is
important that they be reminded of the need to function within the laws
and to respect the dignity and honour of the people whose homes they may
have to enter in search of terror suspects.
Dealing with religion based extremism requires a sophisticated approach.
Civic, moral and religious leaders of all communities should reflect on
the areas in which each of their communities could do more to improve
engagement and relationships with those of other communities. We should
not repeat the mistakes of the past. In 1979, President J R Jayewardene
issued orders to the security forces to go to the North and eradicate
terrorism in six months. However, the alienation that set in as a result
of heavy handed counter-terrorism action alienated the people and the
seeds of the thirty year war were sown.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and the Catholic Church have set a good example
in a time of national anguish and fear, and in a situation in which the
Catholic community feels that they have been targeted. Muslim-Christian
relations in Sri Lanka were never bad or conflictual and must not ever
become so, which is what the Cardinal and other leaders of the Church
have sought to ensure. The reliance on the coercive power of the state
needs to be backed by the moral and reconciliatory power of religion as
it is meant to be.