Civil- Military Relationships are Breaking Down

 

Dr Sarala Fernando-2022/04/17

For some time now, civil- military relationships had been increasing around the world for several different reasons. Even a military superpower like the US is witnessing diminishing voluntary recruitment since many years which has led to increased reliance on fourth Industrial Revolution technology dominated by private contractors, including new weaponry such as unmanned drones and covering underwater, space, cyber and information areas.

However recent events have shown that civil-military cooperation in the US is not without in-built perils. The US military dependence on civilian contractors failed the test of raising morale leading to a quick collapse of the Afghan forces and revelations of the thousands of pieces of weapons and equipment valued at tens of billions of dollars, left behind in the confusion of the exit from Afghanistan. The debacle has sharpened domestic public criticism in the US of such “forever” foreign wars and “nation building” exercises.

Even as the public consensus grows in the US that defence must be oriented towards national security in the homeland territory, a new fissure has opened with the January 6 attack or “insurrection” on that main pillar of American democracy, the Capitol, where investigations have revealed that over 80 of those persons charged by the Justice department had ties with the military including many veterans and a handful currently serving in the military. US planners must be worried now as to the extent of this “anti-democracy” sentiment within the active military and how it should be monitored and countered.

Some of the same fears are now coming to surface in Sri Lanka with the escalating economic crisis and discontent with the government. The Mirihana incident where thousands of people surrounded President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s private residence and reference to an “Arab Spring” uprising has led a senior politician to speak of a possible conspiracy to bring in a military government. How did a peaceful protest turn into a destruction of public property and who actually did that damage remains to be investigated.

In the meantime it is sad to see suspicion raised as to the military role and hidden “conspiracy” theories floated. The clash outside parliament a few days ago between police and the army motorbike squad wearing full face helmets is indicative of the rising tensions. It may be time for the military to resume its traditional role of protecting national security and roll back its extended involvement in government in key areas from ports to education, health, agriculture and construction.

At the end of the 30 year armed conflict, a grateful nation gave its support to the armed forces which had fought with scarce domestic resources, supplemented by assistance from longtime friends like China. As a result, settlement of debts post conflict, including through land transfers, was non-controversial given the priority of managing the terrorist threat. In the same way, after the conflict ended in 2008, despite the many needs in the South, there was no objection raised to diverting national resources towards humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in the North and East and to entrust this work to the armed forces.

Who else but the military could have handled the rehabilitation and restored so quickly critical infrastructure like roads, bridges, schools and hospitals as well as the essential clearing of mines, dumped weapons, ammunition and war debris, thereby permitting the conflict affected people to return to their homes?

Vulnerable to both human and natural disasters, Sri Lanka has not only come out of a thirty year war, it has faced an unprecedented Tsunami which devastated the Indian Ocean region, where the military had taken a leadership role in managing the government response to these disasters. But this had been accomplished in cooperation with other associated organizations, both government and private, foreign and international agencies, such that no controversy had arisen.

Before the Mirihana incident the question was whether it was possible to recreate that “whole of society” approach seen after the tsunami in order to deal with the present economic crisis post -Covid, including the huge debt problem, lack of foreign exchange, looming food crisis etc? Now it seems with anger rising and impatience with the problems of facing daily life with shortages of power, fuel supplies and escalating food prices due to the foreign exchange crisis, there is more likelihood of conflict rather than a possibility of cooperation. Even the Indian assistance package ostensibly for “confidence building” seems not to have achieved that purpose due to the hasty signature of defence related agreements pushed by the Indian side.

The heart of the problem is the lack of a peace dividend so many years since the ending of the armed conflict and the continued lion’s share of the budget being devoted to defence while essential public services like education and health are being cut. Press reports have revealed that our teachers and principals are apparently among the worst paid in the region, yet the government has given priority to improving facilities at the military university placing it even outside the existing regulatory framework. All over the public service, promotions and benefits have been curtailed while press releases regularly inform of promotions and new ranks bestowed on service personnel – poor public diplomacy?

Retired military officers appointed to high government positions have been met with scathing press coverage. One striking example comes to mind of that fine public servant Mr S.B. Divaratne who held the position of Commissioner of Essential Services during the years of armed conflict, coordinating diplomatically behind the scenes with the international community as well as the local agencies to maintain essential supplies to the conflict affected areas, in stark contrast to a recent military Commissioner of Essential Services shown on live TV raiding stores and warehouses.

A central problem is that the military has a different style of leadership and enforced top- down discipline which is in total contrast to Sri Lanka’s untidy public administration with loose administration of rules and regulations complicated by over-politicization from the top and union actions at the bottom. One can appeal to good sense but it will not be possible to weld together these two systems or even enforce one on the other given the long standing democratic traditions in the country. Furthermore, having moved from a socialist planned economy to an open market economy as far back as 1977, any Government effort for example to re-establish price controls on essential foods and rationing is bound to provoke push back from a vigilant private sector.

Civil- Military Relationships

 

Sri Lanka’s health service has always been a leader in the region held up as an example by international agencies, and its professionals had successfully led the management of many crises and dealt with the unions unlike today when the Ministry is headed by a military officer. Today there is a complaint that government funds are being liberally bestowed on construction and running of military hospitals, while the government public hospitals are facing shortages of funds, drugs etc. This has reinvigorated public calls for the military to step back from leading the Covid campaign and return its administration to the health authorities with its established system of government hospitals, MOHs and PHIs which remain in close contact with the public and have gained their confidence over the years. A new controversy is looming on the unutilized mainly Pfizer vaccines which were earlier controlled by the military, now likely to go to waste with public apathy as the expiry date of the doses approaches. Who will take the blame for any excess orders and is there a tale of hidden corruption?

Most recently there are proposals that the military should take the lead in the grow- more- food national campaign and there is even a proposal to raise a new division to do construction work. Will these proposals not bring unnecessary conflict with those traditionally leading these sectors, especially national research and development organizations and the vibrant private sector? In the conflict- affected areas, will not the small traditional farmers dependent on credit and local pawning come to resent the large military farms with access to technological know- how, labour, markets and largely unaudited public funds? How can that help reconciliation efforts? Growing food for the troops is one thing but growing food with public money to influence markets is another and bound to provoke more controversy.

So how can the civil-military relationship be repaired? On human rights there are some lessons to be learned from the UK where this year will mark 50 years since the Bloody Sunday incident in Northern Ireland which is said to have escalated the armed conflict there. The Bloody Sunday incident relates to a civil rights march which was met with gunfire by the British police and seven members of the public were killed. Initially there was the trumped- up explanation put out by the police which was later found to be false by independent Commissions of Inquiry. This then led to public apologies in the UK parliament by the Prime Minister. It seems the prosecution of the police officers involved could not be pursued due to the passage of time and lately there is speculation of new legislation being drafted in the UK to give amnesty to those involved.

Dealing with events such as Bloody Sunday underscores the need to strengthen the internal legal infrastructure within the armed services which involves not only training in human rights and humanitarian law but also to publicize action taken to try and punish military offenders for criminal offenses. If not, an impression will be created of impunity which is what has led foreign governments, pushed by an active diaspora, to sanctioning military leaders for command responsibility. From time to time we hear of armed forces personnel arrested for crimes of murder, extortion and drug deals, yet rarely do we hear of penalties and sentencing.

On the contrary, recent Presidential pardons have only added to the climate of impunity. In that climate, one must not fail to recognize the courage of a senior Foreign Service officer then serving in Washington who brought Ambassador Jaliya Wickremasuriya’s corruption to the notice of his superiors in Colombo only to find these allegations swept under the carpet until vigilant US officials filed action and the Ambassador now being tagged in the internet as a “close relative of then President Mahinda Rajapaksa”, admitted his own guilt to defraud the Sri Lanka government, in a US court .

(Sarala Fernando, retired from the Foreign Ministry as Additional Secretary and her last Ambassadorial appointment was as Permanent Representative to the UN and International Organizations in Geneva . Her Ph.D was on India-Sri Lanka relations and she writes now on foreign policy, diplomacy and protection of heritage).