As our fellow blogger on Kottu Hot And Fast News reports the calendar for 2012 by Glitz, a very successful chain of clothing stores owned by a Muslim is in Arabic, Tamil and English ignoring the Sinhala language which is the language of the largest section of the customers of this business industry.
This purposeful omission of Sinhala language and giving prominence to Arabic langue which is almost non-useable language in Sri Lanka for day today communication by its citizens is a clear indication of Muslim fundamentalism in Sri Lanka. This is also a clear indication how the wealthy sections of the Muslim community, primarily the business community sow the seed of communalism among its members. This is just one example of emerging Muslim fundamentalism in Sri Lanka which has spread in many forms as I elaborated in my previous posts.
One of the often made allegations against the present government of its critics is that how the former army commander Sarath Foneska who is considered to be a true war hero is treated with many years of prison terms while at the same time how Karuna or Vinyagamoorty Muralitharan, the former Eastern Commander of LTTE who is accused of carrying out several civilian massacres and fought against the armed forces for many years is treated with a deputy minister position of the present government being offered with all the privileges. A fair and neutral assessment is needed to judge how valid this allegation against the government is. In order to do a balanced assessment we shouldn't confine not only to the contribution made by the each individual for the final war against terrorism but also to the contribution they made after the war for the wellbeing of the country.
It is an undisputable fact the defection of Karuana who was an asset to Prabhakran to fight against Sri Lanka's armed forces was a monumental loss to LTTE's war machine in terms of losing a successful leader, falling into the hands of the enemy his knowledge about in and out about the organization and the area he was controlling and eventually losing sizable number of combatants along with a large stock of arms. The contribution made by Karuna, a diehard and deadly leader of the most ruthless terrorist organization by renouncing the violence and joining the democratic process of the country which was rejected by his former organization as Tamil people's oppressor is also monumental. Even a diehard LTTE supporter must have taken aback by his move thinking how outside world would think about the futility and the relevancy of the fight that they were waging at an enormous cost to their people. This must have certainly prompted to think many an outside people who matter to Sri Lankan affaires that the desire that some of the LTTE fighters and Tamil people were yearning for to live under a democratic system of governance. So the Karuna's defection and then his joining to Sri Lanka's democratic process have indeed been a turning point in Sri Lanka's successful war against terrorism. Karuna is indeed responsible for many crimes. So are the many Ex-LTTE combatants released and being rehabilitated. Who knows whether some of those former LTTE carders will become ministers of the country in the future?
Former army commander Sartha Fonseka indeed took the reins of the army at a very critical juncture when Sri Lankan armed forces finally decided to push the military option to win the peace when LTTE rejected other 'peaceful solutions'. While his contribution as the army commander in the successful war against terrorism can never be underestimated the contributions made by many other individuals may perhaps many times bigger than what Fonseka did. First and foremost, it is the correct political leadership given by the president Rajapaksha that made the war possible. His all predecessors succumbed to the so called international pressure and had almost given half of the country to a terrorist organization in a platter for more than two decades. The wars his predecessors waged were half –hearted that ultimately resulted in losing many lives and property. It was his rock solid political leadership and the determination that gave demoralized armed forces a fresh breathing air which resulted in swelling in the numbers for recruitment to form almost 08 divisions in the army in less than one year time. The strategic leadership and guidance given by the Defense Secretary while being the connecting chord between the armed forces and the president have indeed been legendry. Army would have never even imagined in winning a war had the contribution from the Navy, Air Force and the Police not been at the country's disposal. It was the Navy with extremely limited resources that caused a massive hemorrhage to the LTTE: destroying the LTTE's massive well-oiled arms supply machine. It was indeed one of the turning points of the war against terrorism. No need of elaborating the mammoth and legendry role played by the air force with again extremely less resources. And again the both forces were headed by battle hardened highly successful officers. So it was a galaxy of factors that led to the war victory. Sarath Fonseka was not alone 'The Factor' as many claim for the victory. So the conditions were such that absence of Sarath Fonseka as the army commander would have not made a big difference.
Now it is pertinent to assess the role played by SF after the war with regard to country's wellbeing. How have some of his actions contributed to the country's future? SF's 'White Flag' charge was indeed life giving oxygen to the LTTE rump which had been literally down with the LTTE's decimation. The international witch hunt for alleged 'war crimes' sat in motion with this false 'White Flag' charge. The massive propaganda machine of the LTTE with its huge resources at its disposal was fully activated to rally against Sri Lanka in several fronts: from buying the anti-Sri Lankan politicians from the West and the USA to produce fabricated films by media organizations who were waiting to settle some scores with the Sri Lankan government. All sundry of anti Sri Lankan characters led by INGO bosses whose terms in the country were not extended due to their shady deals with the LTTE have been forefront in their campaign against Sri Lanka. The 'White Flag' charge was the stepping stone for the 'Darusman Report'. The massive effort being made to haul up Sri Lankan leaders and the armed forces members in the international war crime tribunals is at the full swing. The negative image that Sri Lankan has to bear due to SF's antics is massive and will continue to go on for many years to come.
So the damage caused by the SF to his motherland after the war has undone in many folds what he has done for contributing to winning the war. Many machinations by anti-Sri Lankan forces are well underway to make use SF to destabilize the country. Karuna who joined the democratic process of the country continue to help his community in particular and the country in general for their wellbeing.
Close on the heels of Sri Lanka's army commander's visit to the Indian Military Academy's(IMA) passing out parade General Ma Xiaotian, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) visited Sri Lanka. This unmistakably indicates that there has been keen interest on the part of two countries to forge close military ties with Sri Lanka. This keen interest can rather be described as a sort of a tussle by the two powers to win over Sri Lanka. This again unmistakably the tussle between the two powers to dominate the Indian Ocean region.
Military ties between China and Sri Lanka were largely confined to the supply of arms, naval crafts and aircrafts by the former during the last four to five decades. The training stints given to Sri Lankan military personnel in the Chinese military academies were not as large as Indian and Pakistani military academies have been offering to SL. However, with the beginning of president Rajapaksha's tenure there has been a marked increase of training stints offered to SL armed forces personnel in the Chinese military academies. So PLA's General's visit obviously indicates that there will be a further increased opportunities to SL military personnel to train in PLA's academies.
Though Military ties between India and Sri Lanka has been historically close the disastrous policies adopted by the Indian governments towards Sri Lanka have made Indian military less friendly to Sri Lankans. They include Indian military's involvement in training LTTE carders in India, aggression by Indian air force and navy violating Sri Lanka's air space and its seas respectively to force JR Jayawardana government to stop successful Vadamarachchi military campaign which saved Prabhakaran to wage the terrorism for further 20 years, sending Indian army (IPKF) to force upon us the so called 'Political Solution' and finally refusal to sell necessary weaponry to the marooned 40,000 troops in the besieged Jaffana peninsula and instead willing to provide vessels to a near impossible evacuation mission.
On the other hand Chinese government including PLA has been one of the few countries which were steadfastly behind Sri Lanka's successful military campaign against terrorism. Apart from being the biggest arms supplier to Sri Lanka China had been regularly supplying arms without any hindrance though many countries including India refused to do so.
It seems Sri Lankan armed forces and PLA have opened a new chapter in their relationship with the two countries' military ties further strengthened. However, we are yet to see the reaction by the Indian government to this strengthened military ties between China and SL. If India indeed does react it may be overt or covert or may be a combination of both. India's reaction to perceived SL's closeness to the US ie training LTTE cadres in India was of course covert though it became overt later.
In his legendry book 'The art of war', written two and half thousand years ago Sun Tzu said above words. It seems there is no better time than the time that we are passing now matches the relevancy of his wisdom to present day Sri Lanka. The consistency with which we followed and adopted to win the peace defeating terrorism should be as same as during the present day peace time too in the event of a future instability in the country that might be ignited by the vested interested many a forces at play here and abroad. There should be no stone unturned in the event of Sri Lanka facing such an eventuality.
Shamindra Ferdinando of 'The Island' in an article titled 'Focus on post-war challenges SLN 61st anniversary today' on 08th of December underscores this necessary preparedness on the part of Sri Lankan armed forces in general and the SL Navy in particular .
The utter foolish policies adopted by the previous regimes by not equipping the navy, the first line of defense of the country, as per the requirements to face the challenges posed by the LTTE during last two decades cost Sri Lankan dearly giving LTTE terrorists a field day. The poorly equipped navy plus denying the resources to it by turning a blind eye of its requirements specially during Ranil Wickramasinha's tenure not only prolonged the war but also dragged the country's development many decades behind with monumental damages to the lives and the properties. The following quote from the article that quotes President Chandrika Kumaratunga highlights the plight with which we were faced with.
Several years ago the Jane's Defence quoted former President Chandrika Kumaratunga as having said "If we had upgraded our navy earlier, the problem of Tamil separatist terrorism would not have taken the present form."
Apart from the threats posed to the country's defense by the forces locally and abroad hell bent to destabilize the peaceful environment enjoyed by its citizens, our forces should be prepared to face our growing economic interests too as highlighted in his article by Shamindra Ferdinando as follows.
'The gradual expansion of operations by pirates operating off Somalia, oil and gas exploration in the sea bed of Mannar, people smuggling and poaching remain formidable challenges. The navy will have to adopt a result oriented strategy to tackle these issues.'
Some of the strategies recommended by Sun Tzu in his legendry book have been applied by our strategists too in the war against terrorism though it is not known whether they have ever read it. So the need of the hour is the preparedness for any eventuality with necessary resources being amply provided to our forces as Sun Tzu's wisdom has never proved wrong!
So the Eelmists are up with a new fabrication again. The irrefutable evidences of existence of Sinhalese Buddhist civilization in the north and east of Sri Lanka before the arrival of Tamils to those areas in terms of hard evidences such as archeological sites well corroborated by the references in the chronicles as well as Tamilinzed original Sinhalese names were thorn in the flesh of Eelmists who created a fabricated history for Tamils in North and East of Sri Lanka. The fact that the vast majority of Tamils living in NE of Sri Lanka was brought down from India by the colonists as agricultural labourers mainly to cultivate Tobacco was swept under the carpet to further the fabricated history. Poisoned by this fabricated history, manufactured by power hungry vastly privileged Vellalai Tamils in Jaffna, underprivileged Tamils perished in large numbers and had to undergo untold hardships in the 30 years of war.
It seems that the sheer volume and the clarity of the evidences are such that Elemists are now forced to admit that there are at least evidences of a Buddhist civilization in the North and East. But they find extremely difficult to swallow the pie that It was a Sinhalese civilization. As long as the Tamil homeland theory was being projected with the power of arms it was purely Tamil Hindu Culture which exited for ' thousand years' and there was not an iota of mentioning of an existence of "Buddhist" civilization despite the fact that those archeological sites were strewn around the length and breadth of North and East of the country. The most ridicules part of this latest theory on the part of Eelamists has been that they have blissfully forgotten the fact that all the inscriptions are written in Brahami letters and Prakrutha language, the early form of Sinhalese. Existence of almost all the archeological sites are well collaborated in the chronicles such as Mahavamsa, Deepawamsa and Chulavamsa etc. Almost all the place names of North and East carried original Sinhalese names which have later been Tamilinazed. My numerous previous articles throw ample light on these irrefutable evidences.
PS: In fact an indication of the manufacturing of this new theory was in the offing was evidenced a few weeks ago in an article by DBS Jeyaraj, a staunch Eelam propagandist.
