POINT OF VIEW 5/3/2000
No to Norway and defeat the LTTE

by Nalin de Silva
The LTTE, the armed wing of Tamil racism is marching towards Jaffna. Their aim is to force the government to negotiate with them under the auspices of the Norwegian government and establish at least a confederation in the northern and eastern provinces. The LTTE is working in connivance with the western European countries. The armed forces have experienced a temporary set back for which as was mentioned in these columns last week many people and organisations are responsible. The political generals who conducted military operations to suit their political agenda and the others who are alleged to have been involved with malpractice occupy the number one spot. Then there are the "peace missionaries" who with their propaganda demoralised the army. The NGO "intellectuals", the NIPU (National Integration Programme Unit of the Ministry of Ethinic Affairs and National Integration), the BBC, the thavalam and sudu nelum organisers, the people who organised school peace walks and peace weeks, some members of the hierarchy of the churches of various denominations, the historians who came out with bogus theories etc., are all responsible for the demoralisation and turning away of the youth from the army.

The government instead of following statesmen such as Winston Churchill were happy to be pseudo humanitarians preaching "peace" to the army. They continue to allow the BBC to mislead not only the people but also the soldiers, who get their news from the "Sandeshaya" that has become the Sinhala voice of the LTTE. The BBC is supposed to have entered into an agreement with the SLBC on the relaying of the "Sandeshaya". The government should enlighten the people on this agreement and those who are responsible for signing it.

There is no point in having talks with the LTTE with or without Norway. Norway is not on now. The government should immediately take steps to correct all the mistakes and reorganise the army under capable leadership. The political generals have to be sidelined and the president should take steps to form not a national government but a government of political parties or of politicians determined to defeat the LTTE. A national government is not something that can be formed in this country. The concept of a national government is valid in countries where the opposition knows how to oppose and when to oppose. In Sri Lanka there is no consensus among the main political parties on a national policy not only on Tamil racism but on any matter other than that of raising their salaries.

However in order to form a government that is determined to defeat the LTTE the SLFP, of all the parties, should take a decision along those lines. Then they should have discussions with the political parties within the PA, the UNP, the other parties represented in the parliament and also the rest of the parties. The president should address more to the individual politicians than to the political parties. Let the individual politicians forget the party affiliations and answer the simple question as to whether they want to defeat the LTTE militarily. We are about to face one of the darkest hours in our history and the answer to this simple question is very important. There cannot be any conditions attached to the answer and if the president is in favour of defeating the LTTE militarily let her form a government with those MPs who agree with her on this important question. All the other problems could be forgotten for sometime and let us finish this job once and for all. Let me remind once again that there is no war in this country. The LTTE has taken up arms against the state in order to form a separate state. The foremost duty of the government is to protect the state and the president is empowered by the constitution to form a government from the MPs that have been elected. If the government fails in its most fundamental duty to protect the state then it is up to the people to give their judgement at the next elections. Let those bankrupt Marxists in the PA and the western style liberals in the UNP and the others who oppose military operations or who are not in support of military operations against the LTTE unconditionally remain in the opposition for the time being. They can choose to become observers when history is being made. Let the bankrupt Marxists contest the next elections on their own and not as partners in a coalition and get themselves elected if possible. Their total strength was seen at the May day rallies that are only cultural symbols and if left to themselves they would be confined to the Lipton circus. In the language of the Marxists themselves the "working class" is only a metaphysical entity confined to the superstructure in the Lipton circus without a material base. There are workers employed in various establishments but there is no working class as such. The NGO’s, the neo, retired and ex Marxists exert pressure far in excess of their voting strength through the media and the positions they hold in the various ministries. They or their theories are no stronger than the proverbial "barawa kakula". One of these Marxists Batty Weerakoon has said at the May day rally that the military setbacks are due to lack of a political solution. On the contrary this minister who has been among others in preaching the ill effects of "war" is responsible for the setbacks. If the government had gone all out with its military operations without the so-called political packages and sudu nelums and what not that demoralised the army, and left the operations to the military generals sidelining the political generals, by now the "war" would have been over. I challenge Batty Weerakoon for a public debate on his statement. If people like him remain in the cabinet, as influential ministers then there is no need for other spokesmen for Tamil racism.

The government should take steps to dissolve institutes like NIPU which only serve Tamil racism. People who are influential in these institutes are mediocre "intellectuals" who earn a second salary through employment in such places. They are invariably third rate western social scientists who hide behind technical terms when confronted. Western sociology and political science that limp behind western physics have not been able to come up with any theories that explain the functioning of the society. When something goes wrong in a physical system that has been studied by the physical scientists very often the people who are familiar with the theories and the concepts could detect and explain why the system has failed. They can take remedial action and make the system work again. What can the sociologists to do in a similar situation except to criticise the politicians? They should incorporate the politicians also as an entity or a factor in their theories and prescribe corrective measures taking into consideration the existence of the politicians. Their theories devoid of the jargon could be exposed as barren statements by the laymen. In fact sociology itself could be "deconstructed". Therefore they prefer to wrap their bankrupt ideas in the "intellectual" jargon and engage in "discourses" away from the laymen.

Recently some of these "intellectuals" took a decision to drop certain chapters from the year 9 textbook on Sinhala language. They work on the assumption that history is an obstacle to achieve peace in the country. This is something that their masters in the west would not have thought of in relation to their countries. There are various parties who would like to drop the Sinhala Buddhist history of the country from the textbooks. They may be successful temporary in erasing history from the text books but what they do not realise is that they cannot delete history from history. If history is deleted from history then there would not be any history and without a history there would not be a present. Unless these people are capable of eliminating the present they will not be able to delete history from history. The president has realised the folly of the "intellectuals" and has ordered that the three relevant chapters should be printed as an appendix and distributed to the schools. While thanking her for this thoughtful act we have to point out that she has to educate herself on the Tamil racist problem that faces the country.

"The Island" of Tuesday 02 has published an article by Peter Chalk who says that V. Manoharan of the LTTE has been preaching that (i) The Tamils are innocent victims of a government dominated by the Sinhalas, (ii) Sri Lankan Tamils, constituting 12.5% of the population, are subjected to constant discrimination and military oppression, (iii) The Tamils can never peacefully coexist with the Sinhalese in a single state. It is unfortunate that the president and many other Sinhala politicians believe that there have been injustices caused to the Tamils by the Sinhalas and the governments since independence. Can anybody spell out what these injustices are? The propaganda of Tamil racism carried out with the help of the western "intellectuals" and states have affected the thinking of some of the Sinhala politicians as well. The problem in this country is the refusal by Tamil racism to give the rightful place to the Sinhala people, their language, their culture and their history. The Tamils are not prepared to live as equal citizens in this country recognising that the Sinhalas constitute the majority, that it is the Sinhalas who built a unique culture in Sri Lanka and that the Sinhala Buddhist culture is of special significance to the country. The president should drop those pinkish socialist ideas and the western liberal theories and look at the problem through the eyes of the history of the country. By giving orders to print the three chapters that were dropped by the history droppers she has taken one important step in that direction.

The country is facing a crisis situation. The government should not only dissolve institutes such as NIPU but obtain the services of all the patriotic educated people to assist the armed forces. The soldiers have to be armed with an ideology and there are many who can help the armed forces in this respect. Then as they did in the "second world war" the educated people, the patriotic and not the spies and the Marxists and the liberals, could be used in various capacities to foster the armed forces. Then of course there is the problem of getting assistance from the friendly countries. Whether we get help from Russia, China, India or any other country it should be on one condition. They should provide us with aid and not with theories. We should solve the problem the way we want and not the way that the aid giving countries want. If they are friendly countries give us what we want and not what the LTTE and Tamil racism want. If they are our friendly countries they cannot be the friends of Tamil racism and the LTTE. We know who the friends of Tamil racism are and we are in this sad situation because of the friends of Tamil racism who pretended to be the friends of the Sri Lanka. At least at this late hour we should expose them and turn towards the true friends of the country who are not responsible for baptising and sponsoring Tamil racism. The government should set an example and forget the "paduru sajjas" and the tamashas and concentrate on the military operations to defeat the LTTE. The people, if given the correct leadership, will join the armed forces in their thousands and sacrifice even the little comforts to protect the country.