Probe 'political conspiracy'

President Chandrika Kumaratunga, in her address to the nation on Saturday night, alleged that incidents that took place at Mawanella on Friday and subsequent events elsewhere were conspiratorial moves made against the People’s Alliance government. (In our comments yesterday we could only briefly touch upon her statement because it reached us only at the time of completing our editorial comments).

In her address, the President had said: 'The government is very much concerned about the events that took place at Mawanella on May 1 and 2, the disturbances at railway stations from Colombo to Negombo and the incidents that took place in the Maradana area on May 4... It is not possible that these incidents...took place by pure chance or accident. When studied in depth it is evident that there is a certain relationship and association among these. The small incident that took place at Mawanella was transformed into a clash of major proportions due to the presence of an organised group behind it...... Following the failure of these insidious methods, attempts were made to fan the flames of communal and religious hatred at Maradana. The Government soon received information of efforts being made in different parts of the country to promote clashes and create a situation of violence. We are now receiving information that gives a cause for serious concern and suspicion as to whether these are all links of a single chain. It is clear from an overall view of activity, to confirm that that there is a force to attempting to create instability in the country today...

These are indeed very serious allegations made by the head of state. They cannot be brushed aside or be forgotten in the course of time. The president even makes reference to statements made by unnamed persons of 'toppling' the government in the near future. It is incumbent on her part to make a thorough investigation by an impartial body and let the public know whether in fact there was a conspiracy to overthrow the government by resorting to communal violence.

President Kumaratunga does not name the conspirators but when making claims that the 'war in the North is reaching a decisive stage and ' signs of our economy being transformed for the better', she says: 'We are not surprised that some who could not come to power through 10 elections during seven years by the free vote of the people, cannot be welcome indicators of a positive nature'.

Then she goes on to make a very serious accusation saying that the persons referred to earlier expect a situation when the security forces now in the North will have to be brought down to the South thus weakening the security situation in the North and thereby creating a situation favourable to the LTTE. She also goes on to say that ' We' (the government) have reliable information that there is a secret understanding between the LTTE and the 'extremists in the South'.

The unnamed references are all too obvious. The first is the UNP and the second, the JVP.

In any mature democracy, if persons to a political conspiracy to topple a government through communal violence or some such heinous activity are identified, though not named by the head of government, it is the responsibility of the head of state to speed up inquiries. If evidence of a conspiracy, the allegations made are publicly withdrawn.

The whole country is aware that the UNP will try to 'topple' this government before its term of office ends. If done through democratic means there is nothing immoral, illegal or objectionable. But to resort to a conspiracy based on communal violence to achieve that objective is certainly unlawful.

On the other hand, President Kumaratunga has earlier made very serious allegations in public, but not acted upon them. She once declared of an attempt by a businessman to bribe her with a colossal amount but did not say what follow-up action was taken. She has constantly alleged a secret pact between the UNP and LTTE, but not provided any facts to substantiate her allegations. Instead, we now have police reports of the LTTE attempting to assassinate UNP leader, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Allegations of political conspiracies using the racial issues arefamiliar to Sri Lankans, the most famous being the UNP allegation of the JVP being behind the communal riots of 1983, and then going on to proscribe it. What happened is now history and need not be repeated here.

On the other hand, there is a far less simple explanation provided by the UNP to what happened at Mawanella. In recent times, Muslim businessmen were being made to pay 'Protection Money' (kappan) by political thugs of a government minister. Last week this resulted in Muslims reacting strongly to this extortion by political thugs and this took on a communal turn leading to widespread violence in town and disturbances in other parts of the country.

Now that President Kumaratunga has alleged a political conspiracy against the government being the cause of these regrettable incidents, she is obliged to appoint an independent body to probe the issue.

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