By K. Godage

One would not be surprised if the question were asked. According to Prabhakaran our memory span is no more than six weeks. Yes our collective memory is notorious for being short. I suppose we as a people have become immune to violence, which has deadened our national spirit. Further, surviving the daily hardships have made us to accept tragedies and pass on. Is this the reason for our not learning from our past mistakes and experiences? I have good reason to ask this question.

In recent days I have combed the newspapers for a statement from government on the steps taken or being taken to provide us with the security we are entitled to at the Airport and at other such strategic places. When the attacks on America took place, I discussed the question as to why they took place and whether it was because of Americas foreign policy. The question relating to the attack on Katunayake was not why but how. Security was said to be tight and there were security personnel around and within the Airport, but the terrorists accomplished their task. It was mentioned that money had passed and that maps of the Airport and its facilities had been made available to the terrorists. Do we detail persons for high security work without security clearance? Are these servicemen vetted or have they been hired through walk-in recruitment? Why does the MOD not have its own spy network to cover the services? Is this not an obvious need?

I do believe that we must reintroduce the forms of capital punishment that prevailed during the time of our kings to deal with traitors, including those who have made a business of this war, whilst some others are sacrificing their lives for the country.

Sheer inefficiency on the part of those responsible for security on the ground, has also been mentioned as the reason for the terrorists achieving such success. In the developed countries including Singapore of course, the constant emphasis is on training. What is the training that these security personnel get is it only the training imparted when they are first recruited? And how fit are they? As for fixation of responsibility, the base Commander has been charged in a civil court but that does not answer the all-important question - "how did it happen". We have right to know.

How many attacks were mounted on installations in Colombo? The Airport too has been attacked previously. Have we drawn any lessons from those attacks? It did not seem we had, This is a question, I as a layman, have asked many times before; do our security men study and analyze the causes for our many defeats (setbacks) in battle. Do they study how the enemy succeeded in attacking the Kolonnawa Oil Installation, the Central Bank, the Airforce base and the International airport? Does the MOD conduct seminars for security personnel on such matters - or are these matters only discussed at high level conferences? Do we anticipate attacks and conduct drills and mock raids?

What is the situation with regard to the Colombo Harbour, our main life line for our trade on which we are wholly dependent? Have we hired foreign security personnel who are real experts on the security of ports to advice us on how best we could secure the port from terrorist attacks? (We must give the experts the responsibility of implementing their recommendations for quite often we hire the nincompoops who present glossy reports which are padded with piffle but with no real recommendations). (Speaking for myself I would even retain the services of experts to advice us on how we should govern this country, as Lee Kuan Yu did in Singapore, (he had a Dutch Economist to advise him) for we have done such a shoddy job of it. Yes hire a political coach!)

What about Trincomalee? I am aware it is heavily guarded but should we not have an independent inspection done to assess the present security arrangements. I do know that the people in charge always claim that they are quite capable in almost every thing but since it is the countrys security that is involved, is it not advisable to have a second opinion?

I presume that any self-respecting security force would have made threat assessments of all our Ports, Airports and other strategic facilities as power plants the Refinery, the Kolonnawa Oil Installation, the Hydro Electric facilities and our reservoirs to name but some. Threats could take imaginable and unimaginable forms as has happened in America, but as far is humanly possible, have the authorities comprehensively anticipated all possible scenarios and proposed precautionary or counter measures? Incidentally have we not heard of how our MOD has sat on urgent requests for armaments etc resulting in huge disasters or am I mistaken? We the public, though we have a right to information and despite the government having spoken about transparency in administration at the outset, shall never know why we have suffered so many "setbacks as the MOD describes them. The MOD carpet must be like a mountain!

Let us move on. In many of my articles on military setbacks reference was made to the fact that our Intelligence was woefully weak. For instance, when the attack on Mullaitivu began our forces were caught entirely by surprise. Though some thousands of LTTE cadres had been massing themselves a few hundreds of yards away from the base our troops had been caught napping. The same is said to have happened at Pooneryn, Paranthan, Kilinochchi, in the Vanni, and last but not least, at Elephant Pass. In a previous article I recalled that in 1996 a renowned American company, established by recently retired Flag Officers MPRI, (it was headed by Gen. Soyster, the Defence Intelligence Chief under both Presidents Reagan and Bush, who visited Sri Lanka - the MOD probably thought him to be some retired General without work) offered two proposals one of which was to upgrade our Intelligence infrastructure, but our Pandits turned down the offer.

Our Intelligence still remains weak. The debacles (setbacks) have not been due to the failure of Intelligence alone, for, those in charge of operations have also failed us, but there is no gainsaying the fact that we cannot protect any of our Ports, Airports or the other facilities mentioned before, without good intelligence. In recent days we have been taught a lesson through TV in particular on the importance of Intelligence, in the present war on the Taliban. No operation is conducted without good intelligence. They are of course using spy planes and satellites. Also in 1996 the government did not consider an offer of Satellite high-resolution imagery to locate the LTTE. The bureaucrats in the MOD probably thought IMAGERY had something to do with imagining!). We are dependent on enclair communication intercepts and human source intelligence with a small contribution from the UAVs. We must re-organize the Intelligence infrastructure on an urgent basis. It is criminal not to do so. Is the bureaucracy protecting cronies at the expense of the national interest?