By the Association of Retired Flag Rank Officers (ARFRO)
The founder of the Worldwide Consultative Association of Retired Generals and Admirals (WCARGA), Brigadier Michael Harbottle of England contacted Lt. Gen. Denis Perera (then President of the Sri Lanka Ex Servicemen’s Association) and invited Sri Lanka also to participate in the Worldwide Association. At that time, there were only a handful of retired officers of Flag Rank (Brigadier, Commodore, Air Commodore and above). In 1996 however when there was a sizeable number ARFRO was formed and today there is a membership of 90. Membership is restricted by WCARGA to Flag Rank because WCARGA acts in an advisory capacity to the Secretary General of the United Nations and only officers who held high office are eligible to join.

After President Bush approved of US$ 40 billion to he utilised for the reconstruction of New York, a question was asked whether this would involve adjustments to the national budget. The answer was ‘National Security comes first’. This indeed is axiomatic and it is the prime responsibility of any government to ensure the security of the state and its peoples. What constitutes National Security? What is it that the nation has to protect and what strategies are required to be followed for this purpose? Is it just protection of a country’s frontiers or is it other factors affecting the personal security of its citizens? These questions have to be examined, assessments made and timely remedial measures taken to prevent disaster. A government must ensure National Security at all times and maintain such forces that are necessary to safeguard the nation. It must do so prudently and effectively and not impoverish the nation. Impoverishment leads to instability, which in turn jeopardizes security.

It is indeed a sad reflection on our state that no national security assessments have been made after the nineteen fifties. Two occasions on which National Security assessments have been made were during the time the late D. S. Senanayake headed the government. The first was just before Independence, when it was realised that after Independence, Ceylon would not have armed forces to defend itself, because there were no regular forces in the country at that time. Mr. Senanayake stated in the State Council in December 1947 the following:

"The defence of the country is one of the primary obligations of an Independent State and this is not the sort of world in which small nations can be secured without a large and expensive Armed Force. We are in a specially difficult position because we are in one of the strategic highways of the world. The country which would capture Ceylon would dominate the Indian Ocean." It was then resolved to raise a regular Army, Navy and Air Force and in the interim invite the British Forces who were already stationed in Ceylon to continue to provide protection under the newly promulgated "Visiting Forces Act". The Defence Pact with Britain had several advantages to Ceylon as free training was provided in the U.K. to Ceylonese servicemen and equipment required for the nascent armed forces were also obtained through the Crown Agents in London.

The second National Security Assessment was made in 1951, when there was a large influx of Indian illicit immigrants flooding the job markets, particularly in the plantations. The anti-illicit immigration operation using unarmed troops was appreciated to be the answer, which was highly successful in combating this menace which could have had serious repercussions on the demography of the country and the employment market. Take the example of Fiji (8,000 miles away) where immigrants who wanted to take control of that state overtook the indigenous population.

Unfortunately no such assessments were made when the ‘Sinhala Only Act’ was promulgated and when the ‘open economy’ was introduced and indeed before the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987. These important phases in the country’s recent history had repercussions, which could have been avoided if a proper National Security assessment had been made at the time of implementation. In this context it is relevant to note that immediately after the ‘terrorist attacks’ on September 11, the President of the United States went to his retreat at Camp David alone with his national security advisers. The President’s original ‘knee jerk’ reaction to attack Afghanistan was more soberly assessed and various options studied by the experts before launching the attacks on October 7. The resolve now is not to act unilaterally but to take measured and decisive action against global terrorism in collaboration with a coalition.

Terrorism

One of the most appropriate definitions of terrorism is the "implementation of the strategy of fear by the use of violence when its most important result is not the physical and mental or total damage of the direct victims, but the psychological effect produced on someone else." Terrorism is an age-old phenomenon adopted by various individuals or organisations in furtherance of some cause. With the advance of technology terrorism has also become more deadly e.g. The hijackings and skyjacking of the sixties and seventies, the Sarin gas attacks in Tokyo progressively leading to suicide attacks.

The first acts of terrorism in Sri Lanka were by a group of amateurs in 1971. Those insurgents who resorted to acts of terrorism by killings were soon destroyed by the state’s security forces with Indian and Pakistani assistance, or were called upon for surrender and that period of terror was ended in a few months time. A few years later, other groups in the North commenced acts of terror that were interpreted by the authorities as banditry and criminal activity, until 1979. Intelligence revelations prompted the government to promulgate ‘The Prevention of Terrorism Act’ temporarily and intense security operations were conducted and by the end of 1979, it was accepted that the insurgency in the North had been quelled. Unfortunately this was not so, the rebels went underground and intensified attacks by rebel forces were accelerated after the ethnic clashes in 1983 and continue up to the present day. Successive governments have not yet fully addressed the causes for the uprising and taken adequate steps to eradicate them.
(Continued on Monday)