Japan, Germany, Vietnam, South Africa, Europe in general, have all learnt their bitter lessons of war and internal strife and risen phoenix-like from the ashes despite many drawbacks and shortcomings as those nations did have something called national pride and consciousness and tenacity of purpose left in them in their effort at reconstruction and rehabilitation which transcended all parochial interests otherwise sold for a mess of pottage as has been the case unfortunately in Sri Lanka since the days of Keppitipola.

The Defeat of LTTE

International opinion encouraged by the negative thinking of successive governments and active Norwegian and other clandestine interests, ably supported by the financial and other clout of the Tamil Diaspora succeeded in inculcating the belief that Prabhakaran and the LTTE were invincible; that there could be no alternative to negotiations and granting his wishes.

The infamous Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement, the CFA of Ranil Wickremesinghe the humiliating press conference in the Wanni, where Anton Balasingham had the audacity to proclaim Prabhakaran as the Prime Minister of Tamil Eelaam, parity of status granted to the LTTE under the CFA and the events leading to the defeat of Wickremesinghe at the Presidential polls in 2005, which enabled President Mahinda Rajapaksa to save the country from the jaws of the Tigers are now history – a history which cannot easily be stomached by vested interests that had other plans for Sri Lanka.

They will therefore, not let up as it is now plain to see from the fact that our own erstwhile friends ganged up against us in Geneva and the faux pas by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who continues to speak ill of Sri Lanka based on information provided by elements hostile to us.

Executive Presidency

JRJ once proudly proclaimed that he had rolled up the electoral map for the next 20 years! Till the last Presidential election in 2005 and three and a half years later, Ranil W was quite happy with the Executive Presidency. In fact, when President CBK attempted to introduce amendments to the Constitution, he got his team to demonstrate against it and they event set it on fire inside Parliament while he sat calmly what was going on around him! He said the Maha Sangha should have been consulted first of all. He never consulted the Maha Sangha or even his own Parliamentary colleagues before signing the CFA.

The abolition of the Executive Presidency is clearly a matter of sour grapes for the UNP as its successive defeats at recent polls have made wary of contesting a future presidential election. The rift within the UNP is common knowledge and the influence of Mangala Samaraweera is a disturbing factor for all UNPers. His solution is to field a common candidate. There is also the question of the symbol. There is a faction which will not easily agree to give up the Elephant symbol for a common candidate.

The Military Connection

The attempt to rope in military personnel into the political arena is nothing new. During the time of President Premadasa, the name of General Denzil Kobbekaduwa was freely bandied about although it was believed he had no such ambitions.

Yet rumour had it that President Premadasa did entertain fears, which had to do with the general’s killing. Rightly or wrongly, Major Gen. Algama was linked with the UNP and met with an untimely death. The same was true of Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera lured by Ranil and his services were lost to the country.

It may be true that the discipline and training gained in the armed forces can be put to put to good use in civil and political administration, but it all depends on whether the person concerned would be willing to adjust himself to the new circumstances with a perfect understanding of socio-political issues. A desire to bring about a totally regimented society akin to the military set-up would be a total disaster.

The question is whether the proponents of having military personnel as political leaders are interested in the country and strengthening its democratic systems and procedures or whether they are simply attempting to use military persons to topple an adversary and in turn use their international connections to corner him, too, with war crime charges etc.

Nothing is beyond such elements. After all, the cat is already out of the bag they want the common candidate for a mere 180 days!

JVP and the Military