2 weeks Ago By Sahan Weerasooriya
The cosy relationship between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is causing concerns, perhaps, for good reasons. The inheritor of the leadership of the party, the JVP, which launched the first insurgency in the modern history of Sri Lanka, way back in 1971 citing ‘Indian expansionism’ as one of the reasons, seems to have undergone a miraculous transformation; it is now cosying up to India. The process started well before the last presidential election, with the astute Indian intelligence sensing which way political winds were blowing in Sri Lanka; AKD was invited as an honoured guest to India, though he did not hold any important position in Sri Lanka.
This, no doubt, increased his chances of victory but the bigger beneficiary was India as during that trip AKD showed that he was prepared to reverse the attitude of the JVP towards India. The camaraderie between AKD and Modi has increased, culminating in the latter’s Sri Lanka visit, which Indian media have hailed as a foreign policy success. Some political commentators have expressed concern that Sri Lanka is heading towards being the 29th state of India.
Those in government may attempt to dispel this as a baseless fear but, unfortunately, they fail to realise that it is the very actions of their president that has given rise to such concerns, the way Indo-Lanka Defence MoU/agreement was signed during the recent visit of the Prime Minister Modi. One may wonder why there are no protests but there is a very reasonable explanation for this; those who mounted repeated protests against closer ties with India, from as far back as 1971, are now in government and seem to have metamorphosed to be the most pro-Indian! During the recent ‘flying’ state-visit of the Indian PM Modi, a large number of MOUs have been signed, including the one on defence corporation, the contents of which are unknown, apparently even to the members of the Cabinet! How come this happens with a government that came to power on the promise of eradicating corruption, establishing transparency, and system change? Neville Ladduwahetty, in an excellent analysis, points out that this agreement would result in Sri Lanka becoming, at least, a vassal state of India (Sri Lanka-India MoUs and their implications, The Island 18 April). Some of the excuses being doled out are nothing short of hilarious.
When questions were raised in parliament about the contents of these MOUs and pacts, the response from a government spokesman was that if anyone is interested, they can obtain details by making a request under the Rights to Information act! Isn’t this the actions of a government which has lost all semblance of transparency in such a short period of time? An even more important question is whether India is exploiting the lack of experience of the politicians in power to its advantage. One may wonder whether it was a coincidence that this extremely important and closely guarded defence pact was signed on 5 April, 54 years to the very day the JVP launched its first insurrection in Sri Lanka with the rallying-cry, “Motherland or death”! Considering the sinister ways of India’s operations, at times, it is more likely to be a deliberate and subtle reminder to the NPP/JVP government than a coincidence. What an irony it was for the Sri Lankan President, the heir to the JVP throne, to award the highest honour possible to the Prime Minister of India, a country they detested so much! After his very successful trip, PM Modi flew by helicopter, no doubt, gazing at the remnants of the Ram Sethu bridge, probably dreaming of rebuilding it to connect the 29th state to the mainland! It is high time the government reassured the public by informing at least the context of the defence pact signed, even if details are withheld for security reasons.
If it is not done the credibility of the government would be further eroded. It has already lost its credibility on the promise of honesty and integrity. The former speaker, who had to give up the third highest ranking position in the country as he had misplaced the certificates of his doctorate from a private university in Japan, promised to produce the certificates to clear his name.
Enough time has passed for him to get even duplicates but despite the obvious dishonesty, unashamedly, he remains an MP! Is this the cleansing of Diyawannawa they promised? What is happening regarding the Easter terrorist attack is raising concerns too, as it is being reinvestigated to find a mastermind under the supervision of two retired police officers, who were rewarded with top posts for openly supporting the NPP, despite being found fault for neglect of duty by a committee of Inquiry tasked to investigate the failures leading to that attack. Even if they were wrongly implicated by that committee, they should not be a party to any relevant investigation till their names were cleared. The government has demonstrated the lack of good governance by allowing these two officers to be involved in the investigation and the two officers have demonstrated their total lack of integrity by not removing themselves voluntarily.
The current investigation reminds one of the Sinhala saying Horage ammagen pena ahanawa wagei (seek help from a female clairvoyant to catch a thief who happens to be her own son.) This search for a mastermind, which started with the pronouncements of a previous Attorney-General who has refused, so far, to substantiate his claims took a new turn with the notorious Channel 4 programme based on the testimony of an asylum seeker who has produced fraudulent documents. President Sirisena, long after he left the presidency, claimed to know the mastermind! Anyone with an interest in facts ought to watch the excellent “Hyde Park” interview on Ada Derana with Professor Rohan Gunaratna, an internationally acclaimed authority on counterterrorism.
He has interviewed key personnel in ISIS and has studied 337 intelligence reports, both local and international including those from FBI, Scotland Yard, Interpol etc. He is of the strong opinion that it was an attack masterminded by ISIS and there is no basis, whatsoever, to consider it to be politically motivated. However, he did not address the issue of whether a foreign nation was masterminded for other reasons.
Attributing a political motivation may suit the government as it has a vested interest. It should not be forgotten that the father of two of the bombers, one of them the leader, was a prominent financial backer of the JVP whose name was on its national list. The other theory advanced by some is that India’s RAW may be behind the attack, the reasons given being that RAW gave exactingly detailed intelligence regarding the attacks and that the attack on Taj Samudra was aborted, at the last moment, due to a mysterious telephone call the bomber received.
Adding fuel to the fire of speculation is the latest action of AKD. His much-promised exposure of the mastermind on 21 April turned out to be a pus wedilla ! The country waited eagerly, but all he did was to hand over the Presidential Inquiry report to the CID, contrary to the recommendation of the commission that it be handed over to the Attorney General for action! Hasn’t there been a sea-change after PM Modi’s visit? By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana.
