GOOD fortune has smiled on Sri Lanka during the past 12 months and peace and harmony prevails in the entire country since May 19, 2009, after the eradication of the LTTE.
Although the LTTE has been successfully eradicated, root and branch, from Sri Lanka by the valiant members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Police under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s dynamic leadership, it is manifestly evident that hard core LTTE members who fled Sri Lanka are re-grouping on foreign soil with others of the same ilk, sympathizers and fund raisers despite the organisation being banned in some of those countries.
Terrorism deterred
Media reports bear testimony to the fact that some prominent financiers raising funds for the LTTE under bogus fronts and providing weapons have been recently prosecuted, convicted and sentenced in those countries. A Sri Lankan daily published an article giving alarming and glaring details of a possible resurgence of LTTE terrorism under a different leadership.
The Tiger symbol was earlier treated as a terrorist symbol. Currently, the Tiger symbol has been used by a registered political party in India. When viewed in this context, ‘the game plan’ of the Tiger diaspora has successfully set in place. The Tiger symbol has now been established within Tamil Nadu.
Within Sri Lanka, there are foreign undercover agents and LTTE supporters, political opponents of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Government after the resounding victory at both Presidential and General elections and the establishment of a stable Government. Certain mass media both print and electronic hostile to the Government still endeavour to paint the wrong picture to destabilize the country which is now poised to carry forward its development program under the policy decisions of Mahinda Chintana.
Thus a heavy burden lies on the Government, to provide the needs of the people through its wisdom, whilst meeting and overcoming the challenges, and the false propaganda of the vile Opposition. That certainly calls the Government to be always vigilant against the alarming danger of a revival of terrorism in the form of the LTTE or undemocratic hostile opposition group. Such danger should be nipped in the bud without allowing it to flower and endanger the nation united under one flag.
Distortions
Reference is made to ‘opinion’ expressed by a writer of an article under the title, ‘Mahinda to use G15 power to exert pressure on USA’ published recently in a Daily.
It is manifestly evident that, it is based on inaccurate facts and distortions of well-known historical events of the world, plethora of hearsay material, buttressed with the untenable personal opinions of the writer himself, particulary in respect of America, Sri Lanka and President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and reflects an insidious effort to provoke hostility between Sri Lanka and America. That becomes clearer in the light of the assertion of the writer: “The Government which was driven by the ambition to win votes in Sri Lanka, painted the picture that USA was an enemy,” which is utterly false.
President Rajapaksa and the UPFA he led won the elections on the worthiness and merit that President Rajapaksa had personally earned after vanquishing the LTTE. The election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the office of G-15 President in Iran recently, bears testimony to this recognition earned by him. But this critic makes a shabby effort to belittle the President’s achievement and the commendable foreign policy of the Government in maintaining good relations with all countries of the world.
His destructive criticism goes “Moreover the Sri Lankan Government aligning itself with countries like Cuba, Libya, Iran and Venezuela which are enemies of America and by maintaining relations with them made statements hostile to America and Western countries.”
Misleading information
Moreover the title to the article ‘Mahinda to use G-15 power/to exert pressure on USA’ is both misleading and questionable, giving the wrong impression to the reader. In the premises this criticism by the writer in question should be totally condemned as trecherous.
This further manifests in the opinion the writer publicly expresses: “The Government thinks America as well as the West cannot survive without Sri Lanka. The actual position is the converse. Sri Lanka cannot survive without America and the West.” The critic commits a travesty of history and demonstrates his ignorance that Sri Lanka has survived for more than 2,600 years before America and the West came into being and most certainly can and will continue to survive sans his advice till doomsday.
The annals of history and historical remains of magnificent palaces and edifices with seven storeys of the ancient kings of the Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura period bear ample testimony of the highest standards of architecture, civilization and quality of life that prevailed long before the countries that this critic glorifies. Those elements kept Ceylon as a colony for over 450 years till 1948.
The critic finally ends up offering gratuitous advice, “It is well to note that the Government without making a concerted effort to re-build the image of Sri Lanka is trying to find solutions through changing Foreign Ministers is tantamount to experimenting with pillows to cure its headache.” This assertion too, of experimenting with pillows is also based on distortion of facts. G. L. Peiris has not been appointed Foreign Minister for the reasons adduced by the critic.
In the light of the foregoing facts of the lurking danger of the LTTE resurgence it behoves all citizens of Sri Lanka to stand united and support the Government in its effort to effect constitutional and electoral reforms beneficial to the entire nation. (Courtesy: Daily News)
