All round R Anil’s defence

Defence Secretaries may come and they may go but R. Anil is lost for ever:

Maj. Gen. Lalin Fernando (retd)

Continued from yesterday

TEAMWORK: It would serve to refresh the minds of all by giving a short resume of the assorted Defence Secretaries with whom the usurper was best acquainted. They were appointed by his predecessors as Prime Minister from 1977 to 1990 and when he was Prime Minister himself. Their background and performance can be a guide to the type of standards he craves for:

a. Col CA Dharmapala aged about 80 years who slept before, after and during his tenure in office beginning 1977.

b. Succeeded by Gen Don Sepala Attygalla whose 10 year tenure of command in the army ending in 1977 because of his other ‘interests’ left it demoralised, politicised and totally unprepared for the ‘war’ that was declared by then Prime Minister JR on his own people in 1977.

In 1987 Don Sepala in the company of IPKF General Harkirat Singh went to the farcical extent of actually ‘blessing’ the disused and worthless weapons handed over to the IPKF by the LTTE photographed by an equally befuddled media.

He was innovative in giving pleasure to and seeking popularity with his political masters as evinced during the inquiries into the 1962 coup d’ etat ( treason trial), the arrest of the first Buddhist army commander Gen Richard Udugama as a suspect in the 1966 alleged coup d etat trial and his orders for the treatment/disposal of prisoners in 1971.

Shortly after, in a reversal of roles in Jaffna, he was to be the major domo in the highly treasonable act of handing over of weapons, ammo and cash to the LTTE with two other similar and singularly minded ‘minor’ domo Generals. It is not known whether the weapons were blessed the second time and where the cash was banked.

He was also around in the Defence Ministry when the surrender order to the policemen and soldiers in the east were given at the start of the Eelam conflict two in 1990. He with two other Generals, well knowing the enormity of their acts never tired of quoting superior orders in their defence whenever they were confronted later with their perfidy.

He admitted he was more afraid of President Premadasa than committing treason. Were men such as this ever fit to wear the uniform of their country? Should they have been allowed to hold citizenship thereafter even if they weren’t dealt by law because of reasons the usurper must know?

c. Gen Siripala Cyril Ranatunge. He being Defence Secretary at the time was allegedly not unaware of the above decisions and the transmitting of the orders about gifting weapons and the order to surrender to the LTTE. Consequently, 600 policemen who surrendered were slaughtered by the LTTE.

The army officers in the east however ignored these treasonable orders confusingly relayed to them through yet another General. Before this appointment he was Chairman of Airport and Aviation Services succeeding Gen Sepala his former CO.

d. Gen Wanasinghearachchige Hamilton Wanasinghe was allegedly in command of the Army and the actors when the above treasonable incidents occurred. He sailed very close to the wind appearing before the Bribery Commission in 1998, and played his part in the 1962 as witness both for the state and then as an adverse one in the coup d’ etat (treason) case.

e. Austin Fernando. What would his call to join the gallery be? He watched as the late Anton Stanislaus (alias Bala) the LTTE spokesman, entered SL on board a private sea plane in 2002, without bothering about any immigration or customs formalities, thus breaking the laws of the country with impunity, flew into Iranamadu tank in the Wanni and then flew out without authority on a prohibited route that took him over Trincomalie Naval base and out of SL. It was in complete defiance of national authority and security.

It appeared that the country was under a spell (of the usurper?) or could not care. Was this not the first flight over SL’s air space by the LTTE? Why was it not shot down? Was the Defence Ministry ‘radar’ not working?

The LTTE well knew we were in a total Appeaser mode and they could get away even with murder. They got onto that in quick time with an abandon that while it shocked the country sparked no interest in the usurper who went into predictable silent mode.

Choices

If this is the type of Defence Secretary that the usurper seeks to gift, he will be sadly disappointed that his gratuitous advice, far from being entertained, will be passed onto the Medical Council to identify his infirmity.

Neither will Gen Perera be inveigled. He will remember another potential Defence Secretary in the promoter’s pipe line in 2000, his friend the late Maj Gen Lucky Algama who died in a LTTE suicide bomb attack at a political rally. What does the usurper care for his kith and kin now? Fire and forget appears to be his aim in life.

The Forces know about the choices for Defence Secretary the usurper lived with. The deaths of thousand of soldiers and citizens, misery to the country and its people and untold wealth for some could not be unknown to them. The usurper should come clean and express his opinion on their acts of omission and commission and name them all.

The judges will then have to try them, trying hard to forget the stoning their predecessors got when they found some VIP’s proteges criminally guilty. What is ‘dooshana’ and ‘beeshana’ against the evils of ‘dhrohiya’s. Can he explain or will he continue his vow of silence on the subjects that must really concern him if he is accountable to the people? Paul Harris titled his book of photographs taken here as ‘Sri Lanka - A fractured paradise’.

Which defence secretaries did their damned best to help the politicians to fracture both the country and the authority of its armed forces?

They all came like mice to have their tails cut off by politicians. But not the present one. That the usurper knows.

Concluded