Footprints of a Great Leader:

An Incomparable President

Rodney Martinesz

The mass exodus that fled the clutches of LTTE

Without doubt the single most outstanding achievement of President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his four year presidency so far is the defeat of terrorism, a feat which defied all his predecessors since the outbreak of hostilities over three decades ago.

The day that Velupillai Prabhakaran was declared dead and his body showed on Television the entire nation broke out in rapturous celebration with scenes never before witnessed in post independent Sri Lanka.It was a momentous occasion which would be etched indelibly in every patriotic Sri Lankan for the rest of their lives.

The hitherto invincible LTTE was unravelled in the end and the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world made to bite the dust . It was certainly a poignant moment when the President who cutting short an overseas visit, on arrival, knelt on the BIA tarmac with clasped hands and worshipped his motherland which was at last free of the scourge of terrorism.This was certainly a crowning moment for any leader.

Today thanks to his steadfast action the people in the South are free to go about their business without the fear of exploding bombs and mayhem resulting from suicide attacks in city centres .Today mothers and fathers can rest easy in mind that their children will return home from school safe from any bomb blast. Hospitals will be free of the ordeal of dealing with the dead and the injured following a carnage which was commonplace.

There would be no more gory scenes shown on television of mangled limbs and dismembered bodies.

There will be no more deadly landmines waiting to claim the lives of bus loads of passengers in the lonely stretches of the interior. Innocent peasants in the hamlets of Tantrimale, and Gonagala scenes of gruesome massacres in the past can today sleep in peace without fleeing to the jungles in the night to escape the stalking death. On the other hand the innocent Tamils living in the North will no longer have to fork out the pittance in their possession as taxes to terrorists. They can now start thinking of a future for their children who were taken away to be turned into killer machines and human bombs not so long ago.

All this was made possible due to the leadership qualities of the President in bringing the war to end.His commitment in this respect is unmatched by any of his predecessors in office.In the past battles were never fought to a conclusion.Troops were either confined to barracks for the most part or made to fight with their hands tied.

The leaders feared the wrath of the international community should they decide to go for the kill.This is where the President rose above the rest.He instilled confidence in the military brass that this time around there will be no turning back.Without this assurance the military could not have advanced the way they did into the enemy heartland. Therefore the crown of victory should be rightfully his.

What is most noteworthy is that President Rajapaksa refused to fall into peace traps that served to strengthen the enemy and took a heavy toll on our troops.There was the lure of the US dollars 4.5 billion pledge by the Co-chairs of the Tokyo donor conference if he ditched the military option and sued for peace.

But the President was of the firm resolve that if the country was to benefit economically on the long run terrorism should be eradicated. Therefore he set his sights towards achieving this object with single minded purpose.He was vindicated in the end with even his international critics showering praise on the Lankan leader for his tenacity of purpose.Today they are seeking the assistance of Sri Lanka do deal with terrorism in their own backyards.

Even his worst critic would concede that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had it in him to stand up to external pressures that hitherto proved the bugbear for a successfully military operation.

At the outset his efforts to tame the Tiger were scoffed at by his critics. Even those in his own camp had misgivings about achieving victory in a protracted war that had sapped the energies of the Forces. They even took part in pro-peace demonstrations.This is because the war had made the political leaders as well as the fighting troops weary over a long period.There was battle fatigue and a sense of defeatism. The President decided to end the stalemate.The rest is history.

He has achieved what was deemed a mission impossible and proved a point to his detractors. More than any other leader before him he had to fight the war on many fronts but he braved the odds and liberated the country from the scourge of terrorism. True, the soldiers fought the ground war. But it goes without saying that the victory would not have been achieved if not for the political leadership which staved off the threat of inimical forces who were all out to derail the military campaign.

There were threats both overt and subtle to put paid to or at least go slow on the military front. When these had no effect the threats became more direct. Countless emissaries from western nations descended on Sri Lanka to try to arm twist the President to cave in. But he stood up to them all without flinching. In the early days the oft repeated manthram by one and all was the “this was an unwinnable war” uttered by political as well as military leaders of the day.

This not only infused a sense of defeatism among the soldiers but also served to deal a blow to their morale. The fighting Forces were made pawns in the political chess games played by the rulers far away in Colombo while the Commanders had no hand in the decision making process reducing the troops to mere bystanders in the decisions concerning strategy and military operations.

Nay military campaigns were conducted with reluctance and misgivings always with Governments looking over their shoulder to see if the guns of the international community are trained on them. There were also operations carried out to coincide with elections which did not elicit the full commitment of the fighting troops. The result was truncated operations with the might of the military prevented from going all out to conquer the enemy.

President Rajapaksa put an end to all such intrigue and half hearted measures.As Commander- in- chief he coopted the service of the best in the business putting aside all political and parochial considerations.His one goal was to excise the cancer of terrorism that was eating into the vitals of the nation once and for all.For this he marshalled all the resources at his command both men and material.From there onwards there was no stopping him.

This is not to say that he spurned dialogue altogether.The President gave the LTTE a reasonable chance to enter the democratic mainstream. He even reopened the peace talks that was in abeyance for three years. There were two rounds of talks in Geneva. But it was clear that the LTTE was only stalling for time. That it failed to meet the Government delegation at the final round over the question of the composition of the delegation was typical of the LTTE’s duplicity that was witnessed in all the peace talks before then. The President had no choice but to revert to the hard option. Mavilaru was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

This time there was difference in the approach to the military operations. Once on course there was no turning back or ‘tactical withdrawals’ as before. The soldiers were motivated by the leadership provided by their Commander-in - Chief.

They knew that there would not be any abrupt end to an operation to pacify the Western powers. They were provided with the best and most modern weaponry to accomplish their mission. Weapons purchases were strictly on a Government to Government basis which ensured that no inferior goods were foisted on the military as in the infamous flak jackets episode where the body armour were found to be easily penetrable by bullets, making our troops sitting ducks on the battlefront.

President Rajapaksa too was assailed by strident calls from the international community to halt the war. But unlike his predecessors he did not cave into the might of the Western powers. His Mahinda Chintana manifesto promised the people a country free of terrorism. He was a man with a mission and was not going to be intimidated by the ravings and rantings of third parties who brandished various weapons such as an aid freeze and economic embargos to stall progress on the military front. The human rights bogey was used as weapon to tame the Government but nothing could reverse the course already taken by the President.

He knew the people were solidly behind him in his endeavour to see an end to the three decades of bloodletting and usher in a new dawn of peace and prosperity to the country. He was also fully conscious of the plight of the Tamil civilians caught in the jaws of terrorism. His aim was to liberate them from their ordeal and see them integrated with the test of the community to be able to live with dignity and honour that were denied to them by their so called liberators.

The biggest ever human exodus akin to the biblical epics during the final battle showed the eagerness of the Tamil community to flee the clutches of their oppressors. Their voluntary arrival into the cleared areas seeking the protection of the Forces gave the lie to accusations of Western powers of civilian massacres by the troops.

The President is not unaware of the enormous task ahead of him in rebuilding a battered nation and has put in place all the mechanisms to ensure this is achieved with minimum delay. There is the resettlement of IDPs which is now progressing according to schedule. Development activities under the Northern Spring program are continuing apace together with rebuilding and restoration of livehoods and the economy to return this once blood spattered landscape into normality.

But above all the President is giving priority to the healing process and many endeavours are being made to mend fences and bridge the gulf between the two communities. Already we see signs of this in the frequent interaction between the communities through various cultural and social projects.

The President’s one aim is to pull down all ethnic barriers that has ruined the beautiful multi-ethnic, multi- cultural mosaic of this country. Hence his declaration during the victory speech in Parliament that in his book henceforth there will be no communities that are divided on ethnic lines but only those who love the nation and those who don’t.

The need of the hour of every Sri Lankan therefore should be to help President achieve this ethnic harmony which will be the stepping stone to peace and prosperity in an undivided nation.

The next phase of his Presidency hopefully would see the fulfilment of all his aspirations relating to all communities and groups of a one Sri Lanka.