Death of democracy and road to dictatorship

Whence the threat?:

A. A. M. Nizam

We Sri Lankans succeeded in ending 30 years of brutal terrorists aggression in May this year due to the wholehearted contribution made by each and every patriotic citizen that enabled the Armed Forces to destroy the military wing of the terrorists at Nandikadal annihilating the LTTE military leadership and put an end to the life of its megalomaniac leader Prabhakaran. This splendid success could never have been achieved if not for the total commitment made by all those who contributed towards this goal, in the face of sturdy and unprecedented combined attempts made by the powerful western nations, Tamil Diaspora and proxies of LTTE, treacherous political desperados and political bandits. NGO vultures and the South Indian political elements to force a halt to the offensive operations and rescue the terrorist leadership. In the whole history of Sri Lanka it never faced such threats and warnings from a multitude of fronts simultaneously.

The patriotic masses who yearned for a complete wipe out of the terrorists and terrorism were however apprehensive that once again the victory will be snatched away from them as it happened in 1987 with the mere drop of Parippu parcels and Indian pressure under which President Jayewardene shamelessly acquiesced and commanded Lt. General Denzil Kobbekaduwa to halt operations and withdraw the Forces to their respective barracks.

If not for this political intervention, and the shameless genuflecting to foreign pressure, Lt. General Kobbekaduwa and his troops would have wiped out the terrorists forever, as the LTTE at that time was in a nascent stage and had only a few thousand fighting cadres and had no Navy and had no air wing.

After President Jayewardene Sri Lanka was ruled by several Presidents and Prime Ministers and all of them failed to put an end to the rapidly growing terrorist scourge since all of them lacked determination and the political will to annihilate the terrorists, succumbed to external pressure, became deceptive to LTTE’s cunning manoeuvres, failed to provide adequate men and material to all Forces including the Police, had no faith in the capabilities of our Security Forces, and moreover were ineffective to muster the backing of all patriotic masses from all walks of life for the war effort.

Annihilation of the LTTE’s military wing was possible because of a multitude of factors. The prime factor among them was the solid and staunch leadership given by the President who by making every effort to provide men and material for the Forces unswervingly faced all pressures, criticisms and threats from the world’s most powerful nations and foiled all attempts made by treacherous political desperados and political bandits to topple the Government with the objective of halting the operations against the terrorists. Nonetheless, we should not remain complacent of what was achieved but be very cautious of the dangers that may befall us from the combined cabal of disgruntled elements who were unsuccessful in saving the LTTE leadership. The mere annihilation of the LTTE military wing will not make Sri Lanka safe. The last minute sturdy attempts made by western nations including the joint visit made by Foreign Ministers of two powerful western nations (initial attempt was to make it a joint visit of three Ministers) point to the fact that how important LTTE was in their neocolonial geopolitical road map in the face of rising Asian giants China and India.

Since Sri Lanka is situated in a strategically important location than the illegally acquired Dieggo Garcia the western nations, despite unavoidable proscription of LTTE, considered and valued the LTTE as a vibrant agent to destabilize the region, as they maintain Israel, Georgia and several other nations and terrorist organizations to destabilize regions and establish their economical and political hegemony over those regions.

Having lost the mercenary force, the LTTE, which they were nurturing to destabilize China and India and other nations in the Asian region, the western imperialists together with the international LTTE elements and unpatriotic political desperados and hooligans would certainly attempt now to install a puppet regime in Sri Lanka. Most Sri Lankans were unaware that on October 15 some treacherous elements under Uniform attempted to snatch away the people’s victory over the LTTE, and install such a puppet regime. Swift action taken by the President and India placing its Security Forces on alert foiled the intended coup attempt.

If not for the swift action taken by the President, similar to what happened through an Army coup in Indonesia in 1966 overthrowing President Sukarno’s 32-year rule would have happened in Sri Lanka, and by now several thousand would have lost their lives in a blood bath worse than the Uva-Wellassa blood bath. In Indonesia, the western powers and the local treacherous political elements resentful of President Sukarno’s people-friendly rule and his close relationship with China supported Suharto’s take over of power and following this take over military backed militia went on rampage and mercilessly murdered upto two million.

Similarly in Chile, the Popular Unity Government elected in 1970 of President Dr. Salvador Allende was toppled in 1973 with active support from American CIA and a military dictatorship headed by General Augusto Pinochet was installed. Following this coup over 3,200 people were killed, at least 80,000 were imprisoned, 30,000 subjected to gruesome torture, and another around 200,000 people fled the country seeking asylum in Argentina, Peru and several other Latin American countries. It was also reported that Dictator Pinochet’s military intelligence even killed some of these exiled people going into the countries they found asylum.

To be continued