Countering pro-LTTE elements a challenge - Dhamma Dissanayake

Chaminda Perera in Hambantota

The nation has faced a challenge of countering the pro LTTE elements operating within the country and outside.

The international community uses war crimes charges as a tool to bring back what the LTTE could not achieve through military means, Colombo University Senior lecturer Dhamma Dissanayake said.

Dissanayake was delivering the key note address of the 105th birth anniversary commemoration of DA Rajapaksa at the Singapore Hall in Hambantota yesterday.

He said the international community levels baseless allegations against the country to revive the LTTE after the terrorist organization was eradicated by the Government militarily.

The LTTE is a clique of underworld gangsters operating in the Jaffna peninsular in 1976 and it was baptized as a liberation organization by the Indian Government in the early 80s.

Late DA Rajapaksa jointly with former Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike played a pivotal role in changing the political tradition in Sri Lanka in 1956.

Rajapaksa was committed to uplift the living standards of the farming community in the Hambantota district and the country at large after the 1956 renaissaince, Dissanayake said.

The farming community will remember the services of Rajapaksa for the agriculture sector in the country, he added.

Dissanayake said the SLFP’s attempt to build a strong and independent nation were foiled by a series of incidents that occurred in the past.

The establishment of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the 1950s prevented these policies from being achieved by the Governments in the past.

He said that the 1953 Hartal was organized in protest of curtailment of welfare measures on IMF and WB directives.

Dissanayake said the assassination of SWRD Bandaranaike impeded the SLFP’s path to establish a independent and strong nation.

He said the social conflict in the 1970s also obstructed this process.

He said the gap between the poor and the rich widened with the introduction of neo liberal economic policies. The development in a country should not be centred in urban areas and all should have equal access to accrue the benefits of country’s development, he said.

The Indian Government has begun hunting Maoists throughout the country just 20 years after the Maoists were completely eradicated in the country. He said the areas where Maoist activities are rampant are less developed.

The eye dazzling development in the cities of Delhi and Mumbai can not be seen in remote areas in India. Dissanayake said the Indian Government allocates massive funds to control Maoists activities instead of formulating a viable mechanism to bring the dividends of development to the remotest areas in the country.

He stressed that the people at grassroot level should feel the development of the country.

He added that the improvement of country’s income will not help increase the economy of people at grassroot level. There should be a mechanism to ensure that the development benefits are received by all the people equally.

Democracy and economic development are closely intertwined factors. Peace will only prevail when there is democracy and economic development, he said. He added that peace he is talking of is different of the peace the country enjoyed in the aftermath of the war on terrorism.

Dissanayake said that the eruption of 1971, 1989 insurrection and the LTTE terrorism is a mirror of country’s social and economic conflict.