The peace demonstration, 'Ahimsa', that was staged on the lawns of the BMICH has resulted in thoughts of the rejuvenation of peace farces such as the street drama, Thawalama with the proclaimed objective of making the government sit down for talks with LTTE on the terms of the terrorists.
We pointed out in our editorial on Monday that these peace activists are not telling the LTTE that is responsible for the continuing carnage, including cold-blooded murders and to stop it. Instead, they are staging meditation exercises and saying prayers in Colombo in the full glare of the media, along with their convinced supporters, ostensibly for peace. A spin-doctor for the peace activists, wrote yesterday that the speech of President Kumaratunga at the UN, blaming the LTTE for the continuing violence would ' further alienate' the LTTE from the 'Peace Process'.
We are now told that a movement for peace is being mobilised under the leadership of Sarvodaya leader, A.T.Ariyaratne. It is claimed that there were 200,000 demonstrators on the lawns of the BMICH from all parts of the island on September 21. If this was true, on the basis of 100 persons being packed into a bus, 2000 buses would have been deployed! We are not told from whom these 2000 buses were hired on this working day or where they were parked for this 'historic occasion'.
Old lies are being recycled on 'mandates for peace'. The spin-doctors are going back to the 1994 election victories of the Peoples Alliance led by Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga and claiming that she received a 'mandate for peace'. Those who have no memory lapses will recall that the UNP was voted out after 17 years in power because the people wanted a change not because of a mandate for peace.
Now another Murali kind of 'Doosra' is being attempted. Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe
's UNF too was elected on a 'mandate for peace' it is claimed. He was elected once again on a negative vote. The performance of Chandrika Kumaratunga's government was disastrous--- 50,000 troops were tapped in the Jaffna peninsular and the military had suffered successive disastrous defeats. The economy had registered below zero growth; finally they attacked the International Airport and the Military Airport at Katunayake destroying half of the Air Force fleet. There was no mandate for peace for Mr. Wickremasinghe.
Ranil Wickremasinghe government's defeat in 2001 was also not due to any peace mandate but due to his signing the Cease-fire Agreement and caving into almost every demand made by the LTTE. Quite apart from a mandate for peace, President Kumaratunga struck a very belligerent posture accusing Mr. Wickremasinghe of endangering the security of the nation. She won on this issue.
But she is now silent about her virulent attacks on the ISGA proposals of the LTTE which she campaigned against and appears to be tilting towards the ISGA in the hope of getting a 2/3rd majority in parliament with the help of the LTTE, CWC and UNP for her to amend the constitution and contest for the presidency for the third time. Only the JVP seems to be in the way.
The objective of these rejuvenated peace demonstrations is to pull wool over the eyes of the public who strongly opposed the ISGA and backed the UFPA government of Kumaratunga.
Does the Sarvodaya leader Mr. A.T. Ariyaratne along with other peace activists want the government to commence negotiations with the LTTE on the terms demanded by the terrorists? This is in accordance with the call of many foreign NGOs and the 'international community'. They are all well aware that if this demand to negotiate only on LTTE proposals is acceded to it will lead to preparing the groundwork for a separate state. The LTTE threat to the government is: ISGA or war.
Eminent lawyer H.L. de Silva in his speech at the launch of the book Abomination by S.L. Gunasekera, highly critical of the ISGA proposals, pin-pointed to the objectives of this demand to negotiate immediately. He said: 'The LTTE is hoping that the government's yearning for peace is so overwhelming and overpowering a desire, that it will agree to the proposal in defiance of the constitution'.
Why should the leader of the Sarvodaya A.T. Ariyaratne, a supposedly apolitical figure come in at this juncture and re-commence his calls for peace? His spin-doctors are attempting to project him as a latter day Mahatma Gandhi, who can develop a 'peoples movement for peace' this, is a very unfair comparison to the Great Mahatma, the liberator of India from the British.
As we pointed out in our comments on Monday, Mr. Ariyaratne is staging demonstrations and making noises in Colombo while the threat to peace is from the north and east emanating from Vellupillai Prabakaran. Why doesn't Ariyaratne march to Jaffna with his immense following, as he claims, and stage a demonstration in Jaffna town, say in the Durraiappah Stadium?
Mahatma Gandhi, Ariyaratne should realise, staged his Satyagraha against the British, which though an imperial power was a parliamentary democracy. British
leaders like Winston Churchill and Clement Atlee were democrats committed to the rule of law. They tolerated the 'half naked fakir' even though he was not much liked.
Prabakaran is the most ruthless killer in contemporary times and sent many a Gandhian follower to the grave such as the entire TULF leadership. Will Mr. Ariyaratne test the validity of his Ahimsa theory by staging such peace demonstrations in Jaffna as he did at the BMICH?
He knows well what would follow. Then why this song an dance in Colombo, preaching to convinced peace demonstrators? Is it to pressurise the government to sit down immediately to talks with the terrorists on the ISGA proposals only and commence the slide towards a separate state?
