Dear Honourable Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka, I saw this photo showing you kissing and blessing a young child seen below a couple of days ago on Facebook and it really got me thinking. In 2009, you were the President of Sri Lanka and Commander and Chief of the military. Under your government, an offensive was launched aimed at eradicating the LTTE once and for all. Many innocent civilians died, including children. At the time, you were in the business of kissing children goodbye. Now you are in the business of kissing children hello. What turned the kiss of death into the kiss of life? The upcoming election vote? Do you see the contradiction, Mr. President? The justification most often given for the governments military offensive in 2009 was to unite the country and obliterate the so-called terrorist threat. As for uniting the country, your efforts have not borne fruit. The country seems more divided mentally than ever before. Memories are long and resentments run deep. Other presidents could have elected to do as you have done, but conscience motivated them to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties. They also wished to avoid international condemnation and censure. You decided to remove the threat of terrorism as you saw it once and for all, regardless of the consequences. You refused to listen to the international community. You insisted it was an internal domestic affair. If you were strong and decisive enough to destroy the terrorist threat in 2009, what has prevented you from solving the ethnic conflict since that date? What else could it be other than a lack of political will and resolve? You won the war, but you have not won the hearts or trust of Tamils. After the defeat of the LTTE in 2009, you had a chance to resolve the ethnic dispute. At the time, you were credited with eliminating the terrorist threat. You had never enjoyed greater Sinhalese support than you did at that time. They would have rallied behind any initiative or decision of yours. Sri Lankans were unanimous in their desire for peace and a cessation of hostilities. You could have resolved the ethnic conflict with the stroke of a pen or a single policy initiative. But you missed the boat. It left port without you. You failed to seize the moment and the opportunity was lost. You now have a chance to redeem yourself. If you win the upcoming election, you will be granted another chance. It is most likely your last term in office, so if you fail to capitalize on this moment, the poisonous seeds you planted in 2009 could spread like poison ivy all over the island. All it takes is the right amount of sunlight, rain and oxygen and they will spring up like jungle undergrowth and spread their roots everywhere. All you will have done is sewn the seeds of our future destruction. There will be no benefit for Tamils or Sinhalese, no benefit for Sri Lanka as a whole. The only beneficiaries will be outside regional powers who will take advantage of our internal weaknesses in order to subjugate and control us as we squabble, while smuggling our resources out the backdoor.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 22:58:51 +0000
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