No sooner was Retd. Major General Janak Perera killed in a barbaric suicide attack, the usual political finger pointing began. The speed at which these events unfolded was surprising and perhaps even beats SkullZero's PE.
Anyhow, the facts point to the LTTE, and perhaps more than 90 percent of the country agrees on this. However the opposition was quick to start throwing around conspiracy theories which ranged wildly from Pillayan to Dr. Johnpulle's Supreme COurt case. Knowing the Sri Lankan political climate, which is dirtier than Bawa's wildest fantasies, that mostly include latex and whipping, it was not surprising. Not to be outdone the government also came out with their theories most of which focused on Ranil's inability to condemn the LTTE and Janaka's purported attempt to contest the presidential election. .
What the government, the opposition and the public by and large has failed to grasp is that the final beneficiary of this is the LTTE.
Yes, Rajapakse Bros & Co. should shoulder most of the responsibility of the incident as they failed to provide adequate security. Janaka was a sitting duck to the LTTE.
What the government should have realized a lot sooner and what the LTTE had realized was the symbolism of the death. Janaka Perera was a decorated war hero credited with quelling the JVP uprising and later beating the LTTE to pulp in Weli-Oya. He later decided to enter politics from the opposition, presto! All of his privileges and security were withdrawn, he was not even allowed to set foot in an army camp ( unprecedented for an ex Major General of his stature).
Final outcome: 1.The message the public gets is that the war is highly politicized, which results in the reversal of public opinion on the war. Which was previously heralded as a genuine humanitarian mission.
2.Heavy demoralization of the troops due to seeing one of their most decorated generals slain by the fault of the government and the defense secretary.
The government should have realized the implications of a possible Janaka Perera slaying and acted accordingly without playing immature political games and trying to intimidate their opponents.
The heavy price this government and more importantly the public will have to pay for this high level debacle will only truly be understood in the coming months.
Your politics is really messed up, dude... and I hate the fact that we're not far behind, either..
ReplyDeletecrazy.
Why would the LTTE target the ex army commander who represents the opposition which mostly supports federalism when there is an current army commander who is apparently beating the bollocks out of them? you fail to answer that question when clearing the govt's name from this horrendous tragedy.
ReplyDeleteAm not clearing the govt of responsibility entirely...as i said "The government should have realized the implications of a possible Janaka Perera slaying and acted accordingly without playing immature political games and trying to intimidate their opponents."
ReplyDeleteit was because the govt. did not provide security that the LTTE was able to target Perera.... to put it legally the defense secretary could be charged with criminal negligence.
Why the LTTE targeted Perera? i think its summed up in the lat two paras of the post.
this is bullshit!!! utter bullshit!!!
ReplyDeletebawa is confused with rapid developments in his life and now he's being... what? a fiction wrtier or something!!!
Welll quite agree..The Govmnt played dirty politics when he was contesting for NPC, which has nw come to haunt them big time, we all saw hw the state media ran horrendous smear campaigns during the election times which was utterly disgraceful!!
ReplyDeleteBut on the otherhand it was never a good choice for him to get into provincial councils, Being a decorated war hero he should have directly entered Parliament as an MP. Provincial councils were never the place for a person of his caliber...
dude.. am just calling a cat a cat!
ReplyDeleteIf u think the LTTE's gonna stop killing u just coz ur in the UNP then ur wrong.. they got Brig.Algama who was our eastern commander and recently a UNP organiser in Vavuniya was killed.
Why? Because, Sajith Premadasa and a couple of other UNPers including SB said that their party supports the crushing of the LTTE.
Obviously because of the massive public support of the war... look at the facts man..the LTTE killed Perera but it was the governments fault that he died.
Personally I recommend that Perera's family file a case indicting Gota, Mahinda and rest of the govt. politicos involved for criminal negligence and accidental manslaughter.