Daily News Editorial

Learning from past mistakes

27 October 2016

The Jathika Hela Urumaya has for the most part remained in the shadows since being part of the Unity Government, but from time to time it has come out with statements and comments that betrayed its past as an anti minority party in the days when it hitched its star to Mahinda Rajapaksa. Then it was the JHU’s proud boast that it was their party that goaded Rajapaksa to go to war with the LTTE following Mavil Aru or at least this was the contention of Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka. The party came in more than handy for Mahinda Rajapaksa who was launched on a rabid Sinhala nationalist platform but also due to its (JHU’s) support towards the continuation of the executive presidential system which Rajapaksa had anyway set his sights on.

The JHU who prided itself on having the ear of Rajapaksa, like when it persuade him to go to war with the LTTE, has now thought it fit to offer its counsel to the Yahapalanaya government. Party National Organiser Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe has prevailed upon the government to carry out a crackdown on the 12,500 or so rehabilitated LTTEers in the North and East who in all probability were behind the increasing lawlessness reported in the province. “The government should carry out a thorough check on all former LTTEers to determine their current circumstances and activities and have them arrested if found to be connected to criminal activities,” he told a media briefing. It was also his contention that the Aava and Baava groups with alleged links to criminal activity in the North were composed of Ex LTTE cadres who had come out of rehabilitation.

What Warnasinghe should realize is that the bulk of these LTTEers were released under the Rajapaksa regime which the JHU was supporting at the time and that they were doubly screened before being set free. Besides it was the proud boast of Rajapaksa that all these LTTEers were reintegrated into society after providing them with vocational training to enable them to seek employment not only locally but overseas as well. Only the most hardcore of them numbering a few hundred are currently being held under the PTI pending the hearing of their cases or to be released. There was a time in the Rajapaksa era when newspapers were full of stories and captions of rehabilitated and reintegrated LTTE cadres entering into holy wedlock, with one such event graced by Namal Rajapaksa in Jaffna.

True, there may be some among those released who had gone astray and engaged in criminal activities. This was even the case with the rehabilitated JVP cadres following the 1971 uprising. While some took to a life of crime, a whole host of them joined the mainstream of society, with a good many of them later entering politics and even appointed Ministers. As far as one may recall, there was no special call made to the law enforcement authorities by the government of the day to keep close tabs on the rehabilitated JVPers then and likewise there should be no cause for throwing a dragnet to net in the ex-LTTEers who have undergone rehabilitation. It not only smacks of discrimination based on race but also an act that would once again sow the seeds of suspicion among the Tamil community at a time moves towards reconciliation are gathering pace.

Let the normal law take its course without special surveillance cast on those deemed ex-LTTE cadres. If an offender arrested turns out to be an ex-Tiger so be it. There should not be mass hunting for former LTTEers. Besides, the government would not want a situation akin to that caused by Brigadier Tissa (Bull) Weeratunga in the early eighties. On that occasion JRJ granted carte blanche to Weeratunga to root out the nascent terrorist movement in the North by whatever means. The rest, as they say, is history. Bull Weeratunga who was a nephew of JRJ did exactly that. Using “whatever means” to deal with the youth in the North. The result. The terrorist movement snowballed almost overnight, with even those innocent bystanders joining the ranks due to the heinous atrocities that were committed before their very eyes.

The immediate mission was accomplished, but at massive cost, that was to see the country engulfed in a three decades long ethnic conflagration that claimed the lives of some 50,000 combatants.

The government, it is hoped, would act with circumspection and not repeat past mistakes. Thankfully, in the President and Prime Minister the country has two leaders who would not be given to precipitate action. The situation today has changed a great degree. There is no enmity and hostility towards the government that was prevalent among the Tamil youth then, aberrations such as the student shootings in Jaffna notwithstanding. There have been plenty of goodwill visits undertaken by the duo to the North since the new government was elected to office, cementing ties and building new bridges with a once estranged community. The government, no doubt, would not want to spoil this positive build up towards cohesion between the two major communities.