The Island Editorial

They deserve pensions

07 November 2016

 

Several disabled military personnel, engaged in a fast in Colombo, demanding pensions which have been denied to them on the grounds that they had not completed 12 years in service by the time they had to retire due to injury, have been admitted to hospital. Our limbs are intact because those protesting men risked theirs in battling terrorism, which is thankfully a thing of the past. It is heart-rending to see their prosthetic arms and legs beside them. Having offered a solution which is not acceptable to them, the government is apparently determined to wear them down. Shame on it!

Ironically, the disabled military personnel are conducting their protest in Colombo, which they helped render safe for one and all; the LTTE carried out many terror strikes in the city and its suburbs killing hundreds of civilians. It blew President Ranasinghe Premadasa to bits and almost succeeded in assassinating President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Among the high profile targets it took are the Central Bank, the Army Headquarters, the Pettah Central Bus Station, the Town Hall, Thotalanga, Galadari Hotel, the CTO and the Kolonnawa oil tanks. Civilian targets were blasted at such a rate that spouses used to travel in buses and trains separately lest their children should be orphaned in case of terror attacks.

Today, those who suffered permanent disabilities while fighting terrorism have been left on roads!

The disabled soldiers’ pension issue, however, is not of recent origin. The blame for it should be apportioned to all Presidents who have ruled or misruled this country since the beginning of the war in the early 1980s. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa could and should have solved the problem once and for all after the conclusion of the war in 2009. He had more than five long years to do so, but unfortunately he, too, let the grass grow under his feet. He was seen pledging solidarity with the protesters the other day!

Now, President Sirisena, who secured the presidency by promising the people the sun and the moon, has been left carrying the baby, so to speak. That his predecessors did precious little to redress the grievances of the disabled military personnel who had to retire before completing 12 years in service cannot be cited in justification of his failure to solve the issue. He obtained a popular mandate to do what others hadn’t done, didn’t he?

Leaders of the present government wept buckets for former war winning army commander Sarath Fonseka, incarcerated by the Rajapaksas, granted him a full presidential pardon, elevated him to the rank of Field Marshal, appointed him to Parliament, made him a Cabinet minister and allocated a whopping Rs. 70 million for a super luxury car for him. It is a supreme irony that they have turned a blind eye to the plight of the disabled armed forces members crying out for pensions.

Political dregs including anti-social elements who get elected to Parliament become eligible for full pensions upon the completion of only five years as MPs. They have done nothing for this country. Instead, they are sponging off the public and engaged in various crooked deals to line their pockets. Therefore, the question is why the disabled soldiers’ demand for pensions cannot be granted.

All disabled armed forces, police and Civil Defence Force personnel deserve full pensions irrespective of the number of years they were in service. What needs to be stressed is that they would have completed 12 years in service but for their disabilities which they suffered in the line of duty. The country owes them pensions and the government must bring in new laws, if necessary, and allocate money for that purpose. If it is without sufficient funds to do so, it ought to seriously consider cancelling the order for a fleet of super luxury vehicles for its leaders and channel the money so saved for disabled warriors’ pensions.

If the government big guns cannot give up their vehicles, let them recover the losses the state coffers suffered due to the Treasury bond scams to the tune of billions of rupees or take action to bring back USD 18 billion which, they said, the leaders of the previous government had stashed away in offshore accounts. And fast!