National Security Post War

The term ‘national security’ was liberally used throughout the duration of the war to give a vestige of due process to many an indiscretion of the government as it went about its authoritarian ways. Many an excess of the government especially when it came to stifling dissent and silencing the opposition was clothed in the garb of ‘national security’ during the war and the public in general expected, that with the end of the war, this unhealthy trend would also see an end.

But the last two weeks since the end of the acrimonious presidential election has seen an alarming trend where ‘national security’ is apparently being secured following a perceived military coup which has in turn cast a huge question mark as to the actual state of national security, post war.

Sri Lankans have for the first time in their post-independence history been witness to an unprecedented and ugly spectacle where the losing presidential candidate and his supporters have been mercilessly hounded by the state security apparatus and put behind bars or those serving the state transferred to ‘punishment’ stations on a scale hitherto unseen. This has not only shocked Sri Lankans but also the world at large from India to the UN who have been issuing statements calling for justice.

What the authorities and its cheerleaders led by the likes of ‘here-today-there-tomorrow’ Weerawansa have failed to realise is the profound damage caused to the carefully built up security apparatus by the ongoing political victimization especially targeting the army and the police.

As unpleasant as it might be for the Rajapaksa brothers to admit, what they inherited in 2005 was a carefully built, war-ready, war machine built up over a period of 25 years. All that the Commander in Chief and the Defence Secretary needed to do was put the right people at the top, meaning the three forces commanders and Eelam War Four was ready to be fought.

The freshly appointed commanders then without much ado put their respective forces in order putting the right people in the right places and the rest as they say is history. No less than the Commander in Chief and the Defence Secretary himself have gone on record that they interfered little in how the forces operated leaving that part entirely in the hands of the commanders while the Rajapaksa duo focused on the other aspects like handling the fall out of the war.

In fact then Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka was known to have chartered a course fiercely independent of politicians so much so that many attribute his final fall out with the government to this very reason. Having been witness to the war first-hand during the entirety of his 40 year service period, Fonseka’s apprehension of politicians is understandable.

Independence compromised

With the end of the war and Fonseka’s fall out with the regime this fiercely guarded independence of the forces has gradually been irrevocably compromised. This has risen to an unprecedented level since the conclusion of the January 26 presidential election.
Today the cream of the war machine that defeated the dreaded Tigers less than a year ago have been forced to retire, moved out into cold storage in insignificant positions or put behind bars depending on their proximity to the former commander. In other words the army’s ‘A’ team has been got rid of and a new team willing to pander to the whims of the regime is now in place.

In doing this no thought has been given to legitimate national security considerations. God forbid, should there be a war tomorrow, how ready is the army to face it in its present state? One must not forget the fact that it took no less than 30 years to come up with the team that annihilated the Tigers last year. With most of that team out we are back at square one with politicians ruling the roost in the army too – a feature hitherto confined to the police.

With Fonseka for all intents and purposes behind bars — having been humiliated and dragged out from his office in the most degrading manner — less than a year from the defeat of the Tigers, one cannot help but imagine the smile on Velupillai Pirapaharan’s face in whichever hell that he is in. Tiger sympathisers still roaming the country (as per the government) may well consider it the ‘Sun God’s’ new year present to them. It is just the morale booster they needed and the regime will only have to blame itself for snatching failure from the brink of success were there to be a movement in the making purely to take advantage of the chaotic situation if nothing else.

This is because the government has made it abundantly clear that the Tigers are not yet history. The PM has gone on record that pockets of Tigers still remain and has continuously justified the extension of the emergency based on this. Many parts of Colombo like Fort are still out of bounds to the public and roads are still closed for VVIPs to travel. If the terrorist threat is no more then why do VVIPs still race along the roads with hordes of security personnel in lengthy convoys?

Political expediency

With the situation being such questions are being asked as to whether it is prudent to compromise national security by politicking with the army in the name of expediency.
At the last count not only were fifty odd senior army personnel being held in custody but numerous others were being transferred post presidential election and some forced to retire. In addition 200 plus senior police officers have also been accorded the same treatment. The likes of Weerawansa are conspicuously silent on the consequences of this politicking with a direct bearing on national security. Or are we to believe that these personnel were only warming their chairs and hence dispensable en bloc?

The stock excuse given for the treatment meted out to these personnel is that they were found to be dabbling in politics by supporting a candidate at the presidential election. Though the politicians making this accusation maybe just coming into the two-weeks-amnesia syndrome Sri Lankans are famous for, we paththarakarayas vividly recall how almost on a daily basis various army officers were put on talk shows on state TV and radio to garner support for the incumbent president; how personnel were used to openly canvass for votes within the services. Does not that also amount to dabbling in politics and call for the same if not greater punishment for having also abused state resources in doing so?

The former army commander has been arrested for speaking to opposition parties while he held the office of chief of defence staff after he was unceremoniously removed as army commander. In the same context one is entitled to ask whether his immediate boss, the defence secretary who much like the army commander is a paid public official, has the right to do the same thing the former commander has been accused of doing. A ministry secretary, who comes under the Establishment Code does not have the right to speak on government policy or deal with parties, yet the defence secretary does both without a second thought. The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka has not specified special powers for the brother of the president hence he is accountable for his actions.

National security, whatever one may say, has been compromised by the wave of politicizing of the key force of the country, which until less than a year ago was aloof of politics and politicians. This then is as much a legacy of the Rajapaksas as is the victory against the Tigers. Whether this will be the cause of another, greater problem for this country only time will tell.