Freedom for Citizens of Sri Lanka
February 16, 2009
These young soldiers are fighting for their freedom under the leadership of Prabhakaran in Sri Lanka.
They must have been dead by this time.
But look at their face. That is the spirit of freedom. Do you see any fear? No. Not at all.
Even the President of Sri Lanka with so much of security may not be free from fear; The defense secretary may not be free from fear; The chief of army staff may not be free from fear. But these Citizens of Sri Lanka have no fear at all. They enjoy freedom till the last moment of their life.
They born free; They live free; They die free.
For them, it doesn't matter how long they live; it does matter how do they live;
Live free for a short period; Or live as a slave for a longer period.
They are not salaried employee. They don't get any big reward for their family after their death. But still they are ready to sacrifice their life for the freedom. You can make them dead; But can you make their freedom spirit dead?
In fact they were born in Sri Lanka. It doesn't matter whether they were born in North, South, East or West part of Sri Lanka. It doesn't matter which language they speak. It doesn't matter which religion they follow.
The question is: Does the Government of Sri Lanka treat them as the Citizens of Sri Lanka? No.
The simple fact is, they can not join in the Military of Sri Lanka. Then naturally, they will join with Prabhakaran.
Any human being will fight for the basic human rights of equality and freedom.
Till now, the Government of Sri Lanka does not consider its Citizens are Equal. That is the basic problem.
In fact its time to have a Universal Law: All Citizens on Planet Earth are Equal.
In the last thirty years, Prabhakaran and his team were moving around with guns in that beautiful island. In the next thirty years, Rajapakse and his team will be roaming around with guns in Sri Lanka.
So there will not be any visitors to the island. Tourism is the potential industry for this island to make a big change in its economy. But, as long as there are guns, no one will visit Sri Lanka. So there will not be any economic growth; fight continues; Gun will be there all over that island; Earlier it was with Prabhakaran's team; Now the guns will be with Rajapakse's team.
People from India, especially from Tamilnadu are very eager to visit Sri Lanka. Indians have lot of money and would like to spend on vacations in Sri Lanka. The land and the beaches are still young and uncorrupted; The atmosphere is so pure; water is tasty; air is full of oxygen. But looking at the pile of dead bodies, no one would like to visit that island for another decade.
Even at the current conflict, there were less loss of lives till the army reach Killinochchi and Mullaitivvu. Only after that point onwards, there has been more lives lost. The main reason for this situation is, lack of well defined objective and strategy. The Government of Sri Lanka does not have clear objectives.
What was their objective? to reclaim the towns of Sri Lanka or to eliminate Prabhakaran or both.
If the objective was to reclaim the towns, then the Government of Sri Lanka did achieve that objective. They now got almost all the towns. They should stop the war at this point and start working on the development. That will stop any further loss of life. Let the tigers be in the jungle. The common people will come out of the jungle to see the buses going on A9 higways and trains going on the railways.
If their objective was to eliminate Prabhakaran, then they would have done it in a different way. There was no need for an army. Just have recruited a few back stabbers like Karuna and have assigned that job to them. They could have filtered in to the tigers team and could have won the confidence of Prabhakaran. Later they could have finished him. That was how, the Tamilnadu police eliminated the Veerappan.
Without well defined objectives, the Government of Sri Lanka is getting into a big mess. It is going against the rest of the world. In today's global economy, no nation can afford to get isolated from the rest of the world. Its time, the Government of Sri Lanka had to make a major decision; to move forward in economic growth and emerge as a developed nation soon; or to continue killing and destroy itself.
If the Government of Sri Lanka goes ahead with its English and Computer initiatives, all the problem will be solved immediately. Neither Sinhala nor Tamil will make economic growth. Only English will make economic growth. When you promote English, the world will be listening to you and the world would like to visit your beautiful island. When you promote English, all the citizens of Sri Lanka would cross their language barrier and start working together to the development of Sri Lanka.
All the citizens of Sri Lanka should live free; then they will be happy; they will be welcoming the guests with a smiling face. No one will visit, if the citizens of Sri Lanka are sad and worried.
Freedom is very essential for economic growth. Sri Lanka needs economic growth right now. With this unwanted war, you spent all the resources. Now Sri Lanka is in a serious economic crisis. So much have been spent on buying weapons and on military.
Military will not generate revenue. Military is a headache. Only Business will generate revenue. Military will drain your economy. You assume that once you eliminate Prabhakaran, your economy is going to grow rapidly. The truth is, you now have less than 100 Kilo meters to find Prabhakaran. In another two weeks time you may capture that area too. But at the end, you are not going to find Prabhakaran. And he is not going to commit suicide too. Your military will go more mad and will do more killing. IRAQ and Afganistan are getting better. Sri Lanka and Pakistan will become a dangerous place to live.
Sri Lanka has a great potential for growth in Computer technology. But your army men can not help you to achieve that growth. You need help from all your citizens. To develop any computer programs, the mind needs to be free. For that all citizens should be free; free from any fear; slaves don't develop computer programs; slaves are good for tea and cotton picking and other agricultural industries.
Its time to stop all your military and launch the English and Computer initiative. Narayana Murthy can do wonders. Don't miss this golden oppurtunity. Software has a great export potential. You can not afford to lose credibility in the global market. Once you lose, it will take many decades to win the confidence of the global community.
Besides that, Overseas Sri Lankans have both financial resources and management expertise. They will invest in Sri Lanka, once you stop your military action.
This is the last chance for the Government of Sri Lanka from becoming a Military State. The truth is, Military has already got the power more than the President of Sri Lanka. If you look at their actions and statements, the military officers don't seem to be taking orders from the President of Sri Lanka any more. It is just like Pakistan now. Military is the supreme command.
Military has one single solution for any kind of problem. That is simple. Bullet is the solution for all problems. If military have problem with media, they use the bullets. If they have problem with political leaders, again they will use the bullets. Military knows how to conduct elections too. If the Military can control North and East, they can very well control the rest of Sri Lanka. Just do a simple test with your military; you will know your position.
If you look at the history, when it comes to Military, there is no consideration of brother relationship. Military will not hesitate to keep the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse in house arrest. Politicians have emotions; but military have no emotions; they don't care about brother and other relationship. Your military brother will not reciprocate same affections you have shown as a politician. They will let you speak as long as you speak their language; as long as you dance to their tune; The moment you start arguing with them, they will not hesitate to eliminate the President of Sri Lanka; and they can easily put the blame on others.
You can not stop the war, even if you want to. Since there has been a lot of pressure from the international community, you may consider stopping the war at this point of time. But your military will not let you do that. Politically, it is the right time to stop the war. You may satisfy the international community if you do it now. More over there is no point in killing innocent civilians.
You can continue to tell the world that, yes, Prabhakaran is in the jungle. But we don't worry about him any more. If he comes out of the jungle, we will kill him. Otherwise, we have work to do; we are now focusing on rebuilding the country.
If you have exhausted that 100 Kilometers also and if you don't find Prabhakaran, then the whole world will look at you as a loser. You spent so much money on military and weapons; you killed so much civilians; you lost so many of your soldiers; and at the end what do you get? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Instead of cutting a sorry figure in the world's eye, just leave those 100 kilometers jungle untouched. You can say that, as per the request of the international community, we stop our war at this point. we are not going into the jungle any further. If the people come out of the jungle, we will welcome them.
Again, it is the last chance to save Sri Lanka from becoming like a Military Burma. As the elected President of Sri Lanka, you are losing your power to the Military.