Sri Lanka: Why military matters in the North?

By Col. R. Hariharan 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Victory Day speech this year on May 19 was largely a defensive discourse justifying the continued presence large army formations in the North. The sense of triumphalism that had become hallmark of Victory Day speeches was missing this year. 

This is understandable as the President’s speeches from last year onwards have become increasingly reactive as international focus on Sri Lanka in recent times had been presenting it in bad light.  Many of Sri Lanka’s problems are based on age-old prejudices and three decades of bad blood between the ethnic communities.  

Fonseka's second war

By Col R Hariharan

The presidential pardon to General Sarath Fonseka (officially it is ‘ex-General’ as he has been stripped of his hard earned rank) after he completed only two years of a three-year jail sentence should come as no surprise.

As things happen in the Island nation, the idea touched off speculations on when and how he will be released. Of course, there was a lot of build up before it really happened with the perennial political go-between Tiran Alles MP took up the General’s case for pardon with his one time pal - the President. And the former Army Chief comes up once again in national focus with the speculation on what is he going to do?   

Time Armed Forces cleaned up their act

The Rediff News last week carried an article titled "The worrying rot in Indian armed forces" by Ajai Shukla which takes a hard look at the deteriorating standards of armed forces leadership in recent years. All armed forces officers and men, both serving and retired, should take a hard look at the article.

There is an urgent need to make the traditional 'holy cows of army' - the generals at the top - more accountable. I totally agree with the views of attributed to General Afsar Karim in the article. The functioning and accountability of two army welfare organisations the AWWA (Army Wives Welfare Organisation) and the AWHO (Army Welfare Housing Organisation) have come under strong criticism in recent years from serving and retired servicemen. They have refused to share their basic information under the cloak they are not a government body but independent societies.

Armed forces have a culture of not airing their dirty linen in public. So servicemen and veterans generally keep mum despite knowing the truth. I think it is time we moved away from the 18th century mindset. It is essential we start introspecting on the reasons for the rot that is setting in within the armed forces. The increasing cases of corruption, 
insubordination, cronyism, violation of laws, and scams in defence procurement need to be ruthlessly handled regardless of the rank of the culprits. Otherwise the quality of leadership will be irrepairably damaged and armed forces will be reduced to the level of a paramilitary or police. And they would lose the esteem they enjoy among the public forever.

Ajai Shukla's hardhitting article of December 14 is reproduced here, courtesy Rediffnews.

The worrying rot in Indian armed forces

On April 27, 2007, while a dazed United States military was being battered by the resurgent insurgency in Iraq, a mid-ranking US Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling, published a brutally frank assessment of the failures in American generalship that had led to the bloodying of the world's most powerful military machine.

Writing in the Armed Forces Journal, a private magazine focused on defence, Yingling urged the US Congress to fix accountability for the debacle in Iraq, lamenting that, "As matters stand now, a private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war."

Yingling's article raced across army chat rooms, combat bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and military seminar halls. Hard-hitting, incisive, and loaded with statements like, "The intellectual and moral failures common to America's general officer corps in Vietnam and Iraq constitute a crisis in American generalship," the analysis pushed America's senior military leadership towards acknowledging, confronting and acting to fix the problem.
India's armed forces, alas, have neither a Paul Yingling nor a culture of interrogating and addressing serious internal problems.

With revelation after damaging revelation -- including financial misappropriation, sexual misconduct, fake encounters and influence-peddling -- placing troubling question marks over the internal health of India's best-respected institution, not a single serving officer has thrown out a Yingling-style challenge.

Rot at the top?
This silence has endured even through the recent revelations about the improper allocation of multi-crore apartments in Mumbai's tony Colaba area to a bevy of generals and admirals.

The Adarsh Housing Society affair, which has riveted the country's attention, is not just about the apparent abandonment of ethics by three service chiefs and five officers of three-star rank.

Worse, it is about the alleged subversion of army postings to keep Major General Tej Kishen Kaul in Mumbai so that he could keep the file moving while a succession of key military commanders in Mumbai and Pune were handed out flats, allegedly in exchange for their silence.
"Corruption exists mainly within the senior ranks," avers Major General Afsir Karim, a retired paratrooper with a reputation for probity.

"Bad apples manage to get into the organisation after all, the (military's) selection system has no psychological check for integrity. As the officers rise and start getting opportunities to make money, they surround themselves with a coterie of staff officers and subordinates who are quickly subverted the corrupt pull each other up within the system. And from them the rot spreads to other parts of the military."

Echoing this assessment is a former army commander, well-known for his honesty, who ran afoul of his boss after instituting an inquiry into evidently corrupt purchases of equipment.

He describes the insidious disillusionment of idealistic young officers who gradually realise that the values that were catechised during their training are hardly reflected in day-to-day unit life.

In their training academies, officer cadets are indoctrinated with Field Marshal Chetwode's motto: "The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time."
On being commissioned into their units, however, these young lieutenants often encounter a different reality.

An increasing number of units in peace stations focus less on training than on "career-enhancing" activities like officers' mess parties and ladies' club functions, which commanding officers believe would please their bosses or, even better, their bosses' wives.

Meanwhile, youngsters who are posted to the field, or to counter-insurgency operations, come up against a pressure-cooker insistence on success at all costs; after all, the promotions of bosses all the way up the line hinge on operational accomplishment.

With so much at stake, fake encounters and false reports are desperate options for creating an illusory world of success.

'Five-star' culture
Old-school generals say that this new environment of flexible morals and professional dishonesty has inevitably spilled over into the handling of money. Traditionally indifferent, even disdainful, towards money, senior officers are now developing a yen for what the military has always disparaged as the "five-star culture".
"The military had a culture of its own and never felt the need to imitate civilian lifestyles," says General Karim.

"You met civilians, even socialised with them, but you always came back to your mess life. Today, many senior officers want a lifestyle that cannot be supported by military pay and allowances."

Rising alongside the appetite for money, has been the opportunity to gather it illegally.

"The money that an officer handles rises exponentially as he is promoted up the chain," explains a former army commander who prefers to remain unnamed.

"With defence budgets boosted by a growing economy, each of the six field army commanders oversees budgets today that are in the hundreds of crores.
Take the example of the Udhampur-headquartered Northern Command, where the commander, a lieutenant general, controls an annual budget of Rs 2,500-2,700 crore.

Large chunks of this are spent at his sole discretion, including "special financial powers" for Rs 100 crore, and another Rs 15-16 crore for obtaining intelligence about militants.

"I could simply order my staff to give me Rs 20 lakh to pay a political source for important intelligence," says the former army commander. "I wouldn't need to provide proof that I had handed over the money to anyone. I could justify the expenditure simply by stating that I needed a political perspective."

Such opportunities for corruption abound. Northern Command's budget for rations is about Rs 700 crore per year, with another Rs 100 crore allocated for hiring civil transport.

The budget for operational works, constructing bunkers, lighting and temporary housing, is over Rs 250 crore.

And, inexplicably, Northern Command has retained with itself -- despite several attempts to transfer this responsibility to New Delhi -- the job of buying rations for troops deployed on the Siachen Glacier, an annual expenditure of some Rs 40 crore.
Other formations handle smaller budgets. But all these contracts come loaded with the potential to explode into public scandals.

Lieutenant General R K Nanavatty, who headed Northern Command at the start of this decade and was feared and respected for his unwavering rectitude, says that he could see the current crisis coming: "I have always said that the biggest danger for our army was the gradual degradation of moral values. I could see morality eroding and this worried me because trust is the basis of military functioning."

Time for action
A key concern among soldiers, serving and retired, has been the military's lame defence in the face of credible allegations of wrongdoing like those around the Sukhna land scam and the Adarsh scam.

Many believe that frankly acknowledging the problem and taking exemplary action against corruption would protect, perhaps even enhance, the military's public image.
"Why should we wait for the civilian agencies to prove criminal guilt?" asks former army deputy chief, Lieutenant General G D Singh, widely respected for his integrity.

"We have our own code of conduct, which does not rest on court orders or judgements. When an officer is clearly corrupt, we should ostracise him from our community; none of his peers should even speak to him; he should be treated as a pariah."

Considering that officers who were commissioned in the mid-1970s are generals, admirals and air marshals today, it is a paradox that the military often blames the changed background of those who now join as officers for the decline in values and standards.

Far more likely, say the more discerning observers, is the "osmosis of values" that stems from increased interaction -- across all ranks -- with society in general. This takes place in many ways: cantonments, earlier located well outside towns and cities, are now almost indistinguishable from the rapidly expanding civilian colonies that have surrounded them.

The army's growing counter-insurgency commitments bring soldiers into close contact with civilians, and with the institutions of governance.
Meanwhile, the growing reach and intensity of the electronic media beams the civilian world into the remotest military outposts.

Most officers today are keenly aware of the world outside the barracks and are deeply cynical about the declining mores of civilian institutions.

Officers, and even soldiers, ask: With the political class, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the police and even the media deeply compromised, how can they point a finger at the military, an institution synonymous with honour and sacrifice? But underlying that question is a more troubling one: With corruption everywhere, is it possible for the military to remain unaffected?

The current army chief, General V K Singh, publicly declared while assuming office last April that restoring the army's "internal health" would be his focus. The general has his task cut out for him.

Sri Lanka Perspectives - September 2010

Col R Hariharan (Retd.)

President Rajapaksa’s UN address

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his speech at the UN General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York on September 23, 2010 has indicated that Sri Lanka was unlikely to change its stand against allowing any form of international scrutiny of its actions during the war. These include allegations of war crimes and violation of humanitarian laws mainly from the West and the Tamil Diaspora. He sought to vindicate Sri Lanka’s stand saying “such [humanitarian] laws were evolved essentially in response to conflicts waged by forces of legally constituted States, and not terrorist groups.”

Dwelling on his country’s long conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), he said he was elected on a promise to rid the country of the menace of terrorism. He appealed to the international community to examine “the capacity of current international humanitarian law to meet contemporary needs” where legally constituted states had to fight terrorists in asymmetric conflicts.

This argument would have been acceptable if Sri Lanka had cleaned up its act on its own. Unfortunately this is not so. Even the proceedings of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) constituted to investigate the events leading to Tamil insurgency lack transparency. Its hearings are held in camera. Media coverage of testimonies made at LLRC sittings is selective.

This was evident when most of the media did not report the testimonies made by Tamils at Kilinochchi. Some of them were damaging. For instance, Ananthi Sasitharan, wife of Elilan, former political head of Trincomalee, in an interview to the BBC said she had requested the LLRC to find out about the fate of her husband and other senior leaders of the LTTE (including former LTTE negotiators Yogi and Lawrence Thilakar, and the LTTE political wing deputy chief Thangkan) who had surrendered to the army in her presence. This testimony was not covered in the national media at all. This has reinforced the suspicion of large sections of world community that the government was not sincere in its reconciliation process and the media was working under external pressures. This does not bode well for speedy restoration of ethnic amity in the country.

Sarath Fonseka’s woes

It seems there are no let up in the woes of the Eelam War hero and former Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka ever since he entered politics after retirement. A General Court Martial (GCM) on September 17, 2010 found him guilty on four counts of irregularities in military purchases while serving as army commander, favouring his son-in-law’s company. The GCM sentenced him to three years imprisonment. However, the President while confirming the sentence reduced the period of imprisonment to two and a half years.

Only last month another GCM stripped him of his rank and military honours for dabbling in politics while serving as army commander.The treatment meted out to Fonseka sharply contrasts with the handling of LTTE prisoners none of whom have been prosecuted. In fact, even as the President signed confirmation of Fonseka’s jail sentence, 397 Ex-LTTE combatants were released from a rehabilitation camp in Vavuniya after being detained for 16 months. Both the main opposition parties -the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the United National Party have condemned Fonseka’s conviction as politics of persecution.

Bottling up human trafficking

The issue of Sri Lankan boat people – mainly Tamils from Sri Lanka – illegally trying to enter Australia and Canada had been a major source of embarrassment and concern for Sri Lanka. To curb such traffic and prevent external assistance from flowing into Sri Lanka that could lead to resurgence of Tamil insurgency once again , Sri Lanka’s has taken a series of measures to prevent illegal use of sea routes to and from the country. The assets of navy and air force are being re-positioned to support ground deployment in coastal areas.

The navy has shifted its North Western Headquarters from Puttalam to Mullikulam. This would facilitate prevention of illegal use of north eastern seas for nefarious purposes ranging from human trafficking to drug and arms trafficking. According to media reports Sri Lanka has already received two Israeli-built Fast Attack Craft (FACs) and four more FACs are expected to join the navy. The US is reported to have increased Sri Lanka’s air surveillance capability by providing sophisticated real time data link system. The system received early this year is mounted on two Beech King Aircraft SMR 2201 and SMR 2202 would obtain real time intelligence.

The illegal fishing by Indian fisherman in Sri Lankan waters off Mannar coast had been a major thorn in Sri Lankan security. There had been frequent seizure of boats from Tamil Nadu and in some instances of Sri Lankan navy had opened fire on them.
Considering the political sensitivity of the issue, the Sri Lankan and Indian navies have agreed to conduct extensive educational programmes for their local fisherman on the issue of maritime boundary between the two countries. This was decided recently at a meeting between senior officers of the two navies on board INS Kukri, an offshore patrol vessel, at the International Maritime Boundary Line near Point Calimere. They also discussed ways of ending the illegal activities of drug trafficking and human smuggling through improved surveillance methods.

Representatives of the Sri Lanka Navy Headquarters and the East, North and North-Central Naval Commands took part in the meeting. Indian navy was represented by Commodore Rajiv Girotra, Naval Officer In-Charge, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.
Therese measures are of security interest to India as an increasing number of instances of Sri Lankan Tamils fleeing from the country using India as a take off point have come to notice. Recently Tamil Nadu police searched a lodge in Courtallam and rounded up 53 Lankan Tamils some of whom had promised to pay up to Rs 300,000 to Chandrakanthan, a Sri Lankan refugee in Chennai for smuggling them to Australia and Canada. Police have arrested Chandrakanthan.

Sri Lanka economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted “strong growth” of Sri Lanka economy this year while commenting on its 8.5 percent growth during the second quarter of 2010 as against 7.1 percent growth in the first quarter.

The government statistics office reported growth of agriculture sector by 5.1 percent, manufacturing by 8.9 percent, and services by 8.8 percent over last year’s figures. The IMF said the country’s fiscal performance so far “remains consistent with achieving the government's full-year deficit target of 8 percent.”
Written on September 30, 2010

© South Asia Security Trends, October 2010, Vol 4 No 9
www.security-risks.com

Sri Lanka: The Rajapaksa juggernaut rolls on

By Col R Hariharan

Sri Lanka parliament voted to end the two-term limit imposed on the president by more than the required two thirds majority in the 225-member house on September 8. With the passing the 18th amendment of the constitution, the parliament has removed the constitutional bar and paved the way for President Mahinda Rajapaksa to get elected president a third term.

The ruling United Peoples Front Alliance (UPFA) with 144 seats was short of two thirds majority required to push through the constitutional amendment. Despite this, thanks to the President’s adroit advance political manoeuvres, the amendment had a smooth passage with 161 members voting in favour, and only 17 voting against.

The voting pattern showed deep divisions within opposition ranks in handling the relentless onslaught of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s political juggernaut. The opposition members appear to feel helpless; a remark attributed to one of the members aptly described it: “what to do, he will be in power for the next 12 years”.

The main opposition party - the United National Party (UNP) – wracked by internal dissension boycotted the debate as well as the voting on the bill. Instead, it chose to demonstrate outside the parliament. It had to suffer the ignominy of seeing six of its members cross voting in favour of the bill. In the wake of the voting, the UNP-led opposition coalition is in tatters as four smaller constituent parties switched their loyalty to Rajapaksa. The after shock has left UNP left in disarray with 28 out of 43 MPs members raising the flag of dissent against Ranil Wickremesinghe’s party leadership.

Even before the bill came up in parliament, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) parted with the UNP alliance and announced its eight members would vote for the 18th amendment. Even the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) rank was depleted when its lone Sinhala member C.H. Piyasena voted for the bill.

The executive president enjoys enormous powers under the 1978 constitution. He can dissolve the parliament and declare emergency. In a state of emergency, the president can even promulgate regulations to override laws enacted by the parliament. Sri Lanka has had long spells of emergency. The state of emergency continues to be in force even now though the war ended in May 2009. He also appoints judges, heads of armed forces and police, election commissioners and secretaries to the government etc.

Both the opposition parties and the civil society had been demanding the curbing president’s powers by amending the constitution for quite sometime now. President Rajapaksa appears to have used their desire to his advantage with the18th amendment. The opposition parties and civil society have expressed serious concern over not only its form and content of the amendment but the unseemly haste with which it was being pushed through without adequate public debate.

In particular, they are concerned with two aspects of the amendment - the lifting of the two-term restriction on the president and the discarding of the 17th amendment to the Constitution. This amendment was adopted in 2001 to ensure some form of control over President’s powers in making appointments to high office.

The lifting of restriction on the number of presidential terms will provide enough time for President Rajapaksa to consolidate his power. Not only that, it could usher in dynastic rule of Rajapaksas. This is nothing unusual in South Asia; dynasties have been in power not only in the past in Sri Lanka, but also in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But after years of internal conflict, Sri Lanka is passing through a delicate stage as the process of reconciliation and reconstruction of its democratic structure is not yet complete. At this stage the enormous powers Rajapaksa enjoys, coupled with 16 years in office (if he gets elected even once more), could neutralise the checks and balances so essential for democracy.

The removal of the 17th amendment has done away with the Constitutional Council (CC) created under of the constitution. It was mandatory for the president to act on CC’s recommendations on appointments to high office. Though partisan politics of Sri Lanka had ensured the 17th amendment was never followed both in letter and spirit, the president was obliged to follow it. As per the new amendment, the CC has been replaced by a five-member council consisting of the prime minister, speaker, leader of the opposition and a member of parliament each to be nominated by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. This makes it purely political in character unlike the CC which provided for participation of eminent persons outside the political spectrum.

However, the catch is the president is only required only to seek the observations of the members of this parliamentary council while appointing the chairmen and members of election commission, public service commission, national police commission, human rights commission, permanent commission to investigate allegations of corruption and bribery, finance commission and delimitation commission. The president similarly consults the Council while appointing the chief justice and judges of the Supreme Court, the president and judges of the court of appeal, and members of judicial service commission other than chairman.

Almost all opposition leaders have condemned the adoption of the18th amendment saying it will lead to tyranny and dictatorship. The leader of the opposition Sarath Fonseka’s comment that the government was inviting revolutions and coups against it by creating a constitutional dictatorship through the introduction of the 18th Amendment was curious. Did have the example of rise and fall of President Fujimori of Peru in his mind?

Alberto Fujimori served as President of Peru for three terms from 1990 to 2000. During his controversial rule he eliminated the left wing Shining Path guerrillas and restored the economic stability of the country. Despite allegations of his authoritarian methods and human rights violations, he was enormously popular. In April 1995, at the height of his popularity, Fujimori was re-elected with almost two-thirds of the vote.

Though the constitution allowed only two terms for a president, he successfully contested for a third term after his party voted a law in parliament to allow him to contest. However, when a huge corruption scandal erupted, he fled to Japan in 2000. He lived in exile for five years; when he visited Chile in 2005 he was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru. He was convicted in a number of cases of bribery and corruption and human rights violations during his rule. He was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in connection with human rights violations when death squads of the government had carried out killings and kidnappings on his orders. While the example of Fujimori looks far fetched in the context of Sri Lanka, it is a grim reminder of how public adulation can turn change when unfettered power is misused.

What does it mean to India?

Strictly speaking, the constitutional changes in Sri Lanka are an internal structural rearrangement. However, the growing power of President Rajapaksa and the likelihood of its further consolidation during a decade and a half makes are of special interest to India. President Rajapaksa is firmly in saddle and as the opposition is weak and divided than ever before, his assertive style of governance is unlikely to change in his coming term. He would also have sufficient time and freedom to plan his foreign policy on the long term to achieve his ends. This luxury is not available to the Indian Prime Minister; so India will have to evolve at least the firm contours of its Sri Lanka policy for the long term. This becomes important as China’s foot prints in South Asia and Indian Ocean region are growing.

It also makes it imperative for India to structure its security relations with Sri Lanka on a firm footing and build India-Sri Lanka trade relations by removing India's non tariff obstructions stifling the growth of free trade with Sri Lanka.

With the President calling the shots, the political package for Tamils will come only as and when he decides. He seems to be in no hurry to do this. Apparently India is not happy with this as evident from the remark of Indian Foreign Secretary for External Affairs Ms Nirupama Rao during her visit to Sri Lanka in the first week of September. She said: “He [Rajapaksa] has constantly said that he is focused on that [political solution] need. And that he plans to move on it. He has his sight set on that. And this point about the need to be more than just focused on the economic issues and the development issues and to look beyond. Everybody in the government got a sense of how we look at it. From that point of view, I think they know how India is approaching or looking at this issue.” This issue is likely to become crucial when the election fever sets in Tamil Nadu. Presumably, the issue is to be discussed when SM Krishna, India’s external affairs minister visits Sri Lanka in October.

The United States has condemned the passing of the constitutional amendment saying it undermined democracy; reactions of other western powers are also likely to be the same. So Sri Lanka can expect a renewed spell of international confrontation on allegations over human rights violations and war crimes. Frustration on this count is manifest in the statements of Sri Lanka minister of external affairs as Sri Lanka does not want to change its stand against international accountability on allegations of human rights violations.

So Sri Lanka is likely to need India’s support in international forums more than ever before. With the continuing economic downturn in the West, Sri Lanka would also need more Indian economic assistance, investment and aid for economic growth apart from funds for reconstruction of infrastructure and rehabilitation. So New Delhi will have to work out a well rounded a strategy to handle the enormous clout of President Rajapaksa to its advantage.

Courtesy: South Asia Analysis Group, September 11, 2010
URL: http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cnotes7%5Cnote601.html

Sri Lanka Perspectives - August 2010

By Col R Hariharan

Constitutional amendments

The Rajapaksa government is set to carry out the much awaited amendments to the 1978 Constitution. The Supreme Court is to give its comments on the proposed amendments and the parliament is scheduled to discuss them on September 8.

The need for constitutional amendments, particularly with a view to exercise some form of parliamentary oversight on the executive presidency, had figured as a major issue in almost all elections. President Rajapaksa had been sounding leaders of most of the political parties including the opposition United National Party (UNP) on this issue ever since he was elected for a second term. However, till now he had not been able to push through the amendments as the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), with 144 seats, fell short of two thirds majority support in the 225-member house.

However, towards the end of August, the president managed to win over the support of the opposition Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) which has 8-members in parliament. The surprise U-turn of the SLMC, which had been opposing President Rajapaksa all along, shows the declining fortunes of political opposition. The proposed amendments are likely to be passed in parliament with the committed support of 154 members in the first week of September.

The proportional representation system of voting makes it difficult for any political party or alliance to gain two thirds majority in the house Thus the amendment of the constitution will be a politically significant achievement for President Rajapaksa. One of the proposed amendments allows the election of the president for third term in office; this will enable President Rajapaksa a chance to be elected a third term. Thus consolidation of the president’s political power now appears to be almost complete.

Under the 1978 constitution, the President enjoys enormous powers including the unilateral dissolution of parliament and declaration of emergency. He also has powers to appoint judges, heads of armed forces and police, election commissioners and secretaries to the government etc. In a state of emergency, the President can even promulgate emergency regulations to override laws enacted by the parliament. Sri Lanka has a long history of emergency since 1970 mainly triggered by war against Tamil separatists. Even though the war ended in May 2009, the emergency continues to be in force. This has caused concern to civil society organisations both at home and abroad.

In a bid to ensure some form of control over President’s powers to make appointments to high office, the parliament adopted the 17th Amendment to the Constitution in 2001. This makes it mandatory for the president to act on the recommendations of a 10-member Constitutional Council (CC) while making appointments. However, so far there had been no attempt to enforce the 17th Amendment in letter and spirit. One of the amendments proposed now, aims at replacing the CC with a five-member Constitutional Advisory Committee (CAC). The name of the proposed amendment would suggest the advisory rather than mandatory nature of its role. This could defeat the fundamental purpose of the 17th Amendment.
Sri Lanka’s credibility has suffered over allegations of humanitarian and human rights excesses both during the war, particularly in its last lap. Given this background its reputation as a democracy now depends entirely upon how President Rajapaksa handles enormous powers vested in him in the next decade and a half, assuming he is elected for a third term.

Court martial of General Sarath Fonseka

The process of downsizing of the political image of former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka made significant progress when an army court martial found him guilty of engaging in politics while in service. With President’s approval, the General has been cashiered and stripped of his medals and honours.
Those who gave evidence against the General included the Cooperatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando, UNP MP Lakshman Seneviratne, and Major General Krishantha Silva, former Military Secretary.

Fonseka is facing one more Court Martial for his alleged involvement in shady procurement deals, which also involved his son-in-law Dhanuna Tillekeratne. In addition to this, he has also been indicted for defamation over his alleged statement in The Sunday Leader accusing the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa of ordering the army not to take prisoners during the war in Vanni.

Fonseka is the leader of the opposition Democratic National Alliance (DNA) in parliament. The main opposition parties including the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) alliance partner of the DNA, and the UNP have condemned the conviction of Fonseka, as politics of persecution. Fonseka had opposed Rajapaksa’s bid for the second term as president. Whether it is true or not, the prosecution of the national hero marks the low ebb of politics in the country.

India raises its sights on Sri Lanka

As Tamil Nadu is gearing up for legislative elections, both the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) and its national ally the Congress Party have focused on Indian aid to Sri Lanka for the Tamils affected in the war torn Northern Province. The issue had figured in interaction between leaders of both parties at the highest level. And Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi expressing concern at the proper utilisation of the Indian aid had requested the prime minister for despatching a representative to make a first hand assessment.

Towards the end of the month, the Indian government despatched Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on a visit to Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, and Jaffna areas for a first hand assessment of Indian assistance to the affected population. She met a number of displaced persons awaiting resettlement as well as those already resettled. She also visited sites of de-mining operations carried out by Indian agencies.

The visit has brought sharp focus on the implementation aspects of resettlement for which Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had announced Rs 500-crore humanitarian assistance last May. Ms Rao also focused on India’s promise to construct 50,000 houses for the displaced population made during the visit of President Rajapaksa to India in June 2010. She said the houses would be constructed with local participation to give a fillip for their employment.

Both New Delhi and Colombo took another significant step to boost bilateral relations when they signed an agreement to establish Indian consulates general in Jaffna and Hambantota. This was agreed upon during Rajapaksa’s New Delhi visit. Sri Lanka is also likely to establish yet another consulate in India, in addition to the ones now in Chennai and Mumbai.

These Indian moves are significant in the face of sustained high profile interest of China in Sri Lanka for sometime now. On August 15, the President participated int the ceremonial filling of sea water in the harbour basin of the Chinese aided Hambantota Port under construction. This marked the completion of first phase for which the Chinese had given a loan of $ 425 million. Sri Lanka is negotiating for a further $ 800 million loan for the second phase of the $ 1.5 billion dollar project. When completed Hambantota will have bunkering facility and a tank farm project with a capacity of 80,000 metric tonnes. The port will begin handling ships from November. It is one of the four ports being built or upgraded as part of Rajapaksa's plan to boost the economy. They will significantly change the strategic profile of Sri Lanka in Indian Ocean security, apart from impacting trade and commerce.

Tamil refugees in Canada

The travails of Tamil refugees seeking safety overseas were highlighted when Canada intercepted MV Sun Sea carrying over 490 Tamils heading towards Port Alberni in British Colombia. They have been detained in camps apparently for screening before deciding their future. Sri Lanka has alleged that among them were LTTE cadres escaping capture from Sri Lanka and their supporters. In a similar incident last October Canada took in 72 Tamils asylum seekers after their ship Ocean Viking was stranded without a port to berth off Indonesia. It is going to be more and more difficult for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees to find refuge as Sri Lanka is no more considered as war torn country.
August 31, 2010
Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends, September 2010 Vol 4 No 8
www.security-risks.com

Sri Lanka: Fonseka’s Perils of Playing Politics and its Implications

By Col R Hariharan

For General Sarath Fonseka who revamped a demoralised Sri Lanka army and led it to final victory in the nearly three-decade long campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, its aftermath had not been peaceful. His woes appear to be mounting after an army court martial found him guilty of dabbling in politics while in uniform and recommended his cashiering. And President Mahinda Rajapaksa promptly confirmed the harsh sentence, stripping his rank and hard earned military honours and medals. The hapless General is facing a few more court martial that would haunt him in the coming years.

It will be difficult for non-military minds to understand the ignominy of cashiering. It is much more than stripping of rank and medals of General Fonseka (I do not have the heart to drop his rank and call him Mister Fonseka, although this is what has been reduced to now). It is the negation of the contribution of a person who served the army for 38 years to become the first-ever chief of defence staff. And in the history of Sri Lanka his victory against the Tamil insurgents will always be hyphenated with his cashiering. Only four years back he was lucky enough to escape (with serious injuries) a LTTE suicide bomber assassination attempt him in 2006. It seems the perils of politics have proved more deadly to the General than the Tamil Tiger assassin.

As I am not privy to Fonseka’s court martial proceedings or judgement I am unable to comment on its legality. Even if his political contacts were substantive as decided by the court, Fonseka was neither the first Sri Lankan army officer to do so nor will he be the last. The history of Sri Lanka’s three decades of war against the LTTE is strewn with examples of army officers either favoured or discarded by political masters, not necessarily for reasons of military competency. So it will be reasonable to conclude the Fonseka episode has its seeds in politics of power; after all the government has not shown the same alacrity shown in prosecuting the General to put on the dock even a single hardened LTTE leader held in custody for over a year.

This is evident if we see the sequence of events after the war ended and General Fonseka was hailed as a national hero, sharing the victory banners alongside the President. Politicians were a little unnerved at the soaring popularity of the General after the war and a subdued campaign sideline his contribution in the Eelam War was launched.

The campaign within the government against the General gained more decibels when he spoke of his plans to expand the army, making the politicians even more nervous. Though his plan was not accepted, the government’s mind on his future became clear when it decided not to extend his tenure as Chief of Staff after December 2009 when it ended. The process of cutting down the war hero to size was truly in place when the government offered him the job of secretary in the ministry of sports after his retirement!

The point of no return was probably reached when he developed political ambitions and decided to throw his gauntlet against President Mahinda Rajapaksa seeking his second term as president. The situation was further aggravated when the deeply divided opposition rallied together to put him up as their common candidate against Rajapaksa. In the run up to the presidential poll, Fonseka’s campaign threw a scare, though ultimately he polled fewer votes than Ranil Wickremesinghe did in the presidential election 2005.

The presidential election campaign saw the transformation of the General, generally considered a Sinhala hawk, into a champion of Tamil problem. And it was anachronistic to see that elements of Tamil Diaspora that had supported the LTTE, which tried to kill him, were his election bedfellows! Even as the pre-election campaign gathered momentum, political screws against the General were tightened. Conspiracy theories of military coup and take over abounded, Gajaba regiment troops deployed for his security were withdrawn for suspected personal loyalty to the General and serving officers considered loyal to Fonseka were given the walking papers. Even the retired servicemen who supported him were not spared. And in a clear break from the past even some elements of army joined the tar brush brigade to paint Fonseka as a villain during the election campaign. The smear campaign had three parts; prosecution of the General on the legal cases relating to three aspects.

The army and civil intelligence sleuths have "discovered" a whole range of offences committed by the General during his tenure as army commander. Presumably there was a prima facie case at least in some of them. But their inaction in showing the same diligence they later displayed when he became political loose cannon is rather intriguing.

Thus in an oblique way it was the General’s rapid rise in national popularity charts that did him in. It led him to the bogs of party politics and he quickly got entangled in its culture of intrigues and character assassination. Otherwise he would have probably ended up enjoying his well earned retirement, expanding on his concept of counter terrorism warfare in haloed portals of military learning everywhere.

But his prosecution has shown the weakness of Sri Lankan system in action where checks and balances of government action appear to have been sacrificed to serve political interest. While this is inevitable in party-politics it is detrimental to the long term interest of healthy growth of democracy. At present Sri Lanka is involved in a serious exercise of revising its constitution. A key dilemma is the changeover of the present presidential system to a Westminster type parliamentary democracy, limiting the powers of executive president. A compromise is likely to be struck - to have the cake and eat it in typical South Asian style - by retaining the presidential system while clipping his powers. But constitution largely remains a document in parchment unless political parties and the people are able to exercise full powers guaranteed to them in the constitution. Will they be allowed to do this or become victims of maelstrom of power? This question has to be confronted not only by politicians and the civil society but the intelligentsia as well. Otherwise mere changes in constitutional structure will be a cosmetic surgery that does not cure the underlying maladies.

Courtesy: South Asia Analysis Group, August 29, 2010
URL: http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cnotes6%5Cnote598.html