Inspiration: If Sri Lanka can do it, so can we

“He is a man of the people and one can see it in how he interacts,” Pakistan High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.

COLOMBO:

It took almost 30 years for the Sri Lankan government to defeat terrorism on the island. And a man with the determination and common sense of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to do the job. Today, as the island starts to reap the dividends of peace, one asks what Pakistan can learn from this experience.

In 2005, when Rajapaksa was elected to power, he came with a single agenda – to defeat forces of the LTTE – the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. Till then, the Tigers seemed invincible. The island was wracked with attacks – bomb blasts, suicide attacks and guerrilla tactics that left the Lankan army and the government only reacting – much like what Pakistan is going through. The LTTE was backed by India and in one instance when the Sri Lankan army actually cornered its leader, Prabhakaran, senior Lankan officials say India actually threatened to bomb the island. But all this was about to change.

Soon after coming to power, Rajapaksa – an elected president and man of the people – took a number of steps which can now be cited as leading to the success of the island nation against the terrorists. First of all, he sought a broad consensus and stamp of approval from all political parties – opposition MPs as well as minority communities like the Muslims. He got a national backing to take on the LTTE.

He then went on to start a close coordination between the government and the military high command. Weekly meetings and briefings by the army chief, General Fonsenka, meant that the civil administration knew what the overall strategy was.

Two things also helped give the Lankans the upper hand. The death of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 by LTTE sympathisers made India realize the folly of its policies. In all this time, LTTE supremo Prabhakaran became overconfident, mainly because of the support of the West and India.

Rajapaksa said “no more dialogue,” recalls one official. Till then, 21 times the two had gone into talks. “All this was done to buy the Tamils time,” added the official. “In this,” he said, “the Rajapaksa government had to adopt the pressure from world nations and international bodies.” This it continued to the very end.

The Lankan government reached out to its friends – as varied as Pakistan, Russia, China, Ukraine, Israel and also India – which helped by stopping support to the LTTE from the mainland. Even today, these countries have more of a say in Colombo.

When the fighting started, the military pursued a policy of clear and hold. The army increased its size from 9 to 21 divisions and while the LTTE went into conventional warfare, the Lankan army went into guerilla tactics.

(Read: Sri Lanka scraps emergency laws)

As the war raged, there were casualties other than the LTTE. Kumar Nadesan of the Express Newspapers recalls that the media came under pressure. Other journalists say that the pressure was intense on the media to tow the official line.

But in the propaganda war, the Lankan government matched the radio stations of the LTTE with its own broadcasts and frequency distortions. Unlike in Swat where Mullah Radio held sway, the Lankans did not let that happen.

Also a massive campaign was launched through skits, plays and TV dramas to garner support for the war effort. The most important thing was that the private sector kept the country afloat at a time when resources were limited and military costs soared.

The lesson that one learns from Sri Lanka, say diplomats here, is that it can be done. Pakistan High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Seema Ilahi Baloch, says that Rajapaksa’s popularity has soared ever since the war ended. “He is a man of the people and one can see it in how he interacts,” she says.

(Read: Reconciliation and reconstruction: Sri Lanka becomes a beacon for Pakistan)

While everyone talks about the fate of General Fonsenka and the fact that Rajapaksa was helped because his brother was defence secretary at the time of the war one cannot take away the credit of his leadership. One can only wonder when such leadership will rise in Pakistan to challenge problems head on instead of letting extremism and terrorism fester and raise their head repeatedly because of a government that can’t get its act together.





Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2011.