Hulftsdorp Hill

18th April 1999

Together strive for national Government

By Mudliyar

The election of Susil Premajayanth as the Chief Ministerial candidate from the PA augurs well for the future to those who believe that politicians should have a clean public image.

The fact that Mr. Premajayanth received over 150,000 preferential votes from the Colombo District goes to show that a large number of people who voted for the PA believed that the likes of Susil Premajayanth should be elected to high posts.

What are the qualifications of Mr. Premajayanth? He is an Attorney-at-Law who practised mainly at the High Court of the Western Province in Colombo. Even as a practitioner he displayed the honesty and integrity expected of an Attorney-at-Law.

His elevation as Chief Minister became possible due to the unexpected demise of Morris Rajapaksa. Mr. Rajapaksa was also an Attorney-at-Law and had been a member of the Bar Council and one time Treasurer and a Vice President of the Colombo Magistrate Courts Lawyer's Association.

Mr. Rajapaksa became Chief Minister after Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was elected as the Prime Minister of the country.

During his short tenure as the Chief Minister, Mr. Rajapaksa brought amity between the PA and the UNP. He displayed rare human qualities that are now absent among many politicians. The greatest tribute to Mr. Rajapaksa was paid by the then Leader of the Western Provincial Council, Lawrence Madiwala.

At a meeting with the Prime Minister, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, he said that Mr. Rajapaksa as the Chief Minister embraced everyone irrespective of his political colour or creed, and had become the pater familias of the members of the Western Provincial Council.

His motto was that they have been elected to serve the people and they should try to fulfil their goal in achieving the development of the province. The opposition without any hindrance supported all progressive measures of Mr. Rajapaksa.

Mr.Premajayanth was his deputy and displayed the same noble qualities as the Chief Minister. It could be said that his election campaign was the only campaign which did not breach election laws. He did not plaster the walls of entire Colombo with his posters. There were no go-go girls displaying their posterior to the motorist, and advancing the candidature of a candidate. Even when he appeared before national television, trying to defend the policies of his government he did not become a sycophant. There were no allegations that he had indulged in election violence.

Unfortunately, if there was any violence in the Colombo District where he was concerned, it was directed at him, not by the UNP but by the supporters of the PA. He quite categorically told the media that if the PA resorted to election malpractices, thuggery and violence which is now known as the 'Wayamba Doctrine' he would resign from his post. I am sure he would have kept his word.

These were some reasons why a large majority of the people who voted for the PA gave their preferential vote to him. He would have been the person who spent the least amount of money of all the chief ministerial candidates who contes ted from the two main parties, the PA and the UNP and received the largest number of votes.

After the election results were declared the two main parties, the PA and the UNP having no absolute majority to govern the Western Province could adopt a method based on the political wisdom of the late Mr. Rajapaksa.

As the PA has won the province by a narrow margin, and having received two bonus seats, in all probability the Governor would invite Mr. Premajayanth to form a Government.

Now instead of inviting minor parties to support the Government, the PA should invite the other major party, the UNP to join the government and administer the province effectively. If this could be done at provincial level it would eventually pave the way for a National government with a National consensus to fight the common enemy-the LTTE.

It is the greed for power at the centre which has made the country a simmering inferno. The masses feel they are seated on top of a volcano about to emit lava and destroy everything in its path.

This could be avoided only by the two major parties joining to form a national government. This could be achieved without any problem in the Western Provincial Council, because in the Western Province unlike the Central Province where the situation was almost like Wayamba and the Uva where it is said that 500 thugs were unleashed by a politico from the South and may have perpetrated mayhem in the district, the Western Province was relatively calm, clean and free from election violence and malpractices.

Susil Premajayanth, At torney-at-Law, as the Chief Ministerial candidate, and his opponent Karu Jayasuriya, conducted their election campaigns with great acceptance, and deserve the plaudits of all those who crave free and fair elections.

Therefore as a product of Hulftsdorp Hill it would be a meaningful experiment for Mr. Premajaynath to invite Mr. Jayasuriya and the UNP to govern the Western Province jointly. Unlike the JVP which still believes in antiquated Marxist economic theories, accepted and practised by Fidel Castro in Cuba, and the chauvinistic policies of the MEP which had been roundly rejected by the masses of the country repeatedly, the PA and the UNP follow the same economic policies.

Both parties are for a democratic form of Government. Therefore, there is no reason why the two parties, without the JVP and the MEP, should not form a Government and share the portfolios to administer the province. If this experiment is successful for the next year, the entire electoral system and machinery would change for the better, and there would be no reason for the 'Wayamba Doctrine' to prevail at future elections. This would also help the minorities who would join the two main parties to achieve their rights. Only the JVP which has a different political agenda and the LTTE which is fighting for a separate State would be in the opposition.

As the present impasse would lead to a similar situation at the general election, and if no party secures a majority to form a stable government as in the Western Provincial Council, the two main parties could join hands to form the central Government. Of the two leaders of both parties who will contest for the Presidency, the person who polls a majority of votes could be the President and his or her programme could be implemented, and the person who loses coming second could be the Prime Minister.

The fact that there is so much bickering, hatred and vituperative politics at the helm, may have compelled a large number of voters not to vote at the recent elections. Similarly there were others who had deliberately spoilt their votes.

These two groups were larger than what the PA and the UNP obtained in the five provinces. This is a clear manifestation that a silent majority is disgusted with present day politics.

Who else other than Susil Premajayanth who has the largest share of preferential votes from the PA and Karu Jayasuriya who polled the highest number of votes from the UNP could forge such a national alliance to the betterment particularly of the Western Province and generally of the entire country.

The enemy of the LTTE

Four suicide bombers personally handpicked by Velupillai Prabhakaran were sent to Colombo on a special mission. Mr. Prabhakaran wanted them to succeed and not fail like in the recent past. The mission was to kill and destroy enemy No. 1 of the LTTE. He was not a politician nor a VVIP, nor a double agent.

The LTTE only kill their enemies and not their friends. Southern politicians who breathe fire and strive to create division among the two major races are their friends. The LTTE would not consider them enemies. The former President D.B. Wijetunga was their beloved friend.

He was able to make serious divisions in the communal amity that existed between the Sinhala and the Tamils by his statement equating the Tamil people to a creeper and stating there was no ethnic problem but only a terrorist problem in Sri Lanka.

It is said that Prabhakaran relished this statement and thought that eventually if Wijetunga becomes the President of the country he would ensure there would be serious backlashes in the South between the Sinhala and the Tamils. Unfortunately for Prabhakaran Thondaman decided to work against the UNP at the Parliamentary elections and the UNP lost by one seat. Wijetunga and all Sinhala chauvinists are good friends of Prabhakaran.

There have been many instances where Police Officers have been killed by the LTTE, but the suicide squad which landed in Colombo and their friends who carefully monitored the movements of their target had an unenviable task. They were trying to kill one of their biggest obstacles in the Police Force. He was a lean, scraggy Police Officer who never exhibited the muscular power wielded by some officers. He was a Police Officer who joined as a Constable and rose to the rank of a Chief Inspector by sheer dint of hard work. He was Mohamed Nilabdeen.

Why did the LTTE think of sending four suicide bombers to Colombo to destroy him? After he was assigned for counter terrorist activities he has been able to save a large number of lives in the South and thwart many attempts by the LTTE to bomb economic and other targets in the South. It is only two years ago that he was asked to perform a routine check to question a very innocent Tamil who had been arrested by the Bambal-apitiya Police and was in their custody. There were instructions to all Police Stations in Colombo to inform the CID, the CDB and other agencies fighting to combat terrorism and get clearance before any suspect arrested in suspicious circumstances were to be released. All other agencies had cleared the two suspects when Nilabdeen arrived.

He questioned them independently and within minutes found they were hardcore terrorists. The next day he and his deputy found a large cache of RDX explosives stored in a safe house sufficient to blow up a large part of Colombo. He also found computers and other sophisticated equipment in the safe house. The Government promoted Nilabdeen from Inspector to Chief Inspector and his deputy was made a Sub-Inspector on the recommendations of Mr. Lionel Gunathilake,. The Government gave Mr. Nilabdeen a cash prize amounting to Rs. 200,000.

After this incident Nilabdeen was able to arrest one of the chief suspects of the Lalith Athulathmudali assassination. Whatever the a politicians said about the assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali, he did not waver from his commitment to unravel the whole mystery. After other officers identified the assassin as Ragunathan, investigations were handed over to Nilabdeen. He was able to arrest Devaradhi Ramachandran who had been a close associate of Ragunathan and who had made it a point to come to Colombo on a train from Valachchenai on the day Lalith Athulathmudali was assassinated, despite the fact that her child was suffering from chickenpox. Mr. Nilabdeen was able to show that she came to Colombo to escort Pedurpillai Jebanesan, who was one of the accomplices of Ragunatahan to Vavuniya after the assassination, so that he could disappear from the scene of the offence. Pedurupillai Jebanesan and Kandiah Lingeswaran were the two other terrorists who had given support to Ragunathan to kill Lalith Athulathmudali. After the assassination Pedurupillai Jebanesan as planned was taken to Vavuniya by Devaradhi Ramachandran and her husband and disappeared without a trace. Later both the husband and the wife were arrested and indictment was filed and they pleaded guilty and were sentenced.

The PA Government had then established a Commission to inquire into the death of Lalith Athulathmudali.

Chief Inspector Nilabdeen nonetheless did not give up the mission to unravel the mystery involving the assassination.

Thereafter Pedurupillai Jebanesan was sent to Colombo on another assignment. Chief Inspector Nilabdeen who had got information of this proceeded to the Camp where Jebanesan was kept till he was cleared, identified him and brought him to Colombo. He made a statement admitting his complicity in the killing of Athulathmudali. Later the CID, the NIB and other agencies involved in anti-terrorist activities independently questioned Jebanesan and he made similar confessionary statements.

The news leaked out and the provincial edition of the Daily News carried banner headlines about the arrest and the confession of Pedurupillai Jebanesan. A deputy editor saw this and removed the news from the City editions.

The commission acted promptly and brought the prime terrorist suspect before it and as it did to Kandiah Lingeswaram who was in custody on a detention order signed by no less a person than President Chandrika Kumaratunga herself on the basis that Lingeswaran was one of those who was involved in the conspiracy to murder Lalith Athul-athmudali, got him to recant and put the entire blame on Mohamed Nilabdeen. Similarly Pedurupillai Jebanesan was permitted to say that he was hung on the ceiling by a rope and mercilessly assaulted by Mr. Nilabdeen and got him to confess falsely on his involvement in the murder of Lalith Athulathmudali. To blacken the image of Mr. Nilabdeen, the Commission lead the evidence of Subash Abeyesekera to show that he had sold weapons to Sothti Upali and others in his gang.

After these revelations were made by a prime LTTE terrorist, Mohamed Nil-abdeen the prime terrorist investigator was interdicted. The man who only two moths prior to this incident became a hero in the eyes of the Police and the public became co-conspirator trying to tarnish the image of the Commission. The LTTE relished these manoeuvres and strengthened their plan to assassinate him. Mr. Nilabdeen had no security, his personal weapon and the car were withdrawn. He was sleeping on the floor of strangers who had acceded to the request of his friends providing him temporary refuge.

Meanwhile the Attorney General's Department had a major problem for most of their cases involving hardcore terrorists, the only witness was Chief Inspector Nilabdeen.

The Attorney General ordered a special team of CID officers to inquire into the allegation of Pedurupillai Jebanesan and found that the sworn testimony before the Commission was absolutely false. After months of being interdicted and playing a hide and seek game with the LTTE, Mohamed Nilabdeen was reinstated. Still he is the main witness in many cases pending against hardcore LTTE terrorists.

After he was reinstated he was involved in many investigations which resulted in the arrest of many LTTE suspects. Prabhakaran, the Supreme Commander knows best who should be protected and who should be eliminated.

It was our good fortune that the attempt on Mr. Nilabdeen's life ended in failure. Though he suffered serious injuries, we hope he will be back to help citizens of the South to tackle the LTTE aggression in the same manner he did before.

Jungle Telegraph

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