Sunday Times 2
According to the Galtieri Theory…
View(s):As we near the end of 2023 and I look back on the events of this past year, I am reminded of the truth of what the 19th-century French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wisely wrote: ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’ – which in English means that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Take for example the much publiciSed Operation Yukthiya: the so called ‘War on Drugs’ initiated by the Minster of Public Security together with the Acting Police Chief Deshabandu Tennekoon.
Up to the end of last week, the operation which was launched exactly a fortnight ago, involving thousands of personnel from the police and the Special Task Force as well as the military, had resulted in over 12,000 arrests and the seizure of assets that police estimated to be about Rs. 300 million. Among those arrested in possession of heroin were even political operators like SJB’s Kurunegala District Organiser Amitha Bandara.
Being myself a cynical octagenarian, I view this Operation Yukthiya with mixed feelings. While all of us citizens would welcome a decisive action that aims to eradicate the scourge of drugs in our country, one wonders firstly as to the practical possibility of success—and secondly at the motive behind this much-publicised War on Drugs.
The vast profits generated by the drug trade guarantee that the big operators can afford the best weaponry, the most lethal mercenaries and the smartest legal expertise that money can buy. They can also afford to bribe officialdom (even up to the political level) with impunity. I recall just under ten years ago when the STF raided the residence of a Western Province politician, no less an eminence than then President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived at his residence by helicopter the following day to smooth the situation over and prevent the investigation from going any further. Whether the STF raid was to look for illegal “budded” vehicles or illegal drugs was never known – but the fact remains that a presidential visit nipped any further investigations in the bud. Today, he is an honourable member of parliament.
Will this Operation Yukthiya be like Jonathan Swift’s spider web? The British writer observed ‘Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through’. From the reports we currently receive, methinks that Yukthiya is merely targeting low-level drug dealers and users. The sprats and small fish in the sea get netted while the killer sharks are allowed to swim free.
Let it not be forgotten that both Minister Tiran Alles and Acting IGP Tennekoon are both in what the British would describe as ‘a spot of bother’.
This Operation Yukthiya reminds me of Operation Rosario – Argentina’s operation to reclaim control of the Malvinas Islands that was initiated in April 1982 by Argentine President Leopoldo Galtieri. Seizing power in 1981, Galtieri found himself faced with a slumping economy and opposition to his military rule, the legacy of massive human rights abuses and the infamous ‘Dirty War’ waged by the military government against its opponents. Galtieri came up with a theory based on the assumption that he could divert the people’s attention and win their support by launching an invasion of the Malvinas or Falklands Islands that Britain had colonised in 1833 but Argentina had always claimed as his own.
In March that year, the Plaza in front of the presidential palace in Buenos Aires was full of hostile protesting crowds venting their anger against his government. In the first week of April, however, the same plaza was full of cheering crowds thrilled that he had salvaged national honour by recovering the islands and chasing out the British.
Galtier’s theory appeared to have worked!
Sadly for him, Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (herself faced with plummeting popularity at home) decided to fight back—and dispatched her own military to re-take the Falklands. By June 14th that year the British had re-conquered the islands once more—and soon after Galtieri was deposed.
Will Operation Yukthiya achieve the ends for which it was designed? Will drug trafficking and underworld activities be eradicated by June 2024 as Alles blithely but confidently predicted? Will the sprats get caught while the sharks remain protected by Higher Forces?
Will Galtieri’s Theory be proved once more to be a miscalculation—or will success with Yukthiya reverse the fortunes of Alles and Tennekoon, whom the public will forgive for past indiscretions?
Perhaps we will find out in 2024.