Lalin’s Column: Myths of war (and peace) propagated by Dr Jayathileke

Dr Jayathileke (DJ) has in the Island of 19th May 10 attempted , one year after the end of the war, to call the roll of officers and politicians and ghosts, to show according to him how and why and with whom SL may have won the Eelam war much earlier. This is an exercise in extreme delusions, illusions and fantasies.

DJ using selected names markets himself as a raconteur of ‘if and but’ dreams of military victories when the fact is that except for a few exceptions as in 1987 and 1995 and until 2006, real military operations did not go too well for SL. He especially quotes 2 officers, one dead, to add ballast to his theories. DJ has, unintentionally it is hoped, debased those 2 officers professional reputations by exposing their alleged exaggerated if not ridiculous and foolish claims that they could have been architects of victory well before 2009.

“ A Commander in chief cannot take as an excuse for his mistakes in warfare an order given by his Minister or Sovereign when the person giving the order is absent from the field of operations and is imperfectly aware or wholly unaware of the latest state of affairs. It follows that any Commander in Chief who undertakes to carry out a plan which he considers defective is at fault; he must put forward his reasons, insist on the plan being changed and finally tender his resignation rather than be the instrument of his army’s downfall”. Napolean Military maxims and Thoughts

Was this an attempt to collaterally damage SL forces actual achievements? DJ attempts to use overwhelming force by Para dropping on the start line not his Cubans about whom he is merrily incubating myths, but a renowned warrior Gen Ashok Mehta IPKF and Col Hariharan from the same firm on the flank. This is a futile attempt to reinforce a doomed expedition.

DJ attacking on every front, opines that had the ‘best’ professional officers such as one particular (name given) Sandhurst trained Army Commander been given ‘full command and full reign’, ifs and buts aside, SL could have ‘’won the war’ earlier. He doesn’t reveal, except for his ‘unprofessional’ opinion, on what basis this could have been other than having DJ’s sponsorship.

Neither is there proof of a plan being made to support this fairy tale. Dragging in Sandhurst is another diversionary ‘Cuban’ tactic of DJ as the Army Commander who eventually demolished the LTTE was trained at SL’s own Military Academy albeit by a Sandhurst trained Commandant, Gen Denis Perera.

When one becomes the Army Commander there is no case of not having ‘full command and full reign’ and yet staying on. Running to wannabe collaborators in developing myths is as pointless. If an Army Commander did not agree with his C in C, he should have resigned immediately. Where in the world do long retired military commanders act like this, and except for DJ, who believes them?

The next completely skewered example of if and buts attempts at creating myths but actually propagating hypocrisy is of a lesser General (dead) and so unable to collaborate to the veracity of the tale that DJ unravels. The lesser General apparently went to President DB Wijetunge (DBW) with an instant war winning plan by passing his own army commander, who was unaware of this attempt until last week.DJ appears to find nothing outrageous in that act. DJ ignores the fact that the officer (also Chief of Staff) casually approaching the President with a unsolicited war plan by passing the chain of command was a serious offence, a shocking breach of security and a disgraceful act unbecoming of an officer far less a General. That the ‘plan’ remained unheard of and unsung, except by DJ, may have escaped DJ. Maybe DJ should have checked with the Prime Minister of that time just to get an inkling of its worth but this was not DJ’s way.

However even amiable DBW rejected it. Did DJ bother to question why? DJ with stunning naivety markets the view that this ‘plan’ alone would have been instrumental in winning the war as though the difference between winning and losing against the LTTE was this General’s piece of paper. The LTTE was described as the most formidable terrorist force in the world that had a few years before sent the IPKF which lost 2000 dead, back to its start lines in India. That this paper was casually submitted by someone whose credentials and habits were questioned by all Army Commanders he served under has not bothered DJ. Had the General produced any ‘plans’ before or was this his maiden effort, a few months prior to retirement? Was the real aim to seriously propose a war winning strategy to showcase himself as the man who should be appointed Army Commander vice the incumbent and to forestall retirement?

DJ mentions some great SL Generals. None of them made claims or behaved like this. When General Gamini Hettiaratchchi founder commander of the Special Forces and in command there said there was a serious flaw in the defence of Elephant Pass just before the debacle in 2000, he did not back down to the powers that were. He paid the price, affecting his career for the sake of the troops. But he did not go around airing his views to defend himself or prove his worth. DJ could also have done well to ask the Army Commander or the surviving Defence Secretaries (some of them Generals) of that time more about this particular General before he decided to courier this wondrous ‘plan’. A former C in C and Prime Minister (twice) are also available. They may however not stop laughing in response.

To reinforce what are incredulous theories and to gain cheap popularity with some, he insults another Army Commander (named), based obviously and viciously on interpretations given by one of his ‘informants’ who must have been shamelessly an army colleague. DJ could not have been aware that the latter Commander too was also Sandhurst trained, and better qualified professionally. That didn’t restrain DJ who was an envoy for a short time from casting aside accepted norms. Instead he has made crude, acerbic judgments on someone who could not defend himself.

Neither could DJ have known that the General had also been CDS in 2000 when the most serious threat to SL developed and Jaffna was expected to fall. He having stationed himself in the very cauldron played a crucial role in beating back the LTTE. He inducted 21 infantry battalions taking a calculated risk that had been avoided before. This made the crucial difference that turned the tide. DJ’s shameless collecting of gossip from army sources and conjuring them as facts to denigrate a military officer of any rank is a reflection of his own standards. Did the fact that this General had also been an ambassador provoke DJ?

DJ should try to acquaint himself with regimental war diaries not gossip to provide depth and credibility to his writings. Would that he also gets hold of LTTE versions of how the battles were fought (through KP?) or in their absence contacts amongst others Rohan Guneratne, Shanaka Jayasekera, KT Rajasingham, DBS Jeyaraj, Iqbal Athas, Sergei de Silva Ranasinghe and Malith Jayathileke to know who did what and what really happened. He may be made aware that his 2 chosen favourites and plans if any, were not exactly feared by the LTTE even if they could have made the SL Army jittery.

DJ plunges on about the various leaders SL had during that time regurgitating all their faults but when it came to Premadasa (RP) he blocks out the first of 2 of the greatest betrayals that occurred in SL in the last 30 years. Why?

RP, far from ’attempting to be none interfering, above the fray and letting the professionals handle it’, ordered the handing over of weapons, ammo, explosives and cash to the LTTE. The LTTE having then killed 600 policemen who were ordered by RP’s government to surrender in the East while ‘peace talks’ (balderdash) were on, and then sent a suicide bomber to deal with RP. Thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed with the very weapons and explosives RP gifted the LTTE. Not to even make a passing mention of this shocking act of treason is intellectual license with a vengeance.

RP’s treachery also forcibly compromised and corrupted 3 Generals (who with the other 2 for their personal survival alone would not have countenanced Napoleon’s maxim as given above) to force them to betray their country. After this lesser officers were tempted to do the same as no one was punished.

DJ also not so innocently says that Generals Kobbekaduwa and Wimalaratne whose deaths are still attributed by some to RP were his ‘appointees’ when Waidyaratne actually was. Why? Was it to manufacture mass myths? Yet DJ wants readers to believe like his other theories that had RP lived, SL would have been a land of milk and honey. Under whom? What price treachery in an ‘Asian miracle’?

DJ blames JRJ and not India for the Indian intervention in 1987 and so supports the 13th Amendment. After all he was an EPRLF Minister. Most called the Indian act an invasion –by forced invitation – like Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia (1940). DJ must know that India would never give any of their own states the level of autonomy in the 13th amendment to any of its states and most certainly not to Kashmir. Thus does DJ wish for SL after 27,000 soldiers died and thousands of others were disabled for life to prevent just that?

Without reaching out only to Gen Mehta, DJ should also read the book ‘Reach for the Sky’ by Major General Yashwant Deva Chief Signals Officer IPKF to get possibly the most cerebral, refreshing and comprehensive view of the IPKF campaign and how formidable the LTTE really was. He may then know the truth despite his ‘gladiators’ belief that they could have shredded the LTTE in paper wars. Deva explains the true predicament of the IPKF.

Velu P fortunately for DJ is not here to tell us what he would have done to the If and Buts SL Generals plans or to the ‘devolution’ package and its votaries.

The rest of DJ’s article too presents gnarled, stale and worn out views flogging the common whipping posts of the last 30 years. They do not need to be mentioned here.

Does SL need to be told by DJ about what his non performing gladiators could/did not do and why? DJ does not tell us the whole truth. He is far too clever. Will his efforts at Geneva also backfire on us now that he has chosen to snidely draw unhealthy comparisons between the USA and SL forces with regard to HR?

According to DJ’s hallucinations the war against the LTTE could have been won a 1000 times before 2009! He has valiantly tried to show that his pen is mightier than SL’s sword. This effort was not about war but mainly about a peace where Generals and ghosts are being frog marched into padded cells for exhibition purposes.

- Asian Tribune -