National security should be above politics

There is a strong need to be security conscious

 

The whole country now knows the defects were at the upper most level of the security establishment and the reason for it was the rift between the country’s President and the Prime Minister. As a result the upper echelon of the security establishment had lost its cohesiveness and was not operating at full steam.

 By Gamini Abeywardane

Ten years of peace in our country following the defeat of the LTTE has been disturbed by the dastardly Easter Sunday terror attacks that shook the world. Public domain is full of theories and opinion over security lapses on our part and who should be held responsible for them.
While it is important to analyze the relevant data to find out answers to these questions, it is also equally important to re-establish the impenetrable security network we once had and improve it further to meet the kind of international terrorist threats now we are exposed to.

With experience of nearly thirty years of war against the LTTE terrorists we had established one of the best intelligence networks in the world. Although some allege that these networks were weakened with efforts towards reconciliation and prosecution of some intelligence officials for wrong doings during the time of war, that position is not entirely true.

Any one looking at the content of warning letters sent by the two relevant DIGs which together contained most of the vital information regarding the planned suicide attacks will understand that both police and military intelligence units were doing their job well.

 Rift in the government

The whole country now knows the defects were at the upper most level of the security establishment and the reason for it was the rift between the country’s President and the Prime Minister. As a result the upper echelon of the security establishment had lost its cohesiveness and was not operating at full steam.

There has not been any agreed policy on the composition of the Security Council and if there was any such practice the Prime Minister and the Inspector General of Police would not have been kept out of the council meetings.

Whenever the President who is the Minister of Defence was out of the country the practice in the past had been to make an acting appointment. But under the new dispensation the practice seems to have been disregarded.

During President J R Jayewardene’s time this issue never arose because Lalith Athulathmudali functioned as the Minister for Internal Security.  Similarly during the presidencies of R. Premadasa and Chandrika Kumaratunga, Ranjan Wijeratne and Anuruddha Ratwatte respectively were deputy defence ministers and both of them had cabinet rankings and used to handle most of the defence matters on their own.

The reasons that contributed to the security lapses such as non-appointment of a deputy defence minister with a cabinet ranking, the lackadaisical attitude towards the Security Council, non-appointment of a competent Defence Secretary and the inactiveness of the IGP show that security was not a top priority of the government and security matters have not been discussed at the cabinet level.

All this points to one fact, that is when the country’s President and the Prime Minister are from two different political parties the security of the country is likely be at stake. This is even further corroborated by certain developments that took place during the UNP government from 2000 to 2004 under Chandrika Kumaratunga’s presidency.

Despite Chandrika being the head of the cabinet differences emerged between her and the cabinet and she used to boycott most of the cabinet meetings. The rift became worse with her taking over of a few ministries citing national security as the reason and finally this led to the premature dismissal of the UNF government of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

However, the current crisis situation has to be overcome with unity among all political parties in the parliament while a long term strategy has to be formulated with necessary constitutional amendments to ensure that national security will not be compromised in the face of political issues.

National security above politics

Either the national security has to be kept above politics through some constitutional and legal mechanism or the current constitution has to be amended to prevent a situation where the President and the Prime Minister are elected from two different political parties. Unless one of these things happens a similar situation can arise again in the future as well.

Like in the US and many other developed countries permanent institutions need to be set up to handle intelligence gathering and processing at the national level while the composition and the operation of the Security Council has to be legally defined and kept outside general politics of the country.

A country which has faced numerous security threats -- two insurrections, a separatist war and finally an international terrorist threat --  can never afford to take national security lightly and it’s time to place national security above everything else in the country.

There are allegations that the current government has been too involved in national reconciliation efforts and that was one of the reasons for neglecting national security. The fact is those are two distinct areas that should not be mixed up.

Reconciliation among communities is necessary after an internal war, but it cannot be achieved if there is re-emergence of terrorism. In that sense, a foolproof system of national security is a prerequisite for national reconciliation. In other words reconciliation cannot be achieved at the expense of national security.

In this age and time where terrorist groups are powerful enough to shake even mighty nations, emergence or re-emergence of terrorism could be a matter of time. So, the mere fact that the war is over in our country should not be a reason to be complacent about national security.

With a history of insurgencies, terrorism and war running into well over three decades, Sri Lanka can ill-afford to ignore the need for strengthening its armed forces and intelligence services. This will become more relevant as the country grows economically and increases its asset base – industrial installations, power stations, ports and airports etc.

In the context of current internal and regional developments, it is likely that terrorism will continue to remain an eternal threat in the foreseeable future. No country can afford to be lax on matters of security and the latest happenings are a grim reminder for the necessity of being security conscious at all times.

(Writer can be contacted on: gamini4@gmail.com)