Associated Press,  Mon Mar  6 07:56:16 EST 2006

    BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI  -   Associated Press Writer  -              COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -  (AP)  Two parties aligned with Sri Lanka - 's president urged him on Monday to strengthen the armed forces to deter Tamil Tiger rebels from returning to war, as new violence threatened a four-year-old cease-fire. ``While continuing dialogue with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the government should also ramp up its strengthening and training of the armed forces so that the LTTE will realize that going to war is not an option,'' the Marxist People's Liberation Front said at meeting of the country's main political parties convened by President Mahinda Rajapakse.              
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- The Academic

mahintha chinthana - kotta uda thamai.


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Be patriotic .. think of the motherland

Quote:

While continuing dialogue with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the government should also ramp up its strengthening and training of the armed forces so that the LTTE will realize that going to war is not an option

Former US President Richard Nixon had a name for this strategy. He called it "negotiating from a position of strength". Those who are aware of the politics of the seventies (as, I am pretty sure, Somawanse is!) know the rest of the story.

It is important that Sri Lankan military strength be maintained because, in spite of negotiations, there is always the possiblity that the LTTE will revert to military tactics if it suits them.

But the question is: how much of our resources can we allocate to maintain a superior military strength?

It is a case of setting right priorities and then balancing those priorities so that health & education, services for the poor and the future stability are all taken care of. Post-1994 government attempts at a negotiated settlement have been mainly because of the realisation that the massive resources allocated to maintain a high military strength cannot be sustained. These attempts were branded by the JVP and the JHU as a sell-out of the country.

Prior to 1994, the popular slogan was that the UNP was perpetuating war, purely for personal financial gains to its henchmen. Now, it looks as if the JVP and the JHU are promoting exactly the pre-1994 UNP strategy.

The truth is, as per Lord Buddha's teaching, there is no alternative to peace and non-violence - yes, even in the face of terrorism. The military has a role to play in protecting that peace.

The JVP and the JHU MUST support the peace process, as well as the military strength that is essential to protect that peace process.

Mahinda managed to hold on.... good...
Making the army stronger are just face saving statements for JVP & JHU.

I think this strategy of keeping the SL military in a position of strength for the long-term to deter the terrorists from attacking military targets is faulty at best.

1) Going by the way LTTE attacks military targets they would not hesitate to attack any military outfit no matter how well it was armed - look what happened to the Indians in the late 80s in SL.

2) Spending more on military on long term basis would cause all the positive progress made on the social development front to slide back to negative and further increase govt/military corruption - makes you wonder whos behind the JVP and JHU?

3) Spending more on the SL military as it stands is not likely to yield the desired outcome as it is shown to be incapable to achieve its objectives of safeguarding the security of the SL citizens. What is needed is to make fundamental reforms to how the military is organised, supported and lead to create a smaller but more mobile, better equipped and highly trained/motivated fighting units to root out terrorist strongholds (as opposed to the present strategy of controlling territory) with a flatter command structure (with reasonable amt of leeway to the local/field commanders). This would reduce the current level of spending. i.e. cut the fat and release savings to social establishments.

In other words....more specialists/commandoes and less grunts!

Not only a strong army, .........an efficient/dedicated civil service, engineering service, medical service, education sector .......etc, etc are very good for the country.

Not only these government services, even a set of efficient capable politicians is essential.

The Duke wrote:

2) Spending more on military on long term basis would cause all the positive progress made on the social development front to slide back to negative and further increase govt/military corruption - makes you wonder whos behind the JVP and JHU?

$700Million war budget...
hmm.....some people will really make positive progress.

Spending alone won't do anything. We all know what happened to most of the military spending so far.  Corruption should be eleminated first from top to bottom both in the GOSL and Military.  Otherwise, spending will end up in personnel bank accounts.  All the corruption allegations should be investigated first and the guilt should be given the maximum penalty to build moral of armed forces and those who are waiting to join them.


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agro

Instead of throwing more money into defense, we should try to fix the public service from the bottom up, then everything else will fall to place. Billions spent on defense has not produced results. According to DailyMirror almost 65% of the civil service is corrupt. We have a President who still have not faced up to charges of attempting swindle Rs. 60 million, a Prime Minister who has allegedly stole Rs 600 mil from a rubber corporation deal. People such as SB Dissanayake who have become millionaires overnight. The chief of defense staff, who has clearly stole millions in Navy procuments. These people are still roaming around without any shame. There should be harsher punishments for these criminals. Singapore is not case in point which tackled corruption at an early stage now enjoying the benefits.

We also have a former president, looking forward to purchase mansions in London worth Rs 2 billions.

ha.....ha.... the positive signs of bigger public spending on defence !!!!!

As pointed out by Systemx and Psilva - the corruption should be eliminated. It can take place only from the top, starting from President, cabinet ministers, Secretaries, Police/Military chiefs, Corpn chairman/GMs, Govt staff officers.......downward.

There is no way office peons and junior clerical staff etc can start this process.

As Negombo mentioned, this is just eye wash or a face saving measure for the JVP & JHU.

They now seemed to have come down to earth. No talk about the CFA ammendments. No talk about giving in too much. Just draw the attention of everyone to something sensational so that all the noise they made prior to this is forgotten.

Will they strengthen the armed forces? Well you never know.

I think this is a COMBINED face saving measure by MahindaR, JVP and JHU for their voters

MR MR is trying to pacify everyone. To be safe among the  ruling collision of anti LTTE

the SLA is always superior in arms and amunutions and in numbers
slogans are created to fill the pokets of srilankan elite
what missing in SLA is the motivation and the cause
roundup all the jvp elite and send them to the front line then only MR can find a real solution

Of course there are concerns about corruption. That has happened in the past. Few crooks made a lot of money out of weapon imports. But if the Government comes up with a better model, strengthening the three forces is the best way to make the ground clear for fair negotiations. Otherwise, the LTTE will take the whole country for a ride. They are a bunch of foxes who will make maximum use of every little strength they have. After all what are we fighting for? Freedom for all Sri lankans from thugs and terrorists.