Tribute to Major General Janaka Perera and Dr. Rajah Johnpulle

Please add your condolence messages for Retired Major General Janaka Perera and his wife and UNP Anuradhapura Organiser Rajah Johnpulle and his wife here with name. They will be passed to the respective family members.

My deepest sympathises go for the family members of all victims.

Photos: www.dailymirror.lk

Government responsible for the killing of Retired Major General Janaka Perera, says UNP

United National Party (UNP) charges that the government and the Ministry of Defense must admit the responsibility of the killing of North Central Provincial Council Opposition Leader Retired Major General Janaka Perera.

At a special press briefing held in Colombo, denying this heinous act, the UNP stated that the government commenced to issue verdicts regarding the killers even before the warmth of the bodies of the victims died down proving that the government would not hold a fair investigation. Therefore, the UNP raised the need of an international investigation, said the UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake.

The blast took place as the office of the Opposition Leader of the North Central Provincial Council was being declared open at the new bus stand in Anuradhapura on auspicious time of 6.10 AM yesterday (06).

UNP General Secretary Attanayake further stated that the government that considered Mr. Janaka Perera as a war hero, began to consider him as a traitor after his joining with the UNP and he was not provided with security due to influence of a senior in the Ministry of Defense.

He said that Mr. Janaka Perera had threats from LTTE, Pillaiyan’s TMVP and the government. State intelligence wings made the retired Major General aware of the threats to his life from LTTE although he was not provided with security creating background for the assassination.

Commenting on the government propaganda that the police was not informed of the function held yesterady (06), Mr. Attanayake queried the efficiency of the state security if it was not aware of such a major function.

Mr. Attanayake questioned how a suicide bomber entered into Anuradhapura city just after an operation to look for terrorists on Saturday and Sunday. Government’s unnecessary rapidity in issuing statements raises serious doubts, he said. Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and several Ministers publicly said that Major General Janaka Perera had no threats from LTTE and did not provide security to him clarifying the government’s policy on him, said Mr. Attanayake.

http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=6494

Govt’s pre-election violence rocks Anuradhapura: UNP district office torched!

Anticipating free and fair elections under Kurakkan regime is akin to requesting feathers from turtles! (Can we ever forget that the man himself was once remanded for election violence and unauthorized bearing of firearms?)

The pre-election violence by the ruling party yesterday was adequate indication for their plans for the election day.

The UNP office housed at the residence of senior party member Dr. Raja Johnpulle in the Anuradhapura town has been set on fire by an unidentified gang yesterday night. Shooting had also taken place during the incident, police said.

With a miserable police force that serves only the needs of the ruling party and top politikkas; not the national interests, public in this country have only Gods to turn to. That too is questionable because just like the IGP Jayantha Wickramaratna God too so far maintaining a blind eye on Dr. Mervin Silva, in spite of the wishful thinking of Minister Maithripala Sirisena.

(Photo from Lankadeepa.com)

Mahinda will follow Musharraf – Ranil

Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned President Mahinda Rajapaksa against playing around with the people’s voting rights, saying that he was in danger of suffering the same fate that befell Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraff.

“President Musharraf had to resign after he played with the people” Mr. Wickremesinghe told an election rally in Anuradhapura yesterday (Aug. 19th).

He said, “If President Mahinda Rajapaksa tries to play around with the people, they all will rise up against him. That people’s power cannot be stopped.”

The UNP leader urged people not to allow any element to rig votes at the August 23rd vote.

“Will the SAARC chairman allow vote rigging? Will the SAARC chairman use thugs against his own people? What has happened to those who had tried to tamper with the voting right of the people of South Asia?” he asked.

The leader of the Maldives announced recently that he would go for an all-party system, while Bangladesh has been forced to hold an election in November.

Similarly, Nepal’s King has lost his position after attempting to halt a vote, Mr. Wickremesinghe noted.

He urged the UPFA government not to use the heroic soldiers to seek votes.

“A vote for the alliance will not be a vote for the heroic soldiers. It is clearly a vote for robbery, corruption, family administration and for hunger. The alliance is trying to strengthen its family power as the people of the north central province suffer. It wants to gain power by any means for five more years and swindle public money… I should say that every vote for ‘betel leaf’ will be a vote for robbery.”

Speaking further, he said the province had around 40,000 families of soldiers, including those who have died in action.

“If you want to vote for the heroic soldiers, vote for the UNP and elect the heroic Janaka Perera as chief minister,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said.

(Lanka Dissent)

H. L. D. Mahindapala seeya’s strip dances at Rajapakse Walawwa

Rajapakse clan faces no dearth of errand boys, but hardly anybody could beat the zeal of H .L. D. Mahindapala seeya. He is the dream servant boy or ‘Appu’ at ‘Rajapaksa Walawwa’. (As we know, according to Ceylonese aristocratic traditions, even an 80 year old ‘seeya’ will still remains a ‘boy’) Mahindapala seeya – the perfect Appu – does everything that his masters demand: He runs errands to the market; polishes masters’ shoes; white washes their dirty underclothes; keeps the toilets clean and once in a while offers a foot massage to the master. As a return he gets the leftovers from the kitchen of ‘walawwa’ which he would devour like Divya Bojana – the food of the gods, sitting on a low bench, only after completing all household chores.

H. L. D. Mahindapala seeya has a personal grudge against the opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe. He is not alone in that. For example, former Presidential Secretary K. H. J. Wijedasa too demonstrates similar feelings. The rationale is clear. Many Premadasa loyalists have not been taken seriously by the subsequent Wijetunge-Wickremasinghe government. H. L. D. Mahindapala seeya, who was imported from Australia to run ‘The Observer’ during Premadasa regime (unlike today it had a sizable loyal readership then) was overnight deported after President Wijetunge assumed duties. Not that I justify the act, but that is how politics work. Not everybody is comfortable in maintaining the same relationships with the pets of one’s predecessor’s.

Image: Mahindapala seeya with then Minister Sirisena Cooray in good ole days when he was more UNP than many of us.

When subjected to such humiliation, two options are left to anyone. A wiser man would have opted to bite his lip and return to whatever the work he left in his motherland. (Mahindapala seeya is an Australian citizen) However being the petty minded individual he always has been, our ‘Appu’ chose the other way. He becomes anti-UNP overnight. President Wijetunge went to political oblivion after 1994, so his bitterness was focused singularly on Wickremasinghe. Afterwards he wholeheartedly supported any anti-Wickremasinghe camp, and finally ended up doing errands at Rajapakse walawwa.

Of course, there are other theories of Mahindapala seeya’s pathetic behavior, but I do not buy them. Some of who get married to Tamils often find the need to exhibit more ‘patriotism’ than the rest of us, perhaps for the ‘guilty feeling’ or for their own recognition within the community. Within the clearly segregated Sinhala and Tamil communities in Australia this need becomes more prominent. Still this is a theory yet to be proven. Sometimes Mahindapala aachchi might enlighten us.

H. L. D. Mahindapala seeya’s latest barrage is against Major General Janaka Perera. Just yesterday Janaka Perera was a hero to him. (for war mongers like Mahindapala seeya one just need to be a mere gramarakshaka to be called a hero) Today he was a turncoat and a ‘traitor’ to the nation. All because he joined UNP. Mahindapala seeya swallows all his former words and falls to the low level of calling Major General Janaka Perera a ‘Tamil Killer’. In his article to Daily News last Saturday Mahindapala seeya writes:

Nevertheless, he has no reason to grumble because, unlike the poor soldiers who sacrificed their legs, arms and even their lives to make him a great soldier that he claims to be and got a pittance in return, he was given two comfortable postings abroad.

Sri Lanka is awash with scores of so-called diplomats who defend the regime of the day – not so much the nation – when they live in the lap of luxury in diplomatic missions abroad and goes into hibernation or total opposition when they retire from the foreign service. There is nothing like a diplomatic appointment to turn a villain at home into a patriot abroad.

This is more a strip dance. Unfortunately an old stripper throwing off his ‘amude’ does not bring any applause. If he expects any, Mahindapala seeya will be greatly disappointed. Even his masters at Rajapakse Wallawa will not be happy to see such a third class performance.

It is hilarious how somebody who have never seen the battlefront even through a telescope questions the patriotism of Major General Janaka Perera. Does this man, who has done nothing better than playing the shoe shine boy’s role for key politician has any right to question somebody who had taken incredible risks at the battle field for the nation?

Perhaps it is time for H. L. D. Mahindapala seeya to realize that errand boys of walawwas never make into annals of history. Their job is just to shine the shoes of masters for the pennies offered in return. They are worth only when they can white wash saatakayas. Once their time is over nobody would ever remember them. So the best thing left for H. L. D. Mahindapala seeya to do now is to amass some mertis for the otherworld he would be visiting sooner than later. Otherwise it would be too late.

But Major General Janaka Perera is somebody who is destined to make history. He has already done it more than once. A repeat performance awaits in the cards in two months time. We would be eagerly waiting what Mahindapala seeya would say then.

Janaka Perera starts campaigning in North Central province

It was certainly low key, but perhaps it is his style. Major General Janaka Perera is already in the job. Yesterday he talked to some of the people in the North Central province, where he will be the next Chief Minister in few months time.

“I don’t take tasks to leave them incomplete. I know what I am doing.” was the message he passed while moving around the Anuradhapura town.

Can fake ‘nationalists’ working with tiger sympathisers block Major General Janaka Perera’s victory?

On the verge of obvious defeat the government has made plans to use a set of their henchmen in the guide of ‘nationalists’ to undermine the role played by Major General Janaka Perera as a top military officer.  Some of these contracted fake ‘nationalists’ have already started working on their agendas, in mass media and Internet.

Simultaneously, the overseas Tiger sympathisers too have started a parallel campaign against Major General Janaka Perera.

These are some of the sentiments expressed by Tiger sympethisers:

In the mid-eighties, Gen. Perera worked in the eastern province helping to create a wedge, breaking up the contiguity of Tamil Eelam, the Tamil Nation, comprising of the North and East of Sri Lanka. The area connecting the North and East was ethnically cleansed of Tamil people. Tamil villages were evacuated at gunpoint, hundreds were murdered and others fled out of fear, to make way for State sponsored Sinhala settlements. As a reward for this ‘heroic’ act a Tamil village (Munkindimalai) was renamed Janakapura (Janaka Town). 

In 1995, he was appointed as Commander for the Welioya Brigade. Large-scale civilian killings took place in Manal Aru (Weli Oya) during this period.

President Kumaratunga’s decision to resume the war against the LTTE in October 1995 propelled Perera back into a position of power. He was appointed commander of the elite 53rd Division of the Sri Lankan army which played a key role in ‘Operation Riviresa’.

Over a thousand Tamil civilians arrested by the security forces disappeared (Amnesty International, the international rights watch dog, estimates at least six hundred while the US State Department states a figure of seven hundred), in the area under Janaka Perera’s command. Despite widespread rumors, these disappearances could not be verified because of the media ban on the war zones.

Interestingly these were the same feelings coming from some of the self proclaimed ‘nationalists’ on Internet including the typical Rajapakse lackeys like Lanka Rising.

Take the following extract by a blog post by Dilrook Kannangara, one such self proclaimed ‘nationalist’.

What changed Janaka Perera from the much loved soldier in the 1990s to a despicable traitor? Although he doesn’t seem to have the faculty to explain it to the nation, it can very well be inferred from the turn of events. Possibly there can be pettier reasons than the foregoing, which, to say the least, are not even worth exploring. It is possible that alleged war crimes petitions against him played a major role in shifting his allegiances. There were many such petitions organised by pro-LTTE groups against him.

One such allegation was ethnic cleansing of Tamils in the East and the North-East of the island paving way for Sinhala settlements that were allegedly not there previously. Mungindimaalai, a Tamil village was thus ethnically cleansed and was renamed Janakapura which has a majority of Sinhalese settlers.

There seems to be also paid writers to comment on the character of Janaka Perera. (No dearth of such people – specially the retired public sector officers who have no work and need some hard cash. They will even insult their mothers if somebody pays them thousand rupees) Here is one such comment:

The capture of Wijeweera was similar. It was an operation planned and conducted by a very capable officer, Colonel H ( Now Maj Gen), and when they were about to set off on the operation, Janaka heard about it and asked the Army Commander General Waidyaratne to permit him to accompany the troops, which he first refused, and later permitted. Janaka merely went along for the ride, but made sure, as the senior officer, to take all the credit. All this can be verified from Gen Waidyaratne’s report, which still exists, unless it was ‘censored’ by Janaka. During the UNP regime he was appointed Military Liaison Officer to the Ministry of Defence, because of his father’s very close political connection with the UNP, and particularly with President Premadasa. During this period when he had access to Ministry records, it is alleged that he falsified many officer’s personal files, cleaned up his own personal file and destroyed records that described his inefficiency.

There are few questions that arises in this backdrop.

How come these self proclaimed ‘nationalists’ share the same platform as the tigers and their sympathisers?  How come their stance on Major General Janaka Perera overnight turned from a well respected ‘War Hero’ to a turncoat traitor?

The more interesting question: Can the joint effort of LTTE and UPFA defeat Major General Janaka Perera in the provincial elections?

At least we have an answer to the last question. It would be a tough fight no doubt, government is going to put their full force, but still they will never be able to prevent his victory in the elections. For that we are certain.
 

Major General Janaka Perera – the next Chief Minister of North Central Province

United National Party today decided to appoint Major General Janaka Perera as its candidate for the post of Chief Minister in North Central Province. 

Major General Janaka Perera was the former Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army and one of the most distinguished generals in Sri Lanka.

He was educated at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo and joined the Sri Lanka Army as an Officer Cadet and received his training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England. After completing his training he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Sri Lanka Light Infantry, later he transferred to the newly formed Commando Regiment. Maj Gen Pererea is a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies.

As a Colonel, Janaka Pererea took a major role suppressing the JVP insurrection of 1987-89. He was the Provincial Commander of the North-Western Province as well as being in charge of the special operations of the ‘Operation Combine’ in Colombo which led to the capture of the JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera.

In the following years he played a significant role in safeguarding the defence of Sri Lanka. His contribution for the Sri Lankan military effort during the Eelam War III was exceptional. Brigadier Pererea was one of the key players of the Operation Riviresa which lead to the liberation of the Jaffna peninsula. During the operation he commanded the 53 Division which consisted of the Independent Brigade, Air Mobile Brigade, Armoured Brigade and an Infantry Brigade. Later he was promoted to the post of Deputy Chief of Staff and also had functioned as Commandant, Sri Lanka Army Command and Staff College.

Unlike Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who abandoned and ran away from Army in the most difficult times, Major General Janaka Perera never abandoned the forces, in spite of the immense risk he and the family had to undertake for his military activities.

He once again distinguished himself after the fall Elephant Pass in 2000 which forced the SL Army units in Jaffna to fall back. Undertaking the Operation Kinihira after being appointed Commander Security Forces Jaffna, Major General Perera launched an effective counter attack that halted the LTTE advance and succeeded in established the current defense line in the Jaffna peninsula. This prevented the SL Army from being forced to evacuated from the Jaffna peninsula or due to the lack of transport ships, the prospect of being cut off.

Major General Janaka Perera was made Chief of Staff of the army in 2000 but retired in 2001. Following his retirement he was made Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Australia and later Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Indonesia, but was recalled before his term ended.

Like most of the honorable military figures in Sri Lanka like Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Former Air Force Chief Harry Gunatilake, Major General Janaka Perera is a firm believer of a political solution to ethnic issue and sees the military activities only to safeguard the country and a means for force LTTE to the negotiations.