Underworld has many fathers - EDITORIAL

Exactly a month ago, on January 28 we editorially discussed some aspects pertaining to the ongoing crimes in the country while pointing out that minimising crimes should be one of the top most priorities of the government’s “Clean Sri Lanka” programme. 

It is a well-known fact that crimes involving the underworld has not been an isolated phenomenon.  It has been a blend of illegal drug business, proliferation of arms and political patronage. This is not a recent phenomenon. Its roots date back to the late 1970s, especially to the J.R.Jayewardene administration. 

The open economic policy introduced in Sri Lanka by the J.R. Jayewardene administration had many positive as well as negative aspects, one of which is the smuggling of narcotics. It also introduced attractive lifestyles among a segment of the society with which the entire populace tended to abandon their traditional relatively ethical ways of livelihood, prompting them to think that the “end justifies the means.”  

“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” they say. The five sixth Parliamentary power the United National Party (UNP) received at the 1977 general election created a set of highhanded political thugs who even turned the country’s basic law, the Constitution a monthly magazine, changing it at will. Well-known goons in prisons were granted amnesty and appointed as justices of peace who then ruled the roost in some areas. 

The then government failed to find a peaceful solution to the ethnic problem which was then still at the political level. Going back on its election promise to convene a round table conference on the matter in time, it let the youth to take arms. The 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom which was backed by ruling party politicians in many parts of the country not only became an impetus to the armed struggle of the Tamil youth; rather it prompted India to provide arms and funds to the Tamil armed groups. Jayewardene’s pro-West policy also deteriorated the situation which led to a full-blown war between the armed forces and Tamil groups, especially the LTTE.

When the leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Rohana Wijeweera legally challenged the results of the highly fraudulent referendum of 1982 for the extension of the Parliament’s term for another six years, the Jayewardene government proscribed his party on July 30, 1983, with a false pretext that the JVP was behind the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom which was generally known as “Black July.” Three years after the unfair proscription on the JVP, its cadres too resorted to arms. The southern rebellion ultimately claimed over 60,000 lives - a large majority was at the hands of the armed forces and illegal vigilante groups, apparently sponsored by the state.    

These two rebellions later became sources of arms and ammunition for the gangsters in the southern parts of the country. The award-winning author Humphrey Hawksley, subsequent to his deportation from Sri Lanka by the Jayewardene government after a stint in the country as the BBC correspondent in early eighties made a prophesy that Sri Lanka would have to suffer from the proliferation of arms due to the prolongation of the ethnic conflict.  

During Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure as the Defence Secretary a commission called “National Commission Against Proliferation of Illicit Small Arms (NCAPISA)” was established to co-ordinate approaches to small arms-related problems in Sri Lanka. Proving Hawksley’s prophesy right, the report of the commission stated “to an increasing extent, illicit military-type small arms appear to be proliferating as a knock-on effect of the conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. Supply of weapons to underworld gangs is very commonly ascribed to deserters, but also linked to currently-serving security/police force personnel supplying small arms for purchase or hire.” The report further said, “The level of public knowledge of how to obtain an illicit small arm is substantial.”  

Many leaders of successive governments after the J.R. administration have maintained their own clique of goons. When one mentions the names of gangsters such as Soththi Upali, Gonawala Sunil, Beddagane Sanjeewa, Julampitiye Amare, people simply visualize the politicians who patronised them. Therefore no party that have been in power since 1977 could absolve itself from the responsibility and accountability for the crimes and underworld activities in the country.

Since the crimes and underworld are a deep-seated single issue, its eradication requires time and meticulous planning coupled with strong political will.