VIP security should not be politicised

Public security Minister Ananda Wijepala has stated that former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena have requested the bullet-proof vehicles they had  returned to the state following the passage of the Presidents’ Entitlement Bill on September 10.

He showed positive signs that those vehicles could be returned to the former Presidents with the approval of the Threat Assessment Committee of his ministry. 

Why the former Presidents handed over those vehicles to the state and later requested  them back is the question which arises here. If the government instructed them to hand them over to the state, why should the minister later announce that they could be returned upon a request by the former President concerned? On the other hand, if they volunteered to hand them over, why should they want them back again?

The government can deprive the former Presidents or Parliamentarians of the perks and privileges they have been enjoying thus far, on the grounds that they have the mandate for it, as it was an election pledge of the National People’s Power (NPP). Yet,  VIP security is a totally different and sensitive issue which has to be handled with utmost responsibility. Although we do not see any sign of an incautious attitude on the part of the government in this regard, we ought to remind the authorities of several past tragic incidents which occurred as a result of politicisation of VIP security. 

During the Chandrika Kumaratunge administration, the security detail for retired Major General Lucky Algama was pruned after he joined the United National Party (UNP). An LTTE grenade attack killed him at Ja-ela on December 18, 1999.     Similarly, Major General (retired) Janaka Perera and his wife faced the same fate on October 6, 2008 following the reduction of his Security by the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, on the same grounds. The security detail of General Sarath Fonseka who defeated the LTTE was reduced from 600 to a mere 6 soldiers after he challenged President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 Presidential election; he escaped death but was jailed later.

Despite the absence of an active terrorist organisation in the country now, a “lone wolf attack” is a possibility at any time  anywhere in the world, as former Army Commander General Mahesh Senanayake told following the Ester Sunday attacks in 2019. Besides, as facets  of the gun violence taking place in the country, the increase in  contract killings and the proliferation of small arms in the country is alarming.

We reproduce here a part of an editorial on small arms proliferation published in the Daily Mirror on August 29, 2023,  which is relevant to our subject matter. 

“There should have been opportunities for  members of the armed forces and the police to misappropriate and smuggle weapons out to the south during the war. There have been many incidents where members of the armed forces were arrested with weapons smuggled out of the war theatre. 

“Similarly, though the LTTE was decimated, there is no assurance that all of their remaining weapons were captured by the armed forces and the fate of those remaining weapons is unknown. Also,  LTTE cadres might have sold their weapons to  outsiders during the war. What happened to the weapons that were with  thousands of cadres and supporters of the LTTE’s Eastern Leader Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan (Karuna Amman) after he deserted the rebel group in 2004 is still a mystery.  Weapons seized by one party to the war from the other party during ambushes and skirmishes are prone to land in the hands of  criminals. 

“Besides, the government distributed hundreds of fire arms among politicians during the second insurrection of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna  (JVP) in the late 1980s most of which are said to have not been returned. Some of those politicians are gone now, but definitely not the weapons.

“Anura Bandaranaike, the former Speaker,  once told Parliament that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) had been provided with two lorry loads of weapons during the second JVP insurrection. Also, former State Minister for Defence General Anuruddha Ratwatte informed Parliament once that around 15,000 illegal weapons were circulating within our society. No government had taken action to trace these weapons though the nexus between some of the politicians and the underworld is well known.”

 VIP security should be intact irrespective of whether they are in office or retired.