Anura, Mahinda, Premadasa: Who is progressive, who isn't and why?

legal, security and humanitarian con- cerns of Israel and Palestinian people need to be acknowledged.

- By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Arafat admirer Mahinda fully solidarised with the Palestinian cause Mannar: Multiethethnic, multilingual, multireligious protests against ecological and livelihood destruction Premadasa defied President Bush Sr. on Zionism, sent Indian troops back Leftist youth leaders of the Aragalaya join Mannar protest

A hallmark of a progressive in the Global South is the defence of national independence and sovereignty.

In his speech to Lankans in Japan, Anura announced the retrenchment of military camps in the North on the assumption that enlightened policy can achieve permanent peace. He is unaware that in no country is a successful postwar security posture, a return to a prewar security posture, because the war itself revealed strategic vulnerabilities. He reassures us that in case there is a war, constitutionally the troops can always be sent back. He's got to be kidding. (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=JC6_8VCMgrM)

Despite the evidence of this island's long history, AKD is oblivious to dangerous external crosscurrents from near and far. Realistic, rational defence strategy and security planning is not based on and derivative of ephemeral domestic politics and policies, but in the axiomatic geopolitical realities that define our island-nation's existence, namely 'Who, What and Where we are' (Mervyn de Silva).

President Premadasa removed an intrusive British High Commissioner and decoupled a massive Indian military presence. Mahinda pushed-back wartime interference by UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband. But Anura has refused to make public the contents of his administration's agreements with India. He wouldn't do that unless there's something to hide. The multiethnic, multireligious, multilingual agitation in Mannar seems a defensive response to rampant economic Indianisation. (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v =- 3VUBZkVxww)