Sri Lankan Government led by President Maithripala Sirisena has removed ex-military man Maj. Gen. G A Chandrasiri from the Governorship of the Tamil-majority Northern Province, and replaced him by H M G S Palihakkara, a former Foreign Secretary who had been a member of the celebrated Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). Thereby Sirisena has addressed a longstanding grievance of the Tamil National Alliance, which holds the majority in Northern Provincial Council.

“The Government has appointed a non-military civil servant as the Governor,” said an official statement dated January 14.

Palihakkara, had been Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka at the United Nations. He has served on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. He was Acting Director-General and Deputy Director-General of Sri Lanka’s Peace Secretariat, which serviced the Norwegian-facilitated peace talks in 2002 and the subsequent ceasefire in 2003. He is said to be a firm believer in devolution of power.

Welcoming the appointment, TNA MP, M A Sumanthiran, described Palihakkara as a “very fair minded person” and said that the TNA is glad that a civilian has been appointed, at long last.

The TNA had demanded the removal of Gen. Chandrasiri not only because he was a military man but because he was commander of the Lankan army in the Jaffna Peninsula during Eelam War IV which had left a deep wound on the Tamil psyche.

But the Rajapaksa government felt that, given the likelihood of a resurgence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the appointment of an ex-military man as Governor was imperative.

The then President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, also argued that Governor Chandrasiri could not be considered a “military man” because he had retired from the army prior to his appointment. However, the TNA insisted that a Governor of the Northern Province in the post-war era should necessarily be a civilian and not one with a military background and mindset.

When the TNA extended its support to Sirisena against Rajapaksa in the January 8 Presidential election, one of the promises extracted was that the military Governor would be replaced by a civilian.

However, the Sinhalese nationalist National Freedom Front (NFF) led by the hawkish former Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa has criticized the removal of the military Governor, saying that it will jeopardize the security of the country.
(with inputs from The New Indian Express)