A great gesture

Throughout its 30-year terror campaign, the LTTE targeted top Sri Lankan leaders, both political and military, for assassination regardless of their ethnicity. They assassinated President Ranasinghe Premadasa and President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga barely escaped an assassination attempt, losing an eye. Among the other leaders who became victims of LTTE bullets or bombs were Gamini Dissanayake, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Neelan Tiruchelvam, A. Amirthalingam, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, Ranjan Wijeratne, A.L. Abdul Majeed and Janaka Perera. Their tentacles even spread to India, with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The Tigers always had a "hit-list" of targets who they wanted to eliminate one by one. Present President and then Mahaweli Development Minister Maithripala Sirisena, a vociferous critic of the LTTE and Acting Defence Minister on several occasions, was a top target of the LTTE along with then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and former Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka.

The LTTE did make several attempts to harm the life of President Maithripala Sirisena in 2005-2006 when he was a minister. The Police were able to arrest an LTTE cadre who plotted to assassinate him. The Tiger cadre was later imprisoned on the same charges.

President Sirisena, who marks one year in office exactly to this day, is the very epitome of compassion. He does not believe in revenge. Sri Lankans vividly remember how Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka was treated after the Presidential Election of 2010 in an apparent case of extreme revenge. The same fate would have befallen Presidential candidate Sirisena if he too lost the poll. When the situation was reversed, some Sri Lankans expected President Sirisena too to behave in the same manner vis-à-vis his opponent Mahinda Rajapaksa. But President Sirisena showed by example that he is a much more compassionate and principled politician and human being. Mahinda Rajapaksa went on to contest the General Election without any hindrance. Yes, there are probes into certain events and malpractices that have taken place during his regime, but these are strictly legal processes that bear no sign of Presidential intervention.

President Sirisena's other main hallmark has been his constant call for reconciliation. He is keen to bring all communities together to build a true Sri Lankan identity. Forgiveness is an integral part of reconciliation. It is a part of our culture to forgive even one's enemies. This is why all previous Governments forgave and rehabilitated JVP and LTTE cadres involved in insurrections against the State.

In line with this thinking and in the interests of reconciliation, President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have deemed it quite unnecessary to prolong the incarceration of ordinary LTTE cadres who have not been charged with any offence but imprisoned for more than a decade - especially in a context of several senior LTTE leaders roaming free for several years after the war. Accordingly, many such LTTE cadres were released recently, excluding a few hundred hard-core LTTEers.

They say that to "err is human, but to forgive is divine". The LTTE cadres were misled by their megalomaniac leader into committing various acts of destruction. Most of them were dragged forcibly from their families, denied education and turned into cyanide-wearing killing machines. Post-war, it is the society's obligation to turn them into useful citizens once again after a period of rehabilitation and reintegration.

In a grand gesture of mercy, President Sirisena has decided to pardon the ex-LTTE combatant who was convicted for making an abortive attempt on his life. The accused Sivaraja Jenivan alias Mohommadu Sulthan Cader Mohideen also known as Senan was found guilty for the attempted murder charge and sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment by Polonnaruwa High Court on July 3, 2015.

This is a great gesture and a measure of the extent of President Sirisena's humility. It is not easy to pardon someone who has tried to kill you or even harm you. Such forgiveness stems only from a heart filled with compassion. In fact, there have been only a very few instances of world leaders granting clemency to their would-be assassins in recent times.

Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was extremely magnanimous towards the man who shot him. He urged the authorities to "show compassion to this man and not try to wreak vengeance on him". Pope John Paul II met and forgave Mehmet Ali Agca who shot him several times on May 13, 1981 in Rome. Nelson Mandela not only forgave the white rulers who nearly drove him to death in the Robben Island prison, but later also worked with them in a post-apartheid Government. These are men of virtue who made forgiveness a part of their daily life.

President Sirisena too, has shown that he is bereft of petty thoughts such as revenge. This is a quality of true leader who is desirous of peace and close to the teachings of the Buddha. Indeed, our conflict-torn world needs to take heed of the Buddha's immortal words "hatred does not cease by hatred, it ceases by love alone".