Letting The Military In

by Tisaranee GunasekaraIgnorance marches in triumph, carrying with her, in one place, barbarian ferocity; in another, a more refined and accomplished cruelty; every where, corruption and perfidy. ondorcet !"utlines of an historical view of the progress of the human mind# ! $ebruary %, %&'(, olombo, )ri *anka Guardian# *ast week, ten uniformed soldiers under the command of a uniformed lieutenant, were caught felling teak trees in a forest reserve in +mpara. The soldiers claimed that the purpose of their illegal enterprise was to collect timber to build a barrack, )erving military-personnel engaging in criminal pursuits !ranging from fraud and robbery to murder and rape# is becoming a common *ankan phenomenon. *ittle wonder that the )inhala)outh is beginning to have second thoughts about the induction of this military into their economic spaces.

The -+ )urveys of -ost-war )ri *anka reveal that )inhala opinion about creeping militari.ation of the economy was never monolithic nor adamantine, but as fractious and as evolving as )inhala opinion on every other sub/ect. urrently more than one third of )inhalese disapprove of the military0s growing involvement in the economy. +nd the trend seems to be on the way up.

1etween %&'' and %&'2, the number of )inhalese who disapproved of the military performing civilian economic tasks increased by (3.%4. In the same two years, the number of )inhalese who approved of the creeping militari.ation of the economy decreased by 5.64. In %&'', %7.24 of )inhalese strongly approved and 2%.%4 of )inhalese somewhat approved of the military performing civilian economic tasks. 5.%4 of )inhalese strongly disapproved and '6.'4 of )inhalese somewhat disapproved of the military0s entry into the economy. 1y %&'2, the picture had changed significantly. The number of )inhalese who strongly approved of the military performing civilian economic tasks went down to '3.%4 !by 27.864# while the number of )inhalese who somewhat approved of this process increased to 23.24 !by '%.64#. The number of )inhalese who strongly disapproved the creeping militari.ation increased to '%.%4 !by (5.64# while the 9somewhat disapprove0 category rose to %(.54 !by (74#. Thus the )inhalese are increasingly unhappy about the ongoing militari.ation of their economic spaces. This is despite the ethno-religious nature of the military, the barrage of promilitari.ation propaganda the )outh is constantly sub/ected to and the dominant commonsense which e:uates any criticism of the military with anti-patriotism. +lmost five years after the end of the war, the military footprint continues to grow in *ankan society. +ccording to the %&'% Global ;ilitari.ation Inde< !which indicates the importance accorded to the military of a country in relation to the larger society#, )ri *anka, with a high score of 7(%, ranked 27th in the world. urrently '24-'74 of the *ankan population serves in the military. +nd this oversi.ed military is e<panding its economic holdings at an alarming rate. $or instance, the +rmy has its own resorts-brand = *aya - and its own travel agency - +ir Travel )ervices -vt *td. = catering to both tourists and pilgrims who visit India and ;ecca. The +ir $orce has >eli Tours and manages two golf-links including the ?agles Golf *inks near Trinco-harbour . The @a/apaksas want to inculcate the belief that militari.ation of the economy is both necessary and good because the military can conduct economic tasks far more efficiently and honestly than civilian actors. The truth is far otherwise. The military, by virtue of being legally empowered to carry arms, has an unfair advantage vis-A-vis any civilian economic competitor. )ince the military does not have to fear bankruptcy !or labour costs#, it has no e<istential reason to pursue either productivity or profit. + country which opens the doors of its economy to its military lets in a ma/or distorting factor which will result in crippling inefficiencies , massive corruption and increased monopolisation. The e<pansion of the economic-/ackboot does not create new employment or income generation opportunities. "n the contrary, militari.ation deprives civilians of /obs and business-opportunities, a ma/or problem in a country with a high youth unemployment rate. ;ilitary Beynsianism is to Beynsianism what )ocial Carwinism was to Carwinism. + military is, by and large, a microcosm of the society it springs from. In its serried ranks, it contains men and women of every sort, good and bad, law-abiding and criminally-inclined, efficient and inefficient. This reality is in stark contrast to the @a/apaksa-peddled fantasy of a monolithic military which is uniformly good, efficient and law-abiding. Initially this fantasy was necessary to sustain the myth of a 9>umanitarian "peration with .erocivilian-casualties0; if one admits that the military is made up of ordinary mortals, then the possibility of civilian-harm !either as a result of human error or human wrath# must be admitted. )ubse:uently, the @a/apaksas needed to glorify and sanitise the military in order to

/ustify the creeping militari.ation of society. )o the myth of the Dar-hero as the )inless )uperman was created. The reality that the brave can be bad, that the indisputably courageous can also commit crimes and heroism may not be a developmental virtue became irrelevant, inadmissible, even unthinkable. 1ut as the militari.ation of society runs parallel to the criminalisation of the military, the )inhalese are beginning to discover the dis:uieting reality behind the reassuring official-mirage of the virtuous, self-denying and infallible war-hero. + Ceadly Gamble Dhat is specific about *ankan militari.ation is that it is happening under the clear guidance and tight control of a civilian regime. The motive force of *ankan militari.ation is the @a/apaksa need to disembowel democracy and create a protector-of-final-resort for their $amilial @ule. + familial oligarchy has a narrow stakeholder-base by definition. The military is being inducted as the !much /unior and firmly-controlled# partner to fill this gap. -ost-war, instead of offering ordinary soldiers the choice of a financially secure civilian e<istence !via a system of voluntary retirement, based on the 9golden handshake0 model0, combing monetary grants and pensions with skills training#, the )iblings are using ordinary soldiers as indentured labour. The often menial tasks they are being forced to perform, without even the leavening of e<tra monetary compensation, cannot but seem demeaning to many soldiers. The end result would be a seething sense of social resentment which can become a breeding ground for anti-democratic and anti-minority fanaticism. +s yet the military is only an instrument of @a/apaksa @ule. The )iblings seem conscious of the potential danger of militari.ation, as is indicated by their conscious efforts to prevent the rise of any 9popular0 military strongmen who can become alternate power-centres. This preventive method will work in the short term, especially since a )inhala-1uddhist ma/ority !albeit a declining one# still trusts the @uling )iblings. 1ut once the )inhala-1uddhist politico-electoral base of the @a/apaksas is substantially eroded and the continued e<istence of $amilial @ule depends on force rather than consent = and if the democratic opposition is too weak to challenge the increasingly dysfunctional status :uo = a disaffected military might see itself as the 9solution0. The official ethos, which upholds the military as the embodiment of efficiency and honesty, may persuade an economically desperate and despairing )inhala-)outh to see the military as the only antidote to the venal and feckless @a/apaksas. The state is as strong as its core. $amilial state is thus weak by definition. Eone would know that as well as its uniformed and armed guardians.