When a country is politically unstable and dictatorship is established, the capitalist mechanism can be efficiently imposed to exploit the common people. Coups do not always come about in isolation due to petty personal goals.
The Srilanka experience - the attempted coup of Jan 1962
Sri Lankan government faced first abortive coup attempt in 1962 where a group of Army, Navy and Police officers together with a senior civil servant planned out an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) government of Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike.
The conspiracy had been elaborately planned and was to be a “gentleman’s coup” without bloodshed. It was to be a swift, surgical strike ex and the mission was expected to be accomplished within a few hours from midnight on Saturday January 27th 1962.
Ironically most of those involved in the attempted coup were not Buddhists but Christians. Except for a few the overwhelming majority of those charged in courts were Christians both Protestant and Catholic drawn from Sinhala, Tamil and Burgher communities.
24 persons were charged in courts and after protracted trial 11 were found guilty. However they were discharged later by appealing to the Privy Council of England which ruled in their favor on issues of technicality. This decision was a catalyst to 1972 republic constitution which declared complete independence de-linking military and judiciary dependency with British.
The regional Experiences
It is only India and Sri Lanka that have been free from coups in our region. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh had experienced number of coups in the recent past while Maldives had a hair breath escape due to timely intervention of India. Militants from People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), a Tamil military group of Sri Lanka had been hired for the foiled Maldivian coup. It was later revealed that the 1988 Maldives coup had been headed by a once prominent Maldivian businessperson named Abdullah Luthufi, who was operating a farm on Sri Lanka.
Theravada Buddhist countries among the victims
It’s a tragedy that number of Theravada Buddhist countries has been victims of coups. Myanmar has been under military rule for decades and Thailand faced a coup in 2006 and still struggling to come out of debris of military rule.
Result of neo-colonialism
It is clear that most of the African and Asian countries that are victims of coups were under colonial rule. The long time colonial rulers have created social imbalance in these countries. The colonial masters left the colonies after transferring political power to the comprador native social class. This lumpant social segment enjoyed privileges under so called independence for some time. However when time passes and voting rights of the common people is established, they are facing challenges to survive under democratic system. Coup has been their weapon of fighting back to retain political supremacy. The colonial masters in the West have been supporting coups for their benefits.
Sri Lankan nation must be enlightened and ever vigilant of the politico-social-economic back ground of possible coups because prevention is the best remedy of deadly coups!
References:
- “Operation holdfast”: The attempted coup d’etat of Jan 1962
- Rajapakse regime and the Fonseka phenomenon: Genesis of current crisis
- Maldives coup
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