Psy-Op: Govt’s missing weapon

Mahinda’s administration has so far conducted itself extremely professionally and ably when it comes to dealing the LTTE. During the short tenure the LTTE was conscripted as a terrorist group and significant cooperation has been received from the US in curtailing Tiger activities. The rhetoric has been spot on with Mahinda claming to provide medical aid to all the country’s citizens including to that of the wounded Tigers. He was quick to dispatch relief aid to the north to avoid a humanitarian crisis in the Jaffna peninsula and condemn the civilian loss of life. Except for the mysterious Aid workers massacre which government has been blamed for - and frankly is big enough to undo all the great work the administration has done – the government has managed to turn the world opinion as well as the domestic opinion in favor of the government. What the government now lacks is a good psychological operation. It is the simplest and the cheapest of the weapons a side can use against an enemy and it is one tool that is easier for a state actor carry out than for a guerilla group.

Israel used various means of psy-ops in its campaign against the Hizaballah with great success. As much as was the objective of the campaign to search and destroy Hizaballah weapons, it was also important to sever the ties of the Hizaballah and the local people. Likewise, the Sri Lanka government should now focus on severing the ties between the LTTE and the general Tamils. And there couldn’t be a better time. With the support for the LTTE wavering amidst hardships Tamils face everyday, the government should take advantage of the current vulnerability of the Tigers. Psychological warfare should include tactics that are explicitly designed to stop the LTTE’s support of the local Tamils. They could include simple forms of media propaganda using air drops of leaflets or radio or TV broadcasting. The contents should be clearly formulated to discredit the LTTE and to offer incentives to embrace democratic process. Media can be used to benefit the government and the contents never actually need to be true. While media personnel are used to reporting facts, in the time of war and in the field of psy-ops anything that is damaging to the enemy is acceptable. Being the party who is engaged in fighting a tyrannical terrorist regime, the government is free to use any means it think is deemed necessary. While it is clear the war of this kind cannot be won militarily, government has to prioritize the psychological operations to win the hearts and the minds of the Tamil people. Without this, even a clear defeat for LTTE might still not mean a victory for the government.