Daily News

Pot calling the kettle black

28 September 2016

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader and Colombo District UPFA parliament cum Joint Opposition spokesman Udaya Gammanpila wants the Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran arrested for inciting racism. The remark couldn’t have been funnier if not for its serious connotations. Because if the Chief Minister were to be arrested on the basis of inciting racism Gammanpila and his comrades in the JO should necessarily follow suit. Nay, they should have thrown behind bars many moons ago.

In this column, the other day, we admonished the CM in no uncertain terms for playing with fire, so to speak. We also mentioned that the more he holds the type of demonstrations that was witnessed in the Jaffna town, the more he would be giving ammunition to the likes of Gammanpila to set the south on fire. In fact UNP Colombo District MP S. M. Marikkar commenting on the Jaffna demo voiced his concern if in fact Vigneswaran had cut a deal with the Joint Opposition with a view to place the government in an awkward position. Perhaps uppermost in his mind would have been the deal reached by Mahinda Rajapaksa with Prabhakaran in 2005 that saw an enforced boycott by the Northern electorate that denied Ranil Wickremesinghe the coveted prize of the Presidency. Hence deals are nothing new to the Rajapaksa clan and by extension, it is presumed, to the Joint Opposition.

Be that as it may, Gammanpila is the last person who can point the finger at others for inciting racism, having thrived on it during the length of his brief political career. It is this self same Gammanpila who even went to the extent of attempting to redefine the National Flag by replacing it with another, with a design bearing only the Lion and shedding those features depicting minority representation. Gammanpila, it was, who went ballistic at the idea of singing the national Anthem in the Tamil Language when this was permitted in the Constitution to which he swore allegiance when he took his oaths as an MP. Who can forget the rowdy scenes at a court house some time ago when the Colombo District MP arrived to secure the release of some Buddhist monks who were taken into custody for misbehaving in courts. Why only this special affinity for Buddhist monks who had fallen foul of the law, unless the gesture was pregnant with racist overtones.

Gammanpila and his ilk who accuse the Northern Province Chief Minister for inciting racism should bear in mind that this is exactly what his boss is guilty of doing in the south. Can he deny that all the speeches made at the temples by Mahinda Rajapaksa are devoid of racist overtones. The difference is only in degree. The former President who boasts of vanquishing the LTTE is today lamenting the release of land occupied by the army to their original owners, giving the lie to his boasts. Are not such remarks with a racist tinge to them? What about the claim by MR in the immediate aftermath of his defeat on January 08 that he was done in by the votes of the Tigers? This, after shouting from the roof tops that the LTTE was now history. If this is not racism can Gammanpila explain what is? The PHU leader who these days is hitting all round the wicket in a frenzy also claims that Vigneswaran could be arrested by the FCID for using state property for the controversial Ezhuga Tamiz (rise ye Tamils) on the basis that an official letter head was used with Government seal to invite people to the protest. It is well known that all political parties in the south abuse state property to bring crowds to their May Day rallies and political party conventions. The recent Pada Yatra held by the Joint Opposition saw a number of state vehicles belonging to the UPFA controlled Provincial Councils being used. Is Gammanpila suggesting that using state resources - on this occasion a government letterhead and some vehicles belonging to the Northern Provincial Council - is strictly the preserve of the South and a cardinal sin if they are used by the Northern Provincial Council, wrong and a punishable offence as it may be?

Let the likes of Udaya Gammanpila know that the Northern Province Chief Minister is as much a politician as Mahinda Rajapaksa, and like the latter, is not averse to whipping up communalism to garner votes at elections as does the politicians in the North who like their counterparts in the South are wont to whip up communalism for political gain. Hence this is not a state of affairs confined to the North. All actors are in the game of politics. What is needed is to offer all sides a level playing field, in the realm of human rights, allaying suspicions and the right to live as equals in a united undivided Sri Lanka. That alone is the solution that would cut into all differences between the communities enabling all to live as equal citizens in an undivided Sri Lanka.