Daily News Editorial

MR’s lament over Jaffna student deaths

26 October 2016

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called for an impartial investigation into the deaths of two Jaffna University students in a police shooting. It appears that Rajapaksa will not let any incident pass without trying to take whatever advantage he could derive from it to raise his political stocks. Rajapaksa's call comes at a time that all that needs to be done with regard to getting to the bottom of the incident is being accomplished. President Sirisena has already ordered an investigation and assured TNA and Opposition leader R. Sampanthan of an independent impartial inquiry while the IGP had launched his own investigation. A team from the National Police Commission too had left for Jaffna in this respect.

Rajapaksa has not stopped at calling for an investigation into the student deaths but has drawn the attention of the government to similar incidents that are also taking place in the South and called for steps to determine as to why the police acted in the way they did. Rajapaksa's concern at the death of the two Jaffna students would sound more genuine had he also shown a similar concern towards the deaths of four university students in Trincomalee during his tenure, allegedly at the hands of military personnel, an incident that blackened the image of the country before the international community and virtually placed the Rajapaksa government in the dog house by Human Rights organisations such as Amnesty International and other Rights groups. No meaningful inquiry was conducted into that harrowing incident other than attempts made at obfuscation to steer the inquiry in a different direction. Ditto for the killing of 13 local workers of a French aid group in Muttur.

When Rajapaksa says "similar incidents" were happening in the South as well he should be reminded of the shooting at a group of demonstrators at Rathupaswala resulting in the deaths of two innocent bystanders, by the military no less, deployed by his powerful Defence Secretary brother and the shooting at Katunayaka over the government's attempt to steal the EPF of garment factory employees also leading to the death of a protestor, not to mention another firing into a group of fishermen in Chilaw also resulting in the death of one. No proper investigation, impartial or otherwise, were carried out into these shootings although the military officer who led the Army contingent at Rathupaswala was given a diplomatic posting for services rendered.

Be that as it may, Rajapaksa bemoaning the death of the two university students in Jaffna ring hollow not just for the Trincomalee and Muttur incidents but also for his general disdain for the Tamils in the North whom he considered a conquered people, in the afterglow of the war victory, riding on a flood of majoritarian popularity which he took at the tide for political gain. This same bleeding heart of Rajapaksa for the fate of the two students was not evident to the other sons and daughters of the Tamils in the North when, with one stroke of the pen, he discontinued the singing of the National Anthem in Tamil at all schools and government functions in the North.

Rajapaksa who did not give a tuppence for the killings at Rathupaswala, Katunayake or Chilaw (other than hand over compensation cheques to family members of the deceased out of public funds), nor at the cold blooded murders of Lasantha Wickrametunga or Prageeth Ekneligoda, under his watch, now beating his breasts for the two Tamil youth killed in the recent shooting could well have other motives. It could well have dawned on the former President it will be a no-win situation for him (that is if ever aspires to be Prime Minister again from a new political party) without the minority vote, with the war victory, which he marketed to the hilt to remain in power, now out of currency. It may also be his way of making amends with the Tamil community whom he branded as Tigers koti for causing his defeat on January 8 last year. His recent claim that Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran was not a racist, although his minions in the Joint Opposition branded him just that, could be early signs that Rajapaksa is hoping to see a thaw in his relations with the minorities and the Tamil community in particular.

But the former President is badly handicapped on several fronts. To begin with, he is carrying a heavy baggage in the form of the likes of Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila for the likes of the minorities. He will be judged by the company he keeps. Rajapaksa will therefore have to make a clean break with the racist elements surrounding him and re-brand himself as politician acceptable to all communities and religions. However the former President is far gone on the road of extremist Sinhala nationalism for him to make a course correction. In any event he will not be allowed to do so by members of the Sangha, the Chintanaites and the other champions of Sinahala nationalism. Besides the antecedents of the SLFP militates against such a move.