The Island Editorial

Lanka’s day of shame

09 November 2016

 

Perhaps, no other country in the world has ill-treated its disabled service and police personnel in a more shameful and despicable manner than Sri Lanka. It was with shock and dismay that we watched the police using water cannon and tear gas to disperse a protest march conducted by a group of disabled soldiers and policemen who were denied pensions because they had retired due to permanent injuries before completing the stipulated periods in service. A hunger strike had preceded their march.

What those in power have apparently forgotten is that the country is free from terrorism today because the military, police and the Civil Defence Force personnel fought the LTTE risking their life and limb and many of them lost their arms, legs and eyes in the line of duty. The government must do whatever it takes to grant the justifiable demands of those who suffered disabilities at the hands of terrorists without provoking them into staging street protests.

It is being claimed in some quarters that on Monday police targeted the politically-motivated, able-bodied troublemakers and unfortunately the disabled protesters were also affected in the process. Water cannon have no crosshairs as is common knowledge. There is no way the riot police can target political elements mingling with disabled protesters. They also used water cannon and tear gas indiscriminately, knowing well that disabled persons including retired policemen would be the worst affected. Anyone who claims that the police targeted political activists has taken the public for suckers.

Some defence bigwigs are among those who claim that there was a political hand behind Monday’s protest. The manner in which the issue was handled smacks of a sinister political move; the circumstances that led to the protest march make one wonder whether someone deliberately allowed the situation to get out of hand, while President Maithripala Sirisena was out of the country. The march could have been nipped in the bud if a high ranking defence official had cared to meet the protesters while they were engaged in a fast and given them a written assurance that they would be given pensions. After all, that was what the President had ordered and the Defence Ministry did in the end.

No protest is devoid of politics in this country. There have been instances where protesters got killed due to the involvement of political parties in workers’ agitations. The death of a free trade zone employee due to police shooting during a protest against the Rajapaksa government’s efforts to introduce a private sector pension scheme is a case in point. The then rulers blamed the JVP for instigating the workers. Politics and protests are inseparable. There is reason to believe that necessary conditions were created for the pension issue to evolve into a march and for tear gas and water cannon to be used on disabled soldiers and policemen who tried to enter the Presidential Secretariat. The end result was that President Sirisena incurred public opprobrium.

President Sirisena has publicly complained of being kept in the dark anent certain actions of vital state institutions including the police. His consternation is understandable. The public holds him responsible for everything bad the government does because he was instrumental in last year’s regime change and paving the way for the formation of the present administration.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga found herself in a similar predicament from 2001 to 2004. She was not informed of even the ceasefire agreement between the UNF government and the LTTE before it was inked.

It will be a mistake for President Sirisena to join others in flaying the Opposition activists for Monday’s incident without ascertaining how the unfortunate incident came about even after he had taken action to solve the issue and finding out who was responsible for that.