Ceylon Today Editorial

OF ADJECTIVES, UNDERSTANDING AND VIOLENCE

 07 September 2016

Known as the Transatlantic Horace, that intellectual Josef Brodsky once said, "What concerns me is that man, unable to articulate, to express himself adequately, reverts to action. As the vocabulary of action is limited, as it were, to his body, he is bound to act violently, extending his vocabulary with a weapon where there should have been an adjective."

And the old Jewish saying has it thus: "There are none so blind that having eyes do not yet see, nor having ears, still hear not". In the Brodsky-an cultural and political meme, we need to jar the reader back to UNSG Ban Ki-moon's visit last week lest the all-transcending national relevance and import of his visit is left to become today's and to tomorrow's fish'n chips wrappings. Brodsky was wont to detest cold and devoid-of-passion literary, political and philosophical punditry that merely filled the pages of a book or newspaper, or kept you briefly enthralled via a film as is common today. Writing for writing's sake versus writing to prod passionate nationalistic fervour and motivate positive action by government and society at large are two entirely different forms of writing.

Ban Ki-moon, as we said last week, came here riding a high horse to appease the Tamil polity while at the same time making weak gestures suggesting the Lankan Government, to wit, the President and Premier, will possibly be given time, more time to settle the war crimes issues against the Rajapaksa's. You read it right there: "The Rajapaksa's". It's time that the local media stopped referring to war crimes issues, "AGAINST SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT", and begin defining it in its truest essence: A witch hunt against the Rajapaksa brothers and their JO camp.

This is basically what's motivating the fear-driven Joint Opposition's endless assault on the government, barely short of physical violence, as despite assurances of 'more time' to prosecute war crimes and other crimes against humanity, time inexorably draws near to the day of reckoning at the next UNHRC sessions. There, at those sessions, the Tamil Diaspora and men of the calibre of Wigneswaran and those in the TNA, will ensure that the fullest powers of the UN System are arraigned in a manner aimed at, lynching the JO's leaders and all others deemed to be tarred with the same brush of war crimes and HR violation allegations.

When President Sirisena last Sunday said in Kurunegala that the new SLFP will be one devoid of criminal elements, he had this in mind and as perhaps a last resort, a gesture of his gentility perhaps, issued a plea to SLFP members in the JO to return to the party fold and help him rebuild an SLFP that can bring back the Party's glory days before leftist forces infiltrated and polluted that Party under the guise of socialist democracy. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Hebrew proverb quoted above becomes relevant here. How many hear and understand? How many see and perceive what they see?

In effect, Sirisena threw out a final olive branch, and those watching him deliver his speech would have been struck by the mixture of pensive, worried, even pained fears as he perhaps wondered how many sheep that have been led astray to save the guilty will in fact return to the fold.

Sirisena well knows that the best long term option for a balanced and 'politically right' Sri Lanka is a medium term partnership with accommodating elements in the UNP. I say, medium term; because future leaders waiting in the wings such as Sajith Premadasa might not remain silently tolerant of the Unity Government for much too long. While all eyes are on the SLFP split, that could be another potential political split waiting to happen. When that happens it's left to conjecture as to how far a new leadership will fit in with Ranil Wickremesinghe's and Sirisena's new western-weighted foreign policies.

It's very possible that as things are moving in the mainstream Tamil socio-political realms, here and abroad, that an US very possibly under Clinton, India, the UK and EU will, at the UNHRC sessions, drive home the objective of pushing through with what will essentially...despite all the confusion injected into the issue on purpose...ensure the setting up of a war crimes tribunal and get the OMP to play a major role in that pursuit.

This is the stark reality behind the facades of playing for time, reconciliation and the political hyperbole.

The President's seemingly innocuous speech at the SLFP's 65th Anniversary celebrations will without any doubt goad the Rajapaksa camp into action beyond adjectives. To them Sirisena's words would have sounded like apocalypse now!

Daily News Editorial

UNP at 70

07 September 2016

The United National Party turned 70 yesterday, the proverbial biblical lifespan for man. But there is nothing to indicate that the grand old party is in the final throes of its existence. On the contrary, it is back in the saddle enjoying governmental power after two decades in the political wilderness, albeit in joint arrangement with arch foe, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. It is set to charter a new course under the leadership of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe the suave, debonair intellectual whose abilities and international standing are accepted unquestioningly even among his ardent political foes.

It was certainly not a smooth ride to power for Wickremesinghe, but for whose strategies and deft political manoeuvrings, the party would still be languishing in the Opposition. In that sense the party rank and file have a lot to be grateful to their present leader but for whose vision and good political sense they would still have remained orphaned.

The grand old party has certainly a lot to be proud of looking down the years. It has tasted success and reversals in its checkered existence but had at no time thrown in the towel.

Many a political pundit wrote the obituary of the party following its electoral debacle in 1956, but it rose phoenix like from the ashes winning back the trust and confidence of the people once again. This is because the party had a solid base, built on the legacy of D.S. Senanayake, its founding father and beloved by the people as the father of the nation.

Its liberal democratic policies were popular with the youth, the metropolitan populace and the conservative middle class which represented the nucleus of its support in the earlier days. But it also won over large swathes of the peasantry and farmers with its colonisation schemes and irrigation projects in the far flung denizens. Though branded as a capitalist party serving the interests of the rich, the privileged and the party going, golf playing Colombo elite, to the UNP goes the credit of launching the largest ever development projects in the country, beginning with the Gal-Oya scheme of D.S. Senanayake to the Mahaweli multi-purpose development project, that tremendously benefited the farmers and peasantry.

Not only that, it was the UNP under JRJ who took the plunge and ushered in the open economy, only for India to follow suit. By doing so, it changed the landscape of Sri Lanka from a sleepy, listless, laid by island to a bustling economic centre in the region that brought in loads of foreign investment and expertise, setting the stage for monumental economic take off whose bounties are enjoyed even to this day. The party could dwell in smug satisfaction that its opponents who condemned and criticized the open economy then, later went on to adopt the same policies and even went onto outperform the UNP in this regard.

It is commonly accepted that the country always prospered economically under UNP regimes, with the party known for its efficient administrators and technocrats even in the past. The party that ushered in Independence from the colonial rulers, to the UNP goes the credit of uniting all communities, religions and ethnic groups under one banner. Among those in the vanguard to form the UNP were leading figures of the minority communities such as men of the calibre of Sir T.B. Jayah. It says much for the party that it still retains that cosmopolitan outlook though it had to suffer electoral reversals due to this uncompromising stance.

Much water has flown down the bridge since the days when the grand old party was labeled as a party representing the elite class. Leaders down the years have succeeded in a revolutionary transformation of the UNP infusing it with a new ethos that resonated with the common man. The catalyst of this change no doubt was the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa who introduced concepts such as Jana Saviya and Gam Udawa which would have sounded alien to the party several decades ago. He not only ushered in people friendly policies but also took government to the far flung villages with his well known mobile community services, all of which went towards changing the face of the UNP. Not only that, the party also attracted men and women drawn from the lower strata into its fold and entrusted them with leadership. The type of faces that one would have not seen in the UNP many decades ago holding positions of responsibility in the party is testament to this. Gone are the days when the party was synonymous with portly, pipe smoking Prime Ministers and other leaders. The grand old party has reached yet another milestone in its checkered journey. It has come to where it is, the hard way, learning from its mistakes and making course corrections, concessions, in tune with the changing times. It may be bruised and battered on the way to 70. But the landmark no doubt will be time for retrospection and fresh resolve to forge ahead surmounting all obstacles, as it has done down the decades.

The Island Editorial

Forgotten body parts

07 September 2016

 

Pirates and buccaneering politicians have many things in common. The former plunder sailing vessels and the latter the ship of state. Besides, they believe that ‘dead men tell no tales’ and resort to violence to neutralise enemies, both real and perceived.

But, as for the murder of ruggerite, Wasim Thajudeen, one may doubt the validity of the aforesaid saying, the origin of which is usually traced to pirates. The story of his tragic end has now become known to one and all.

There is one thing Sri Lankan politicians do properly when they are ensconced in power; they cover their tracks effectively after committing various crimes. That was why nobody got caught following the change of government in 1994 though many grandees of the previous regime had carried out numerous killings and robbed the state coffers for 17 years. A similar situation has occurred following the Jan. 08 2015 regime change. Those responsible for killings and amassing ill-gotten wealth have not been brought to justice yet. This may be the reason why those investigating the Thajudeen’s death are also going around in circles.

The present government would not have cared two hoots about the famous ruggerite’s murder if the suspects had been within its ranks or they hadn’t been its political rivals. What may be termed as ‘cadaver politics’ or the use of corpses to gain political mileage, however, is not of recent origin. There have been many instances thereof during the past several decades.

The UNP once shed copious tears for Premawathie Manamperi of Kataragama and other youth killed during the first JVP insurrection in 1971 and the SLFP politicians dug up the Suriyakanda mass grave containing the remains of a group of students killed in the late 1980s, when the JVP took up arms again. The TNA is doing likewise, using as it does the war dead to achieve its political end though it did not make a whimper of protest when the LTTE went on killing sprees.

Whatever the government’s real motive is as regards Thajudeen’s death, somebody has to pay for that crime. Let that be the bottom line.

Meanwhile, the Thajudeen killing and allied matters have given rise to an interesting legal argument as we heard on Monday, when retired Judicial Medical Officer Prof. Ananda Samarasekera’s anticipatory bail application was taken up by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court. Senior State Counsel, objecting to the doctor’s request, maintained that the body parts under investigation and review by the court could be categorised as public property and bail refused under the Public Property Act, which the present government invokes liberally to ensure that its rivals are remanded indefinitely.

We don’t intend to examine the state counsel’s argument, which was challenged by the bail applicant’s lawyer. That, we believe, is best left to the learned Magistrate. Instead, we wonder why no governments cared to conduct investigations when public roads used to be strewn with body parts, and categorise them as public property by causing them to be under review by courts so as to arrest and remand the perpetrators of mindless violence. They conducted only a few probes very selectively for political reasons. An all-out attempt to do so was conspicuous by its absence even in situations where investigations were possible. Instead, the body parts were given mass burials and the victims forgotten. Their killers went scot free.

Those who caused roads and waterways to turn red with blood through either terrorism or counter terror in the southern parts of the country are currently cohabiting for all practical purposes. Surprisingly, not even UN Chief Ban Ki-moon, who was here recently to renew his call for a probe into the war-related accountability issues, made any mention of the body parts churned out by terrorist groups and state agents outside the war zone. Who will mourn for those victims and call for justice?