Our Culture of Impunity
The BBC recently released an Easter bombing anniversary documentary titled 'Terror in Paradise' which probably attracted tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of global viewers. The highly professionally produced feature depended largely on CCTV footage of what happened in Colombo and elsewhere on April 21, 2019, when a group of fanatics targeted three catholic churches and four hotels killing at least 279 and injuring over 593 people, some of whom were maimed for life. The bombers were caught on camera entering public areas in the luxury hotels where they set off the blasts. The documentary also included interviews with survivors, all of whom had lost loved ones, skillfully interspersed into the film to dramatize the production. Similarly, many comments from Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, former head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research of the Nanyang Technical University of Singapore, were included. What he socked into the film was what most Lankans believed at the time of the massacre and still believe: that the powers that were did not take seriously enough intelligence reports on the impending disaster. The whole country was caught flatfooted as a result.
Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith is on record strongly condemning the “culture of impunity” which has for too long existed in this country. A large number of high profile assassinations in Sri Lanka in recent decades remain unsolved to this day. Former President Maithripala Sirisena, then Minister of Defence, has pleaded that he was not privy to the information that had reached senior levels of the defence establishment which was long aware of the existence of the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) and the explosive propaganda spouted particularly by its fanatical leader, Zaharan Hashim, and his fellow travelers. Then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has whimpered that he was kept out of the security loop by the president with whom he was bickering bitterly. A dangerous cauldron was first simmering and then boiling in densely populated Kattankudy, the JMT base near Batticaloa for months, maybe years, before the fanatical religious terrorists struck. The authorities were aware of various telltale incidents, in the days and weeks before the disaster hit but did not take them seriously enough to adopt preventive measures. That cost this nation dearly, how dearly we will never know.
The political leaders of the day including Sirisena who should have been impeached for the brazenly unlawful manner in which he dismissed the then government headed by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. He then appointed a new government under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he had defeated at the January 2015 presidential election. The constitutional jiggery-pokery of the day included first the prorogation and then the dissolution of Parliament. A full bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the blatantly unconstitutional acts of Sirisena. No matter that it was Wickremesinghe and his United National Party that had made Sirisena's election possible. No matter also that Rajapaksa did not have the necessary numbers in Parliament to command a majority in the legislature. No matter too that it was the self-same Sirisena, for long the general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), who betrayed his leader soon after a hopper dinner at 'Temple Trees' to run as the common opposition candidate against Rajapaksa. The latter was seeking an unprecedented third term of office; this after he had removed the constitutional barrier of a two-term limit by engineering a two thirds majority in the legislature by highly questionable means.
We recount all this recent history in the context of the fact that a new Parliament is due to be elected, when we do not know. The date has been set and nominations received. But the covid-19 corona virus has upset all the plans of mice and men. When the election of Sri Lanka's 16th Parliament will eventually take place is a wide open question at this time. It is obvious that the government is anxious to hold the election as early as possible on the nominations already received. Whether this will be possible remains to be seen. The Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is anxious to ride on the coat-tails of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's recent presidential election victory and secure for itself the two thirds majority in Parliament it could not win even after ending the 30-year civil war in 2009. Whether the people of this country will be foolish enough to give anybody such a majority is a matter that remains to be seen. Have they, after bitter experience, not learned the lesson of giving anybody a two thirds majority enabling tinkering with the constitution if not sabotaging it totally?
Ironies never cease in this so-called Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. Former President Maithripala Sirisena, determined to remain in politics in a lesser capacity, is a nominee of the SLPP in the Polonnaruwa district. This despite all the water that has recently passed under the bridges including the Easter Sunday security failures for which he must take full responsibility. Ranil Wickremesinghe, heads the candidate list of the sharply divided UNP notwithstanding his many electoral failures. Many suspicious and dicey characters are on the candidate lists of the major parties. A number of jokers, clothed as independents, have also handed in their nominations lengthening the ballot papers at the taxpayers' expense. When will the electorate ever see the light and elect the kind of government the country needs so desperately? Will our political parties ever give them that choice?
The BBC recently released an Easter bombing anniversary documentary titled 'Terror in Paradise' which probably attracted tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of global viewers. The highly professionally produced feature depended largely on CCTV footage of what happened in Colombo and elsewhere on April 21, 2019, when a group of fanatics targeted three catholic churches and four hotels killing at least 279 and injuring over 593 people, some of whom were maimed for life. The bombers were caught on camera entering public areas in the luxury hotels where they set off the blasts. The documentary also included interviews with survivors, all of whom had lost loved ones, skillfully interspersed into the film to dramatize the production. Similarly, many comments from Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, former head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research of the Nanyang Technical University of Singapore, were included. What he socked into the film was what most Lankans believed at the time of the massacre and still believe: that the powers that were did not take seriously enough intelligence reports on the impending disaster. The whole country was caught flatfooted as a result.
Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith is on record strongly condemning the “culture of impunity” which has for too long existed in this country. A large number of high profile assassinations in Sri Lanka in recent decades remain unsolved to this day. Former President Maithripala Sirisena, then Minister of Defence, has pleaded that he was not privy to the information that had reached senior levels of the defence establishment which was long aware of the existence of the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) and the explosive propaganda spouted particularly by its fanatical leader, Zaharan Hashim, and his fellow travelers. Then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has whimpered that he was kept out of the security loop by the president with whom he was bickering bitterly. A dangerous cauldron was first simmering and then boiling in densely populated Kattankudy, the JMT base near Batticaloa for months, maybe years, before the fanatical religious terrorists struck. The authorities were aware of various telltale incidents, in the days and weeks before the disaster hit but did not take them seriously enough to adopt preventive measures. That cost this nation dearly, how dearly we will never know.
The political leaders of the day including Sirisena who should have been impeached for the brazenly unlawful manner in which he dismissed the then government headed by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. He then appointed a new government under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he had defeated at the January 2015 presidential election. The constitutional jiggery-pokery of the day included first the prorogation and then the dissolution of Parliament. A full bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the blatantly unconstitutional acts of Sirisena. No matter that it was Wickremesinghe and his United National Party that had made Sirisena's election possible. No matter also that Rajapaksa did not have the necessary numbers in Parliament to command a majority in the legislature. No matter too that it was the self-same Sirisena, for long the general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), who betrayed his leader soon after a hopper dinner at 'Temple Trees' to run as the common opposition candidate against Rajapaksa. The latter was seeking an unprecedented third term of office; this after he had removed the constitutional barrier of a two-term limit by engineering a two thirds majority in the legislature by highly questionable means.
We recount all this recent history in the context of the fact that a new Parliament is due to be elected, when we do not know. The date has been set and nominations received. But the covid-19 corona virus has upset all the plans of mice and men. When the election of Sri Lanka's 16th Parliament will eventually take place is a wide open question at this time. It is obvious that the government is anxious to hold the election as early as possible on the nominations already received. Whether this will be possible remains to be seen. The Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is anxious to ride on the coat-tails of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's recent presidential election victory and secure for itself the two thirds majority in Parliament it could not win even after ending the 30-year civil war in 2009. Whether the people of this country will be foolish enough to give anybody such a majority is a matter that remains to be seen. Have they, after bitter experience, not learned the lesson of giving anybody a two thirds majority enabling tinkering with the constitution if not sabotaging it totally?
Ironies never cease in this so-called Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. Former President Maithripala Sirisena, determined to remain in politics in a lesser capacity, is a nominee of the SLPP in the Polonnaruwa district. This despite all the water that has recently passed under the bridges including the Easter Sunday security failures for which he must take full responsibility. Ranil Wickremesinghe, heads the candidate list of the sharply divided UNP notwithstanding his many electoral failures. Many suspicious and dicey characters are on the candidate lists of the major parties. A number of jokers, clothed as independents, have also handed in their nominations lengthening the ballot papers at the taxpayers' expense. When will the electorate ever see the light and elect the kind of government the country needs so desperately? Will our political parties ever give them that choice?
No comments:
Post a Comment