‘Madakalapuwa,
ampare, polonnaruwa, samanthurai…e hema nagarema diyen yata une
Mannarama,
kanthalai, pothuvil, kalmunai natambun vage aethata penune’
[Batticaloa, Ampara, Polonnaruwa and
Samanthurai – flooded they all were
Mannar, Kanthali, Pothuvil and
Kalmunai – reduced to ruins they all were]
All those name roll off the tongue
like a melody and that has to do with the lyricality, if you will, of language,
both in the Sinhala original and Tamil re-invention. Anton Jones has placed them well and thereby
enhances, not creates, the melodious configuration of syllable and place
name.
The truth is that we can string
together many names and create a lilting melody, which I am sure is not
something that is Sri Lanka specific.
The names that roll off the tongue today, lyrical as they are, are as
marked by tragedy as those of Anton Jones’ song: Kahawatte, Tangalle, Akuressa
and Kirulapone. In 1978 it was of
‘natural disaster’ that Jones sang; what we have now is not natural, it is
man-made and ‘man’ is not a gender-neutral term.
In 1978 strong winds brought down
trees, swept away rooftops, unleashed floods, destroyed crops and communities. In 2012 we are taking of innocence lost,
childhoods ruined, vulnerabilities preyed on and households that will forever
be marked with trauma, fear and the irrecoverable. That’s nice-speak. What we have is breaking into houses, assault
and battery, sexual molestation, rape, gang rape and murder. The stories have made headlines on
consecutive days. It’s a ‘breaking
story’ that keeps breaking again and again.
And yet, it would be erroneous to
tag ‘recent’ to this phenomenon or associate it with the infrequency and
randomness of a cyclone. It is quite
possible that the word ‘phenomenon’ was spawned by unusual frequency of
reportage, the rape that is and not the gruesome murders in Kahawatte. The most pertinent and disturbing element of
rape is under-reportage, especially when it comes to child abuse, date rape and
sexual violence in domestic situations.
Last week there were two
demonstrations in Colombo, one about violence against women and one about child
abuse, especially sexual molestation including rape. An
online poll conducted by ‘The Nation’ (www.nation.lk)
showed that over 80% recommended the death penalty for those accused of raping
children. This indicates that people
consider this the ultimate crime and as such deserving of the maximum
punishment. ‘The Nation’ has editorially
expressed grave concern about the fact that politicians, their henchman and
public officials have been implicated in such dastardly transgressions. Power and association with power are clearly
related to the perpetration of these crimes.
This fact alone is not enough, of course; what is pertinent is the
notion that power and power-association are seen as getaway clauses by these
criminals.
The first step then is to punish. For this, law enforcement should be freed of
the fetters of political interference. Easier said than done. There’s always a someone who knows someone
who knows someone who has his fingers on strings that can pull the law this way
or that. It has happened and is
happening. Joolampitiya Amare is only
the most recent beneficiary of strings.
Law-enforcers, like law-makers, have been implicated not in complicity
but in perpetration. And those who are
clean are handicapped by political interference; each ‘let-off’ further
incapacitating them. Strong words from
the President and the IGP are just not enough.
Political culture rebels against justice and sides with
perpetrator. It overrules institution
and mechanism.
Even if the guilty are brought to book,
this will not ensure that others will not get raped, will not be murdered. Deterrence stops some, not all, and where
social and emotional factors help hide crime, innocence will be destroyed,
children scarred and women raped.
Familiarity is not, therefore, insurance and comfort but something that
has, unfortunately, become reason to warrant wariness. That’s a sad indictment on society as a
whole.
It means that not only is the state
not a bulwark against these kinds of aggression, the household itself is not
safe for it is a site of violence. How
does the state police a household? It
cannot be done. Parents have to be
vigilant, but parents and family alone, won’t deliver security, especially
since a large number of child abusers happen to be ‘family’. There has to be education all around, not
just of children but of adults. Parents
have to learn to read the signs of threat and assess vulnerability of an entire
range of situations. It is a sad thing
that no one can be fully trusted, but we have come to that and for this reason
only full vigilance by everyone about everyone can combat this threat.
The cyclone arrived, devastated and
blew away. This, however, is not a
phenomenon that will blow over. It will
blow over the particular household whose inmates will cope as best they can,
but threat is a hooded thief prowling the streets 24/7. Like terrorists, they prey on the slightest
error.
The Government must do its part and
this involves re-hauling the entire law enforcement apparatus; yes the
re-establishment of an effective independent police commission or its
equivalent. The citizen must do his/her
part. That’s you and I. The lyric has been taken out of name and
life. We have to recover it. Together.
1 comments:
Well said Malinda. I hope and pray that the Govt. will asap attend to this matter, before more children are attacked and abused.
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