Remand is just the first step…

The first step has been taken.  Or rather, it has been made to be taken.  Should have happened a long time ago.  Had Malaka Silva been put in his place or had his father, Mervin Silva, been put in HIS place the first time he broke the law or threw his weight around, the Army Major Chandana Pradeep would not have been assaulted, the Police would not have been subjected to ridicule and the President been spared insinuation of complicity. 

Malaka Silva has surrendered himself, along with friend and fellow-accused, Rehan (son of Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Turkey, Bharathi Wijeratne, and who has taken the name of his mother’s second husband, the late Mano Wijeratne).  This is not the first time that Malaka has played cowboy.  The entire country knows that he got away with little more than a soft rap on his knuckles due to his political connections.  If he gets away this time with a mere warning or fine it would be scandalous.  The man is a maniac.  He is a threat to everyone’s security.  

Malaka Silva did not attack just a soldier.  He insulted the entire Army and by extension the Commander-in-Chief, President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  He insulted each and every man and woman who laid his/her life to protect the country from the threat of terrorism.  He insulted every mother and father who lost a son or daughter in that struggle, everyone who lost a spouse and every child who was orphaned.  He insulted every man, woman and child who had for years desperately wanted to live in a land free of checkpoints, bomb explosions and suicide attacks. 

Major Chandana Pradeep was a very special soldier who has carried out numerous and extremely dangerous operations against the LTTE.  He was solely responsible for the capture of the absconding terrorist leader Ram who had survived the final attack in and around the Nandikadal Lagoon.  Malaka is not fit to kiss the dust this Major walks on.  

Malaka and his gang had 6 pistols among them.  We are not a country free from terrorism when a gang of social misfits feel free to strut around thus armed.  It would be silly indeed to think that these self-styled cowboys were juvenile delinquents or young men who haven’t shed their adolescent anxieties.  They are adults. They were armed.  They have been caught on camera assaulting a man.

 

The people of this country have suffered enough at the hands of hooligan politicians.  They were relieved when the LTTE was defeated.  That relief was expressed time and again in the form of multiple victories for the ruling party at numerous elections.  There is gratitude but there was no blank cheque.  And yet, it appears that some people have been cashing the same cheque many times over.  The people have paid. Enough. 

Few, apart from die-hard LTTE loyalists and those who depended on that terrorist in order to secure political goodies, would lament the end of the LTTE.  Few, likewise, would shed tears if Malaka Silva got what he deserves.  They might even thank President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  If, for some reason, the man walks out free, whether we like it or not, he will take it as a sign that he was given a double-o tag of sorts, i.e. license to kill or at least assault.  Few would cheer such an eventuality.  It is something the Government would do well to keep in mind.