It is good to stand up for friends. Nothing wrong in that. The problem is that
that HR (human rights) labels don’t give immunity to anyone, especially when it
comes to ensuring the security of a country that has suffered 30 years of
terrorism, not forgetting that in this case hardcore LTTE operatives are
involved. Pertinent also is the fact
that media rights is peripheral at best in this case.
On the other hand, no one need to be surprised about
media right advocates who have a long history of being swayed by cash and
prompted by political preferences firing off media releases (only) when
fellow-travelers get into a spot of bother.
But what of Ruki Fernando and Fr Praveen, the two
‘human rights activists’ we are talking about?
The usual ‘rights’ suspects, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Sudharshan
Gunawardena and J.C. Weliamuna were quick to air their horror. So too was Groundviews, the website powered
by Saravanamuttu’s NGO, Centre for Policy Alternatives. They are all upset about the arrest. They are upset also that Jeyakumari Balendran,
another ‘activist’ was arrested. They
are not upset about Jeyakumari’s connections with ‘Gobi’, a known terrorist
with a criminal record. They are not
upset that Gobi, previously an understudy to the LTTE’s intelligence chief,
Pottu Amman, has been involved in a network that has robbed demining equipment
belonging to another NGO and has used these to look for weapons buried as the
LTTE fled the advancing security forces in 2009.
They find a contradiction between what the
government is saying in Geneva and what is happening on the ground here in Sri
Lanka. This is strange. Do they think that commitment to upholding
human rights equals a license to drop guard and let terrorists roam about
regrouping, re-arming, recruiting and in other ways preparing ground for
another bloodbath?
They are upset by the Prevention of Terrorism Act,
under which their friends have been arrested.
That’s easy to say, because they are not in charge of national
security. In an ideal world we wouldn’t
need a PTA. In an ideal world, let us
not forget, we won’t have the LTTE and its NGO sympathizers, an LTTE rump and
their ‘media advocacy friends’, priests who use cross and cassock to give
respectability to criminals.
It is silly to think that these lovely gentlemen are
unaware of what the Jeyakumaris and Gobis of this world are up to; after all
they are also friends or else friends of friends of key individuals in the GTE,
TGTE, TCC, HQGP and other would-be successors to the LTTE. If they indeed were that ignorant, by now
they would know who is who and what is what.
Even if they continue to feign ignorance, there is no hiding the fact
that Jeyakumari is two-faced and that her activism was cover for activity that
is of serious concern to those responsible for national security. They would love the security establishment to
look the other way, it seems. Fortunately it has not.
Groundviews is right in one thing. There is a democracy deficit in this
country. That deficit is enshrined in
the constitution and made more pronounced by beneficiaries of that same deficit
who do little or nothing to bridge it.
On the other hand, you can also say goodbye to opportunities to close to
gap if you are openly supporting moves to make for an LTTE resurrection. That’s what Jeyakumari is about. That’s what those who are championing her
‘cause’ are about.
It is no wonder that both the USA and UK, the key
movers and shakers against Sri Lanka in Geneva, appear to have swallowed their
proverbial tongues with respect to Jeyakumari.
They are focusing on Ruki and his priest friend. The reason is simple. They are interested in
regime-change. They are not gung ho about an LTTE reincarnation. What all these people are missing is that
such a rebirth requires midwives, facilitators such as Ruki and Fr Praveen, and
a veritable army of attendants, mostly donor-dependent nobodies who are forced
therefore to call themselves ‘civil society’.
It would lovely if this country didn’t have a
PTA. It would be lovely if people who
believe they have been wronged can protest at will. It is sad that there are people wearing
multiple hats, just like LTTE cadres who switched from military fatigues to
sarongs, just like suicide bombers who dressed up as pregnant women, just like
the LTTE’s propagandists who went around with Media IDs. We don’t live in a happy world. But if we are to aspire to any reasonable
degree of happiness, we need to be alert.
We cannot afford another thirty years of bloodshed.
There’s a case being made for strengthening the
PTA. That case is being made by a lot of
people. Let us name some. We have
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, J.C. Weliamuna and Sudharshan Gunawardena. We have The Sri Lanka Working Journalists
Association, the Free Media Movement, and the Federation of Media Employees’
Trade Unions. We can’t really say ‘Thank
you gentlemen for the sustained development of the democracy deficit’.
msenevira@gmail.com
1 comments:
Well said. Those who that try to revive separatism both violent and non-violent are the same ones who will come and lecture us of the necessity to carve out a Tamil only self governing authority on this Island if violent separatism is to raise it's ugly head again. They will lecture us that we are racist for opposing such disastrous acts and those who try to create mono ethnic states are victims of our racism.
Luckily for us most people now know the ulterior motives of these NGO cockroaches. Thanks!
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